In our studies of the Landre system of meditation, we have already become familiar with the four recollections which serve to prepare us for advanced Buddhist practices. You will recall that we studied progressively the reflections about the unsatisfactoriness of worldly existence as a whole, the reflections about impermanence and death,

[01:08]

reflections upon the unfailing operation of the law of karma and Yes, thank you. And the difficulty of obtaining the opportunity to practice Dharma. Through these four reflections, our minds were Our minds became progressively disengaged from involvement in worldly activities and strengthened in the resolve to

[02:29]

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 in concentrative insight stages of meditation, realization of 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.

[03:35]

But here too, those four reflections are necessary as the first stage in practice. Unless our 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. 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 and all our later meditations will assuredly be fruitful.

[04:51]

So, 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 purification and merit. The four foundation meditations which prepare us for advanced tantra practices are as you know refuge, Vajrasattva meditation, mandala offering, and the guru yoga.

[06:09]

There is a fifth foundation practice that are prostrations, which is usually in our system combined with the practice of refuge meditation. Now, the first of these four foundation meditations is that of refuge. Its purpose is to is to 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

[07:24]

ritual of taking refuge, our minds, so to speak, embark upon the path. We have a point of entrance into the experiences of the path. 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 progress further in subsequent stages of practice.

[08:28]

So, in a word then, the purpose of the Refuge Foundation is to facilitate our entrance into the path of practice. 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.

[09:36]

In order to 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 body and mind and speech in order to remove these obstacles to effective practice. And so we undertake next the meditation of Vajrasattva. Vajrasattva here is the bodhisattva who functions as a purifying

[10:47]

object of meditation. Through reciting his hundred syllable mantra one hundred thousand or more times, our karmic obstacles and obscurations will be purified. With purity alone, mental and physical purity alone, does not constitute sufficient foundation for advanced tantric practices. Our mind must be enriched, strengthened, matured through the acquisition of merit, that is, the result of virtuous actions.

[11:59]

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. 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,

[13:27]

for the highest good of all living beings becomes an act of worship on the highest level and accordingly 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 and results and if then if performed effectively correctly results in the acquisition of a great store of merit

[14:49]

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 guidance and confidence in undertaking, in pursuing these advanced stages of tantric meditation. And so, the fourth foundation consists of guru yoga practice through which one meditates on one's own teacher and consciously strives to invoke and

[16:14]

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 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 a strong sense of intimate rapport with the Guru.

[17:28]

So, through all of these foundation practices, that is, to recapitulate, 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 the guru yoga meditation, the mandala offering and the guru yoga meditation, one's mind and body become purified, strengthened, enriched and matured to such a degree that one is with assurance able to undertake these profound and difficult practices of the Vajrayana path.

[18:46]

And through having this foundation, upon which to base those practices, one can expect to succeed. Failing to have achieved the whole of these foundations, one really should not expect success advanced practices no matter what they might be with these 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 Hayvajra or Vajrayogini or

[19:50]

Whomever. And one has every reason to expect the highest success from one's practice if one has been diligent and thoroughgoing in one's practice. prior practice of these foundation meditations. So in the past few weeks we have discussed and given you the instructions for the first two of the four foundations. That is, we've discussed the refuge and the Sri Vajrasattva meditation. Tonight we will discuss the third foundation, that is the mandala offering. The Sanskrit word mandala is translated into Tibetan by the word kingua.

[21:04]

In English, both words mandala and kingua would be translated as simply a circle, a circle. Now, the circle, a circle signifies or represents totality, 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. Historically, this ritual of mandala offerings is traced to an offering made to the Buddha by a universal emperor.

[22:21]

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, own body, voice, and mind. our faculties, our experience, our property, property that belongs to us, and even one's own family.

[23:28]

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. 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 This giving is offering up the totality of our own being and all our belongings. But even this gift must be performed rightly.

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First of all, it must be sincere. 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, certainly 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.

