food offering 8 - lama yeshe · food offering teaching and practice ... brisbane, australia. food...

THE YOGAOF

OFFERING FOOD

Food Offering 8.qxd 20/02/2003 08:13

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this preciousfood offering teaching and practice

on Christmas Day, 25 December 2000, at Langri Tangpa Centre,

Brisbane, Australia.


LAMA ZOPA RINPOCHE

THE YOGA

OF

OFFERING FOOD

How to Make Eating the Cause ofEnlightenment for Oneself and All

Other Sentient Beings

Edited by Nicholas Ribush

LAMA YESHE WISDOM ARCHIVE • BOSTON

www.LamaYeshe.com


First published in 200310,000 copies for free distribution

LAMA YESHE WISDOM ARCHIVE

PO BOX 356WESTON

MA 02493 USA

© Lama Zopa Rinpoche 2003

Please do not reproduce any part of thisbooklet by any means whatsoever withoutour permission

ISBN 1-891868-09-8

Front cover photographer unknownDesigned by Mark Gatter

Printed in Canada on recycled, acid-free paper

Please contact the LAMA YESHE WISDOM

ARCHIVE for copies of our free booklets


CONTENTS

Introduction: The three ways of offering food 7The Food Offering Practice 13

Motivation 13Visualization 16Blessing the offerings 16Offering the food 18Making other offerings 24Dedication 26

Commentary 32Offering food with meditation

on emptiness 32Dedication 39

Notes 41


PUBLISHER’SACKNOWLEDGMENT

We are extremely grateful to Lama ZopaRinpoche for his eternal and unsurpassed love,compassion, wisdom and guidance; to all ourbenefactors—large and small, regular andoccasional; to the kind Jesse Sartain, who hasgenerously sponsored the production of thisbook; and, of course, to the great Lama Yeshe,who started it all and whose kindness exceedsthat of the buddhas of the past, present andfuture.

May whoever sees, touches, reads, remembers, ortalks or thinks about this book never be reborn inunfortunate circumstances, receive only rebirths insituations conducive to the perfect practice ofDharma, meet a perfectly qualified spiritual guide,quickly develop bodhicitta and immediately attainenlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.


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INTRODUCTION

THE THREE WAYS OFOFFERING FOOD

There are Hinayana and Mahayana ways ofoffering food. The Mahayana way includesboth Paramitayana and Secret Mantra, orVajrayana. Making charity of food to allsentient beings, including those who live inour bodies, is the Mahayana way.

The Hinayana way of offering food isbasically as expressed in the prayer byNagarjuna, where he says that the purposeof eating food is not to develop the body, toput on weight or become fit—purposes thatcome only from attachment—but simply tosurvive in order to practice Dharma. Foodshould be eaten without the three poisonousminds of ignorance, attachment and anger.With the motivation seeking your own free-dom from samsara, offer your food to the


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Triple Gem and then eat it. This is theHinayana way of eating food.

The Mahayana sutra way of eating foodis to dedicate every spoonful of food andmouthful of drink to all sentient beings,including those living in your body. In thisway you make a connection with all sen-tient beings such that when, in future lives,they eventually become human, you canreveal the Dharma to them and lead themto enlightenment. The Mahayana way ofoffering food is thus done with bodhicittamotivation, as are all the daily actions of aMahayana practitioner, thereby becominga cause for achieving enlightenment.

The Mahayana tantra way of eatingfood is to see yourself, your guru and thedeity as one, and make every bite of foodand every mouthful of drink a tsog offer-ing. Offer everything you eat and drink tothe oneness of the three: guru, deity andyourself.


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The way to do this practice is to under-stand that you are all the buddhas but in theaspect of the deity you are practicing. Youare in the aspect of the deity but are, in real-ity, all the buddhas. If you make the foodoffering with that awareness, that medita-tion, every single thing you eat and drinkbecomes a tsog offering. Every bite andevery sip become an extraordinarily power-ful means of purifying all negative karma,defilements and degenerated samaya vowsand collecting vast amounts of merit.

With this meditation, the guru yogamind seeing yourself as one with your guruand deity, you create more merit than thatof making offerings to all the Buddha,Dharma and Sangha and all the statues,scriptures, stupas and thangkas of the bud-dha in the ten directions. The merit of mak-ing offerings to all Buddha, Dharma andSangha and all statues, scriptures, stupas andthangkas in the ten directions becomes


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insignificant when compared to the merityou create when you offer each spoonful offood and each mouthful of drink to yourselfas one with your guru and deity.

