Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute commentary, Geshe Pema Tsering maps Buddhist cosmology as the raw material for mandala offering — the shapes and sizes of the four continents, including Dzambuling (our roughly triangular world, named after a tree whose fruit fell into water), the four great waterfalls (eagle, horse, lion, elephant), and the seven precious signs of the universal king, including a wish-fulfilling gem that cures illness within a hundred kilometers. He acknowledges the tension with modern science and sets it aside: the point is to visualize as expansively as possible, because a bigger offering accumulates more merit. He covers mandala offerings across sūtra and tantra systems, and closes with a Lhasa anecdote — at Monlam festival, a chant leader recited offerings while pointing to a giant copper-plate mandala held by two monks.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 36 Offering a Mandala tape 1 no date.mp3
UUID: e6505983-75ab-429c-8f70-69de23dab491
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: z Mandala Offering (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.0 minutes
Words: ~2,718
Sorry. The three hundred twenty thousand kilometers inside the size. And if I measured the from the outside of the the first golden mountain, and its kilometers about one million twenty eight thousand kilometers. No. No.
Sorry. One one million two hundred and eighty thousand kilometers. So anyway, so and they had mentioned the size of each and every golden mountain and so forth, and we can’t we won’t be able to finish it It’s if you go vividly, then not numbers and size, it’s too much, too many. Okay. And now as we said, Mount Meru and all those lands and seven golden mountains with the seven point or a lake.
And now after that, it comes the the the directions. Now the north is not south, the earth,, our world, and beginning from the east. Yes. The place in the east is called the Lüpagpo, and which means superior body actually, word to word translation. That which means those beings, the being in that land are set forth to be twice as bigger in size than the human in in the earth like in our place.
And the the the color of that land is called the the it’s a white color whereas in our world, the earth is therefore to be blue. And the shape of that that land is called the half the the half moon shape. And it’s about two hundred two thousand kilometers. Yeah. The size of that half moon shape set forth to be two thousand kilometers.
And the its entire wideness goes because it’s the moon half moon shape, it’s about three thousand five three hundred and fifty kilometers. So and the south is the Earth now, the our world, Earth, and it’s in the south of the mount Meru. And the Tibetan word is for the earth is called Dzambuling. And the reason why it’s called Dzambuling is because on the And And For example, ling ling is a land, actually. And ling is actually like a It’s like an island, actually.
And and on the south of the Mount Meru, there is a tree called Dzambu tree and was set forth that it has lot of fruit. So one of the fruits fell off and went down to the water and make a sound. You know, the comes the Dzambuling name comes for our our earth in Tibetan. Anyway, so so and ling is meant to be surrounded by the water or oceans. And the the shape Okay.
And now it’s really contradictory here to the scientists now. And the shape of the earth or yeah. Here described as the triangle shape, isn’t it? It’s not completely triangle, most likely triangle, but in the top is bit flat. Not tip is not like very sharp.
It’s a flat top. So it goes small in the top and wider at the bottom. So kind of like a triangle shape, but still have four directions anyway. And set for three main sites, each site is the width or the the length is about two thousand kilometers the small one is called three thousand five hundred kilometers of the size of that the size of the world or Earth. Sorry.
So yeah. And the Bodh Gaya in India is set forth to be the the center of the world, center of the earth. And and then above Bodh Gaya, they’re called the nine black hills or mountains. And and beyond that, on the north is the a mountain called yeah. Yeah.
It’s the mountain there. And and about one kilometers away from that mountain situates the the the ocean or or a lake, which were located the the Naga. And that that pond or a lake of that is about each in square shape, fifty kilometer square shape. And has set forth to have different numbers of different types of flowers. So and then the each s is in the square shape of and each So and we said for the two types of great rivers or where the the water descended from.
And and like in Tibetan history comes, so it sounds like the same here that that that each it because it’s the the Nagas place or legs in four square fifty fifty kilometer square shape. And the the the the south south is called there is the water comes from the south, and its shape it’s kind of like the the the eagle head on the south. So and from the mouth, it comes the water. So so in Tibetan khyung means the eagle, and then the the water comes from its mouth. So this is how it comes.