[25:55]

So there is the fault, the taint of sinful acquisition of the very things that we are 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, yes, but I'm going to keep them and use them myself. Or that I say it, but I don't mean it. And We do consciously give them away. We hang on to them. We regretfully, with reluctance and with niggardliness, miserliness, we try to hold back something for ourselves.

[27:04]

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 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... Don't you think it's gone?

[28:06]

It's not coming out. No, no. Don't you think it's gone? It's changed. Don't you think it's taken? You want to make a... 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 practice of the mandala must not be an offering such as this. It is a total offering of the totality of what's being and all that pertains to oneself without

[29:13]

without clinging to it, without conceit about doing it, but only with the thought that through this offering to the enlightened ones all that I am and have that may all beings acquire merit and enlightenment and through this offering may also become enabled to help them in this. So that is a real offering. Now, 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 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

[30:23]

that one may use at the ceremony, the ritual. Now, one may use, let's talk about the material, the mandala. Now, when I say the mandala, I'm talking about the specific instrument or the particular instrument. the particular utensil that you're using 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 of lesser metals such as bronze or something like that.

[31:28]

Or, and the least preferable would be of stone or wood. Now, what about the size of this instrument? 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 of 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.

[32:30]

Now, and it's quite alright to use these lesser materials, for example, Rinpoche's own great teacher, Gatangawa Lagpa Rinpoche, was very poor. He couldn't afford one of the costlier models, so he used first a wooden matala, and he did five He could only afford a wooden mandala and so he used that. He made 500,000 offerings of the mandala using that wooden mandala.

[33:39]

And then Then he acquired a stone mandala, and he used that to perform another 500,000 offerings of the mandala. 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. And so he... Whereas other lamas have said it is all right to use these short, these smaller utensils, smaller instruments as the mandala, stress that they should be They should be large.

[34:44]

He prefers the larger mandalas because there's not, since the whole point of making mandala offerings is this willingness to give and to make efforts in giving, that the larger they are, the bigger the effort, the more the offering. So it's right within the keeping of the mandala. The spirit of the mandala offering is to use the larger mandalas and so forth. In any case, it's not right to skimp or to use subsized mandala services. That's what you should do. If you don't have a mandala, it's not right to use it. If you don't have a mandala, it's not right to use it. Physically, the offering of the mandala consists of arranging what's offering upon the surface, this mandala.

[36:20]

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. 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. So, 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.

[37:25]

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. I couldn't begin to tell you what they are. Mirabilum or something like that. In any case, they grow in India in the Himalayas. Yes.

[38:27]

So, the second best would be an offering of medicinal herbs. If you don't have even those, if you are a poor meditator, it's alright to use white stones, white pebbles. Alright. So having prepared your you're 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 hundred syllable mantra of purification. You must know it from your Vajrasattva meditations.

[39:32]

You recite that hundred 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's not that 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.

[40:51]

And you pour a little bit over the surface of it. the mandala, cleanse the surface. If you don't have that best 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. These five precious metals, where do they go? This is going to be elaborated as we go. I'm just telling you what you offer at this point.

[41:53]

Now I'll tell you where the offerings go. Can I stop at your exit, Dr. Marshall, please? He'll explain all that. Yes, these details are important. They will definitely be explained. I mean, I don't know myself. That's good. So, now you take up your 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. 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, the very center of the mandala's surface.

[43:05]

And there you, 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. 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 mandala in your mind? Right around the circle. That's good. Right to the... Okay, so visualize this round circle and understand that it is a disposition. And you're putting a price of different points. So now the first one is, as you can see from his model, is getting... What I saw him do was, he came up from the... All right. All right. Okay.

[44:33]

Okay. He's going to show you as you recite the first line. He's going to do the whole thing. Ngaia-tong, Ngaia-yé, Piyo-dé-tong, Ngaia-tong, Ngaia-yé-tong, [...]

[45:45]

Tengwa, Lua, Kara, Dubu, Beto, Lame, Tantiaq, Nye, Dawa, Komboche, Dau, Tsoe, Nambar, Dian, Dian Tse, Ladon, Panjur, Ponson, Tsoe, Ma, Tsonga, Nambar, Tsonga, [...] Tsonga So they marry. Very short, rich person. He knows his place. There's a right and a wrong.

