to prepare ourselves for this session of dharma study. We should recall the instructions, those instructions which enable us to turn our minds away from worldly distractions and ordinary conceptualizations that often detract from one's application to dharma practice and the attainment of best results therefrom. That is, we should approach this session of dharma practice with proper attitude.

[01:16]

Your proper attitude would be... would be a resolve to apply oneself wholeheartedly to the study of dharma today in order to become able, as a result of one's studies, to accomplish the highest good of all other beings. When any virtuous action such as this is motivated by this highest resolve to work for the enlightenment of other beings as well as oneself, then that action becomes magnified in its results and in its efficacy.

[02:25]

Therefore, one should begin with this resolve to work towards enlightenment through these present efforts. Secondly, one should be attentive to the to the dharma that one is receiving. Putting aside all distractions, one should listen single-pointedly to the teachings that are being given, make a single-pointed effort to understand them and to keep them in mind for one's own future practice. Thirdly, one should relinquish all ordinary conceptualizations of this present effort in studying the Dharma.

[03:33]

This can be done in several ways. First of all, you can relinquish the conceptualization of this moment as being an ordinary one. This is a dharmic event occurring on a deeper level, wherein a transmission of dharma knowledge is being enacted. You should see the teacher as being none other than Shakyamuni Buddha himself, who is expounding the dharma to you, visualizing the teacher as Shakyamuni Buddha. you should think that rays of light shine forth from his radiant body to dispel all the darkness and obscurations from your own mind, that your own mind, thus purified, becomes receptive of the dharma teachings, able to understand them, retain them, and that also great insight

[04:49]

into their profound meaning arises within your own consciousness. You should think of yourself also as not being an ordinary person, but visualize yourself in the form of the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, Manjushri Bodhisattva himself. You are that bodhisattva of wisdom who tirelessly seeks out all the profound teachings of enlightenment on behalf of ignorant beings. Nor is the present situation an ordinary one. Think of your environment as being one in which all appearances, are non-dual appearance and boredness, that all sounds are the sounds of dharma, they are the sounds of the deity's mantra.

[06:10]

and that these present premises are a celestial mansion wherein the transmission of dharma is taking place. So if through these tantric visualizations and recollections one applies oneself single-pointedly to listen to these teachings today, not only will your efforts in study be heightened, enhanced, through thus approximating the transmission of dharma on a higher level, will one's merit in making these efforts will also be likewise magnified and enhanced. non-chalice.

[07:35]

Dīlāsān. [...] Dīlāsan. Don't want to. [...] This is what we are going to talk about today.

[08:42]

We are going to talk about how to become enlightened. We are going to talk about how to become enlightened. SONGYI THONGDIKU SANGBA. JIGGYI THUGYENWA THUGDI. SANGYI THUGDI JIGGURI. THENI THELA THENI NI. THA RUNGGYI THIGPATHO THUGDRIVA. THONGSIN YONGKHU THUGMA YONGKHU THU. THENI THELA THORGYI SANGYI THUGDI THIGPATHO SANGYI RI. THENI LUNGWA YI THONGKU THUGDRIVA THONGGI YUNGWA THIGPA LA. I'm going to go on. [...] In India, there is a saying that if you are born in a good family, you will have a good life.

[10:19]

If you are born in a bad family, you will have a bad life. You don't get it. [...] You don Dera Nisarja, Gaden, Kanju, Nima, Gengbosu, Khamjik. All of them were there. They were the ones who taught me.

[11:20]

They were the ones who taught me. They were the ones who taught me. In our studies of the Lamrim system of meditation, we have already become familiar with the four recollections which serve to prepare us for advanced Buddhist practices.

[12:27]

You will recall that we studied progressively the meditations, the reflections upon the unsatisfactoriness of worldly existence as a whole, the of karma, reflections upon impermanence and death, reflections upon the unfailing operation of the law of karma. And the difficulty of obtaining the opportunity to practice dharma.

