Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen teaches the mandala offering practice in this 41-minute session—a detailed walk-through of the visualization, from precious objects and the eight offering goddesses (Lady of Grace, Song, Dance, Flower, and others) to sun, moon, umbrella, and victory banner. The core practice involves emanating yourself into countless bodies making infinite offerings to countless merit fields. He answers practical questions on preparing the base with rice, saffron, and optional cow products, emphasizing the entire practice takes just one minute daily. He concludes by explaining why mandala offering supports meditating on emptiness, and how offering with bodhicitta—the intention to benefit all beings—transforms your practice toward Buddhahood rather than personal benefit alone.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 12 LR 1995 08 20.mp3
UUID: 4d29feae-73a1-4c29-b098-42c323743c0c
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Lam Rim 1995 Jan-Dec (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1995-08-20
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 41.2 minutes
Words: ~2,753
So that that wish-fulfilling cow is the source of all all all is the source of all virtue and goodness on that on that continent. So so why yeah. Why don’t you imagine that and pile that up there? And then one piling on the northern continent and which is the the unplowed harvest. So this like like, in the in the very beginning when the when the universe is evolved, come into existence, there at that time, there are this unplowed harvest where you can do like one of them is known as the what you call them?
The crops. And then again, back to the east, which is the precious wheel. And then on the south, the precious jewel. And on the north I’m sorry. On the west on the west, precious queen.
And then on the on the north Mhmm. Precious minister. Oh, Yeah. So between east and south, you pile up the precious elephant? So between south and west, you pile up the the precious horse.
And then So between west and north, you pile up the precious general. And between east and north, you pile up the treasury vase. So all these these objects are I would say, object that are used by the by the by the universal king. Or the wealth of universal king. So so then next is the eight offering goddesses. The first one is the goddesses of grace.
So normally when teach like experience about making offerings and at that time, one should visualize those offering goddesses making offerings. And here it is translated as the lady of grace on the page three. So, and then first start like make pile pilings, which is on the four directions, four directions. First is the Lady of Grace, And then the second is the lady of what do call? Song.
Song. Lady of song. And then the third one is lady of dance. And then fourth one is lady of flower. These four in four directions.
So the lady of grace, that’s it has the color of its body is white. So both both her hands are in the manner of, what do say, in manner of, what is it, fist, making fist, in the manner of wrathful fist. That’s how it is. So which is like a more like a fist, not full full fist, but like this and holding vajras in both hands.
And very flexible body with beautiful sense. And what the ladies of grace is offering is the what do call it? It? The greatness or the appearance of greatness. And then second is the the lady of song, which is the thing her color of the her body is pink.
So like the having, like, hairs with the top knots and like how you see towers, like in the same manner of tower and then wearing beautiful clothes. And same thing like so we said the body is pink, color of the body, and holding in inherently. And together with the also holding, we call it, lute. And which is yellow So which is holding guitar or lute, which is offering a beautiful sound. So then the next is the lady of dance and color of her body is different than the rest.
So her her face and feet are white? And the neck and the upper part of the body is multicolored. It’s pinkish, pink, well, light weight. And and the the waist and the the hands are light blue. And then the two thighs are the light yellow.
And then the rest of the other parts are blue. And this is known as the having various colors, multicolor. So the The posture of the right hand like in the manner of making a half fist which is holding a right hand on top of its head and the left hand like, is above the waist, like holding somewhere in front of And which is in the manner of dance, in the manner of dancing. So then next is the lady of flower which is yellow color body and the right hand holding up above its head, which is in the manner of making offerings, offering offering flowers. So then after this four, then you you set up again the four more settings, which is on the on the four what do you call?
The four you pile on between the subcontinents. So the first four, those offering ladies that we pile up. The first one was the lady of grace. The second one is lady of garland. And then third one is song and the fourth one is the dance.