The main thing here, however, is think-ing of and making offering to yourself as theguru. Thinking of yourself as your guru andmaking offering with guru yoga mind is anunbelievably powerful means of creatingmerit. There’s a huge difference in theamount of merit created between offering tothe Buddha without thinking of the guruand offering by thinking of the guru; youcreate vastly more merit when you think ofthe guru and make offering.

You can apply this practice to all otherdaily activities in order to create extensivemerit. When you enjoy objects of the fivesenses—beautiful sights, sounds, smells,tastes and tangible objects—or when youreceive something from somebody, if youthink that you are making an offering to


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yourself as the guru-deity, you create anenormous amount of merit. In this way youcan make everything you do in your daily lifeextremely meaningful. Similarly, when youwash yourself, if you do the washing yoga ofoffering a bath to the guru-deity, it becomesa very powerful means of purification.

As the great Tibetan yogi Milarepa, whoattained enlightenment in just a few years ofthis brief lifetime of the degenerate age, said,“Every time I walk, I circumambulate all theholy beings; everything I eat becomes a tsogoffering.” There’s more to this quote, but inshort, it means that everything he didbecame a powerful means of purifying hismind and creating merit and, therefore, aquick path to enlightenment.

Similarly, whatever you do—eating,walking, washing, everything else—canbecome a very powerful method for quicklyachieving enlightenment. As you purify andcollect extensive merit, you bring yourself


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closer to enlightenment, every minute ofevery day. In this way, you make your lifemost beneficial, meaningful, satisfying andfulfilling. Through this Mahayana practice,which is based on the Hinayana andadorned with the Vajrayana, your lifebecomes most beneficial, not only for your-self but for all sentient beings.


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THE FOOD OFFERING

PRACTICE

MOTIVATION

“The purpose of my life is to free all livingbeings from all suffering and its cause andlead them to full enlightenment.

“There are numberless hell beings fromwhom I receive all my past, present andfuture happiness, all realizations and enlight-enment. They are the kindest, most preciousbeings in my life. Therefore, I must liberatethem from all suffering and its cause and leadthem to enlightenment by myself, alone.

“There are numberless hungry ghostsfrom whom I receive all my past, present andfuture happiness, all realizations and enlight-enment. They are the kindest, most preciousbeings in my life. Therefore, I must liberatethem from all suffering and its cause and leadthem to enlightenment by myself, alone.


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“There are numberless animals fromwhom I receive all my past, present andfuture happiness, all realizations and enlight-enment. They are the kindest, most preciousbeings in my life. Therefore, I must liberatethem from all suffering and its cause and leadthem to enlightenment by myself, alone.

“There are numberless human beingsfrom whom I receive all my past, present andfuture happiness, all realizations and enlight-enment. They are the kindest, most preciousbeings in my life. Therefore, I must liberatethem from all suffering and its cause and leadthem to enlightenment by myself, alone.

“There are numberless sura beings fromwhom I receive all my past, present andfuture happiness, all realizations and enlight-enment. They are the kindest, most preciousbeings in my life. Therefore, I must liberatethem from all suffering and its cause and leadthem to enlightenment by myself, alone.

“There are numberless asura beings fromwhom I receive all my past, present and


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future happiness, all realizations and enlight-enment. They are the kindest, most preciousbeings in my life. Therefore, I must liberatethem from all suffering and its cause and leadthem to enlightenment by myself, alone.

“There are numberless intermediate statebeings from whom I receive all my past,present and future happiness, all realizationsand enlightenment. They are the kindest,most precious beings in my life. Therefore, Imust liberate them from all suffering and itscause and lead them to enlightenment bymyself, alone.

“In order to do all this, I must firstachieve full enlightenment myself.Therefore, I am going to practice the yogaof eating and make charity to all sentientbeings, including those who live in mybody, and, through the connection with allsentient beings I have created by makingfood charity to them at this time, bringthem to full enlightenment by teachingthem Dharma when they become human.”