[13:38]

Through these four reflections, our minds were our minds became progressively disengaged from involvement in worldly activities and strengthened in the resolve to apply ourselves in practice to these teachings of enlightenment. while the opportunity was available to us. These were preparations for the exoteric Mahayana meditations, such as training in the concentrative and insight stages of meditation,

[14:55]

the realization of the two kinds of non-self, etc. Now we are in this second series of studies engaged in preparation for another kind of advanced meditation. that is advanced tantric techniques. But here too, those four reflections are necessary as the first stage in practice. Unless all our later practices derived from a sense of renunciation and diligence that is aroused in the mind through these four reflections, those meditations will be ineffective.

[16:17]

But if upon those four reflections we then prepare our minds for advanced practice by undergoing first the training in the four foundation meditations. Our meditations, all our later meditations will assuredly be fruitful. At this point we are now discussing these four foundation meditations which prepare us for advanced tantric practice. Their overall purpose is to enable us to acquire

[17:21]

purification and merit. The four foundation meditations which prepare us for advanced tantric practices are, as you know, refuge, Vajrasattva meditation, mandala offering, and the guru yoga. There is a fifth foundation practice, that of prostrations, which is usually in our system combined with the practice of the refuge meditation.

[18:27]

Now, the first of these four foundation meditations is that of refuge. Its purpose is to is to enable us to enter into the path of practice by reciting the refuge formula 100,000 times or more. accompanied and accompanying this recitation with the visualization and the ritual of taking refuge, our minds, so to speak, embark upon the path.

[19:35]

We have a point of entrance into the experiences of the path. So, by training our mind in these practices we develop a sense of reliance upon the Buddhist trinity and develop a sense of rapport with them which makes us receptive to their blessings and guidance and also our practice of refuge impels us to make, to progress further in subsequent stages of practice. So, in a word then, the purpose of the refuge foundation is to facilitate our entrance into the path of practice.

[20:39]

Once having entered into practice, however, we become aware of the difficulties involved in practice. We encounter mental traits, or physical problems, or emotional, negative emotional states which hinder us in making effective progress in our training. In order to purify these karmic hindrances then, these emotive and cognitive obscurations and obstacles which we may have accumulated through our past non-Dharmic actions, it is necessary to purify

[22:14]

body and mind and speech in order to remove these obstacles to effective practice. And so we undertake the... we undertake next the meditation of Vajrasattva. Vajrasattva is the Here is the bodhisattva who functions as a purifying object of meditation. Through reciting his hundred-syllable mantra one hundred thousand or more times, our karmic obstacles and obscurations will be purified. But purity alone, mental and physical purity alone does not constitute sufficient foundation for advanced tantric practices.

[23:40]

our mind must be enriched, strengthened, matured through the acquisition of merit that is the result of virtuous actions. While virtue is acquired through acting unselfishly through body, voice and mind, performing services for others and for the dharma, working for the dharma, etc. One of the most effective ways of gathering merit according to the Vajrayana tradition is through the practice of the mandala offering.

[24:54]

Now the mandala, symbolically representing the whole of our being, the whole of all the components of our personal being and in fact the whole of our universe, our subjective universe, if offered in a spirit of sincere devotion and relinquishment and unselfishness to the Buddhas, for the highest good of all living beings becomes an act of worship on the highest level and accordingly

[26:07]

and accordingly brings about an acquisition of a great amount of virtue or merit. So the third foundation practice consists of offering the mandala, that is the symbolic universe to the enlightened ones on behalf of all beings, at least 100,000 times or more, and results, and if performed effectively, correctly, results in the acquisition of a great store of merit. Having acquired, having entered the path, purified one's way of internal and external obstacles and having acquired a store of merit, one needs finally a sense of

[27:35]

guidance and confidence in undertaking, in pursuing these advanced stages of tantric meditation. And so the fourth foundation consists of the Guru Yoga practice through which one meditates upon one's own teacher and consciously strives to invoke a sense of rapport, of intimate rapport with his mind directly and invoke also a transmission of his inside blessings and a sense of his own dharmic experience which will serve as

[28:52]

a source of guidance for us in our own uncharted practice. Here one recites the formula of invoking the guru, accompanied by appropriate visualizations, and thereby develops through this practice, through the practice of this meditation, Guru Yoga meditation, for 100,000 or more times, one does indeed develop this strong sense of intimate rapport with the Guru. So, through all of these foundation practices, that is, to recapitulate the prostrations combined with, no sorry, refuge meditation combined with prostrations accompanied by the noble resolve of the bodhicitta and the meditation of Sri Vajrasattva and the