So we missed, I would say, we’re taking the, what you say, with lady with the flower and the second group. And yeah, and with the lady of flower, with lady with the incense, and lady with light, and then lady with perfume. These are for the second group. So these like eight these eights are known as the eight offering goddesses. So so when we make offering, when we emanate the offering goddesses, this is what we should visualize.
And then doing. So then then coming to next two piling, which is the sun on the east and then the moon on the how do you say on the on the west. So then next is next piling is So on the south, you pile up the umbrella and on the north, you pile up the victory banner. So with this for the sun and moon and the umbrella and the victory banner, the settings, there are few different explanations, few few different ways of settings. But but it’s it’s one can one can like set up anywhere one one wanted to be.
Like, there are a few different explanations. So so the the Mount Meru at the center and then the sun and moon, you know, like circles the Mount Meru. So so one can pile up any any of the four four directions. So so then in the center of at the center again of the the moon and sun, you pile up all the wealth of humans and gods. Oh, okay.
Yes. And and then make So so then when one is making these mandala offerings, one can emanate one’s body into numberless bodies. And similarly, you visualize the merit field, numberless merit field. Then when you are making the offerings, at the same time, your emanations, then make offering to each of those merit fields. So, we do have countless bodies.
That’s because we have taken countless births. So because of taking countless births, there are countless bodies. So but but we want we have one mind or one, what do you call, I. So what we call I at present to this body also in the past that I was wherever that past being was with him. And when we take the birth to future, this this I also goes to that being.
So so as Geshe-la explains, making emanating yourself into countless and then same same same that with the with the merit fields, you emanate that into many countless and make your offerings. Then if you do that, I’m sorry, if you do that, you receive the benefits of making you you receive the countless benefits. So these are like the and the and the subcontinents, according to the scientists’ explanations, they don’t accept, they don’t believe in this. But when you are doing your practice on this small surface where you make the mandala, you can visualize all this and make the offerings. And some may think also that this small mandala base, which is the small one, how can we fit all of those things in?
So so it’s it’s it’s like the same that how how our eye, small eye can like pick up like a what do you say? Lots of things that like a hundred thousand people in gathering. So similarly, like, in the same manner how when we when we take a picture of a photo, like, the quality. The lens of the camera, it’s very small, but they can fit the whole whole, like, picture of the person. So so then after making offerings, if it is if that mandala offering is made as a form of request, then when you are what do you call?
When you you are destroying or you could dipping like how do you say it? It. Yeah. When you are when you are tipping it, then you have to tip on towards your side. If it’s offering of mandala which is in the form of request.
So the reason doing that is you should imagine at that time you have now received the blessings. Imagine that you have received the blessings. So then if it is in the form of offerings, making offerings, then tipping is done on the like, to the other side, like, how you say, to the to the other side, not towards one, but to the other side. So then when we make this, the four line mandala offerings, there’s a line which tells you offer the mandala visualizing it as Buddha field. And another is that you offer this mandala which is to the Buddha field.
So this line which explains. So so when one is offering, if this offering is made, this mental offering is made to the the Buddha field, Then Buddha field are known as the pure pure land. And the object what we offer is something impure and it’s not right to offer impure things to pure beings. So then when you are making this mandala offering to the Buddha field, then you have to transform that, purify the impure things into pure things, pure substance, and then you make the offering to the to the Buddha field. And, yeah, that’s that’s how you make the offering to the Buddha field, this mandala offering to the Buddha field.
So there are many other explanations about this mandala offerings. But the reason of making this mandala offering is to for the purpose of accumulating merit and purifying the negativities. So that’s the essence of the practice. And so because of that, even yeah. We should we should make as many as as possible.
Even just just one a day would be very good. So so if we to offer the full wealth of wealth wealth of universe to to the Buddhas, Then then then let’s say that so that offering out of that offering one accumulates great amount of merit. Mhmm. And one come to like a one come to perfect the accumulation of merit. And when when one come to do that, when one come to perfect the accumulation of merit, then the realizations of those different states, let’s say, comes into one.