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VISUALIZATION

If you are familiar with the visualization,visualize the Guru Puja merit field. If not,simply visualize the deity that you practice,for example, Chenrezig, Tara or GuruShakyamuni Buddha. But when you visual-ize the single aspect, remember that inessence it is your root virtuous friend, whois, in essence, all gurus, Buddha, Dharmaand Sangha, and the statues, stupas, scrip-tures, and thangkas of the ten directions.Visualizing in one of these ways, make theoffering, thinking that numberless buddhasthroughout the ten directions receive animmeasurable amount of nectar.1

BLESSING THE OFFERINGS

OM AH HUM HA HO HRI (3x)

Mantra to multiply the offerings

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VAJRA SARA PRAMAR-DANE / TATHAGATAYA / ARHATE SAMYAKSAM


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BUDDHAYA / TADYATHA / OM VAJRE VAJRE /MAHA VAJRE / MAHA TEJA VAJRE / MAHA

VIDYA VAJRE / MAHA BODHICITTA VAJRE /MAHA BODHI MÄNDO PASAM KRAMANA

VAJRE / SARVA KARMA AVARANA VISHO

DHANA VAJRE SOHA (3x)

The power of truth

“By the power of the truth of the ThreeRare Sublime Ones, the blessings of all thebuddhas and bodhisattvas, the great richnessof having completed the two merits, and theinconceivable pure sphere of existence, mayit become only like that.”

We also bless all the extensive offerings inall FPMT center gompas, East and West, atKopan, Tushita Dharamsala, and every-where else. In the house where I live inAmerica there are well over 400 water bowlofferings, thousands of light offerings andflowers as well, so you can offer all thoseofferings, too, along with any offerings at


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your own house. You can bless them alltogether here.

Again, recite the mantra to multiply theofferings:

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VAJRA SARA PRAMAR-DANE / TATHAGATAYA / ARHATE SAMYAKSAM

BUDDHAYA / TADYATHA / OM VAJRE VAJRE /MAHA VAJRE / MAHA TEJA VAJRE / MAHA

VIDYA VAJRE / MAHA BODHICITTA VAJRE /MAHA BODHI MÄNDO PASAM KRAMANA

VAJRE / SARVA KARMA AVARANA VISHO

DHANA VAJRE SOHA (3x)

OFFERING THE FOOD

Offering to the Guru Puja merit field or the onedeity that you are visualizing as everything 1

If you make offerings to just one statue ofBuddha, you collect unimaginable merit,creating causes for enlightenment, libera-tion from samsara and good rebirths forhundreds of thousands of lifetimes.


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Therefore, it is unbelievably more meaning-ful making offerings to the holy objects inthe Guru Puja merit field.

Put your palms together and prostrate toeach guru in the merit field (or to the onedeity that you are visualizing as everything),meditating that their essence is your rootvirtuous friend. Visualize that each onereceives numberless nectar food offeringsand generate infinite bliss within his mind. Do these three actions—prostrating, offer-ing and generating infinite bliss—over andover again, as many times as possible or atleast twenty-one times. This also applies toeach of the following offerings to all theother holy objects.

Offering to all the Buddhas, Dharma andSangha in the ten directions

Next, prostrate and make numberless nec-tar food offerings to all the Buddhas,Dharma and Sangha in the ten directions,


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meditating that their essence is your rootvirtuous friend. From your side, generateinfinite bliss within them.

Offering to all the statues, stupas, scripturesand thangkas of the ten directions

Next, prostrate and make numberless nec-tar food offerings to all the statues, stupas,scriptures and thangkas of the ten direc-tions, meditating that their essence is yourroot virtuous friend. Generate infinite blisswithin them as many times as possible.

Offering to His Holiness the Dalai Lama andall other virtuous friends

Next, prostrate and make numberless nec-tar food offerings to the Buddha ofCompassion, His Holiness the Dalai Lamaand all your other virtuous friends, medi-tating that their essence is your root virtu-ous friend. Generate infinite bliss withinthem as many times as possible.


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Offering to all the holy objects in India

Next, prostrate and make numberless nec-tar food offerings to all the holy objects inIndia, meditating that their essence is yourroot virtuous friend. Generate infinite blisswithin them as many times as possible.