[30:13]

Guru Yoga meditation, the mandala offering and the Guru Yoga meditation, one's mind becomes, one's mind and body become purified, strengthened, enriched and matured to such a degree that one is one is with assurance able to undertake these profound and difficult practices of the Vajrayana path. And through having this foundation upon which to practice, upon which to base those practices, one can expect to succeed. to failing to have achieved the whole of these foundations, one really should not expect success in advanced practices, no matter what they might be.

[31:40]

With these foundations to build upon, one can safely and successfully undertake to practice, undertake the... to meditate upon any of the Tantric deities, whether it be Sri Hevajra or Vajrayogini or whomever. and one has every reason to expect the highest success from one's practice if one has been diligent and... diligent and thorough-going in one's prior practice of these foundation meditations. So, in our... in the past few weeks we have discussed and given you the instructions for the first two of the four foundations.

[32:45]

That is, we've discussed the refuge and a Sri Vajrasattva meditation. Tonight we will discuss the third foundation, that is, the mandala offering. Śaṅkaratāra kīraṇā hṛndā lāsī You understand? I am going to teach you. So, what is the meaning of this?

[34:12]

So, what is the meaning of this? So I'm going to be talking in Nongari. That's what I'm saying. [...]

[35:13]

That's what I'm saying. [...] You know, what's up in the case? I'm going to give it to him. I'm going to send it to him. I'm going to get it.

[36:14]

I'm going to get it. [...] Yes. In that. Then he made a deal. But if I don't do that, I don't know. [...] Then the day of Manjushri Mahajan Yena, Shintu Dola Shukla, Mendake, Rinai, Chokshunga, Mendake Gyutai.

[37:14]

Then the Mendake Cheshunga, Tseyla, Nyi, Nyingshongpyo, Lama Nunggul, Sunggyungla, Syedonggola Shukla, Rinpoche, Yena, Nongpa Chingwa, Tsogkhunga Tseyla, Yipa Gogo Shukla, Tsogkhunga Manjushri Mahajan That's why I don't want to talk about it. [...] I am the one who created this world. I am the one who created this world. I am the one who created this world. I am the one who created this world.

[38:14]

I am the one who created this world. I am the one who created this world. I'm going to read it to you. I'm going to read it to you. They didn't mean that. [...] The Sanskrit word mandala is translated into Tibetan

[39:39]

by the word Kinkor. In English, both words, mandala and kinkor, would be translated as simply a circle, a circle. Now, the circle, a circle, signifies or represents totality or completeness. And this is what is signified when one performs the mandala offering. That is, that you are offering to the enlightened ones the whole of your being.

[41:08]

Historically, this ritual of mandala offerings is traced to an offering made to the Buddha by a universal emperor. Chakravartin Raja, Chakravartin Raja, that is an emperor of the universe who once offered the Buddha the whole of his empire, the whole of his kingdom, that is the whole of the universe. Now, at present we are not able to make a similar offering, but we can offer all that we have, that is, all that we might rightfully claim as belonging to ourselves, that is, of which there is no other owner.

[42:16]

own body, voice and mind, our faculties, our experience, our property, property that belongs to us, and even one's own family, all that is one's own, that is the whole of one's belongings, can and should be offered up to the enlightened ones in this effort to accumulate merit, because merit is acquired through the making of gifts, and the more unselfish the merit, the more thoroughgoing the gift, the more merit is acquired. So the purpose of this foundation practice is to train ourselves in total unselfishness through this giving, this offering up the totality of our own being and all our belongings.

[43:34]

But this, even this gift must be performed rightly. First of all, it must be sincere, and it must be, and it must not be performed wrongly. What would be a wrong offering to the Buddhas? Well, what if, let us say that most of the belongings that we have, most of our own property, is, has not been purely acquired. We have acquired them ourselves, maybe sinfully, through sinful means. through greed, through the mental poison of greed, or selfishness, or miserliness, or through other negative means, we have acquired what we are now offering up.

