Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute continuation of his Mandala Offering series, Geshe Pema Tsering works through the cosmology practitioners are asked to visualize — the premise being that imagining a vast, jewel-encrusted universe makes the offering more meritorious. He maps Mount Meru’s dimensions (80,000 kilometers above and below water), the Land of Thirty-Three gods at its summit, Indra’s levitated mansion, four directional pleasure gardens, and a tree whose roots extend fifty kilometers underground. Along the way he explains why the 8th and 15th of each month are prime practice days: the gods convene there and can observe human conduct. He then surveys the remaining desire-realm heavens above Meru, the four directional guardian kings familiar from monastery doorway sculptures, and the seven concentric golden mountains ringing the whole system. Suited to practitioners working through the foundational offerings curriculum.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 35 Offering a Mandala tape 1 no date.mp3
UUID: 60a23e56-f78c-4531-838f-75995138ad05
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: z Mandala Offering (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.6 minutes
Words: ~2,756
Should develop motivation here that I shall attain enlightenment for the sake of motherly sentient beings. For that purpose, here, listen to the teachings of mandala. So should listen to this Mandala teaching with a very with proper motivation, and I shall here start because we don’t really want to spend much time on motivation because it’s not going to finish. We have to finish it today, don’t we? Oh, yeah.
So from continuing from the last teaching, we explained the the the colors or the yeah. All the four cardinal directions of the Mount Meru, the precious stones, and we stopped at the the north part of the Mount Meru is made out of gold. And now the mount the size of the Mount Meru that the Mount Meru is set forth, that is the eighty thousand, say, eighty thousand kilometers. Yeah. Let’s talk.
Yeah. It’s about eighty thousand kilometers is under the water and and eighty thousand kilometers above the water. So there are six desire realms. And out of the six desire realms, the first one called the the land of thirty three is the is situated or located at the the the tip or tip of the Mount The the the reason why it’s called the land of thirty three or thirty-third is because in terms of the the the beings within that land or region, there are there are thirty three types of god beings. So and so one reason is so that’s the that’s the one reason it’s called land of thirty three.
Or there’s another reason why it’s called thirty three. There there are, say, like a thirty three centers or thirty three sites where the where the teaching take place or set forth at thirty three stadiums, of Dharma stadiums in that area. It’s land of thirty three. It’s on the so the so that land of thirty three is at the tip of direction is set forth about eighty kilometers. It’s eighty thousand kilometers.
So including all, it becomes thirty two thirty three thirty two thousand kilometers. And and at the four cardinal directions, the four corners, say four corners, there are four walls walls, which like the this shapes like a stupa, actually, like, in composition. So each one is size about. So the the wideness is about twenty thousand kilometers, and the height height is five hundred kilometers. Yeah. So in in Tibetan, it says. It’s kind of like equivalent of kilometer.
So the the Gandharvas. The so called the worldly deity called the Chakna Dorje in Tibetan, so translation would be the vajra holder.
It’s not the Vajrapāni, the deity. It’s not the Vajrapāni, but it’s called Chakna Dorje. Quite tricky term to called Chakna Dorje in Tibet. And the Chakna Dorje is literally to say — so ‘lak’ is a hand, and colloquialism or ordinary language and chak is the honorific for hand, it’s the same. And doji is doji is a vajra.
So but it’s not a vajrapani, it’s one called Lagna Dorje. Yeah. One has one has a one holds a vajra inherently. Anyway, it’s a worldly god. It’s not the one we take refuge in and set forth it’s like the regional protector of the god region at that area in the four cardinal directions.
So probably it’s a correction here now. It’s a land of thirty three, which means on the tip of that that it’s on the tip of the Mount Meru, it’s not just the one land with like thirty three sites of teaching set. It’s like thirty three, the Yeah. The land of Yeah. So it’s like thirty three cities up in the tip of the Mount Meru.
So this is called land of thirty three. And middle of that land of thirty three it’s thirty three. In the middle of it’s called a city called a joyous or a beautiful city. And, yeah, Mhmm. So it’s the the the beautiful or yeah.
City, Joyous, a beautiful city, and it’s in the square shape that each direction is about is two two thousand five hundred kilometers. So that’d be square square kilometers, so to speak. And then the it’s the the size, those are just the directions, the width, and the height is about is one and a half kilometers. So all the buildings inside that beautiful city or land is made out of. Stone like gold.