Offering to all the holy objects in Tibet

Next, prostrate and make numberless nec-tar food offerings to all the holy objects inTibet, including the stupa we built at Seramonastery and the Shakyamuni Buddhastatue in the Jokhang, Lhasa’s central tem-ple,2 meditating that their essence is yourroot virtuous friend. Generate infinite blisswithin them as many times as possible.

Offering to all the holy objects in Nepal

Next, prostrate and make numberless nec-tar food offerings to all the holy objects inNepal, for example, the Swayambhunathstupa3 and the Boudhanath stupa,4 as well


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as all the other holy objects in Nepal, medi-tating that their essence is your root virtuousfriend. Generate infinite bliss within them asmany times as possible.

Offering to all the holy objects in all otherBuddhist countries

Next, prostrate and make numberless nec-tar food offerings to all the holy objects inall other Buddhist countries, such as SriLanka, Burma, Thailand and the rest, medi-tating that their essence is your root virtuousfriend. Generate infinite bliss within them asmany times as possible.

Offering to the Medicine Buddhas, Ksiti-garbha and Chenrezig

Next, prostrate and make numberless nec-tar food offerings to the seven MedicineBuddhas for success, to Buddha Ksitigarbhaso that you can fulfill the wishes of all thesentient beings, instantly bringing them allhappiness up to enlightenment, and to


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One-Thousand-Arm Chenrezig so that youcan develop great compassion and liberatenumberless sentient beings from all theirsuffering and bring them into full enlight-enment, meditating that their essence isyour root virtuous friend. Generate infinitebliss within them as many times as possible.

Offering to all sentient beings 5

Then make numberless nectar food offeringsto every hell being, every hungry ghost, everyanimal, every human being, every asurabeing, every sura being and every interme-diate state being. They fully enjoy thoseofferings and become completely liberatedfrom all suffering and its cause. They allbecome enlightened in the aspect of thedeity you practice.


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MAKING OTHER OFFERINGS

Offering to the Guru Puja merit field or theone deity that you are visualizing as everything

Now prostrate and make all those otherofferings—the light offerings wherever youare, those in your own houses, the extensiveofferings in all FPMT center gompas andall the extensive offerings in the house inAmerica that I mentioned before—whichare nature of infinite bliss, to each guru inthe Guru Puja merit field (or to the onedeity that you are visualizing as everything),meditating that their essence is your rootvirtuous friend.

Do these three actions—prostrating,offering and generating infinite bliss—overand over again, as many times as possible orat least twenty-one times.

Continue doing the three actions of pros-trating, offering and generating infinite


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bliss as many times as you can while mak-ing offerings to all the other holy objects asfollows:

Make extensive blissful offerings to:

All the Buddhas, Dharma and Sangha inthe ten directions

All the statues, stupas, scriptures andthangkas of the ten directions

His Holiness the Dalai Lama and all othervirtuous friends

All the holy objects in IndiaAll the holy objects in TibetAll the holy objects in NepalAll the holy objects in all other Buddhist

countriesThe Medicine Buddhas, Ksitigarbha and

Chenrezig


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DEDICATION

“Due to all the merits of the three timescollected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas andall other sentient beings, may all those sen-tient beings suffering unimaginably now inthe hell, hungry ghost and animal realms,any FPMT students who have passed awayrecently, those whose names were given tome, for whom I promised to pray, who relyon me, may they all be liberated from allthe suffering immediately, especially thesuffering of the three lower realms, and findrebirth in a pure land where they canbecome enlightened right away. Otherwise,may they receive a perfect human body,meet a perfectly qualified Mahayana guruand in that way achieve enlightenment asquickly as possible.

“Due to all the merits of the three timescollected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas andall other sentient beings, may my simplyhearing that a sentient being is sick cause


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that sentient being to recover immediately;may my simply hearing that somebody hasdied cause that sentient being never to bereborn in the lower realms ever again butimmediately be reborn in a pure land andbecome enlightened there.

“Due to all the merits of the three timescollected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas andall other sentient beings, may those sentientbeings who have been born human beingbut have no opportunity to practiceDharma achieve enlightenment quickly bymeeting a perfectly qualified Mahayanaguru, receiving Mahayana teachings andputting those teachings into practice.

