2. How I Offer Food: The Actual Practice

2. How I Offer Food: The Actual Practice

Personally I do like this, just to say a little bit. All the gurus you visualize, those with whom you have a Dharma connection, all the gurus, and nectar-food, numberless nectar-food, and then: all the offerings at Tushita Dharamsala, all the offerings there; next, all the offerings in Kopan...    (Lama Zopa Rinpoche)

Photo: Bill Kane, Choe Khor Sum Ling, Bangalore, India, 2016

Part 1. Many Into One or One Into Many

(duration: 11 minutes)

Transcript of Video 4: How I Offer Food - The Actual Practice, Part 1

(You can read the transcript of the video below. Alternatively, you can read the same transcript alongside the video by clicking here to download it or view it in a separate window.)

Now to mention the higher experience or tantra, you need to have received an initiation before that, otherwise it can’t be explained. Some of you might have received highest tantra but some may not, so I will leave that part. Those who have received highest tantra initiation, then how to do that is to transform into the mandala deity. The way to do it is by transcending, everything becomes pure, transcendent. I will just say that much as it can’t be explained, the actual meditation, without having received a great initiation. Those who have received a great initiation you become the deity and the mandala, and the food into nectar, the highest tantra nectar. Of course, it can be blessed after the visualization.

(Short prayer in Tibetan)

OM AH HUM. OM AH HUM. OM AH HUM.

(Short prayer in Tibetan)

However, you think oceans of nectar. Oceans of nectar. Even if you haven't received an initiation, it becomes oceans of nectar, numberless around you, and you are offering it to…

The simple way is to think of someone like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, whoever is your Root guru; that means naturally he is all the gurus. They are not separate beings, they are not separate mentally, they are all one, like one person. However many gurus you have, they are like one person. You think they are Guru Vajradhara, the essence of the dharmakaya, the holy mind of all the buddhas, one being. That means they are all the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. That is a very simple way, a rich way, a simple way. It is rich because then you think “Guru,” in that way he is all the numberless buddhas, Dharma, and sangha. So you offer to him, which means you offer to numberless buddhas, Dharma, and sangha as well; [many into one].

Then the other one… The Guru Puja merit field, you are familiar with it, the example is like that – one into many. A thousand, a billion, or whatever, that is one into many. “One” means the guru, Guru Vajradhara, the essence of the dharmakaya, all the buddhas’ holy minds; one into many, so many different aspects. The lineage lamas starting from the Buddha, of the practice, profound, and extensive, the deities, the four classes of tantra deities, the fortunate eon buddhas, the one thousand buddhas, all of them, then the bodhisattvas, the arhats, the dakas and dakinis, the Dharma protectors, all are the guru, all are one, the guru. They are manifestations of the one, the guru. That is the richest offering, the richest guru yoga meditation: many into one, or one into many, whichever you do.

Personally I do like this, just to say a little bit. All the gurus you visualize, those with whom you have a Dharma connection, all the gurus, and nectar-food, numberless nectar-food, and then: all the offerings at Tushita Dharamsala, all the offerings there; next, all the offerings in Kopan, upstairs in the different rooms, in the main room and all the small rooms, all the extensive offerings there, the light offerings, the flower offerings, so many water offerings, also all that, and outside to the thousand buddhas the offerings;

• then the offerings in Washington, in Amitabha Pure Land retreat place, all the offerings in the different rooms, the three different rooms, all the lights, flowers, water offerings, so many water offerings (there is one monk, two monks, making the offerings), all the offerings upstairs in all the three rooms, so many offerings, then downstairs, then outside there are flower offerings around the Medicine Buddha, outside there is a Medicine Buddha, and there are flower offerings around the Amitabha Buddha;

• then in the Aptos house there are offerings, in the main big room there are so many offerings of water and light, so many, in the Mahakala Room there are so many offerings, and the Prajnaparamita Room, where I write the Prajnaparamita in gold, the offerings, there so many offerings, water offerings and light offerings, then in the Medicine Buddha Room there are so many offerings, all of that, then downstairs where there are the Tweny-one Taras, all the water offerings and light offerings, then outside there are so many flowers offerings to the stupa, so many flowers, then in front there are so many flowers, around the Buddha there are so many flowers;