And set forth that the the color of the land in that area is made has the hundred and twenty one types, the different colors in that. It’s a very beautiful city or a land that the place the land itself is like a very sofa set that if one press goes down and then goes, like, just bing bing, and it just bounce and soft and smooth land itself. Anyway, it it it all says the numbers of how many doors are there in that land, which is nine hundred ninety nine doors. And set forth the each door has five hundred guards. Right?
This one? And so this is how we do a mandala offering the people because we’re trying to make one’s mandala as precious as one can, not make it very all the precious stones and so forth, is to make as huge offering as much one can. So all these are the offerings one is visualizing that in the center of that beautiful city or town situates the the celestial mansion of the lord or god of lord, the king Indra. three-quarters of a kilometer. And the location of the mansion mentioned in that region, of the bit of a city where it locates, it’s not situated on it’s elevated about three quarters of a kilometer up in the sky.
And in the four directions of the beautiful the and out of the in the four directions out of the four the the beautiful city is the four beautiful gardens or a park. And Alright. Okay. The in the east is the garden called the you know, garden is a garden or a park with a garden with lots of beautiful trees and flowers. Yeah.
Flowers and so forth. And then the south is the part where all the events happened like a sports and so forth. And in the west is the garden or a park where the, you know, the garden, and the boys and girl girls hang out. And then they get together where on the west park park or, yeah, in the garden. And in the north park is where people have picnics and so forth.
And then twenty or so kilometers away from those Then there’s another four place, which is almost as good as the the the four part which we discussed just discussed. Yeah? Mhmm. This one? And then the northeast of that beautiful city is the tree called So I’m hopeless with the tree names now.
It’s a tree called Yankitam in Tibet. Which type of tree? I have no idea. And it’s a tree which its root has been fifty kilometers on the ground, and and height is about above the ground is hundred kilometers. And its branches are spread in fifty kilometers, and it’s got a beautiful fragrance that spreads about hundred kilometers wide.
And then on north the the north south north of that beautiful city is is this is located a place called the Pure Dharma, and it’s one of the gods region or land where we if you have know or we have seen the text called the white umbrella, where Lord Buddha Śākyamūni tell up to that land where his mother Mahamaya was reborn in that land and went to teach. And and so must be that place, it comes in the text, Chosang Tö. Chosang means the pure Dharma or kind Dharma, that that that must be the land where Lord Buddha Śākyamūni went and taught. His mother’s kindness. Yeah.
And so it’s the size of that land called pure Dharma or kind Dharma is called is is three hundred kilometers square shaped, and its height is four and a half kilometers higher than the beautiful city. So according to the text, it’s the it’s the the the said land, which is called the pure Khandharma or pure dharma, which its place entire place is like a one huge stadium. As Geshe-la said, this one is taught in Melbourne, like a huge stadium that and it’s saying that it except for the center pillar of that the building in that particular in that land, the rest are made out of crystal or of glasses. And the the the the the only pillar in the middle of the place is made out of lapis lazuli. The pillar with the eight corners. It’s it’s octagonal or yeah. And it’s it’s kind of like a big tent, you know, a lot of pillars except for that middle one, which we just discussed are made out of crystals or glasses. And then and and there’s no, like, a pin or a needle. So, like, you know, screws, anything, just big one, beautifully constructed.
And inside that now and all the gods now, like Indras and so forth and the Brahmans, and they have numbers of gods. So their thrones are are placed in that particular land or area. And it was set forth. This is the area where all the the white the god, which means the the the gods religious gods, which, you know, the practice so forth gathers. And and and that area, all the thrones of the gods are there where they meet, and and and because those gods are set forth to have a certain amount of clairvoyant, and and and they also can see the humans, you know, in the earth or world, what they’re doing and so forth, and this is the that could be the reason that that on every eighth and the fifteenth of the month where all the gods like Indras and so forth get together in that area and make the dharma discussions.
And that could be the reason we particularly torma offering days and so for religious days are in our calendar comes like eighth and fifteenth or twenty fifth of the month, saying we should we should do good jobs as well because the gods are looking at us as well, looking at us on that particular day. So above that land of thirty three, situate the rest of the six desire realms. And the oldest, you know, the land of combat, hard to defeat, and land of miraculous of emanation or miracles that the six the desire realms and and they’re located the one is Buxan Yituru, yeah, two thousand kilometers above thirty three. So anyway, so those are the lands. So above the twenty kilometers above the land of thirty three situates the land hard to defeat.