“Due to all the merits of the three timescollected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas andall other sentient beings, may all the mem-bers of my family, all FPMT students andbenefactors, those who sacrifice their livesserving others through the FPMT, thosewho rely on me, those for whom I promisedto pray, those whose names have been given


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to me and those serving me now, be healthy,have long lives, and may all our wishes suc-ceed immediately according to the holyDharma. May we be able to actualize theentire path, from guru devotion up toenlightenment, especially bodhicitta andthe clear light, without even a second’sdelay, this being the purpose of life.

“Due to all the merits of the three timescollected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas andall other sentient beings, may the holy wishesof all my virtuous friends, including HisHoliness Dalai Lama, the Buddha ofCompassion, succeed immediately; may theyall have stable lives, and may all the FPMTSangha be able to complete their scripturalunderstanding and realize the entire path toenlightenment in this very lifetime by receiv-ing all protection and needs.

“Due to all the merits of the three timescollected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas andall other sentient beings, may all the projectsin the FPMT succeed immediately by


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receiving everything required. May all thesocial service centers, the meditation centers,hospices, schools and so forth immediatelypacify all physical and mental suffering ofall sentient beings by spreading the com-plete stainless teaching of Lama TsongKhapa in the minds of all the sentientbeings by receiving everything required.

“Due to all the merits of the three timescollected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas andall other sentient beings, may all the projects,buildings, temples, statues, stupas, scrip-tures, the five-hundred-foot Maitreya statueand all other projects in the West and in theEast, including the Mongolian nunnery,monastery and other buildings, succeedimmediately by receiving everythingrequired. May the five-hundred-footMaitreya statue and all our other projectscause bodhicitta to arise in the minds of allsentient beings. And due to that, mayeverybody have perfect peace and happinessand may nobody experience war, famine,


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disease, torture, poverty, sicknesses or thedangers of fire, water, air, earth or car or air-plane accident, from now on. May all theseprojects cause all sentient beings to achieveenlightenment as quickly as possible.

“Due to all the merits of the three timescollected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas andall other sentient beings, from now on, what-ever action I do, whatever I experience—upsand downs, happiness or misery, health or ill-ness, gain or loss, wealth or poverty, praise orcriticism, life or death, even rebirth in hell—whatever happens to me, may all my lifeexperiences become most beneficial and, bymyself achieving enlightenment, cause allsentient beings to achieve enlightenment asquickly as possible.

“May the numberless sentient beingswho worked for, suffered, died or creatednegative karma in the evolution of thisfood, the benefactors who provided thisfood, and all other sentient beings as wellnever separate from the Triple Gem, always


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collect merit by making offerings to theTriple Gem, and always receive the bless-ings of Triple Gem.

“May the realizations of the path, fromguru devotion up to enlightenment, espe-cially bodhicitta and the clear light, beactualized in my own mind and in theminds of all sentient beings without even asecond’s delay.

“Due to all the merits of the three timescollected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas andall other sentient beings, which are emptyfrom their own side, may the I, which isempty from its own side, achieve my per-sonal deity’s or Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’senlightenment, which is empty from itsown side, and lead all sentient beings whoare empty from their own side, to thatenlightenment, which is empty from itsown side, by myself alone, who is alsoempty from its own side.”


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COMMENTARY

OFFERING FOOD WITHMEDITATION ON EMPTINESS

Offering food with the motivation “I’m going topractice the yoga of eating and make charity ofthis food to all sentient beings in order to attainenlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings”is a bodhicitta practice and is based on renuncia-tion of samsara. The third aspect of the path toenlightenment is meditation on emptiness.

Think that your I, the actions of eating, offer-ing and making charity, and the object, the food,as well as all other phenomena—enlightenment,hell, samsara, nirvana, happiness, problems,virtue, non-virtue and everything else—are noth-ing other than merely imputed by the mind.

The way in which all these phenomena existis merely imputed, or labeled, by the mind, butno sooner has our mind imputed them than theyappear back to us as not merely imputed by themind. Although they exist as merely labeled bythe mind, they appear back to us completely


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opposite to their reality, as something else entirely.Immediately upon mere imputation, everythingappears back to us as not merely labeled by themind.

According to the second division of the high-est of the four schools of Buddhist philosophy,the Prasangika Madhyamaka, the object of refu-tation is the extremely subtle hallucination ofthings not appearing as merely labeled by themind. The appearance of phenomena as slightlyadditional to mere imputation by the mind is ahallucination, an illusion created by ignorance.As soon as our minds merely impute “this” and“that,” negative imprints left on our mental con-tinuum by wrong conceptions in the past causeour minds to project the hallucination of inherentexistence on this or that object in the present.

