Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 44-minute teaching, Ven Jampa Ignyen compares four distinct methods of making mandala offerings from different Buddhist schools. He opens with the three purities that must accompany any offering: a pure mind (bodhicitta intention), a pure field (the Buddhas and bodhisattvas you’re offering to), and pure objects (seeing what you offer as non-existent). He then distinguishes between offerings made for devotion and those made as specific requests, detailing each method’s unique visualization patterns and piling structure. The teaching concludes with step-by-step practical instruction: how to physically manipulate the mandala base, the direction and purpose of each movement, what to visualize at each stage as you construct the cosmic geography from wind and water mandalas up through Mount Meru to the four continents. For practitioners already initiated into these practices.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 MO 1996 05 15.mp3
UUID: 5adb00f8-a5c4-4d88-89fa-92f725c516e0
Teacher: Ven Jampa Ignyen
Collection: Mandala Offerings (Ven Jampa Ignyen)
Date: 1996-05-15
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.7 minutes
Words: ~2,256
So quoting a line from the Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. In the it explains the three purities which when you make offerings, making offering with pure mind and offering to the pure field, to the pure field. And then thirdly, this the the thing or the substance that you offer, offering a pure substance or a thing. Do you mind explaining these three things? So, offering with pure mind, is making offering with intention or with the bodhicitta motivation.
And with that making offering is known as the pure mind and not being that making offering for for the purpose of this life. So so then to the pure field, these offerings are offered. So the pure field is that those of the Tathagatas or all the Buddhas and their sons. And and also which we make offering to the pure field which is the object of refuge that is the Dharma refuge. That Dharma refuge is one which is free of all all stains.
Mhmm. And and also which is free of all adventitious like defilements. And and also offered to the sons of the Buddhas, which are known as the bodhisattvas like Maitreya and Mañjuśrī. And to them we make the pure offerings. Those objects are known as the pure field or pure field. So, then third which is the pure object or things that you make offering to, of offering, Those are objects which are owned by someone, objects which are not owned, or mentally created objects, like body, wealth and so on.
All those offering to them with the understanding that they are non truly existing. Non truly existing is known as the pure object. Regarding offerings, making offerings, for example, a mandala offerings can be done for two purpose. One, as offerings in general. And secondly, as a request.
As a request, you make offering of mandalas. So, for example, the mandala offering that you do in the Guru Puja, That is known as the offering, the offering of a mandala offering. So, then somewhere around the end of Guru Puja, there’s again, you make another mandala offering which is requesting mandala offering not to pass into parinirvāṇa So so then So, during the seven branch practice or seven limb practice, the last two where you request to turn the wheel of Dharma and also make a request not to or the supplication that or the request that you make not to pass into parinirvāṇa. These two stages where you make also a Mandala offering and make the request. At that time, that Mandala offering that you do in these two parts is known as the requesting Mandala offering.
And then finally at the end, again, do a mandala offering which is general mandala offering. And the differences of these two mandala offerings, there are different, I want to say, numbers of piling, heaps, and this will be explained later. So so whether it’s requesting mandala offering or offering mandala offering or any any offering, it should be it should the offering should be made with three purities, which is pure from three. So, to make mandala offering, it is good to pile these different heaps without mixing each other and should know where one should pile the grains or the mandala offerings. So in order to have a good setting or or the piling and sorry, we need to have a good setting or good piling of different things and good visualization in order to accumulate merit.
So so order to accumulate great merit, we need to know all these pilings. And in order to have good visualization, we need to know all the piling or the setting of mandalas. So for that purpose, in order to for that purpose, I had to listen or I had to learn. So this learning or listening to the of Mandala offering, not being solely for the sake of oneself or for the sake of one’s own happiness, But being, listening to or listening to the teaching of Mandala offering, being it for the sake of other sentient beings. For the sake of other sentient beings which I listen to this wonderful teaching in order to bring the bodhicitta, the source of all happiness or the sources of all health and happiness to all these sentient beings.
So for that purpose I listen to the teachings. So setting up with this kind of bodhicitta motivation and we do short meditation. So today, Geshe-la will explain the piling of the heaps, the mandalas, different heaps. So the mandala base, about the mandala base which has been explained in the last teaching and the grains or the things that you offer in the mandala offering, whatever the grains should be dyed, should be dyed with saffron or, yeah, should be dyed with saffron. So the purpose of dying it with with saffron saffron is that is a sign that sentient beings are not to get separate from the nectar of bodhicitta.
So so the the piling the mandala offering or the heaps that you pile, not necessarily has to be, what is it, the continent and subcontinents. So mandala offering is made the there are four different traditions how you make your mandala offerings. So so one tradition of mandala offering which comes from Bodhicaryāvatāra or the Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, which the basis is same. But then what you offer is you pile with flowers. You build imagining the palace of God and within the visualizing all the offering goddesses, the and and all making offering to the refuge on every field.
That that’s one of the yeah. And and then the other tradition or the another way of making mandala offerings, the same thing on the same basis, you pile up the flowers and then on that you visualize a PAM syllable which then transform into lotus. And then on the lotus you visualize a syllable and then that a transform into moon cushion. And on that on on the moon cushion, then you visualize again a DHRUM syllable. And that DHRUM syllable transforms into Vairochana And then then, Vairochana transformed into the palace of God.