[47:07]

Even the shorter version must be done correctly. And if you do it, that would be also effective. you're not to rush it and leave out parts, basically. All right, so he showed you, he demonstrated to you three versions of the mandala offering. The first is the very long offering, which spells it out in every detail, the things that you are offering. And each one has a particular location. Then in the shorter version, which consists of seven basic things which are offered, and each has a particular location.

[48:35]

That's the Middle East offering. Then in the very short version, the prayer consists of, the offering prayer consists of four short lines, which most of you recognize from your laundry prayers when you ask the teacher to teach, do you remember? We recited every Tuesday for the last three years, and that is the one, the offering, the short If you don't know how to do it, you can't do it. If you don't know how to do it, you can't do it. If you don't know how to do it, you can't do it. You can't do it. You can't do it. the symbolism involved in this representation of our universe.

[49:37]

Understandably, the universe which Indian and Tibetan Buddhists are offering up differs somewhat to our Westerners' concepts of the universe and its arrangement. But, so one would have to understand something about Buddhist cosmology in order to appreciate this, the symbolism of this, the offering, the arrangement of its offerings on the surface of the mandala. Basically the Buddhist, the Buddhist conception of the universe is that it centers around a great mountain, Mount Sumeru, the center of the universe.

[50:41]

And it is surrounded by are four great continents, one in each direction, each of the major directions. And each of those four great continents has on either side of it two subcontinents. Now, you're at liberty to think of continents as planets and the Buddhist notion of oceans as space or whatever. These are not, I should point out, This cosmology is not canonical. It is found in various versions in the Abhidharma literature, which is not necessarily attributed to the Buddha. But for general purposes, Buddhists accept this notion of cosmology. It's definitely represented here at the Patala.

[51:50]

So Rinpoche has drawn out for you a map. In the center, you have Mount Sumeru, which is something like a ziggurat. And it has some hundred levels in which, when it slopes, you'll find all kinds of things. inhabitants in their different realms leading up to the highest gods and so forth. They are all located somewhere in the slopes of this mountain. Now in the, in the, this is east, east of Shahr. Now this is the east, the point facing away from you. Now assuming that I am facing the mandala, I'm facing the mandala from here.

[52:56]

This will be east, on the point opposite me. The far side of your mandala is east. There is the planet, the eastern planet, symbolized here by a kind of a crescent. A crescent with its two subcontinents. All right, so we have east. They need the flow of the river. Flow of the Sokha. [...] I see. All right. All right. So let's go and... Thank you. So, East. South.

[54:10]

South is represented here by a kind of shape, which is supposed to represent, it sort of resembles the shoulder blade, shoulder blade of a sheep or something, sort of pear-shaped. That represents our own continent with its subcontinents. Yes. [...]

[55:23]

Yes. All right. So then to the west, you have Godinia and its subcontinents. And then to the north would be Uttarakuru. Okay? With its subcontinents. Now, you should think of this in terms of very vast expanses of space. Here is the ocean. Here is the ocean, either the ocean of space or water, however you want to interpret it, surrounded and the universe surrounded by what is called an iron wall, meaning the circumference of the universe. There is something like, really it's also represented as seven, these oceans are concentric circles, the continents are in concentric circles.

[56:28]

But if you want to think of them, if it helps you to think of them as oceans of space over vast, vast expanses of space, and so forth. But Rinpoche says try to visualize just the cosmogony in the center of space, this great mountain in which these various world systems, various world systems are masses of land masses are located in the various points. Then you should think of these as being, so the basic idea is that this is the constitution of our universe, that it has this arrangement, and that Rinpoche, of course, believes that this really is the arrangement of our universe.

[57:49]

He says that it is, of course, it differs, he knows that it differs from the Westerners' conceptualization of the universe, our universe, but this one happens to be correct. So, in any case, you are to, when you're offering the universe, you should think of it as being the whole of all the, these represent the whole of all the land masses or planets, whatever it is. No, it is sort of the axis mundi, the center of the universe, the center. You always have to have the center. But it is... However, that this is only the representation of our most immediate universe, that our particular universe has this construction.