For example, even though there’s no I, no self,on our aggregates, ignorance makes it appear tous as if there really is an I on the aggregates.There’s a label on the base, but ignorance createsthe illusion that the label, whatever it is, reallydoes exist there on the base.

Depending upon its shape, an object becomesa suitable basis for labeling—the aggregates, a


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table, a flower, a leaf or a stem. These shapes areall bases for labeling, and our mind creates theappropriate label. But then ignorance creates theillusion that the label really does exist there on itsbase, which is a complete hallucination.

While there’s no I on the base of the aggregates,the association of body and mind, our mind labelsI on the aggregates and then immediately projectsthat there really is an I on the aggregates. Whilethere’s no table on the base, we label table on thebase of the table and then project that there reallyis a table there on the base. We label flower on thebase of the flower, the shape that can validlyreceive the label flower (or leaf, stem or whatever),and then our mind hallucinates that the flowerreally exists there on its base. This doesn’t meanthat all those things—I, table, flower—don’t exist.They exist, but not there, on their base.

Seeing things as existing on their base is oneway of explaining inherent existence. We can alsodescribe them as established from their own side oras existing by nature. There are different ways ofdescribing the hallucination of inherent existence,which is our fundamental hallucination. Believingit to be true, we perpetuate our ignorance and


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create all our other misconceptions. The wrongconception of self-existence prevents us from seeingthe reality of phenomena, their ultimate nature.

On the basis of ignorance, the projection ofthe inherent existence of subject, action, object, ofeverything, attachment arises. Then, when some-thing disturbs our attachment, anger arises. It’sthe same with jealousy, pride and all our othernegative emotional thoughts. They are all basedon the appearance of inherent existence projectedby ignorance. Ignorance is like a mother hen andthe other delusions are like her chickens.

Every day, we create more and more ignorancein this way. The moment we allow our minds tohold onto the belief that objects’ appearance ofinherent existence is true instead of regarding it asempty, a hallucination, an illusion or a dream, wecreate more ignorance, the root of samsara. Withrespect to the inherently existent I and the inher-ently existent aggregates, the moment we allow ourmind to believe, to hold onto that appearance, wecreate the root of samsara. That wrong conceptionis the ignorance that is the root of samsara.

As long as we don’t meditate on emptiness,practice awareness, or mindfulness, of emptiness,


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dependent arising, as long as we don’t regardhallucinations as the hallucinations they are, weare constantly creating the root of samsara.That’s how ignorance creates all the sufferingand problems we experience, such as the suffer-ings of rebirth, aging, sickness and death.

The wrong conception of inherent existence isthe main creator of the ocean of samsaric sufferingthat we have been experiencing since beginning-less time. That ignorance is the real king of theenemies, the leader of all that gives us harm.

All these things that appear as not merelylabeled by mind—I, action, object, everything—are all projected by ignorance as a result of nega-tive imprints left on our mental continuum byprevious ignorance. Therefore, the I that appearsin that way is totally non-existent. The I thatappears that way is a complete hallucination; it iscompletely non-existent, totally empty. All actionsthat appear that way are also total hallucinations,totally non-existent, empty. Food and all otherphenomena—enlightenment, hell, liberation,samsara—that appear as real, from there, aretotal hallucinations. They are all totally empty,completely non-existent.


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Therefore, concentrate on emptiness withprecision. In emptiness, there’s nothing. There’sno this or that. There’s no I, no you, no coming,no going, no eating. In emptiness, there’s noteven emptiness itself. In emptiness, even theemptiness doesn’t exist.

Those who have received a great initiation oflower tantra or, especially, highest tantra, can,while everything is empty, generate that wisdominto the mandala of the deity and the food you’reoffering into nectar. Then meditate that whileeverything is empty, like space but not space, itstill exists. How does it exist? It exists in merename, as merely imputed by the mind. Althoughthings exist, they are empty. Since they exist inmere name, they are empty of existing from theirown side. They are empty from their own side.

Thus, everything is the union of emptinessand dependent arising. This is a very special real-ization of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha; one thatLama Tsong Khapa greatly praised.