[45:05]

So there is the fault, the taint of sinful acquisition. of the very things that we're now planning to offer, the enlightened ones. Then, even though we offer them up, at the time we are offering them, we may be holding back. We don't really mean it. We're merely doing it through rote. We're merely doing it We're pretending to give them up. We're really thinking. Miserliness. We try to hold back something for ourselves. We don't give up the attachment to them. So there is still the taint of clinging, even at the time of giving them up. And finally, there is taint of

[46:07]

of pride, even if we do manage to get through making the gift, then we become very conceited about it and think, well, I did it. I did what is hard for others to do. I'm really quite a giver. I've given up all that I've got and so forth, and you become very conceited and proud. And so, at every stage then, our gift, our offering, has been tainted with... It's alright. It's gone. It's not bleeding out. No, no. I think it's fine. It's James. We went to Nippon. Yes.

[47:09]

So, at all three stages of our magnanimous gift, it has been tainted, our actions were tainted with sin, with miserliness and with conceit. This kind of the offering, however, that is to be made here through this mandala, practice of the mandala, must not be an offering such as this. It is a total offering of the totality of one's being and all that pertains to oneself, without clinging to it, without conceit about doing it, but only with thought that through this offering to the enlightened ones, all that I am and have, that may all beings acquire merit and enlightenment, and that through this offering may also become enabled to help them in this.

[48:30]

So that is a real offering. The mandala, let's go into the specifics of the practice of the mandala offering. This offering of the totality of one's universe is symbolized by the, what is called the mandala itself, which is an arrangement, a symbolic arrangement of using certain instruments, that is, a mandala board, if you will, and there are specifications about the type of mandala or circle that one may use in the ceremony, in the ritual. Now, when we use, let's talk about the material, the mandala.

[49:30]

Now, when I say the mandala, now I'm talking about the specific instrument or the particular... the particular utensil that you're using in your... to symbolize this offering of your universe to the enlightened ones. This may be... of three kinds of material, three classes of material. The best one would be of gold or silver. The second best would be of lesser metals such as bronze or copper or something like that. Or in the least preferable would be of stone or wood. Now, what about the size of this instrument?

[50:34]

If it is of gold and silver, say the Tibetan scholars, it should be of one toe in diameter, that is, the span between the tip of one's thumb and the tip of one's middle finger. Yeah, whatever you call it. If it is a wood or stone, however, if it is not a metal substance, it should be, it should equal, the diameter should equal the distance from the tip of one's elbow to the tip of one's hand. Okay? It should be larger. Now, and it's quite all right to use these lesser materials. For example, Rinpoche's own great teacher, Gatangawang Lekpa Rinpoche, was very poor.

[51:40]

He couldn't afford one of the costlier models, so he used first a wooden mandala. And he did five So, then she gave a... First he could only afford a wooden mandala, and so he used that. He made 500,000 offerings of the mandala, using that wooden mandala. Then he acquired a stone mandala and he used that to perform another 500,000 offerings of the mandala.

[53:05]

Now, of course, there are shorter and longer versions of this mandala ritual. He, of course, practiced the longer version, which is much longer than the shorter one. Whereas other lamas have said it is all right to use these short, these smaller, smaller utensils, smaller instruments as the one's mandala. Gautama Nagarjuna, which I stressed, that they should be, they should be large. He prefers the larger models because it's not, since the whole, the whole point of making mandala offerings is this willingness to, willingness to give and to make efforts in giving, that, that the larger they are, the bigger the effort, the more they're offering, so it's right within the keeping of the,

[54:16]

of the mandala. The spirit of the mandala offering is to use the larger models and so forth. In any case, it's not right to skimp or to use sub-sized mandala surfaces. Love you, Swaji. In this world, there are so many things that you can do. But in this world, there are so many things that you can't do. You can't do anything. [...] You can Yes. Yes. Yes.

[55:17]

Yes. If you don't do it, you will be punished. [...] Sava, Tathagata, Vajramani, Maitreya, Brahma, Samaya, Sattva, Maitreya, Shindra, all of them are the same. They are all the same. They are all the same.

