Ritual Components of Offering in Tibetan Literature: sNgon 'gro as Example

Preliminary practices (sngon 'gro) are rituals and ritualized meditations whose explicit purpose is to generate karmic merit, purify mental and physical obstructions, and receive blessing from guru lineages so as to empower the practitioner for success in higher meditations and tantric practice. Preliminary practice texts are structured around offering. Among such texts are those which prescribe the following six "preparatory practices" (sbyor chos drug):

(1) Clean the meditation area and set up a statue, a sacred text and a reliquary (mchod rten) as representations of the body, speech and mind of the buddhas. Cleaning signifies the removal of mental obstructions, clearing the way for yogic realization. Also, the reality of the buddhas' presence is psychologically reinforced by cleaning the place before formally invoking them, as when inviting guests to one's home (NGLC: 66b1-72a2).

(2) Arrange beautiful offerings properly procured. Offering substances are arranged on the altar, the most fundamental being: water for drinking (arghaṃ), water for washing (pādyaṃ), flowers (puṣpe), incense (dhūpe), butter lamps (āloke), perfume (gandhe), food[page 318] (naivedye) and music (śabda). Anything pleasant to the senses may be multiplied in imagination and offered in pure form by multiplying imagined emanations of oneself. These are "outer offerings," substances of the physical world suitable as offerings for royal or divine guests. Leading scholars of all Tibetan sects composed elegant verses expressing the imaginative presentation of such offerings:

From expansive well-fashioned vessels, radiant and precious,

Flow gently forth four streams of purifying nectars.

Beautiful flowers and trees in blossom with bouquets and garlands

Exquisitely arranged fill the earth and sky.

The heavens billow with blue summer clouds

Of lazulite smoke from sweet fragrant incense.

Light from suns and moons, glittering jewels,

And scores of flaming lamps frolicking joyfully

Dispel the darkness of a thousand million billion worlds.

...Music from an endless variety of various instruments

Blends into a symphony filling the three realms....

(Paṇ chen Lama I, DTBM: 11-13).

It is said that the eleventh-century Indian master Atiśa sanctioned water offerings (mchod yon) especially for Tibet as a substitute for other offerings that were difficult to obtain there (NGLC: 74b5). Generally, then, bowls of water are offered in lieu of or in addition to the eight basic outer offerings above, seven bowls representing the first seven offerings, with music represented by an instrument or by the sound of the ritual performance itself.

(3) Sitting in correct posture on a comfortable seat, one takes refuge (skyabs 'gro) in Guru, Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha, receives their blessing envisioned as light and nectar, and generates the thought of enlightenment for the sake of all beings (sems bskyed) (NGLC: 76a6-92b3). That thought is the highest possible motivation for action (karma) of any kind. It directs all the ritual activity which follows toward the highest soteriological ends.

(4) One then recollects the field of karmic merit (tshogs zhing gsal gdab pa). A vast array of lineage gurus, tantric deities, buddhas, bodhisattvas, pratyekabuddhas, śravakas, ḍākas, ḍākinīs, and protector deities is visualized and their presence invoked by ritual procedures (NGLC: 92b3-102b2; Dalai Lama XIV: 62-91). Each element of the visualization has levels of signification based on Tibetan[page 319] systematizations of Sūtra and Tantra, the whole array being viewed as a manifestation of enlightened mind, the gnosis of bliss and void, the inseparability of bla ma (guru) and yi dam (iṣṭadevatā). Offering one's practices to that "field" is said to generate enormous karmic merit, to purify, and to bless, the three fundamentals of spiritual progress. In fact, from a Tibetan perspective, no meditator is ever actually alone. A practitioner in "solitary" retreat not only visualizes the field of deities, but feels their presence, repeatedly entreating them for inspiration and blessing.

A ritual ablution is often offered. The Indian custom of offering a bath to royal guests is transmuted into a ritual conducted with a mirror, washing flask, basin, and fine cloth (kha btags) using gestures, mantra and visualization, interpreted to signify purification and spiritual empowerment. While reciting the following verse and mantra, the practitioners visualize a luminous bathhouse of crystal and jewels into which offering goddesses are emanated who bathe the deities in heavenly nectar:

Just as the gods offered a bath at the birth [of the Buddha],

So I offer a bath of pure heavenly water for your bodies.

oṃ sarva tathāgata abhiṣekata samaye śrīye āh hūm

["oṃ all tathagātas consecrate in glorious assembly āṃ hūṃ"]

While reciting the mantra, the master holds the mirror so as to reflect the Buddha image on the altar, then pours water in front of the mirror into the basin. This ritualizes the two-truth ontology of Buddhism. The reflection of water pouring over the reflection of the Buddha image effects ablution on a transactional level (saṃvṛti satya). Yet since the rite is performed through mirror reflection, its lack of ultimate reality is affirmed (paramārtha satya). The implications are to be applied to all things.

In visualization, the bath water condenses into five spots on the deities' bodies: forehead, throat, chest, and two shoulders. The practitioners visualize the offering goddesses patting the deities dry there while the master applies the cloth to the mirror in the five corresponding places:

Their bodies are dried with finest cloth, clean and fragrant

oṃ hūṃ traṃ hrīḥ āḥ kāya vishodhanaye svā hā

["oṃ hūṃ traṃ hrīḥ āḥ cleansing body svā hā"]

While one visualizes the offering goddesses applying scented oils to the deities' bodies, the following verse is recited:[page 320]

With the finest oils scented with fragrances pervading the three thousand universes, I anoint the bodies of the Śākyendras shining luminous, as though polishing purified gold.

As the goddesses offer fresh garments, the following verse makes the soteriological significance of the rite explicit:

To obtain the Vajra Body indestructible, I offer fine smooth ethereal garments with faith indestructible. May I too obtain the Vajra Body.