Buddha experienced this unity, gave teachingson dependent arising, and in that way liberatednumberless sentient beings from suffering. Byshowing dependent arising, Buddha liberated


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numberless sentient beings from oceans of samsar-ic suffering and brought them to enlightenment.He did this in the past, is doing it now, and willcontinue to do so in future. This is how Buddhaliberates sentient beings. He gives them teachingson the truth, on the nature of phenomena, ondependent arising. This is also the way in whichwe ourselves get liberated from samsara and, withthe support of method, bodhicitta, achieve fullenlightenment.

Transform the food into nectar in a jeweledcontainer. While the jeweled container is empty,it’s labeled jewel container and then appears. Thefood is labeled nectar and then it appears. It isemptiness and dependent arising unified.


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DEDICATION

By generating bodhicitta motivation, thethought of benefiting all sentient beings andmaking offerings to all buddhas, in these fewminutes, we have collected limitless skies of goodkarma, the cause of happiness. We have collectedlimitless skies of merit, good karma, by makingofferings to the Guru Puja merit field or oneaspect of buddha visualized as everything.Because holy objects are numberless, we collectimmeasurable merit by making offerings tothem. Even when making offerings to one aspect,since the essence of that one aspect is numberlessholy objects, we still create infinite merit.

We have collected limitless skies of merit bymaking offerings to all Buddha, Dharma andSangha, the ten directions’ statues, stupas, scrip-tures and thangkas, our gurus and all deities. We have collected limitless skies of merit by mak-ing charity to all sentient beings. We have collectedlimitless skies of merit by making all these offeringsto the Guru Puja merit field, the unimaginable holyobjects in each country, the Medicine Buddhas,Ksitigarbha and One-Thousand-Arm Chenrezig.


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If we make only one offering, we collectnumberless causes of enlightenment, liberationfrom samsara and good rebirths, but here, wehave made an unimaginable number of offer-ings. Therefore, we have collected countlesscauses of all happiness up to enlightenmentmany, many times.

As the sutras explain, each different offeringhas ten benefits,6 temporary and ultimate. So wehave collected countless numbers of these. Also,we have prostrated to numberless holy objects.Even by prostrating, we have collected number-less causes of enlightenment, liberation fromsamsara and good rebirths. Putting our palmstogether in prostration has eight importantbenefits,7 the last of which is enlightenment.Thus, we have collected those eight benefitsnumberless times.


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NOTES

1. Where it says, “to the Guru Puja merit field orthe one deity that you are visualizing as every-thing,” if you are visualizing just one aspect, theessence of which is the many gurus of the GuruPuja merit field, each time you make offerings,prostrate or generate infinite bliss with that medi-tation, you create numberless causes of enlighten-ment, liberation from samsara and good rebirthsin hundreds of thousands of future lives; number-less causes of all those different levels of happiness.You create numberless causes each time becauseyou are visualizing that one buddha as every-thing—your root guru, all other gurus, Buddha,Dharma, Sangha and all other holy objects.

2. The most precious Shakyamuni Buddha statuein the Jokhang, Lhasa’s central temple, was builtfor Buddha’s mother according to Buddha’s owninstructions, blessed by Buddha himself and lib-erates thousands and thousands of sentientbeings every day.

3. The Swayambhunath stupa is the most pre-cious stupa in Kathmandu. It contains a natural


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crystal stupa that appeared from the lake thatused to fill the Kathmandu valley and is theembodiment of the holy mind of all the buddhas,the Dharmakaya. Shakyamuni Buddha himselfpredicted its discovery. This precious stupa isinside the Swayambhunath stupa. That’s why thisstupa is the most precious holy object in Nepal.

4. The Boudhanath stupa, which is also calledthe All-encompassing Wish-fulfilling Stupa, wasconstructed by a woman who passed away whenit had been built only up to the vase. After herdeath, her four sons completed it. As they weremaking prayers upon its completion, all the bud-dhas and bodhisattvas absorbed into it; that’swhy it’s called “All-encompassing.” The eldestbrother prayed to become a Dharma king in theLand of Snows, Tibet. The next brother prayedto the stupa to become a minister and offer serv-ice to his brother, the king, when he spreadDharma in Tibet. The next brother prayed tobecome an abbot in order to pass on the lineageof the ordinations and spread Dharma in Tibet.The youngest prayed to become a powerful yogiin order to pacify the obstacles to his brothers’


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spreading Dharma in Tibet. In their next lives, allfour brothers became important holy beings inTibet, just as they had prayed—a Dharma king,a minister, an abbot and a powerful yogi.

