Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute introduction to mandala offerings, Ven Jampa Ignyen emphasizes why this practice is essential for merit accumulation in Buddhist study. Through examples of Bhikśunī Padma receiving a vision of Avalokiteśvara and Je Tsongkhapa spending four years on offerings despite his great learning, he shows that quality comes from visualization and motivation, not materials. He describes the 37-heap mandala: adamantine ground, Mount Meru, four continents (with Jambudvipa as Earth) plus minor continents, a Chakravata king’s seven treasures, eight deities, sun and moon. He teaches three practical methods — using an actual mandala set, a plate with rice, or simply the hands, with ring fingers forming Mount Meru — before presenting the complete offering prayer, including outer and inner components.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 21 LR 2001 09 22.mp3
UUID: 11bbbe3f-a082-4589-93ef-b4b20dd6d063
Teacher: Ven Jampa Ignyen
Collection: y Lam Rim 2001 Month 07-09 (Ven Jampa Ignyen)
Date: 2001-09-22
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.5 minutes
Words: ~4,794
Very brief introduction to making offerings. I was wondering if anyone bought a man a mandala set. There’s one in the cupboard. Okay. Now I was thinking that we could either do something on the actual thirty seven point mandala offering.
Does anyone offer mandalas as a practice? But that, anyway, this will be a sort of an introduction to doing the more extensive mandala offering. But everyone’s familiar with doing the offering, say with the hands like this. Okay, we can do a little bit on that later too. Here, like the mandala offering is really a condensation of the practice of making offerings, which of course comes in a seven limb prayer.
Firstly, we have prostration, then we have making offering. And the formal way of making an offering, the best possible, most extensive formal way is to make a mandala offering, which is including everything precious within the universe. Otherwise, can do we can make offerings of various things, food, possessions, property, our time and so forth. But this particular offering of the universe itself is a very, because it’s a very extensive, all inclusive type offering, it’s great benefit to make such an offering. Now initially the question arises why should we do offerings?
Why do we need to make offerings? Is it that necessary for us in our practice? And in fact, of course, there’s a great deal of advice. And if we have time, we can check on this advice that’s given in Lamrim and various other texts. Also within the sutras, there are various sutras such as the sūtra given to the Bhikśunī Padma, which details just how important it is to make offerings and to develop this capacity to make offerings.
For instance, the Bhikśunī Padma, through the practice of making mandala offerings, was able to receive a vision of Avalokiteśvara. And through gaining a vision of Avalokiteśvara, she was able to converse and ask questions and gain direct instruction from the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, and thereby attain the state of liberation. So this in fact came about through the ability to make offerings properly. So we ourselves are in a our need is similar. Liberation.
And the only way we’ll gain liberation is by developing this capacity to make offerings, as it’s included in the seven limb. First we have prostration, then we have making offerings. So, importance of making offerings is given there. Then within our general practice, whether we’re practicing within what’s called the perfection vehicle, and there’s a vast amount that is stated by the Buddha on the perfection vehicle or whether in fact we’re practicing within the Tantric vehicle. Offerings are absolutely essential.
And in fact, in both of those vehicles, they’re vehicles because they are means by which we travel, we progress in stages to the state of enlightenment, in both of those vehicles, we need the accumulation of merit and wisdom. We need a twofold collection. And in collecting merit, of course, making offerings is of central importance. We cannot develop the accumulation of merit without mixing, without developing the process of making offerings. And there are many, many examples in the past of those who have done extensive mandala offerings.
For instance, Je Tsongkhapa, who spent a number of years in retreat, practiced the preliminary, what I call the preliminary practices, for about four years. And included in those preliminary practices, have the practice of prostrations, mandala offerings, refuge, and so on. In fact, Je Tsongkhapa, he made thirty five sets of one hundred thousand prostrations. And I think eighteen sets of one hundred thousand mandala offerings. So someone like Je Tsongkhapa, who was a great scholar from a very young age, Je Tsongkhapa, was very alert and aware, highly intelligent and able to quickly comprehend the meaning of Dharma, the meaning of the texts under his teachers, he quickly was able to realize what was taught to him and so forth.
But even so, later in his life, he went into this long retreat in order to accumulate merit, make prostrations and to make mandala offerings. And even though he was quite famous, he had many students and already he had a vast wealth of scriptural understanding, memorized many texts, had mastered many texts. Still at that stage, he went into this long retreat and the conditions were not good. He went into the retreat with his near disciples and they, for instance, they practiced prostrations for a long time in mandala offerings. When they made mandala offerings, they didn’t have the very fine base and so forth.
