Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 33-minute teaching, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen provides detailed guidance on physically arranging altar offerings for Vajrasattva practice. He explains the precise logic of how offerings are positioned based on whether you are visualizing yourself as the deity (self-generation) or the deity in front of you (front-generation), showing why the directional order differs between these approaches. He then walks through the specific eight-offering mandala setup, placing water, flowers, incense, lights, perfume, food, drinks, and sounds in cardinal and sub-cardinal directions. Geshe Dhawa covers practical altar maintenance—clearing, blessing offerings, reciting prayers—and shares a story about accumulating merit through mental offerings. He concludes with advice on keeping the altar intentional rather than cluttered and maintaining discretion about tantric practice. Pitched at practitioners already engaged in deity practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 1997 10 18 AO.mp3
UUID: 9d9071d7-d59e-406a-87dc-096d9ce75934
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Alter Offerings (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1997-10-18
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 33.2 minutes
Words: ~2,003
The offerings. So setting out the actual the the way of actually setting out the actual physical offerings, there is only a front offering. So, taken from the point of view that you are the meditator, This row, this this not this row, this second row. Yeah. But you are the meditator, and this is the way that that the this row which is closer to the Geshe la would be set up.
So the the offerings are are are arranged from left to right according to the object to whom they’re being offered. In this in this in this in this case, being since it’s a front generation, it’s being offered to the deity in front of you. So to that deity’s left, it’s being arranged. So and then this is according to father Tantra. If in and then if there was a front generation, it would be it would a front generation, it’d be a road near you, which you’re offering to yourself as if as no.
I’m sorry. I said self generation. You you yourself as a deity, you’re offering to yourself as a deity, then it will begin on your right side. So there’s no but the the the actual substances and the actual way of offering them, there’s no difference as was explained previously in terms of Lama of Guru Puja. Just a different order of arrangements.
Most important, for example, in the in the in the practice of Vajrasattva is that the the clear visualization in connection with the recitation of the mantra. This is the most of most beneficial. But if if we were to perform the permission, let’s say, empowerment of Vajrasattva, then it’s necessary that we have set up the the the front generation, the self generation and the offering and the offering to the mandala. So in terms of the the granting of permission of Vajrasattva, then you this the self generation row is the one nearest to us, the one nearest to yourself, and the front generation is the one nearest to. Oh, yeah.
Then then the then the offering of of food to the, in this case, Vajrasattva would be placed in in behind this this in front of the in front of the front generation role of offerings, that is the furthest away from you toward the deity, that you and this would could be a dharma, a ritual cake, or not necessarily that it’d be a ritual cake. You can simply put biscuits or or a cake. So that’s is that okay? The difference between the self generation and self generation? So if it’s not clear, then please question.
Ask question. So the the meditator is sitting here. Uh-huh. Yes. And And So the offerings are set up from your right side.
Okay. So so okay. If if if Geshe-la is Vajrasattva and you’re sitting here, then the offerings are made from your right to your left, and then they’re also made from Which is Vajrasattva’s right to left. His row you’re in each each of have your own row. His row is from right to left.
The dhakti. The self generation, that means yourself as a deity is from right to left, and the front deity that is Geshe-la as Vajrasattva is also from his right to left. So self generation means that you you you’re visualizing yourself as a deity. That’s what self generation means. And you’re going to make offerings to yourself as a deity.
And your emanate deities, they go out and bring back the offerings to your self. And they pick up and so the way that they that they pick them up is from with their right. They pick them up from right to left. So they just go along from right to left. And so that’s to yourself.
And then the opposite would be the case of the of the front generation. Let’s say the deity that you’re visualizing in front of yourself. Again, the the deities would go out and but they would the the deity would take them from also from right to left. And then the vision of the deity that is visualized in front of yourself. So, again, the though to from your position, it’s from it may be from left to right, but to to the person who’s being offered, the deity who is being offered to, it’s again from the right to right to left.
So the offering is always made from to that deity, which are being offered to from from their right to their left. Usually, when we meditate Vajrasattva, we imagine Vajrasattva at the crown of our head. And so here here there is there is only the front generation. There there is so the the offerings are set up as if in order to that it’d be offered to a front generation even though the Vajrasattva is at the crown of your head. And the offerings are to the So in the case of the the permission of granting the permission of of Vajrasattva.
