Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 42-minute teaching, Lama Zopa Rinpoche emphasizes that real practice requires understanding and genuine reflection—not mere recitation like a tape recorder. He guides practitioners through offering and rejoicing practices for puja, with a distinctive focus: all offerings from Dharma centers worldwide to flowers in one’s own home are mentally offered on behalf of all sentient beings—hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, gods, and intermediate beings. This act generates merit for every being without exception. He then teaches rejoicing in merit, explaining that each act of genuine rejoicing doubles all accumulated merit from the past, present, and future. Rejoicing emerges as the easiest yet most powerful method of merit collection, particularly for those with firm faith in karma. Pitched at practitioners engaged in puja or seeking practical instruction on offering and merit-accumulation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2005 06 04 4 TAIWAN MEDICINE BUDDHA 4.mp3
UUID: 1126d3f5-ff1c-4691-8f79-109023c54cbc
Teacher: Lama Zopa Rinpoche 1
Collection: z Taiwan (Lama Zopa Rinpoche 1)
Date: 2005-06-04
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 42.3 minutes
Words: ~1,913
So we collect more merit and more power of purification. So a greater success for myself, success for others. Of course, just merely reciting the prayer, meaning the name, of course, bring just just from that bring success. That’s the power. But but not just only merely reciting words, but more do more do more practice.
Not just not just like tape recorder. If it may sound, not enough, but we do more practice. So reflect the meaning while we’re at the second path is very important. So it it it will become a meditation. If it don’t reflect the meaning, just blah blah blah, then there’s no meditation.
It might leave imprint imprint if if you hear the sound of the word, Dharma words. So it’s all depends on it’s all depends on how much Dharma understanding you have normally. How much of a practice we can do here when you do when you do puja, such as practice, that depends on how much understanding of Dharma knowledge you have normally and how much practice you do, how much you are familiar. And normally, if a if one is not learning Dharma, then when we do practice, then we we do such a practice like this. Even like this practice, then say, they they then they wouldn’t much understanding and then come to practice.
So generally to learn Dharma as much as possible, especially as extensively, as extensively as possible, the Dharma. And in particular, the heart of all of that, but the teaching, the Lamrim. So the Dharma Center is establishing is for that purpose. So normally, if you haven’t do the the blessing, the with the mantra cards or offerings, at the beginning, then you do here at this point.
The blessing offering. The mantra is not only blessing. Blessing it it it’s two for two purpose. Blessing the offerings also then offer a offering, multiplies the offerings. It’s a Buddha, Buddha, all the Buddhas receives a skysful offerings, clouds offerings, skysful offerings.
So the and this is the these two are major functions of this mantra, the the not only this, there are so many other benefits of this mantra, chanting this mantra. So to go over that today so it might become late. Somebody has a transcript or written, you see, when I explained, then, you know, you can check. There’s so much other benefits of reciting this mantra. The the this class of offering mantra.
So I will explain another time. So if you knew that if you find out the extensive benefits of this, you might be you may be reciting nonstop day, all day, and all night. Without eating food, without sleeping. So if you do so, normally, if you could do also a better offering to the to to Guru Granthi Shankar, is also very good. So what to do is after the invocation, then before Kuntuzangpo’s, the verse which before the verse this verse before we recite, then there you do offering, bath, before the prostration.
So here, the first limb is the seven limb the seven important practice which creates enlightenment. That purifies our in the obstacle, the the foundation of the karma, collects merit, and increase the merits. They save it in practice. So the first thing is the offering. So there’s actually performed offerings and mentally performed, visualized offerings.
So two things we offer. So already, I say, did the blessing at the beginning. So So before we make the offerings, all these extensive offerings, We give it away to the sentient beings first. All the offerings here that is performed. All the extensive offering, there is your all the and all the extensive offerings that which are in Washington, there is Dharamsala.
The land of the the Anathapindika, Pure Land, that one. So the the Pure Land, Anathapindika, there was a extensive offering there. So many hundreds of water offerings and so many flowers and so many thousands of lights of light offering. Then in California, after this house, so many hands of water offerings, and so many thousands of light offerings, and many flowers outside inside, and other offerings, tea offerings, fruit offerings, so forth. Then also, Legion II, Malaysia, upstairs office office, which performed there to offer.
And the in Singapore, there is also set up there in order to make the offerings. So we can offer. It is set it up to to my offering, so we can offer all that. So, see, we make we give we give away to every hell beings to every hell beings, every hungry ghost, Every animals. Every human being.
Every sort of beings. A sort of beings. Intermediate beings. So everyone is sick. So now, I I offer on behalf of all the sentient beings.
