As part of our various meditations we will insert mandala
offerings. We offer the entire world, we offer everything, not just this earth,
not just this planet, but the billions of worlds throughout the universe. We
gather them together as an offering in which we hold nothing back and make the
great Mandala offering. We visualize that we are purifying incorrect motivation
and receiving great blessings from the merit field to open our mind to offer the
mandala from our hearts. The Mandala offering is a very skillful means of
accumulating two types merit: ordinary merit and primordial wisdom merit. We
accumulate merit through the practice of mandala by cutting the root of
attachment or desire. The actual practice of generosity is not having a stingy
mind or a mind full of desire. When we give up all attachment to external
material belongings, then that is generosity. If we give a little thing, we
accumulate some merit. But if we offer on behalf of ourselves and all other
sentient beings, all the wealth of the whole universe as symbolized by the rice
held in our hand, visualizing the rice as every jewel and precious stone, all
the wealth of the universe, and offering it to all the the Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas, the Dharma and the Sangha. When we really do it, when we really
believe that we have made a great offering, then we accumulate lots of merit.
And this gives us the momentum needed towards the goal, Buddhahood!
