Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 10-minute Q&A session, Geshe Pema Tsering fields a student’s question about why the mandala’s directional orientation changes depending on purpose — east facing toward you when requesting a lama’s long life, east facing away when accumulating realizations. He then explains the inner logic of the practice: mandala offering completes the collection of merit, counters miserliness by training the mind to release what it clings to, and fulfills the perfection of generosity. He traces the source commentary to Kelsang Jamyang Mongalam Rinpoche of Sera Monastery, whose detailed pre-Lamrim teaching on the six preliminary practices goes well beyond the brief treatment in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. The session closes on a practical note: motivation and visualization matter far more than physical beauty — hold the small plate and picture the entire universe within it.
File metadata (for organising)
File: Offering a Mandala tape 2 no date.mp3
UUID: 68a31acd-3ded-4b12-a3a2-6a8b2bd59c70
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: z Mandala Offering (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 10.7 minutes
Words: ~770
Yeah. The completion of one’s. Completion of one’s collection of virtues or merit. And and in other hand also because become a antidote or helping us to overcome our miserliness or miserliness, because we are so used to the miser from the very beginning, never want to let go of anything possess it. So and at this stage, you are making offering purely visualizing one’s wealth, one’s qualities and qualities of the other Buddhas and Buddhas’ adornments and so forth, and we need to let go of them.
So it also helps one to overcome one’s miserliness. And also also because of the giving, it also helps one to practice the perfection of generosity as well. Yeah. Elaine. Yeah.
Who And for this for this text, it’s commentaries given by the the Rinpoche called Kelsang Jamyang Mongalam Rinpoche. And from one of the Sera Monastery masters or lama, and the numbers of incarnation which we don’t remember. Long, Long, long time ago.
And and and he has given the commentary of the, what is called, the Lamrim commentary. And and before the Lamrim commentary, he gave the commentary on called six preparatory practice, six, like, preliminary practice, sorry, preliminary practice. And so this and the Lamrim — the mandala offering comes in the six preliminary practice, preliminary practice, and he went for detail about the mandala offering. Right. Whereas in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand has the explanation of mandala, very brief.
Right? No. Buddha it’s the, yeah, commentary given by the Kelsang Jamyang Mongalam Rinpoche and his commentary — Geshe-la, Buddha House, has it in Tibetan? Yeah. Yes?
And you’re the last. Yeah. Yeah. But you’re talking about south, isn’t it? When I think of a map constructing that, I always think of south being Yeah.
It’s in the flat one. So yeah. Flat. One is constructing the mandala. Yeah.
It’s south is close. So you’re saying south should be bottom one or so. Yeah. Yeah. I’m wondering why.
South there. Let’s see. Yeah. Guess you’ll understand why you talked about the map thing. And so what you said in the Mandala in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, for example, this is the Mandala, and we don’t talk about north and the south.
It goes in the directions. This is the Mount Meru, and then goes the four directions on this side. So and in terms of beginning the east and the south, its purpose is because there are two ways. If you’re offering a mandala and requesting, for example, like lama to to live long or like long life mandala offering during this, then you count the east on this side. East.
And if you are making mandala offerings to receive the blessings and so forth, then or gain the realizations, then you start the east on this side. That’s how Right. So it’s a different so one is requesting lama to live long — mandala offering and so forth, as we said earlier, beginning from that and goes this way, and then if you’re collecting, gaining realizations and so forth, not during the long life but with normal like prayer sessions you do, you start from your side first. I think, and what was your question? Follow-up question.
This is easy, and you can do that. It doesn’t matter. It’s it’s so easy. You just recite, and you start from this beginning and goes and along with the recitation, you know, go, and you just fill it up. It’s it’s pretty easy.
It’s just guess what I say? Yeah. So the main thing is the motivation and the mind because in terms of offering it, some people does it very beautifully and some is not really beautiful. It just goes in. Doesn’t matter.
The fact is you need to have entire substances in the mandala of visualizations, and you offer it. That’s the main purpose. So if it’s if it can be done if it done beautifully, which is good. If not, it doesn’t matter. You know?
The the main thing is you have all the motivations, everything inside. When you wipe it out first purifying non virtuous negativities and planting in one’s mind all the paths and grounds realizations, And then and Geshe-la says in brief, in short, briefly speaking, then visualize as my as big as you can and then offer it. Geshe-la said then when you hold mandala in your hand, you might find it pretty small. You know? Don’t think it’s small.
No. Just think it’s big, big entire universe is in within it.