• then in Singapore, Amitabha Buddhist Centre, the FPMT center, there are so many, one hundred thousand light offerings, so many, so many offerings;

• then in Tegchen Choling retreat center, there are so many offerings;

• then in Penang there are one hundred thousand light offerings, one hundred thousand light offerings and one more, like that there are many offerings;

• there are many offerings in Mongolia, in my two rooms and then downstairs there are six or seven ladies making water offerings every day, so many water offerings;

• then in Bodhgaya (I’m not sure what the time there is now), in Bodhgaya  there are so many light offerings, different colored light offerings, outside, inside and outside, so many light offerings around the house, then on the road around the Buddha, there are small statues of the Buddha around, then on the prayer wheel, on the gompa, on top there are many, many, so many light offerings;

• then also in Sera there are light offerings;

• so all the extensive offerings which are in the FPMT centers, all the extensive offerings, every water offering, every light offering, every single one in the FPMT.

(End of Video 4: How I Offer Food – The Actual Practice, Part 1)

Part 2. Visualizing Buddhas in the Four Directions

(duration: 15 minutes)

Transcript of Video 5: How I Offer Food - The Actual Practice, Part 2

(You can read the transcript of the video below. Alternatively, you can read the same transcript alongside the video by clicking here to download it or view it in a separate window.)

So now we are going to bless them:

(Short prayer to purify the offering.)

Offering Prayer

LHA DANG MI YI CHHÖ PÄI DZÄ
   May divine and human offerings, 
NGÖ SU SHAM DANG YI KYI TRÜL
   Both actually arranged and mentally emanated,
KÜN ZANG CHHÖ TRIN LA NA ME
   Become clouds of the finest Samantabhadra offerings,
NAM KHÄI KHAM KÜN KHYAB GYUR CHIG
   Fill the entire realm of space.

Offering Cloud Mantra

OM  NAMO  BHAGAVATE  VAJRA  SARA  PRAMARDANE TATHAGATAYA / ARHATE …

All the gurus… I will explain my way. All the gurus are there. Then on the other side is the Lama Chöpa merit field, but they are all the guru, in essence they are the tsawai lama, the Root Guru. Although there are many but they are the one guru, the manifestation of the one guru. Then on the other side, on the right side of your guru is Bodhisattva Kshitigarbha. Bodhisattva Kshitigarbha, if you make offerings to him, whatever you request him, the success is one hundred thousand times much more than by praying to other bodhisattvas, you understand? Bodhisattva Kshitigarbha, but a manifestion of your Root Guru, also in Lama Chöpa. Then down below is Padmasambhava, a manifestation of your Root Guru. On the left side is Medicine Buddha, the eight Medicine Buddhas, who are manifestations of your Root Guru. On the left side of Padmasambhava there is Thousand-Arm Chenrezig, a manifestation of your Root Guru. By offering to Medicine Buddha and Thousand-Arm Chenrezig you get the merit… By having offered to the Medicine Buddha you get the same merit as having offered to all the buddhas. You have that advantage. Then by offering to Thousand-Arm Chenrezig, you get the merit as having offered to a billion, zillion, trillion buddhas. Padmasambhava, wow, then it is unbelievably, unbelievably, unbelievably powerful merit. The merit that you collect is unbelievably powerful.

To Bodhisattva Kshitigarbha, after you make offerings, then think you will achieve all the realizations from guru devotion up to enlightenment, and then you will free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. You can pray for that. That is the greatest success, what else is there? What else is greater than that? That is the greatest success. What else is there other than that? You can include that; that is the greatest success. But at death time, those who have great compassion can pray to be born in hell to protect other sentient beings who are suffering in hell, or to be born in a pure land and come out as an enlightened being to free sentient beings. You can pray whichever for your mind one is more suitable. You can pray that.

“OM  NAMO  BHAGAVATE  VAJRA  SARA…” Then you do the offering: “OM  NAMO  BHAGAVATE  VAJRA  SARA  PRAMARDANE TATHAGATAYA / ARHATE…” Generate infinite bliss, infinite bliss in their holy minds. In this way you create the karma to achieve the dharmakaya and experience great bliss. Even the dharmakaya, you create the cause for this.