And the north is the the horse water because the way water comes, the mouth is like a horse shape, and from the mouth comes the water. So it’s called horse. And then this north is the yeah. Sorry. The west is the horse, and the north is the lion, and and the shell, the east comes like like elephant.
So, yeah, it’s called the great four great waterfalls we talked about in our cultural history. So, like, the waterfalls, and it’s called eagle, horse, lion, and elephant. So if you go very vividly, then it’s not going to go finish at all. So what you need to do is now this think about the situation. Now when we recite the mandala offering, continue, you know, in the Mount Meru and then comes the the the the world, you know, this for example, in is in the west.
Sorry, in the south is the earth, Ngayab and Changshen and those are the continents. So you visualize that. Like, I mean, In the four cardinal directions situated the four continent, and and and then each side of the four continents situated the subcontinent. There are eight subcontinent. Mhmm.
Yeah. So it so you can visualize through reciting the prayers that eight subcontinents and then go through the the precious mountains eight precious mountains are there. So when you do the mandala offering and visual and need to visualize them, they are set forth to be hundred and billions of mandalas or or the Mount Meru and and hundred and so likewise, and billions of precious mountains and and so forth as as according to one’s capacity, mental capacity. So, yeah, when you visualize those mountains, you should visualize as big as one can. And then during the recitations of all this, you know, wishful thinking, precious mountains and visual feeling, gems and cows and so forth.
So because we didn’t set up the mandala and imagine it’s not empty at all, and they’re just filling up with, you know, the the grains and visualizing that they are all the mandala has been filled up with a very invaluable, you know, precious And all the seven signs of regal powers, like the eight precious, sorry, the precious wheel. So which means where is the king called the universal king is set forth to be power the entire universe. And the reason why he’s been able to control or yep. And the rule the entire universe is because of the wheel that he holds, the precious wheel. So in terms of universal king, they set forth to be different type level or this superior inferior of this universal king.
Said they are like the universal king, which rules entire the the four continents. And and then the universal king, which only rules the the the the the earth or the the eastern east eastern continent. Like, there are five types of universal king. So all this like all this happens of the power receives because of the will they they possess, a type of a will. And so when one has the karma to born as a universal king, which means that one one because of one’s virtues or, you know, the one has one one received because the one’s karma received the the universal king’s will.
And And if you measure the size of the wheel is about like a round shape is about five hundred kilometers and has about thousand spokes. Got it. Very powerful. Huge light. It’s like a second sun and and and very powerful and speedy that if it can, like, take hold ground of the whole world or universe in the whole world or universe in twenty four hours.
Mhmm. So through the power of that wheel and the one step, the universal king can control everything. So it comes like a a seven precious signs like your precious wheel and ministers, queen, and then comes the wishful gem. So now the wishful gem is set forth to be inside. It’s about up in the sky from somewhere near the between the the the wishful, yeah, wish-granting tree and the the Mount Meru between the two.
And we set forth that it’s very precious that if one it can produce heat when during the cold and and and cold during the heat or or the the hot weather. And and and and and in the nighttime, it can give produce light about can clear the darkness about hundred kilometers. So it’s a visual wish-fulfilling gem that it produce anything one requires that it has different types of bright colors, and and if one is hungry, produce food and wealth, and it has a power of cure the disease illness of the beings within hundred kilometers. And so that wish-fulfilling gems, like, protects from the suns and rain and to all the sufferings. That our wish-fulfilling gem has, and and it protects from the the coldness, illnesses, and so forth.
And if it protects one from life threatening dangers if if the karma has not come. And then comes the queen. And, yeah, comes the minis you know, queen minister and the the elephant. All those. Got it.
So eight goddesses and so forth. Those are the the possessions or objects of the universal king. Eight goddesses, So the briefly speaking, the how much, you know, detailed explanation is written here. I want you to visualize as much as one can, like, all the the wealth and resources and precious so forth is included within one’s mandala and one’s offering it. Brief explanation, roughly speaking.