[58:52]

However, this is In our world system, there are a thousand such universes. When you multiply one universe by a thousand times, that constitutes our world system. Now, a thousand such world systems gives you one great world system. And then a thousand great world systems gives you the next world system, a level of arrangement of world systems, which is called really the The world of three times a thousand.

[60:00]

In other words, you get the idea then that they're not, that this represents, this is a representation of the universe, that it also symbolizes just about everything that is in there. It symbolizes the whole of the physical world. physical space meaning that space and everything that is in the world animate and inanimate world composed of many world systems of which our universe is only one small corner so you get the idea that then it is it represents the Buddhist concept of many world systems, which ours is only a few. Let's talk about Sumeru, which is the first item on our mandala. Mount Sumeru, conceived of as being external, represents the axis moon at the center of the universe.

[61:16]

And to give you some idea of its dimensions, it is said to be 8,000 paces in height. All right, now what is epoxy? Epoxy is approximately 500 yards multiplied by eight, gives us what, 4,000 yards, when epoxy is 4,000 yards approximately. Then sumeru is is 8,000 poxays in height. 8,000 times... 8,000 times... 8,000 times 4,000 yards is how much. 32, 432,000. 32,000 yards times 3. No, 8,000. 8,000 times 4,000. 32,000. Oh, 32. 32 million, yeah. 32 million. All right. Now, how many yards in a mile? There we go.

[62:18]

It's 5,200 each. It's about 1,600. Okay, yeah, maybe. That's pretty tall. Yeah, right. 32 million yards. 32 million yards. That's good. There's 1,700 yards. How many yards in a mile? 1,700? 1,700, isn't it? Loli. [...] Okay, then you have, let's get on to it. So you get the idea. It's quite tall. It's in the center of the universe. And it has four slopes. I mean, it's four slopes in each of the directions. It's on the north. On the north, the color of the stone, the slope, the color of its substance is white.

[63:50]

And... Therefore, the light reflected off this mountain is white, and therefore the sky, the space in that facing the northern direction. Did I say northern? Sorry, eastern direction. I mean eastern. It's white. Okay? Now... According to the Abhidharma, we're getting all these figures. This much, the length of one's hand span, is one domba. And that, what I'm calling a yard, is really just two yards. Multiply that by 500. 500 of that gives you 1. And then that times 8 gives you 1 oxite.

[64:53]

OK? Sure. Is it possible to see Mount Meru as a multi-dimensional piece like the Milky Way? Or is it actually a mountain? It's a mountain, according to the It's a real mountain, and it has these four slopes. One facing east is colored white. One facing south is blue in color. It's actually composed of slopes made of white duria, lapis lazuli. And so the light reflecting off that colors the sky blue, and it just happens that our sky is blue. Remember, our planet is in the south. The southern continent of Jambudweepa has a blue sky whereas in the east the sky is perceived as white. To the west the sky is perceived as red because Mount Meru has its slopes made of batmaraga which is coral slopes. To the north, it has yellow.

[66:05]

Its slopes are made of gold. Therefore, the sky is yellow. That's in the northern. The people who live in the northern continent are going to see yellow skies and so forth, whereas we see blue skies, okay? Where these four continents are all inhabited by beings. Now, as we said, on the slopes of the Nand, there are all kinds of celestials living at the very point of the, typically, of Mount Sumeru, you have these highest form of deities. Now, let's talk about the inhabitants of these continents.

[67:08]

Now, the beings, the humans living in our southern continent of Jambudweba are approximately six feet in height. In the eastern continent of Videha, they are 12 feet in height. East, east. East? Yes. In the eastern continent, they are 12 feet tall. In the western continent, they are... They are... Four type, no, four types. Wood Street Hiker. It's going to be 18... Where are you thinking of me?