[Rinpoche recites six times:]

om  namo  bhagavate  vajra  sara  pramardane tathagataya / arhate  samyaksam  buddhaya / tadyatha  om  vajre  vajre / maha  vajre / maha  teja vajre / maha vidya vajre / maha bodhichitta vajre / maha bodhi mando pasam kramana vajre / sarva karma  avarana visho dhana vajre svaha  

Then also, not only that, from here all the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha from this side (Rinpoche indicates in front of himself), of the four directions, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha on this side, then the statues, stupas, and scriptures on this side, all of which are manifestations of your Root Guru, offering to them, who are numberless. Then at the back side (Rinpoche indicates behind him), all the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, statues, stupas, and scriptures, numberless, who are manifestations of your Root Guru. Then (Rinpoche indicates to his left) the   Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, numberless, statues, stupas, and scriptures, who are manifestations of your Root Guru. Then on this side (Rinpoche indicates to his right), the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, statues, stupas, and scriptures, numberless, who are manifestations of your Root Guru. Then you can offer to them and generate infinite bliss.

OM  NAMO  BHAGAVATE  VAJRA  SARA  PRAMARDANE TATHAGATAYA / ARHATE  SAMYAKSAM  BUDDHAYA / TADYATHA  OM  VAJRE  VAJRE / MAHA  VAJRE / MAHA  TEJA VAJRE / MAHA VIDYA VAJRE / MAHA BODHICHITTA VAJRE / MAHA BODHI MANDO PASAM KRAMANA VAJRE / SARVA KARMA  AVARANA VISHO DHANA VAJRE SVAHA

Extensive Power of Truth

KÖN CHHOG SUM GYI DEN PA DANG
   By the power of truth of the Three Rare Sublime Ones,
SANG GYÄ DANG…

This is the “Words of Truth.”

KÖN CHHOG SUM GYI DEN PA DANG
   By the power of truth of the Three Rare Sublime Ones,
SANG GYÄ DANG JANG CHHUB SEM PA…

Does somebody, anybody who knows the English? Nobody knows the English? In English? Then you recite the English.

KÖN CHHOG SUM GYI DEN PA DANG
   By the power of truth of the Three Rare Sublime Ones,
SANG GYÄ DANG JANG CHHUB SEM PA THAM CHÄ KYI JIN GYI LAB DANG
   The blessings of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas,
TSHOG NYI YONG SU DZOG PÄI NGA THANG CHHEN PO DANG
   The great wealth of the completed two types of merits,
CHHÖ KYI YING NAM PAR DAG CHING SAM GYI MI KHYAB PÄI TOB KYI
   And the pure and inconceivable sphere of phenomena,
CHHOG CHU NA ZHUG PÄI SANG GYÄ DANG JANG CHHUB SEM PA THAM CHÄ KYI CHÄN NGAR PHAG PA JAM PÄL DANG KÜN TU ZANG PO LA SOG PÄI NAM PAR CHHÖ PÄI TRIN GYI PHUNG PO SAM GYI MI KHYAB PA ZÄ MI SHE PA NAM KHA DANG NYAM PAR JUNG WAR GYUR CHIG
   May these piles of clouds of offerings arising through transformation by the bodhisattvas Arya Samantabhadra, Manjushri, and so forth – unimaginable and inexhaustible, equaling the sky – arise and, in the presence of the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions, be received.

The difference is, the first one, [“Offering Cloud Mantra”]: if there is one incense, one light offering, one water offering, one food, whatever, if you recite this mantra it becomes numberless offerings. Even if you are offering only one tiny one, one tiny incense or whatever, one, but it becomes numberless, like the clouds in the sky. You get… If it is done with bodhichitta… Of course, even if it is not done with bodhichitta, by offering to the Buddha, naturally it becomes a cause of enlightenment, even without bodhichitta. That is because to whom you offer is a special object; it is due to their power. Even [offering] to stupas, statues, stupas, and scriptures, it is like that. They are special objects. So when done with bodhichitta, and even without bodhichitta, it becomes a cause of enlightenment. Whether you circumambulate them, do prostrations, or make offerings, whatever, even without bodhichitta, it becomes a cause of enlightenment. You should know that.