And and and there is no it’s it’s different than what was explained previously where there for example, when we talked about the empowerment of Guhyasamāja, where we had to set up a a a the offerings to the five lineages of the conquerors, the five Dhyayana Buddhas, we had to set up a row of offerings for each of them. Here, there there is no offering made in to those five lineages of the conquerors. So even though it’s an empowerment, it’s not the setting up of the offerings is done differently. And this holds true for the what’s called the fire deity, also Tārā, white Tārā. So this the large upside down bowl is where you would place the the mandala, whether a cloth mandala, for for for example, that’s where it would be positioned.
And the eastern direction is facing yourself. We don’t go by the actual directions that you that you might be positioned. You always imagine that the you are always the mandala you’re always facing the eastern doorway of the mandala where where whatever the actual physical position is. It’s the position that the east is in front of yourself. So in east is the is the water argham?
So then the so the east southeast is the water for the feet, washing the feet. Then in the south is flowers. In the west? So let me go back. So in the east is so the argham, the water argham.
Then then we go to the So then the northeast and not the southeast. Northeast. Okay. Northeast is. And then the north is.
Then the west is Northwest is Dupe. Northwest is Dupe. And then the West is Alokae, the butter lamp. Then the the southwest southwest is the Gende. South is Neuwade.
So we’re we’re going to place eight offerings in four in the cardinal, four in ordinal, or let’s say sub directions. So four in the main directions, four in the sub directions. So we still have one offering to offer in in the in the southeast. Oh. And we there we place flowers.
So those are the the those are the offerings to the mandala of Vajrasattva. So do you have some questions that we can clear up? So, generally, the the practice of mantra or tantra is secret, and the various rituals and the offerings which are made are not to be done in public. One makes offerings, and then after the practice is finished, one takes them away. So the the this would not what is offered here is what can be offered in history of public display.
So whatever one should not divulge that your individual practices that that, you know, that I I meditate on this deity. I med I do this deity practice. These are these all should be secret. So but we can we can just in terms of offerings which are are openly displayed and make offerings other than water. We can offer flute and fruit and flowers, lamps, lights, or, you know, biscuits, whatever.
These can are acceptable to be offered in public. So just to read a story. Once Khensur and myself, we were accompanying our our teacher, [teacher name garbled] offered all of these flowers that were before us. And we questioned, you know, why do you why do you do this? And he said, well, you know, only do you know, I can enjoy the flowers, but by offering them, I accumulate a vast accumulation of creative potential.
They just it becomes something more if I use the opportunity to offer them. Our general way of thinking is that we immediately grab the flowers and smell them and they come in to think how beautiful they are. But so there’s a difference between that our way of thinking and practice. So, you know, when we go to a park and there are all these beautiful trees and flowers that we immediately can can mentally offer them. We don’t actually have to depict them.
We can just mentally offer them. And so in that way, we accumulate creative potential. So we have both the the actual spectacle of enjoying the flowers before us, but additionally, the the accumulation of creative potential at the same time. Do you have questions? So first thing, you you you clean the altar, and then you set up the offerings, bless the offerings.
And then if you have there are offering prayers, but perhaps they aren’t in English. You can not necessary, but you can recite the offering prayers and then make three prostrations having done all of that. There there there are prayers there are prayers of offering. If if they’re in English, you can make use of those. If if they aren’t if they aren’t, then I can supply you with offering prayer.
Yeah. Yeah. So it’s not it’s not good to place lots of articles on your on your on your altar. Essentially, that make it presenting the offerings and then the representations of the the body, speech, and mind of the Buddha. These should be placed there.
And then, you know, just a don’t fill your altar up with full teachers pictures of teachers, you know, those perhaps you don’t even have any faith in, but those who you have a great deal of faith, and those could be placed on your altar also. But otherwise, it becomes meaningless if it just becomes a display. And then a text. So and if you, you know, if you have for a Buddhist, then to not to mix your objects toward whom you’re making offerings to or that whom you’re showing respect. It’s not to say that, you know, other other objects of of reverence of different traditions are you shouldn’t just throw them out.
But if you wish, you could set up another altar to in accordance with another religious tradition, but not to mix them on the same altar. Yeah. Yeah. So, again, it becomes it’s acceptable to put various representation, paintings on the deities or statues if that’s the if that’s your if you’ve committed yourself to those practices and you have faith in those deities, but not just to make it a display. You know, like, you can there’s lots of paintings of deities that that you can buy in Nepal, and and and it becomes meaningless if you just have it becomes an art gallery.
But those who have faith and that you are practicing, then you you can put up various pictures and deities. So you could have and if you like, you can have an area where you set up an art gallery and set those paintings, but this we’re talking about your altar. Yeah. Yeah. On this one.
Okay. Okay. Okay. So perhaps we’ll recite the on page ten. And then the final verses on eight and nine, page five.