So in the highest yoga highest yoga tantra, they’re like a visualization when you visualize a DRUM syllable and then they transform into Buddha Vairochana and Buddha Vairochana transform into the palace of God. So the purpose of doing this visualization in Highest Yoga Tantra is that to purify the environment and the beings within. To purify these, for that purpose, what is it, this explained, this visualization is explained. So, the environment, the environment of the environment that is used as aggregates, one of the aggregates that is formed, the defiled aggregates. So, I’m sorry, the purifying environment environment here understood as the form aggregates and is the form aggregate is what has been purified.
The DHRUM syllable transformed into Buddha because Buddha Vairochana is known as the purity of form. Form body or form aggregates. So because of that, yeah, that that visualization is So then the third type of mandala offering or third tradition is that on the same basis of mandala that you pile flowers and offer to the fields of guru and Buddhas, which is with ten-limb practice. So, the ten-limb practice, seven of them are the usual seven-limb branch practice. And on top of that, one branch is known as the branch of refuge.
And then second branch of bodhicitta or mind generation. So the last one, just let’s say, you don’t remember right now. So then the fourth type of mandala offering or the fourth tradition is that the normal would say, mandala offering that we offer with piling of all the continent and the subcontinent and so on. And this, sorry, this another offering, the fourth one, is which I would say, which is followed or practiced by both new and old Kadam. And this, what do you say, is composed by master known as Drogön Chögyal Phagpa.
And and there, you pile, like, there’s a thirty seven piling up in the long form. And then and similar to that that composed a mandala offering, which you make known as twenty-three pilings. So so what Geshe-la will explain here is of these two, the thirty seven piling and the twenty three pilings. So so this one here on the page, this one is the thirty seven piling. And so before you pile the substances in your left hand, you hold some of some of the grain that you piled in the mandala and together with flour or whatever you have there in the in the mandala substance.
And and you hold the mandala mandala base on your left hand. So so the mandala base, some of the mandala base on the side, this carving of the eight precious objects. And if you have that eight precious object cut on the mandala base, then when you are requesting mandala offering, then the precious object known as the will, precious wheel should be facing towards you. So, with the right hand, you take some grains which you are going to pile and put pile on the mandala base. And then you use yeah.
You use the wrist and then, what do say, rub the mandala base. So it’s like polishing the base, and you have a visualization. So so why we can also polish it like this. Why why it has to be like this part of this to polish it or rub it? The purpose or the reason is that it says that somewhere here where it locates the channel of the karmic wind channel.
So going in that circle, like left to right in this circle, clockwise, sorry, You can there’s no limit. You could do as many as you can. So so then what you should imagine while you’re rubbing in, I would say clockwise, is that you are removing, you imagine all your visualization is that you are removing all the delusions, like attachment and so on. You are, yeah, you’re removing them. So so then and then at the end, you, like, three you do three times, like, anticlockwise.
And at that time, the purpose of doing that is to receive the blessings of Buddha’s body, speech, and mind. So if you look on the page number three, there is the prayer and like the Om vajra bhūmi Ah Hum, that time you piled one you do you make one piling. So so at that time, what what you you should visualize is the mighty golden ground or the base. So so then when you turn to next line, which is It’s like you you make a, what do say, a circle on the the base, which is defense. So so on the on the magic golden ground on on the on the which is circled by the iron fence and when so when when when you’re visualizing the mighty golden ground, like first, how how it starts is first the the wind mandala and on that the sun mandala sorry, the earth mandala.
That’s the the mighty golden ground. And around the which is circled by the fence. So so then then we on on top of that, we the that is the king of mountains, the mountain. So so so before explaining the mandala, in the text it says that first you’d explained formation of the world, the universe and what I said I won’t be explaining all of them here. And First, how universe is formed and then how long, for what period of time that it remains or it’s existed And then, what do you say, how it disintegrates.
And then the last part, the empty or the vacuity. So, it’s explained under this four, yeah. So each like each of these four like formation, existing disintegration and vacuity. All these four, each one has a period of twenty intermediate eons. Twenty intermediate.
Yeah. And the yeah. Twenty intermediate and twenty intermediate eons. So yeah, twenty intermediate eons. And a total of that, which is like eighty, or four total, which makes one great eon.
One great eon. So so now according to Abhidharmakośa, that how the universe or the world is formed is that in the very beginning, it’s all empty. There’s nothing. And start first, it started with wind mandala. So so so then the the wind which they were for a very long time had very strong winds very strong winds which then formed the solid things which like mountains and rocky.
So then, on top of that, then water mandala is like, yeah, water mandala is formed. So, then, the water mandala, or the water which also been, what do call it, moved or churned, And, what do say, the degrees of churning. So, the most degree of churning which formed Mount Meru. So then the medium churning of the water formed the seven, what do say, mountains around the mountain. So, I wanna say, the the last or the the little churn churn of the water, which formed the the four continent and the eight subcontinent.
So, the water mandala, which is moved or changed by the force of the wind mandala, formed this, I wanna say, formed these different objects which is the the seven mountains around the continent and subcontinent. So according to Abhidharmakośa, the earth mandala is square. So, the demand is square.