So having holy objects in the house is sooooooooooooo important – inside the house and outside the house as many as possible. Even just by looking at them, wow, just by seeing them, you collect merits like the atoms of the earth. It is like that, or like the drops of the ocean. Or like atoms. It is unbelievable, unbelievable, just by seeing them. There are quotations but I’m not going to tell them now as it would take time. So you should have many as possible holy objects in the house and outside. Now what we can see is only holy objects, those like me see only holy objects, but later, when our minds are developed, then we will see them as buddhas. Then we see them as buddhas talking, like Lama Atisha. All those statues spoke to Lama Atisha in Bodhgaya. Then, when we develop the right seeing path… When we achieve the path of merit, small, middle, and great, when we achieve that path, we will see numberless buddhas in nirmanakaya aspect, in the aspect of that. Then when you achieve the right seeing path, you see numberless buddhas in sambhogakaya aspect. Then when we achieve the path of unification, after that we become mentally one with all the buddhas. You become one with them mentally, with all the buddhas. When you achieve one buddha, you achieve all the buddhas.

Then you can do the food charity. You visualize nectar, make charity to… Like tsog, when you do tsog, you visualize sentient beings as a deity but in the nature of suffering, as they are. When you do tsog offering, whatever deity you visualize, if you are visualizing a deity; if not then it doesn’t matter. With nectar to the numberless hell beings you make charity, to the numberless hungry ghosts you make charity, to the numberless animals you make charity, to the numberless human beings you make charity, to the numberless suras and asuras you make charity, to the numberless intermediate state beings you make charity. They all get enlightened. It purifies their dualistic mind, dualistic view, and they achieve enlightenment. You can do like in the tsog offering. You can think like that. But if you haven't taken an initiation, you don’t do like that but still you make charity.

Now the “Words of Truth”: however many offerings you visualized, for example, numberless water offerings, nectar; numberless food, nectar, if numberless you visualize, then exactly, by reciting these words, then the numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas receive this, what you have visualized. The difference is that; it involves visualizing. So however much you are able to visualize, oh, they actually receive that, the numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas.

(End of Video 5: How I Offer Food – The Actual Practice, Part 2)

Part 3. Offering to the Root Guru and the Twenty-One Taras

(duration: 13 minutes)

Transcript of Video 6: How I Offer Food - The Actual Practice, Part 3

(You can read the transcript of the video below. Alternatively, you can read the same transcript alongside the video by clicking here to download it or view it in a separate window.)

SANG GYÄ THAM CHÄ DÜ PE KU…

Offering to the Root Guru. The root guru means all the buddhas.

SANG GYÄ THAM CHÄ DÜ PE KU
   Holy body embodying all the buddhas,
DOR JE DZIN PÄI NGO WO NYI
   Nature of the vajra holder,
KÖN CHHOG SUM GYI TSA WA TE
   The root of the Three Rare Sublime Ones;
LA MA NAM LA CHHÖ PAR BÜL
   To the gurus, I make this offering.

SANG GYÄ THAM CHÄ DÜ PE KU, “All the buddhas who are embodied,” “Holy body embodying all the buddhas”; DOR JE DZIN PÄI NGO WO NYI, “that is the nature of the vajra holder,” vajra holder means Vajradhara, the essence of that, DOR JE DZIN PÄI NGO WO NYI; KÖN CHHOG SUM GYI TSA WA TE, “that is the root of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha”; LA MA NAM LA CHHÖ PAR BÜL, “to the gurus, I offer.”

Then the next one… Sorry, in the morning I try to offer to Hayagriva, at lunch to the Twenty-One Taras, and in the evening to Vajrayogini, after that. So to the Twenty-One Taras:

KHOR WA LÄ DRÖL TARE MA

There is no Tara without the guru; all are manifestations of the guru, your root guru.  

KHOR WA LÄ DRÖL TARE MA
   TARE, freeing from samsara;
TUTTARE YI JIG GYÄ DRÖL
   TUTTARE, freeing from the eight fears;
TURE NA WA NAM LÄ DRÖL
   TURE, freeing from sickness:
DRÖL MA YUM LA CHHÖ PAR BÜL
   To Mother Tara, I make this offering. 