As the goddesses offer jewelled ornaments to the deities:

Though the Victors, intrinsically adorned with marks and signs [of enlightenment] need no further adornment, still, by my offering exquisite jewelled ornaments, may all beings obtain the Body adorned with marks and signs.

The rite concludes:

I pray that you remain [in the world] for as long as I continue to make offerings, out of your great love for me and all beings and through the power of your supernatural manifestations.

At the termination of the visualization, the goddesses dissolve into the hearts of the practitioners, who visualize the remaining bath water, now consecrated by contact with the deities, pouring into all realms of beings to purify their sufferings. The deities' old clothing dissolves as an empowering golden light into each practitioner's forehead (NGLC: 101b-102b. See also Lessing, 1959: 159-171; Beyer, 1973: 336-338).

(5) The seven-limb offering is to be performed (saptāngā pūjā, yan lag bdun pa'i mchod pa) (see also Cabezón, in this volume) together with the maṇḍala offering. The seven-limb offering is said to distill all merit-making and purifying disciplines into seven basic practices. Its inclusion in a variety of Mahāyāna texts at an early stage indicates its centrality to Indian Mahāyāna cult practice.3 The ritual remains fundamental to Tibetan practice. The seven parts of the ritual are: (1) prostration, (2) offering, (3) confession, (4) rejoicing in the merit of others, (5) asking the buddhas to teach the Dharma, (6) requesting them to continue to manifest in the world without passing away, and (7) dedicating the merit from these practices to the enlightenment of all beings. Although as pūjā all seven practices are offered to the buddhas, the second practice involves the explicit offering of material and mentally created substances.[page 321]

Here the offering substances, water bowls, etc. which were set up on the altar earlier are formally offered to the deities with the recitation of verses like those above by the first Paṇ chen Lama, Blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan. Using the offering substances on the altar as a material basis, the practitioner visualizes boundless pure offerings, filling the sky with exquisite flower garlands, incense, perfumes, canopies, butter lamps, incense, heavenly garments, music, etc. Offering goddesses emanated from the practitioner's chest present the offerings to the deities in the field of merit. Such practices appear to be modelled on Mahāyāna sūtra descriptions of bodhisattvas who emanate infinite offerings to the buddha fields.

The offering of accomplishment (sgrub mchod) involves the practitioner's visualization of all virtues and merit that he or she has ever accumulated in the past and will ever accumulate in the future, in the form of vast, pure offering substances that are presented to the field of merit (NGMT: 81a-84a; DTBM: 15).

A maṇḍala must be offered to the field of merit. The basic sense of the Sanskrit word maṇḍala is "circle," but the semantic range of related meanings is wide. Geographically, maṇḍala can refer to a surrounding area, sphere or realm. In tantric practice, it refers to the abode or realm of the tantric deity. Here it refers to the most inclusive of all offerings: the practitioner's entire psycho-physical universe taken as a whole. As the practitioner drops heaps of grain containing precious stones onto metal discs, using rings to build up tiers, he or she visualizes each heap as a component of the Indic universe: the golden ground, Mount Meru, ocean, mountains, continents, sun, moon, seven royal symbols, eight offering goddesses, together with all possessions of gods and men. Holding the disc overflowing with grain in both hands, the practitioner reenvisions it as the whole universe transformed into a pure realm, and offers it to the buddhas with this verse:

The earth anointed with incense and strewn with flowers,

Adorned with Mt. Meru, the four continents, sun and moon,

Visualized as a pure buddha realm: I offer it.

May all beings partake in the pure realm.

This is the "outer maṇḍala," the offering of the external world. The practitioner may also offer the "inner maṇḍala," his or her own body. Visualizing one's skin as the golden ground, one's blood as[page 322] nectar, one's flesh as the flowers, one's trunk as Mt. Meru, one's four limbs as the continents, one's eyes as the sun and moon, one's internal organs as the wealth of gods and men, one envisions it all as a pure realm, and offers it to the buddhas:

The objects of my desire, anger and ignorance,

Enemies, friends and strangers, my body and wealth

I offer without any sense of loss. Accept them and

Please bless me for spontaneous release from the three poisons.

Such practices cultivate the psychology of gladly giving up all for enlightenment (NGLC: 106a6-109a6. See also NGMT: 80a-80b; NDGM: 93-116; Tharchin: 63-79; Lessing, 1976: 13-24). Literary models for this practice include the Bodhisattva Sadāprarudita of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, who enthusiastically offers his own heart, blood and marrow to venerate his guru Dharmodgata (Conze: 284-285), and the Mahāsiddha Nāropa who, lacking any offering materials, is reported in his hagiography to have cut up his own body as a maṇḍala offering to his guru Tilopa (Guenther: 83).

(6) The last of the preparatory practices involves requesting and receiving blessing or empowerment from the deities in the field of merit. Having offered all to the deities, the practitioner's psyche is now open to receive all. Blessings to accomplish the path to enlightenment are envisioned as colored lights and nectars pouring from the field of merit into the psycho-physical energy centers (cakra, rtsa 'khor) of the practitioner's body and mind. Finally, the field of merit dissolves into the principal guru-deity, which dissolves into the practitioner. The practitioner meditates on the inseparable oneness of the guru's enlightened mind with his or her own. Manuals of guru yoga (bla ma'i rnal 'byor) focus especially on this rite as preparation for tantric practice.

Notes [3] E.g., Bhadracaripraṇidhānagāthā, Triskhandhaka Sūtra, Ratnāvalī of Nāgārjuna, Praṇidhānāsaptatināmagāthā ascribed to Āryaśūra.

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