If anyone’s seen the objects for making a mandala offering, they’re often made of silver and gold and finely engraved, They’re great works of art. He didn’t have something like that. He had a slate and bits of sand and stone and so forth. So we can make these types of offering out of anything that we have. But by the strength of our visualization and our motivation, then the offering itself, no matter what the actual substance is, becomes very virtuous.
As with Je Rinpoche, Je Tsongkhapa in a previous life, he’d offered a crystal rosary to the Buddha. And by doing that, with a proper motivation, gained an incredible amount of merit. So a crystal rosary is, glass rosary, is not such a valuable piece, valuable thing to offer. But offered with the right motivation, it can become a great foundation of basis for the development of a huge amount of merit. And in our situation we need as much merit as we can get.
As it’s said in Tibetan and often repeated, Sönam Denpa Mi Tshampa Namkang Drub, a person who possesses merit able to accomplish whatever they desire. So we need merit. Whatever we’ve established in this life is due to the merit that we have. Whatever we haven’t been able to establish is due to the lack of merit. So this is the case for us now and it will be the case again in future.
So we need to generate a vast amount of merit. The most difficult thing to do in the universe is to attain the state of liberation, to attain the state of enlightenment. So for that, we need a vast amount of merit. And so we need to develop the various methods by which merit is generated, by which merit is accumulated. And the mandala offering is recommended by many practitioners in the past, many great masters such as Je Tsongkhapa, the Kadampa Lamas, and so forth from Atisha.
In fact, there’s a story of the chief disciple of Atisha, Lama Drom or Drom Tonpa, who one day went to visit another Lama and he was asking the other lama how his practice was going and he was saying quite good. He he asked him if he was making mandala offerings and he said, oh no, I haven’t got time. I’m too busy. I’m meditating all the time. Drom Tonpa then upbraided him.
He said, this is not good. Even the master, even Atisha himself does three mandala offerings every day. The meaning being that certainly it’s good to meditate. And of course, if we’re in that situation where we’re in retreat and we could meditate from morning till evening, then to meditate with a proper motivation is very beneficial. But even so, the practice of making a mandala offering is priceless or an act or a type of offering which cannot be replaced by anything else.
And that’s indicated by the fact that Atisha himself practiced making, as a minimum, three mandala offerings a day. And so after hearing this, then this particular lama decided he would incorporate the mandala offering into his practice. So we too, although we’re busy on a day to day basis, still to develop the habit of making a mandala offering is very, very useful. Even if we just do a very brief one, but then to do a longer one, is even better because we have more time to contemplate what we’re doing, the object to whom we’re offering, what we’re offering, and the active offering itself, the motivation for the offering, and so on. And the better the quality of each of those three, then the better the offering is itself.
So, here on page number two, we see the importance of the mandala offering. It occurs on page number two of the prayer book. And here it is, the long mandala of thirty seven heaps. Now, it would be very useful in time to get a mandala set and learn how to make the actual mandala. But in the meantime, we can do the same thing simply, for instance, with our hands.
We can form our hands into a mandala. Of course, here it’s called a mandala offering. Now, what is the mandala? Now, the mandala is the symbolic representation of the universe or perhaps it’s a symbolic representation of the galaxy. Because first, we have a translation, which is good, of the Mandala offering here.
Right. As it says now, firstly, we’ll just go through the long mandala, which gives a description of the universe or in fact the galaxy. And initially, we started on adamantine ground, ahum. Now this corresponds with the description of the universe as given in Abhidharmakośa. So firstly, we talk about the adamantine ground, mighty golden ground, On adamantine circumference, ahum.
Outside, it is encircled by the circumference the wall, actually. The wall, the Chakravarta mountain range. Okay, so what that there represents is the universe is regarded as flat and it’s generally regarded as in the center there being a mountain called Mount Meru, which is the central mountain, say within the galaxy. And surrounding that there are seven rings of mountains and then finally they’re surrounded by an iron fence, a circular iron fence. So we have a mountain in the middle, rings of mountains and then an iron fence.
So initially in the mandala, we’re, talking about the base here of the galaxy or the universe. And that’s what’s mentioned in the Tibetan. So if we can, often we give the, we just recite this in Tibetan, om vadra bhūmi ahum. This is in Sanskrit. Vadra is diamond or very hard.
bhūmi is ground on the diamond hard ground, the adamantine ground. Wang Chen Serigi Sar Shi of great power. Wang Chen Serigi made of gold. Sar Shi, the basic ground. Here, in fact, it’s giving the Sanskrit, and then it’s giving the Tibetan meaning.
