Without an initial change taking place within the mind, how can you instantly achieve enlightenment? Enlightenment has to come through a gradual step-by-step process. We should aspire for the ultimate achievement while working in a practical way. I can definitely state that if you undertake the practice, you can bring about a change within the mind.
After having set up representations of the Buddha’s body, speech, and mind, you can arrange some offerings, such as food, clean water, flowers, and light. It is said that if you have the right attitude, you will never lack materials for making offerings. So you should make the best offerings you can. In Tibet it was customary to make a feast offering (called tsok), and because we would later eat these offerings ourselves, we would make them very nicely. But because we did not have to eat the ritual cake offerings, we would not make them with as much care. For this reason, when we talk of a feast offering we think of something delicious to eat, whereas when we talk about a ritual cake we think of something to be thrown away. That is a mistake. Therefore, when you make offerings, you should do it as best you can. If you cannot afford to do it, then it can be dispensed with. Materials for offering should not be procured by devious means.
Then, having made all these arrangements and washed yourself, take your seat on a cushion that is slightly raised at the back. When it is slightly higher at the back, it makes your spine very straight, which improves your concentration. People who have difficulty sitting cross-legged can sit on chairs, like Maitreya, who was predicted to appear as the future Buddha and is depicted sitting on a throne like a chair.
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