Then the prayer: “I and all the surrounding,” this means may all the students, all the students, in particular here in Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Latvia. Latvia?

Student: Latvia.

Latvia. All the people who come there [to the centers], who came there, who are coming now, who will come in the future, and the staff, then all of us including our family members, who died and are still alive, “Never be separated away from the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha in all our lifetimes,” “In all our lifetimes to never be separated away from the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and always be able to make offerings to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.” That means to create the cause of not just happiness in this life but of the happiness of future lives, liberation from samsara, ultimate happiness, and enlightenment. “And always receive the blessings of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha within us,” KÖN CHHOG SUM GYI JIN LAB, that means for the realizations from correctly devoting to the virtuous friend, from there, renunciation, bodhichitta, right view, then, in particular, the two stages of tantra, all that up to enlightenment.

DAG SOG KHOR CHÄ TSHE RAB THAM CHÄ DU
   May we and those around us, in all future lives,
KÖN CHHOG SUM DANG NAM YANG MI DRÄL ZHING
   Never be separated from the Three Rare Sublime Ones,
KÖN CHHOG SUM PO GYÜN DU CHHÖ PA LA
   Continuously make offerings to the Three Rare Sublime Ones,
KÖN CHHOG SUM GYI JIN LAB JUG PAR SHOG
   And receive the blessings of the Three Rare Sublime Ones.

Then we will do the dedications.

Due to all the past, present, and future merits we collected, and the three time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, may His Holiness have a stable life and all his holy wishes succeed immediately.

And after that, for all the students, benefactors of the centers, volunteers who work for the centers, then here all the study groups and all the centers in Denmark, in all the countries, Finland, Sweden, Latvia, all the staff, all the people who came there from the beginning of the study group up to now and in the future, then all of us here, may the sufferings of body and mind be pacified immediately and they have the success of all their wishes according to Dharma, so nothing becomes negative karma, success but nothing becomes negative karma, doesn’t allow it to be negative karma, no cause of suffering. Then may all our actions of body, speech, and mind become only a cause of enlightenment, only that.

Then, now a dedication. The numberless sentient beings who died in the evolution of this food, for this food, for the evolution of this food over thousands of years, the numberless sentient beings who died for this food, the numberless sentient beings who bore hardships, who suffered so much, for the evolution of this food; may those beings who are in the lower realms and the intermediate state be freed immediately from the lower realms’ suffering. Then also one Nepalese lady who lived near me, whose mother died, her name is Puja, her mother died, I got that message for her mother who died in Nepal, so for her to be free from the lower realms and the intermediate state right now. And for them to receive a higher rebirth, no, receive a pure land, to be born in a pure land where they can become enlightened, or at least for them to receive a perfect human body, meet the Mahayana teachings and a perfectly qualified Mahayana guru revealing the unmistaken   path to enlightenment, and by pleasing the holy mind of the virtuous friend to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.

Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me, the three time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, which exist in mere name (“in mere name” is the way they exist, so they do not exist from their own side, they are totally empty), due to that may the I, who exists in mere name so does not exist from its own side, achieve peerless happiness, sanggyä, total cessation of obscurations and completion of all the realizations, which does not exist from its own side at all, and lead all sentient beings, who do not exist from their own side at all, to that full enlightenment, which does not exist at all from its own side, by myself alone, who does not exist at all from its own side.

Sorry, it took many eons. I’m just introducing what can be done if you have taken a highest tantra initiation, there is so much merit, the quick path to enlightenment. But even in general what you can do to make your life the most meaningful and most beneficial for sentient beings, for every single sentient being, not just in the sky, no, for every single ant, every single fish, every single worm on the ground or on the grass, every single sentient being, devas, human beings. So your life you make the best use of, even with the food offering. Thank you very much. Enjoy.

(End of Video 6: How I Offer Food – The Actual Practice, Part 3)

Colophon

Teaching given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at a picnic with the FPMT representatives of the northern Baltic countries, Denmark, July 23^rd, 2015. Transcribed simultaneously and subsequently checked against the audio recording by Ven. Joan Nicell, September 2015, for use in Living in the Path. Translation of the offering verse to Tara by Geshe Tsultrim Sherab and Ven. Joan Nicell, Kopan Monastery, September 2015.