Does anyone memorize the Tibetan? We do. Yeah. We probably, memorized sections of it. So that second two lines there, the first is Sanskrit, the second is Tibetan, refers first, we have the adamantine ground, then we have the surrounding fence.
So that that makes up the basis of the mandala. Then in the center of which is Sumeru or Mount Meru, which means the central mountain. The king of the mountains, Rirab, Lhünpo. Then outside of the mountain, we have four continents, which may be like four planets. But here they’re called Ling’s.
Ling. As in our planet is called a ling. It’s called Zambuling, the planet Earth. Zambu refers to the rose apple tree. So really the planet where rose apples grow.
So initially, we’re talking about the four planets or the four continents here. The eastern continent, Videha, the land of tall beings, tall humans. The southern continent, Jambudvipa, the rose apple land, which is our planet. The Western Godana, cattle gift land. That’s okay.
And the Northern Kuru. So surrounding the central mountain we have, or the central mountainous region. In fact, it may be useful to regard this as a picture of the galaxy. We live in a spiral galaxy. In the center, we have this bulge.
And then on different sides of that bulge we have planets. In the southern region we have the earth. In the other directions we have other planets called by different names such as Videha, Godanya and Kuru. And then near to those planets, we have what are called minor planets or minor continents. So in the eastern eastern region, then we have, Deha and Videha.
In the southern Camara and Apara Chamara, and the western Shatha and Uttaramantrина, and the northern Kuru and Karava. So what we’ve assembled so far in the mandala is the vajra base, the golden base, and in the center of that, there’s a mountain, Mount Meru. On the east, there’s the planet of Videha. And then in the south, there’s our planet, Jambudvipa. And in the west, Godanya.
In the north, Kuru. And then surrounding near each of those planets, there are two smaller, abodes, planets. So we have two for each of those. So in this way, we’re assembling, we could say we’re assembling a galaxy. That may be the easiest way for us to think of this.
Now, then the Mandala prayer continues with a further description of each of the planets. So in the four continents, or in the four planets, there is a precious mountain. There’s a precious mountain in the northern, oh, sorry, in the eastern planet, and a wish granting tree in the south. So in that southern continent, planet, there’s a wish granting tree. In the west there’s a wish fulfilling cow, and in the north the unplowed harvest.
The unplowed harvest is the harvest that grows without any effort. And then, in terms of the level of Mount Sumeru itself and the level of a Chakravarta king abiding there, we have the different possessions of this Chakravarta king. Now, Chakravarta king is a type of monarch that appears occasionally within the universe, within the life of a galaxy, when the conditions are okay, when they’re positive or when beings in that region are practicing virtue. And this wheel bearing king, Chakravarta. Chakra is wheel bearing.
Chakravarta is wheel bearing, wheel holding. Varta to hold. Chakravarta king. They possess seven treasures or seven precious entities. So as is mentioned here, they have a precious wheel.
The wheel is either made of gold or silver or copper and so on. These treasures are to be visualized in different directions from the central Mount Meru. In the east, we have the precious wheel. In the south, the precious queen. Oh, no.
Wait a minute. In the east, the precious wheel. In the south, the precious jewel. In the west, the precious queen. In the north, the precious minister.
In the southeast, the precious elephant. In the southwest, the precious horse. In the northwest, the precious general, and the northeast the precious vase of great treasure. So these are possessed by a great king who occasionally takes birth within the galaxy. This may sound a little bit like Indian myth.
Yeah. Fine, fine, no problem. Here, the main purpose with this is that we are seeking to make an offering that is the best possible offering that can be made. If in fact we can think of something better than this, no problem. Here, is in a sense it’s linked to Indian tradition.
And in fact, the entire description of the mandala is part of the Indian culture that’s common to both Buddhism and Hinduism. But that’s fine. It’s something that, there’s a certain skill in this presentation and also a certain blessing because it’s been used by great practitioners within India and Tibet for many centuries. And because of that, there’s a certain blessing associated with making an offering in this way. But possibly there is also a factual dimension to this as well, which we also should keep an open mind.
No, that’s true. And I think another element to this presentation is that the presentation of Mount Meru is also applied to the earth itself. That it’s not sometimes it’s applied on a greater scale than the earth, and other times it’s applied to the earth itself, even using, for instance, Mount Kailash as Mount Meru. And from Mount Kailash, have the four rivers emerging, the four continents in the four directions from Mount Kailash and so on. And certainly if it’s applied in that way, then it would go against our understanding of this Earth to be round, to be spherical.
