[..] create sufferings for people are unfit to be offered. If you make
for example a lot of money out of defense contacts, it might not be suitable for making offerings. Then of
course stolen things are not good, but that we normally know. There’s a saying, “You cannot in the name
of generosity kill the fish and feed the dog.” You know what I mean?
Not only should you have a good, pure offering, but the offering should also look nice. It should be
very presentable. All the offerings are to create merit. In order to create merit, you need the art of presenting
it. Also there should be plenty of quality and quantity. You should not try to make one tiny little thing. In
Delhi I saw westerners making very poor offerings, a big plate with biscuits laid out broadly, not even piled
up. That is terrible. Then you should rather take a smaller plate and pile it up. That is my personal feeling.
So, pretending it is alright, is not enough. It should be a little decorated, nice and elegant, like art. The Japa-
nese have that; that is the Buddhist background they bring in. Saying, “This is nice and genuine so here you
are” doesn’t do. You need style.
The altar and the offerings are the examples reflecting your own character. When you begin to correct
there, with enthusiasm, it will affect all other things in your life. It should also affect putting things in your
life in order, becoming disciplined.
2) Blessing the offerings
It is very important that the offerings are blessed. You should not give non-blessed offerings. (Particularly
for Vajrayana practitioners non-blessed offerings are impure offerings, no matter how clean they may be.)
95
The eight worldly dharmas (or the eight worldly concerns or eight childish attitudes) are: (1) gain, finding, obtaining, profit,
acquirement; (2) loss, not-finding, disappointment, disprofit, damage; (3) fame, glory, celebrity, reputation; (4) dishonour,
disgrace, infamy, disrepute; (5) praise, laud, commendation, renown; (6) blame, abuse, reproach, reproof, censure, reviling,
degradation; 7) well-being, happiness, prosperity, pleasure [Skt. sukha]; (8) misery, pain, distress, trouble [Skt. dukha].
96
Texts in the Appendices of this work: Atisha [982-1055], The Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment [Skt. Bodhipathapradipa;
Tib. Lam don]; Langri Tanpa [1054-1123], Mind Training in Eight Verses (Lojong Tsigyema); Geshe Chekhawa [1102-1176],
The Seven-Point Mind Training. For commentaries, see Gehlek Rimpoche, Lojong Training of the Mind in Seven Points and
Gehlek Rimpoche, Training of the Mind in Eight Verses.
70 Lam Rim Teachings
How do you bless? Everyone can bless by: OM AH HUM. And also while saying so, you can sprinkle a little
water over the offerings, which is the old brahmin system. Traditionally, you pour the water in the bowls
and after that, by using a clean piece of kusha grass, you take a little drop of water from somewhere else,
throw it up and say OM AH HUM, OM AH HUM, OM AH HUM.
This is Indian culture. Kusha grass is used in brooms in India, to sweep the floor. In every ritual you
do, kusha grass is used because it is a cleansing material. I don’t know whether kusha really has extra
power to clean or not but that’s the cultural linkage. You know in India, the brahmins do not allow lower-
caste people to enter a brahmin’s house, but they do allow them to do all the dirty jobs: sweeping the floor,
washing their toilets, etc. If any food or utensil has been touched by somebody of a lower caste, the brah-
mins think they have been dirtied. So they run away from home to a field where kusha grass grows and
sleep there for three days or at least one night. Then they think they are purified and come back to their
house. Buddhism came from India and so this kusha grass gesture was brought with them. I noticed not
many people do that in America. So maybe American Buddhism will be free of kusha grass blessing.
Whatever it may be, the real power lies in the mantra, OM AH HUM.
OM AH HUM is very important. In blessing with this mantra, three things come together: ting dzin, ngak,
chak gye – concentration, mantra and mudra97. What do these words mean? Ting dzin is meditation, visu-
alization or imagination with disciplined thoughts put on it. Ngak is mantra, in this case OM AH HUM. Chak
gye is mudra; it’s not the hands moving – people think that way – but the way of doing. You pick up a lit-
tle water, throw it on top of the offering and say OM AH HUM. It’s just a small symbolic gesture, you don’t
have to wet the whole altar. OM AH HUM is necessary because you don’t offer anything that has not been
blessed. If it’s not blessed, it’s not pure, it’s not good.