2. How I Offer Food: The Actual Practice

(duration: 15 minutes)

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

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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)

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