Also, there’s some ground to apply it to the galaxy itself, to the spiral Milky Way galaxy. That also has some application. Beyond that, it depends on what we’re comfortable with. If we feel comfortable with this type of offering, then fine, there’s no problem. But if we want to use something else that we’re comfortable with also, we can make any type of offering.
The main thing is the motivation that we have. Right. So there we have the eight precious, in a way, the eight precious possessions of a wheel turning king or a wheel holding king, Chakravarta Rāja. Also, that Chakravarta Rāja has various female deities, and they’re signified then by In fact, that section of the mandala offering. And they are the lady of grace, the lady of garlands, the lady of song, the lady of dance, Lady of Flowers, the Lady of Incense, the Lady of Lamps, the Lady of Perfume.
So also, they are situated around the central point of Mount Meru. And then we have the sun, and then the sun in the east, the moon in the west, the precious parasol in the south, the banner of victory in all quarters in the north. And they make up the thirty seven heaps, or the thirty seven fold mandala offering. If we count through them, there’s thirty seven, starting with Mount Meru. And if we go through, they should add up to thirty seven.
Then beyond that, we have in the center the most perfect riches of gods and human beings. Then also included, have the most perfect riches of gods and human beings with nothing missing, pure and delightful to my glorious holy and most kind root and lineage gurus, and in particular to the deity host of Lama Tsongkhapa, king of sages, Mahavajradhara, and their entourage. I shall offer these as a Buddha field. Please accept them with compassion for the sake of migrating beings, having accepted them to to me and all migrating mother sentient beings. As far as the limits of space out of your great compassion, please grant your inspiration or grant your blessings.
So they’re the thirty seven heaps, which we can either make up as a mandala offering using the actual base and the rings and the top of the mandala, or we can do it simply in our hands. We can do a long version. We can do a short version. Within this, of course, this is the basis that’s being offered. The object to whom we offer is our root teacher.
In a sense, it’s the Buddha and the representative of the Buddha who is our root teacher, or who is the teacher whom we have, appeals to us. And here, we’re making an offering of a symbolic universe in order to please them, in order to gain merit by pleasing them. Why should we bother trying to please them? And in fact, if we don’t have the aspiration to please them, then it’s not very easy to please, our teachers. It’s not really in a sense to their benefit.
It’s this mandala offering is being made in order to establish the ground for our own development. The Buddhas themselves don’t require anything, and the representatives of the Buddhas similarly don’t really require anything. In this practice, in a way, we’re requesting merit. It’s a little bit like the meaning of Genyen and Getsu and Gelong. In the Tibetan, the word for a monk or a nun is a fully ordained monk or nun is Gelong.
Gelong means to seek virtue or merit. And a novice is Getsu, which is one who abides in the method of virtue. And then lay practitioners are Genyen, those who are near to virtue. Near to merit, approaching merit. In a way we can interpret that as meaning that we ourselves as Genyen are seeking to establish virtue also within our mental continuum.
One of the ways we do this is by making appropriate offerings to the merit fields so that we can ourselves establish merit. The best object for us to make offerings to are the Buddhas and the representatives of the Buddhas. Those beings who have gone gone to the end of the path, the limit of the path. So they are the most worthy beings to make offerings to. And then the best offering possible for us is firstly the outer mandala offering, so this offering of a symbolic universe or a galaxy, etc, full of precious objects and so on to that being.
Right. So So then we can actually make this offering using our hands. And I think everyone knows how. Does everyone know how to form? Right.
So we can either make it with a mandala. If we have a mandala, then we can it’s very nice if we have a mandala. We can use anything. We use a plate from the kitchen and get a half a kg of rice and just sit there and use that. That’s all we need.
Something flat, something we can rub. We can’t do this with just using our hands. Because initially when one makes a Mandala offering, one is doing this refuge and bodhicitta prayer to begin with, using the base of the mandala and then rubbing it clockwise many times over and dropping rice on it. And one is doing that, visualizing that one’s purifying the mind of its stains by wiping in a clockwise direction. Visualizing that through doing this, all of one’s negative karmic imprints from beginningless time are being purified.
Not only that, one is also dropping grains of rice or sand on the mandala base, which is like affirming the practices of the practices of the six perfections and so on. And in fact, one can spend a long time just doing that, purifying the mind itself and reciting the refuge and bodhicitta formula, etcetera. And just by doing that, and then also dropping rice. Dropping the rice is again exemplifying the practice of the six perfections like generosity generosity and so on. And then rubbing the mandala base in that way is symbolic of purifying the mind of its stains, and especially the imprints that those stains, past afflictive states, ignorance and so forth, have left on our current mind and act as an impediment for us understanding the nature of Dharma and so on.