So shouldn’t think that it’s impossible for you to do because it’s very easy. It can be done within one minute he said. That most of you might have image or picture of a Buddha in your room, in your meditation room. And in front of that, you just sit one minute in front of them that and make the mandala offering as a with the postures. Then then it’s very easy. It’s nothing difficult.
It’s a it’s a good like, the very starting before you go to work, Even if you’re ready, you have your car key and your bags with you, you know, it’s always ready to go. And then before you go, just sit for one minute and make the mandala offering. And then, okay, now I go to work. It would be very good then. So so, like, possible, then, like, sit properly and then, like, keep all the body postures and then make the offerings.
But then if you are very busy, then you can do like that, like quick one minute sitting and make the offerings. So So it’s to say thank you very much, and we’ll stop here tonight today. And next teaching next Sunday teaching will be on teachings on purification. You have any questions? So in the Vinaya teachings they said to use grains for example like rice and so on.
But in India usually like when they use that happens that insects come into it. But then how you prepare it is this whatever substance, whatever grain you use, you clean it and then you use the saffron and if you have the five products of the cow, then mix it with that and the saffron makes it changes the color into yellow. So make it, yeah, like whatever grain is, you make it yellow. So so then then after that, you can add like the precious stones like silver, gold, what is it, the turquoise, corals, and all the garland, the what’s the ornaments that we use for? You can use all those things.
So so so then that’s how you make the substance. And then, like, applying the, what do you call, the saffron together with the five products of cow on the base is that if you are making mandala offering everyday then you can do like once a month. Yeah, repeating once a month. Yeah, cleaning the base like once a month or during longer. So this, the paste that is made out of this five products of cow, it’s not easy to get around but if you ask probably in Tārā Institute, the medical center they may have.
So if you don’t have this five products of cow, this cow products then just using the saffron is okay too. So, yeah, that’s right, Alto, which is saying, first, you clean wash the grains, the rice. Cool. And then And before if you don’t, like, soak in the water or clean it, then the the color of the saffron doesn’t stick to the grain. So then when it’s wet, then you, like, dry in the sun or, yeah, dry it up there.
And it becomes, like, good yellow color. Yeah. Other questions? Sorry. To?
So when you we as is explained as like taking the essence. For example, when you are meditating on emptiness, the essence that you are taking is to come to the realization of emptiness. It is like taking the essence. And to do you need as a backup practice the accumulation of merit. And for that, to accumulate the merit, in order to take the essence of your practice and to accumulate the merit you offer the mandala offerings.
And the mandala offerings are mainly for the accumulation of merit. So so if if you if you have whatever practice you are doing, whatever essence practice you are taking, if you lack the accumulations of merit and purification, then you will find difficult to gain the realizations of that practice. And lacking which are lack of the noble mind that we said in the very beginning, bodhicitta, and the rest which are the purification and accumulation practices. If you lack this then the realization of those whatever you’re meditating on, it’s one find difficult to gain the realizations. So so then with that with this purification practice, if the if that practice is also conjoined with this good mind or the noble mind, the bodhicitta, then then that practice actually becomes a cause for the highest state.
That is the Buddhahood here. So if you are meditating emptiness for the sake of this life, only for the sake of this life, then just becomes a cause for that. So, like, meditating emptiness for the sake of others. For example, if between one and others, if you meditate emptiness for the sake of others, for the others purpose, then that is the what is that is one of the best thing. So it becomes the best thing is because what you are meditating on is something something very precious and and the purpose why you are doing is also for others.
So a very good action. So if you are doing meditation on emptiness only for the purpose of this life, then though the meditation practice on emptiness is something precious because it’s aiming just for this life, when one dies, it ends there. Yeah. We overtook five minutes, so sorry for that. Again, Geshe-la has to give another talk.
This public talk at two thirty. So, probably you are we have holiday now, but this day is not insane. We do the dedication on page number five.