d. Offering the Mandala

Your practice should be embraced by the points of “good in the beginning, good in the main part, and good at the conclusion”.

If you are accumulating the practice and you have an accomplishment mandala, anoint it with bajung and scented water, and, having arranged five piles [of gems, medicines or rice] on top of it, place it on your shrine. If you do not have an accomplishment mandala, visualize the field of merit as before.

The material of the offering mandala plate should suit your resources: precious metal is best; other metals, such as bell-metal, are the next best; and stone may be used as a last resort.

Precious stones make the best offering substances; medicines are the next best; and at worst, you could use grains, such as barley or rice, when cleaned and washed with scented water.

Wipe the mandala clean again and again, and anoint it with scented water and bajung. Then offer the Thirty-Seven Point Mandala as it is generally done.

In this particular context, we offer what is known as the Trikaya Mandala.

OM, AH and HUNG were explained earlier.

i. Nirmanakaya

The four continents, Mount Meru and the god realms up to the Abode of Brahma constitute a single realm. Multiplying this realm by a thousand, you arrive at what is called a “first-order universe of one thousand worlds”. Multiplying this universe by a thousand, you arrive at an “intermediate universe of one thousand times one thousand worlds”. If you then multiply the intermediate universe a thousand times, you will have what is called a billion-fold universe, which is one hundred times ten million worlds.

This billion-fold universe is filled with the seven precious gems and all the wealth of gods, nagas and human beings, both riches that are owned and natural riches possessed by no one. Visualize the whole universe filled with precious gems and so on, and then consider also your own body, possessions and sources of merit and offer them all in their entirety. Pray that, as a result, you may turn the wheel of the Dharma, just as Buddha Shakyamuni did.

ii. Sambhogakaya

The inconceivable paradise of the sambhogakaya is the highest heaven because it is above the nirmanakaya realms, and it is also a place of Great Bliss, because bliss and emptiness are indivisible within the minds of beings who dwell there. It is known as Tukpo Köpa ('Densely Arrayed') because it is beyond measure, and it is perfect with the five certainties. The certain place is this pure realm of Ghanavyuha, or Tukpo Köpa. The certain teachers are the buddhas of the five families. The certain teaching is the Mahayana, or that which is beyond words. The certain audience is made up of tenth bhumi bodhisattvas. And the certain time is the perpetually turning wheel of eternity.

Visualize this mandala of the buddhas of the five families and then consider that countless offering goddesses, such as the goddess of beauty and so on, manifest within it. The entire space becomes filled with inconceivably vast clouds of offerings of every variety of sensual and emotional stimulants. Pray that through this offering, you may enjoy the perfection of the sambhogakaya fields.

iii. Dharmakaya

“Where all appearance and existence are completely pure” signifies that there is no falling into the fixed view that the whole outer and inner universe—the environment and beings—are solid and real. Instead, everything is vast, expansive and profoundly spacious. Since the essence of the dharmakaya is beyond birth and death, it is described as youthful, and since there is a clarity that comes from its knowing aspect, it is called the vase body.

When this wisdom mind of the dharmakaya is taken as the base of the mandala, then the ornaments of the dharmakaya are all the rising thoughts. These rising thoughts manifest from the dynamic energy and play of dharmata emptiness and unceasing compassion, which are unstained by disturbing emotions.

All clinging to the perception of kayas and tiklés, which can occur from the stage of 'increase of experience' [the second of the four visions of tögal] until 'awareness reaching full maturity' [the third vision], is naturally liberated.

Pray that through this offering, with its piles representing the dynamic energy of the dharmakaya, you may attain the level of the dharmakaya and enjoy the freedom of the dharmakaya reality.