2. How I Offer Food: The Actual Practice
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
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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.