67. Preparation for Generating Bodhicitta II — Making Offerings

The Beginning

Take refuge and arouse bodhicitta.

The Main Part

In front of the representations of the Three Jewels, arrange as many offerings as your resources permit, especially food sculptures made from butter, powdered incense, and incense body powders.

Mentally create cloudbank offerings of the human and celestial realms: exquisite flowers, butter lamps, palaces, magnificent landscapes, and retinues. Upon these, add more adorable objects in all varieties, plus the seven precious emblems of royalty, the eight auspicious symbols, and so on. With devas and devis playing music, dancing, and singing, all these are offered to the Three Jewels of our Saha world and other world systems.

Recite the offering verses in the Samantabhadra’s Aspiration to Good Actions or The Way of the Bodhisattvas . Alternatively, read the verse in Fi nding Comfort and Ease in the Nature of Mind :

With both physically arranged and mentally created niceties,

These offerings I make on an unsurpassable and vast scale.

Let there be flowers, incense, lamps, water, and food,

Canopies, tasseled umbrellas, flags, and lovely music,

Victory banners, fly whisks, waist drums, and so on;

My body, my wealth, and my cherished belongings,

I offer all these to the sublime teachers and the Three Jewels.

At the end, rest in a state free of concepts, knowing that the Three Jewels to whom you offer, you who offer, and the act of offering flowers and others are all devoid of intrinsic existence.

The Ending

Dedicate the merit of your practice to all sentient beings.