[56:19]

They are all the same. They are all the same. They are all the same. I don't know what to say. [...] And then, then, then, then, then, then, then, then, then, then, [...] then, then, then, then

[57:34]

So, I'm going to read it to you. I'm going to read it to you. I don't know. [...] Physically, the offering of the mandala consists of arranging one's offering upon the surface of this mandala.

[59:06]

you must have seen in Rinpoche's hand, he was holding the utensil which we are calling here a mandala. So holding one should, first of all, hold the mandala in your left hand, okay, not in your right. Hold it in your left and then place your offering on the surface of the mandala with your right hand, not with your left. If you offer with your left hand, it means that you will starve in the future. But before you place the offering, there are first a few things that you should know about the offering itself and the preparation for the placement. First of all, let's talk about the material you use in your symbolic offering.

[60:14]

Ideally, that is, Ideally you should offer the five kinds of precious metals, such as gold, silver and so forth, precious stones. If you don't have those, then the second best kind of offering would consist of medicines, the five prescribed kinds of medicine. These are herbal in nature, and I couldn't begin to tell you what they are, mirabilum or something like that. In any case, they grow in Indian valleys. So one makes the second best would be an offering of medicinal herbs.

[61:21]

If you don't have even those, if you are a poor meditator, it's all right to use white stones, white pebbles. All right. So having prepared your offering, now you must prepare the mandala, the surface of the mandala for the ceremony. This means that you must first purify the surface of the mandala. This you do. by reciting the 100-syllable mantra of purification. You must know it from your Vajrasattva meditations.

[62:23]

You recite that 100-syllable mantra while at the same time repeatedly cleansing or cleansing the surface of the mandala by rubbing it with this portion of your right hand. the heel of your right hand. You can't use a rag or a sponge or any other thing to cleanse it. The point is that you must use the surface of your own skin to cleanse this, the surface of this mandala while reciting the mantra. Having done this, then you next wash the surface of the mandala with, ideally, herbal water, some kind of concoction of water in which purifying herbs have been placed.

[63:43]

Then you pour a little bit over the surface of the mandala and cleanse the surface. If you don't have that kind of herbal medicine, herbal liquid, then you can use a substitute, for example, a less expensive mixture of herbs. Or, if you don't have that, then just use clean water. Plain, pure, fresh water. All right? Now, you are ready to begin the offering ceremony. May I just ask you a question? These five precious metals in urban medicine, where do they go? This is going to be elaborated as we go along. I'm just telling you what you offer at this point.

[64:48]

Now I'll tell you where the offers go. Well, I've got the direction. You have to watch my direction. He'll explain all of that as we progress. Yes, these details are important and they will definitely be explained. I mean, I don't know myself yet. That's why I'm asking you to explain. So, now you take up the offering itself, that is, we're using, as you notice here, not gold or silver or even stones, we're using rice. So, the rice symbolizes our offering. You take up a small pinch of rice in the fingers of your right hand, And then starting, this is complicated, starting at the front of the mandala, which is, assuming that my hand is the mandala, starting here, you draw a line up to the center, of the very center of the mandala's surface.

[66:02]

And there you place one pinch of rice. You move across and then drop. You move to the center. Yeah, you move to the center. Now, I don't know. He did a lot of things. And unless you all come and stand over his shoulder, I don't know how we're going to get through this. Because it's all a matter of... Do you all have a picture of the mandolin in your mind? All right, a round circle, right? That's good. All right, so the, what? Okay, so visualize this round circle and understand that it is, it's in this position when you're putting in rice at different points. All right, so now the first one is, as you can see from this one, is getting, what I saw him do was, he came up from the, oh my God, I can't visualize myself. That is the Ula.

[67:05]

Yes. OK. OK. Watch Rinpoche, he's going to show you actually. As you recite the first line. I'm going to give it to you.

[68:20]

I'm going to give it to you. Namo Amitabha. Namo Amitabha. I'm going to go to the number Johnson. I don't know. You're going to get some juice. I'm not talking about you. [...]

[69:20]

You're going to get some juice. I'm not talking about you. [...] You're going to get some juice. I'm not talking about you Short diversion.

[69:38]

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