So that includes a lot that includes a lot of friends or enemy, family members, that includes everything. You made a charity offering to everybody, including enemy. And you’re offering you make an offering on behalf of all the sentient beings, including your it includes your family, your family, your enemy, everybody. Oh, sorry. Before we make the offering, we the offering, charity to them, give it to them, then we offer on their behalf, either together or on their behalf.
So this way, every hell being receives merit. It becomes puja for every hell being. Everyone receives merit. Every hungry ghost receives merit. Every animal receives merit.
Every human being receives merit, every god being also receives merit, every intermediate being receives merit. So there are so many homeless people, people who have no food. There are so many sick people due to short merit, due to lack of lack of merit, experience so much problems. And that’s the suffering poverty. The dharma, poverty of dharma, poverty of means of living.
People who could not find a job for months and years having so much hardship. Their families having so much hardship to take care of their children and so forth, having survival. And so I have this way, everybody gets merit. You are giving merit as a gift to say, yeah. So everybody everybody is given merit.
Yeah. The there’s the normal how the late, the extensive or often mention the offering meditation. However however here, we do we do the more simple, but still extensive, but more concise. So without the without the elaboration. So although so in the heart, think think in your heart, think of all the sentient beings.
In all the offerings here, not just all the lights here, all the flowers in there, or whatever, all the offerings here. All the extensive offerings that we’re in the Aptos center Gompa, And then the the the the the place, all the offerings at this house. I think in your house, if there are offerings also, think think of those. If you have if you have any offerings in the house, you can perform. Even the garden flowers, you can put in lights in your house where you can offer it or everything can be also can be offered.
So to offer to to the medicine to offer the medicine Buddhas, there is also Guru Śākyamūni Buddha, then there’s the bodhisattvas, They they protect us. So by thinking all these are guru, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, all the ten directional Buddhas, all the objects all the objects you offer. With mindfulness, offer first, all of them together, with all of them. With this meditation, And may all of and all the offerings which I mentioned, which are nature of bliss, which are nature nature of and of our them all those different all the different places.
They generated generated bliss within all with all of them. One can offer many times, not just only one time. One can offer many times, five times, ten times, fifteen times, whatever. Now next, we offer all these, all the offerings here, all the offerings at Aptos Center Gompa, which has offerings, which are nature of bliss, replicated, then offer offerings different they’re within different places in the United States. Those are the places.
They will offer towards all the ten direction to all the Buddhas. Of her as of all these offerings here, all the offerings in the center Gompa and all these different places in United States, other places, which in nature of bliss replicated we offer towards all the ten direction of the statues, scriptures, all those holy objects, and Buddha’s relics within the different parts of the world. By thinking all the essence of guru, or anything like that. And then generating. If one can, one can offer also mentally transform, just fill the whole sky.
Also, offer music Yeah. With with dedication. Now next one is rejoicing. So rejoicing wants the past, present, future, merits. Three times merits.
Without the merit, there’s no happiness. There’s no one single success you can achieve. Nothing you can do. So the merit becomes so precious. So important, so precious.
So out of gratitude, how noble, how precious, how wonderful is merit. From beginnings from beginning is. How wonderful how wonderful it is. And merit, present merit is created now and married which will be collected in the future. So how wonderful it is about thinking that In the in the heart thinking that past, present, present merit.
So it generates happiness. Like this all in all. Each time when you generate the happiness, then all the merits the numberless merits collected collected from beginning, this is good up to now. So it get it’s it’s all doubled up. Nonetheless, merit get doubled up.
So that So by rejoicing here, all the merit is doubled. From beginning, it’s to doubled up. So then the so then second time when you rejoice, all that which is doubled up become again doubled up. Then third time when we rejoice, all those all those merits are doubled up.
Then then it is like a doubler. You know, everything increased so much. It’s impossible to measure. So each time, when you rejoice over and over, so so see what how much it may be collected from breaking this up. Now Double up each time.
You see? So yeah, each time it becomes doubled up. So you see how much merit is increased by rejoicing, and by the rejoicing they all that become doubled. So by doing the practice of rejoicing, you see, easiest easy easiest way to collect the merit.
But if you do it, if you do practice, then collect the most extensive merit. So this So next, rejoice. Most profound, most meaningful. So if you have if you have faith in the karma, if you have realization of karma, then you see unbelievable joy happening you will feel. Each time you rejoice, how much merit you all that merit increases, becomes double.
So unbelievable joy happens if you have faith in the karma, strong faith in karma, and especially realization of karma. If there’s not so much feeling of karma, not so much feeling of karma, virtue, and from virtue result of happiness, from non-virtue suffering, if there’s not much faith, no realization,, not so many faith and also rejoicing is you know, there’s not much feeling. You can’t rejoice much. They can’t really increase merits.