The powerful yogi was Padmasambhava.When Samyé, the first monastery in central Tibet,was being built, spirits would come at night andtear down what the people had built during theday. There were many obstacles. So the peopleinvited Padmasambhava to come from India andsubdue those spirits. He did so and convertedthem into protectors, to protect the Dharma inTibet. Thus, Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism wasspread and preserved in Tibet for many years andmany beings achieved realization of path andbecome enlightened. Now this tradition hasspread to many countries all over the world, andthe fact that every year, many tens of thousands ofpeople are able to follow the path to enlighten-ment and make their lives meaningful is due tothe power of that stupa. The lam-rim teachings wereceive and practice, making our everyday lifemeaningful, came from that stupa, and the wishesmade by anybody who makes offerings to or cir-cumambulates that stupa get fulfilled.


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5. Sometimes Rinpoche offers the food to all sen-tient beings at the beginning of the practice. Inthat way, since the food is no longer yours—itnow belongs to all sentient beings—your attach-ment to it is eliminated or reduced, and youmake the offering on their behalf.

6. See Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings from theVajrasattva Retreat, Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive,2000, p. 625, for the ten benefits of offering.

7. See Teachings from the Vajrasattva Retreat, pp.224–5, for the eight benefits of putting the palmstogether in prostration.


LAMA YESHE WISDOM

ARCHIVEThe LAMA YESHE WISDOM ARCHIVE (LYWA) isthe collected works of Lama Thubten Yeshe andLama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche and a section ofthe Foundation for the Preservation of theMahayana Tradition (FPMT; www.fpmt.org).The ARCHIVE was founded in 1996 by LamaZopa Rinpoche, its spiritual director, to makeavailable in various ways the teachings it con-tains. Distribution of free booklets of editedteachings is one of the ways.

Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche beganteaching at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 1970.Since then, their teachings have been recordedand transcribed. At present the LYWA containssome 7,000 cassette tapes and approximately40,000 pages of transcribed teachings on com-puter disk.


Here at the ARCHIVE, we preserve the tapes andtransfer them to digital media; edit and publishthe teachings for free distribution; edit teachingsfor publication as trade books; and maintain anddevelop our Web site, www.LamaYeshe.com.

All this work depends upon the compassion ofkind readers like you. Please help us make theDharma, especially the teachings of LamaYeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, freely avail-able by sending us your generous donationtoday.

LAMA YESHE WISDOM ARCHIVE

PO Box 356, Weston, MA 02493, USATelephone (781) 899-9587

Fax (413) [email protected]


DEDICATION

Through the merit created by preparing, read-ing, thinking about and sharing this book withothers, may all teachers of the Dharma livelong and healthy lives, may the Dharma spreadthroughout the infinite reaches of space, andmay all sentient beings quickly attain enlight-enment.

May all our benefactors and their familieshave long and healthy lives and may all theirwishes succeed in accordance with the holyDharma.

In whichever realm, country, area or placethis book may be, may there be no war, drought,famine, disease, injury, disharmony or unhappi-ness, may there be only great prosperity, mayeverything needed be easily obtained, and mayall be guided by only perfectly qualified Dharmateachers, enjoy the happiness of Dharma, haveonly love and compassion for all beings, andonly benefit and never harm each other.


LAMA THUBTEN ZOPA RINPOCHE was born inThami, Nepal, in 1946. At the age of three hewas recognized as the reincarnation of theLawudo Lama, who had lived nearby. Agedten, Rinpoche went to Tibet, where he stayeduntil the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959forced him into exile in India, where he metLama Yeshe. The Lamas went to Nepal in 1967and started teaching Dharma to Westerners. In1974, they began traveling the world to teachand establish centers of Dharma. When LamaYeshe passed away in 1984, Rinpoche tookover as spiritual head of their organization, theFoundation for the Preservation of theMahayana Tradition, which now numberssome 150 centers and activities in almost thir-ty countries worldwide and continues to flour-ish under his peerless leadership.


food offering 8 - lama yeshe · food offering teaching and practice ... brisbane, australia. food...

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