So, basically speaking, again, here that one is offering all the, you know, the ultimate possession and the the offerings or objects of the the world and the trans world as well, which means now you’re trans world, which means you’re offering all the qualities of the Buddhas and so forth who have gone beyond saṃsāra. So before we talked about the size and so forth of the each places, mountains, and so forth. Whether that really exists or not, it’s still uncertain, you know. But the point is, you know, you should visualize as much as you can, and then the bigger you offer, the more virtuous you collect, and that’s the main point. Got it.
You know, the according to the Buddhist philosophy, so text says the different size different measurements. And then you listen to the scientists, and they say something different. So it’s really hard to believe that. So Yes. It could be this reason that what we need is we need to to attain Buddhahood or liberation as soon as possible.
And in order to do so, we need numbers of huge amount of virtues or merit we required. And so that could be the reason that you visualize as much as you can according to the one’s mental capacity and then make the offering to the Buddha, Buddhas and so forth. So that because you have you have visualized a great great offering and you receive numbers of virtues or a merit, but that could be the point. So you yeah. So mentally, you’re offering make you’re offering as big as you can, one can, and like a precious object and so forth.
So the ultimate precious objects you can visualize or offer is like all the good qualities of the bodhisattvas, the Buddha’s omniscient and and and realizations and and in terms of tantric practices called, you know, of the ultimate goal or the the object is like a wisdom of wisdom of great bliss. And so so you can offer all these objects. Right? Like qualities. So when we offer the the the the mandala, and there are different types of mandalas in according, you can, yep, offer the mandalas of system of sūtra systems and different mandalas of the four schools of tantras like Like in sūtra systems offering like a love and compassion and general mandala so forth, which we offer.
And then in from the point of view of the Consequentialist Madhyamaka school, we’re just offering the offer all the offerings along with the view of the lack of inherent existence or or nonexistence of the phenomena and then comes to the different tantras of the different levels, all the all the offerings seen in the object of deity yoga or in the wisdom of great bliss, and kriyā, so forth. So so just as visualize as big as you can, one can, and there’s no need to feel miserly that like, there are four or five types of beings because of the five levels of the the path, like, path of seeing, path of accumulation and so forth, and different beings who have a different greater knowledge. So visualize all the knowledge, attainments, realizations of the great practitioners in the form of offering, and you offer it. So don’t feel miserly as well as, you know, afraid and so forth. If I offer his qualities down there, and then he or she might get angry or their knowledge or quality come into exhaustion and so forth.
You don’t need to feel that way. Right. So don’t feel in one’s mind thinking, don’t you dare offer my qualities to the deities or or the Buddhas. Yeah. Yeah.
This one. No. We’ll stop here. They didn’t they know you’re No. Maybe we’ll take a whole year.
Geshe-la says that if we go explain exactly like the text, it’s gonna gonna take ages. So when if one really wants to practice the offering of mandala so forth, it does not necessarily be like the way it explains. The best thing is to visualize as much as one can. Yes. In in in olden days, like These days we do the Mandala offering which we set forth here, and in good old days Tibet, that ancient time in it, like, during the Monlam festival in Tibet in Lhasa, they actually has a big copper plate with all the mandala specifications that have been written there, I mean carved, isn’t it?
And the great chant leader recite the mandala offering and holding a stick in his hand and then recite, you know, this is the Mount Meru, and he pointed on the Mount Meru and then, you know, said these four cardinal directions and four directions, all these continents and subcontinents along with his recitation, put the stick on each drawings, but gets the mandala during the mandala offering. So these days we don’t have that type of thing, and it used to be very costly and so forth, and being a refugee all in this time and very first time there’s not much financial things going on, and then have a now mandala comes like offering mandala, which we have a set, and but in the monasteries the child leader will do that, but has a very quite a big gigantic, you know, two people have to hold it, big mandala set, and then along with the recitation he makes all the offerings. Two, yeah, two two people hold it and then the chant leader will do, not with one hand, have to fill up with two hands, otherwise you run out of time, you know. Okay. Yeah.
The thing is we make offerings so forth. We are not doing it for them, and so true that they have all the qualities and so forth they have attained. What we need is we need to enlighten ourselves and accumulate our own lots of virtues and so forth. So visualize