[68:17]

Is how much? 4.5. 4.5. All right. All right, so in our continent, humans are 6 feet tall. In the eastern continent, they're 12 feet tall. In the western continent, they are 22 and a half feet tall. And in the... It's going to be... One-sixth. So, one-fourth of six is how much? One and a half. One and a half? Yeah. One and a half. So, in the... Yes. In the northern continent, they're 24 feet tall. 24 feet tall. That is the Shaitan. That is Shaitan. Younger. That's why we are here.

[70:18]

We are here. [...] In the Abhidharma also we have a description of these various continents Let's talk about the eastern continent. That is Urwa Udeha.

[71:22]

Udeha. That's V-I-D-E-H-A. In the east. Has a white sky. And the people there were 12 feet tall, right? So, how big is it? The main continent is... 350 Paxes on its eastern perimeter, that is approximately, if we say Paxe is 4,000 yards in length, I'll call that two miles, okay, roughly. two miles for one pakze. So that would make it 700 miles on its eastern side and then it is 4,000 miles on each of its other sides.

[72:25]

4,000, 4,000, 4,000. So approximately it is on its circumference, it is, what, 12,000, 12,750 miles in circumference, okay? Okay. I'm calling. I convert it to miles. 12,000. Yeah, I'm saying 12,750. You can all work it out. People are six feet tall, and the continent itself is shaped like the shoulder blade of a sheep or a yak. You know, with this sort of hair, sort of fan-shaped, right? In any case, that's represented by this shape here. Our continent, Jambudweepa. It is... Now, each of these beings, the humans that live in each of these different continents, have sort of different physical features.

[73:32]

They sort of resemble the shape of their continent. So that our faces sort of resemble the shoulder blade of a... Now the circumference of Jambudvipa is approximately... It's a little over 30,000 miles in circumference. Three eyes. Now, now we have the western continent of Godinia, which means wealthy in cows.

[75:00]

And it's two continents. It, yes, it, there, the continent has this shape that is a circle, circular shape, and it is It is 16,000 miles in circumference. Now in the north we have the continent of Uttarakuru, which means noisy sounds, bad noises. Alright? It has, it is also, it is shaped in a square. and has four equal sides, and it is also 16,000 square, 16,000 miles in comforts.

[76:06]

Those people are square. They have square faces. Then we have the Sun and the Moon, which look like, they look like, and they are, the Sun is My reckoning is about a hundred and two miles in circumference Excuse me, is this the north? Rumiche, the ngadzu, the klojambaling, the nimatadawa, the... They are... They are... The sun and the moon are common to all these four continents because they rotate around the point, the peak of Mount Sumeru and shine on these different continents as they come to.

[77:10]

So they rotate around and travel around the peak of Mount Sumeru. They're not at all like the Western conceptualization of... In any case, however visualized, this arrangement of the universe is symbolic, and what it symbolizes is what is important, that you are offering up the whole of your being and your universe towards the enlightenment of all living beings, that visualize it in this way, through visualizing it in this way, reciting the mandala prayer, the mandala offering prayer sincerely and meaningfully, then you will effectively acquire merit through offering up sincerely all that constitutes your universe

[78:22]

And since it is expanded, since you are also dealing with these concepts of great space and of totality of everything that the universe consists of, that is that there is nothing to which you are holding back, nothing which you are clinging to. but relinquishing your all in offering to the highest, towards the highest ends of living beings, highest spiritual goal of living beings. And this is training in... the acquisition of merit through making the highest kind of gift. Now, if you are successful in your meditation and sincere, you will start getting signs of the accumulation of merit. For example, you may dream that you are seated upon a jeweled throne or that you are being elevated, that the sun and the moon will rise, and so forth.

[79:27]

You will see the sun and the moon. All these are signs of accumulation of pure merit. Now, also, it has been pointed out that just through this single act of offering the mandala, one single offering, The mandala incorporates within it, in that single act, all six of the bodhisattva's perfections. That is by, for example, as you begin to offer, you pour the water to purify the mandala. That offering of water is the first perfection of giving. As you cleanse the surface of the mandala with that offering, that is the purification that accompanies training in moral conduct, moral disciplines. As you prepare the offering, that is, if you're offering stones, you weed out all the black stones from the white and offer only the best, whitest, and so forth.