And then twenty kilometers above that land is called the yeah, power over others’ emanations or miracles, and then comes the land free of clouds and comes the merit land, and then the very top on the twenty kilometers above that is the the land called the land Tuśita, the Ganden Tuśita. And and but those places, we we don’t we don’t need to visualize those land during the Mandala offerings. But below the land of thirty three, then we had yeah. We need to visualize during our mandala offering. And as we talked about the size of the Meru earlier, so and the height of the Mount Meru is about was eighty thousand kilometers, wasn’t it?
And and there are four layers, means four in the four layers of four different stage, situates the four four types of lands now. And and and the lowest one is is in in wideness. It is sixteen hundred thousand sixteen thousand kilometers bigger than the Mount Meru. And then above that is eight thousand. About this is four thousand.
And and above the first one is two thousand kilometers bigger than the Mount Meru in in in wideness. So we’re going from bottom of the Mount Meru going up. So the bottom was it’s the it’s the land where the desire god called. It’s the It’s a worldly desire god that holds a plate or kind of like a tray in his hand, and there is a saying that sometimes we don’t have much rain in in the world so forth. It was said forth that when he gets aggressive or angry, you know, he controls the rain, which means all the rains go in his tray, and he holds up there. And and and then above that is another desire god who called Nijin Rinpoche, which means the the god which which which holds a precious and mala or a rosary in his hand. Mhmm. And then about that is the the god now also called that holds the the the alcohol or a wine or beer in his hand.
It’s like who is in peace all the time, you know. Oh, this one? Drunk all the time. Is that the question? And sir, you call.
And then the very top of that is then there are the four mansion four palace of the four kings and so forth, like, it’s the the the in the east is is of that land is is situated the the king called Yulkor Yulkorsang, you know, in Tibetan. So there should have Yulkorsang, you said. Yulkorsang, correct. Yulkorsang, sorry. It’s not Yulkorsang.
It’s this should be Sanskrit name. I I don’t know the Sanskrit names. And Yul Khorsung, word to word translation is is a one who protects the entire land. And in the south is Phakye po. So the yeah.
So in the south, it’s called Phagkye po, and the north is Chenmiksang. And Nanteshi. No. Yeah. West.
Sorry. In the west is Jemiksang, and the North is Namtösé. So those are the four deities. If you go to the monasteries, and there are four doors, and you can see the different sculptures of the deities. Is holding a sitar or a lute and some holds different things to represent those four gods.
They are in the first fence. So so those up till now what we have discussed is they are it’s like within the the Mount Meru. And now saying that far beyond the Mount Meru now are all the different types of gods, beings, the beings. So now what the end now Mount Meru is in the middle, and then the the surround of Mount Meru is the seven golden hills or mountains, and each mountains has a lake or a pond. So seven seven lakes and seven golden mountains.
Mhmm. It’s above the sea level of Earth is not mentioned, but must be high, but the eighty thousand kilometers inside the Yeah. It’s the same size as Mount Meru, that eighty thousand kilometers under the ground and eighty thousand above the ground. So it’s a smaller than the Mount Meru. Of course.
The eighty thousand kilometers under water level and four forty thousand kilometers above sea level, water level like Oh. It’s the first first golden mountain. So and then the second, the golden mountain, it said for the above water level is twenty thousand kilometers. So all these seven golden mountains, the undersea level is same, that eighty thousand kilometers under the water sea level. And and the first one, as we said before, is above the sea level is forty thousand kilometers.
And then the second mountain is above sea level is twenty thousand. And then the third one is ten thousand. And the fourth one is fifth five thousand. And this fifth one is two hun two thousand five hundred kilometers above sea level. And the sixth one is one thousand two hundred and fifty kilometers, and the seventh one is six hundred and twenty-five kilometers above sea level.
A lot of numbers here. Let’s talk about the size of each golden mountains now. The first one which was, you know, above sea level is forty thousand kilometers and so forth, and saying now the the size of that mountain is, if you measure inside the the first golden mountain and then its kilometers, so it’s it’s text says about parsang. Parsang. It’s equivalent, almost equivalent of one kilometer. That’s what I’m saying.
It’s a familiar word. So it’s parsang inside is