So it’s very good if we have like a base because we can even do that. Just that practice alone is beneficial. But if we don’t have the base, then we can use our hands and just form a mandala to begin with. And there, we can use a a mala to go with it as well to maybe signify the iron fence. But how we form the hands, I think everyone, most people know.
So really we’re using the two ring fingers as Mount Meru. And then we have the four continents or the four planets. Right. So two ring fingers. It just takes it’ll take a little bit of time, but, anyone that’s not The four are where the two fingers meet.
There’s two in the center. The two ring fingers are Mount Meru. And then the thumb’s touching the opposing little finger and the index finger touching the opposing second finger. Oh, so it’s the points rather than the fingers. It’s the points.
Yes. That you’re making really points there for the That’s right. Oh, that’s the four continents. And that’s the four continents. Yeah.
So there we have the Mount Meru in the center. Now we have the vajra base, the golden base there as well. And the four continents. And then we also need to visualize surrounding the four continents. We have two subcontinents or two.
And then also we have the Chakravarta and all the precious possessions of a Chakravarta king, the eight deities, the eight female, our consorts of deities, and so on. All of those are included, there. And then not only that, everything else that’s precious within an entire galaxy is included there. Yes. There probably is a way of breaking the hand down.
I’m just thinking, yeah. It’s probably sufficient. If one’s just using this form, then one’s got the five major features, Mount Meru and the Four Continents. And these are mentioned within the short prayer right at the end where it says, By the virtue of offering to use assembly of Buddhas visualized before me, this mandala built on a base resplendent with flower, saffron, water and incense, adorned with Mount Meru in the four continents as well as with the sun and the moon. So also we visualized the sun and the moon there near Mount Meru, encircling Mount Meru.
Also, can use our if we have a mala, we can also put the mala in there as well, like as the outer fence. Oh, that’s just in a sense, it’s the circle surrounding the entire, the outer circle of the mandala. And then we can make the offering. Now, up until As we read through the Mandala offering on page two in Tibetan, then we’re building up stage by stage the thirty seven major aspects of the mandala. And then beyond that, as it says that in the center, the most precious riches of gods and human beings.
So all that’s precious that’s owned by divine beings and human beings with nothing missing. So in that mandala, we’ve got everything precious on this earth, the southern planet, the western planet, the northern, the eastern planet, the secondary planets and so forth. All of these within the entire galaxy, without anything missing whatsoever is included there. So it’s very important that we include everything. And then we’re offered this.
Then we, here indicate the object to who we’re offering this, to my glorious holy and most kind root and lineage gurus. So having established the mandala, the object which is being offered, then we take note of the object to whom the offering is being made, which is to one’s most kind and precious root guru and the lineage gurus as well, and in particular to the deity host of Lama Tsongkhapa, also to Je Tsongkhapa especially, King of Sages, great Vajradhāra, who in his heart is Vajradhāra and who in his heart is Śākyamūni and so on. I shall offer these as a Buddha field. Please accept them with compassion for the sake of migrating beings. I shall offer these as a Buddha field.
So even this offering we make, we offer it as a Buddha field, a pure field. So please accept them with compassion for the sake of migrating beings. And having accepted them, to me and all migrating mother sentient beings, as far as the limits of space out of your great compassion, please grant your inspiration or That very last line means grant blessings, grant inspiration through this offering, making this offering. So there we have the object offered and the object to whom we’re offering it. Then we have this verse called the outer mandala.
So this is the short mandala as well. It’s often regarded So they were actually then making them Mandala offering. By the virtue of offering to you, assembly of Buddhas visualized before me, so including our root teacher, all the lineage lamas This mandala built on a base, resplendent with flowers, saffron, water and incense, adorned with Mount Meru and the four continents, as well as the sun and the moon, may all sentient beings share in its good effects. Then the inner mandala, So please enjoy and bless me and all sentient beings to be released from the three poisonous minds for I am offering without attachment my body, enemy friend and stranger, and all possessions which are the objects of my greed, ignorance and hatred. So also talking about my internal situation, I’m offering without attachment everything of value that I possess and so forth.
So we make an inner offering as well. And then I send forth this jeweled mandala to you precious gurus. Idam, guru, ratnam, mandalakam, niryatayami, which is this Sanskrit verse, Sanskrit line that comes earlier. So then by doing that we complete the mandala offering. Then beyond that, are inner offering also can Mandala offering can also be made in an inner way by offering our physical body visualized as representing the external universe as well.
And then also by