[80:38]

That is training in patience. As you devote yourself to the practice of offering, that is training in diligence, as you act single-pointedly without distractions in performing the mandala offering correctly and all of its parts, leaving out none, that is training in meditation, that is concentration. And by having done it perfectly, correctly and so forth, and having accumulated through a perfect offering, a correct offering, having accumulated merit successfully, that is a perfection of wisdom. So in one short, in one simple offering of the mantra that you have accomplished, you have trained yourself in all six perfections. Listen to me. We will have signs and dreams and so forth that your practice of this mandala offering is succeeding.

[81:52]

We gave you examples of auspicious dreams which accompany the successful practice of this mandala offering. There will be other more immediate signs of success in this practice. That is, not just in dreams, but in your own conscious experience, you will find that your mind and body feel pure, that thoughts of sadness for the sufferings of beings, for the sorrows of worldly existence begin to rise spontaneously within your mind, that thoughts of insight into the nature of worldly existence, into the operation of karma and into the law of impermanence begin to arise spontaneously within your mind. Then along with these thoughts that spontaneously they begin to arise within your thoughts, within your mind, thoughts of great love and compassion

[82:55]

So you are beginning to have spontaneous arisings in your mind, thoughts of great love and compassion and of insight. All of these are signs that you are accumulating great merit through practice. Your mind is becoming purified, enriched and strengthened. through the accumulation of merit by practice as mandala harpa. Now, we've by no means exhausted our description of mandala and its... I'll take it if it's... I'll take it if it's... So, in this way, we have given a description of the four basic... offerings, the four basic continents and so forth. In other words, we've had a summary description of the Manila.

[84:04]

There are a lot of other details which we haven't been able to go into today. And as I am scheduled to meet with Keshe Jamspal for another class just about this time. I have to leave you and we have no translator. Therefore, Rinpoche proposes to continue these instructions in our session next Sunday evening at 4 o'clock. Well, after I'm gone, you will continue with your practice of the mandala offering. That is, you will sit through a few token offerings of the mandala and the recitation of the prayer according to your booklets, in case you haven't got it memorized. And then that will conclude this evening's session. Tomorrow night at 8 o'clock, all directors especially, and all members in general are invited to attend.

[85:18]

Is anybody listening? Yes, yes, yes. Not now. All for you. Okay, tomorrow night, 8 o'clock, here. This membership meeting is long overdue. It's the last one we had, several weeks before Dhammakushala arrived. A lot of other things have arisen which are of great importance. Just to titillate you, in curiosity, I'll say that we have to discuss, make preparations for a new monk at the place here. We have some correspondence from Ms. Ulnis. And we have some financial considerations like funds coming in, we have to decide where to spend them, things like that. Open meeting. So your input will be much appreciated. All you have to do is come up tomorrow night. Now the reason why we're having it tomorrow night is because there may be a transit strike after Tuesday and it may be a long time before we have a chance to meet together. So for the next month or so we have to work out a lot of programs.

[86:21]

Yes. You're also reminded that the first of the month begins on Tuesday. We need your membership contributions by that time. Do you have any? Please see our treasurer or our officers. Okay, those are all the announcements you have to make. Well, I have one. If anybody's going to do plans for a retreat, then see me and I'm going to make a sign-up sheet. Yes. Any future retreats? All right. All future retreats, see James before you get it cleared. Okay. So, have a nice meditation. Satsang with Mooji Qawwad-lum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum

[87:35]

Thank you. You're not there, but I believe that. But there is something to us about your life. I've gone, but I don't feel better. I won't be again. You and I can die one day. Yeah. God bless you.

[89:45]

God bless you. O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? Good night. Good night. Good night. I don't know.

[90:47]

I don't know. Yed-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod-yod. But I'm going to take your life. [...]

[91:48]

I'm going to take your life. Ashton. Ashton. Thank you.

[92:34]

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