means ‘universe’. When we offer a mandala to the holy beings we are offering everything – the whole universe with all its objects and all the beings who inhabit it. Since the merit we create when we make an offering accords with the nature of the offering, we mentally transform the whole universe into a Pure Land and imagine that all its inhabitants are pure beings and that all its objects are precious substances. We then imagine that we are offering this pure universe in our hands.
A child once filled a bowl with dust and offered it to Buddha Kashyapa, imagining that the dust was gold. As a result of this pure offering the child was reborn as the wealthy King Ashoka. Likewise, if we offer the world as a Pure Land filled with exquisite objects and precious symbols we will experience a result in accordance with the pure nature of our offering. If we wish for spiritual attainments we should offer a mandala every day.
requesting the field for accumulating merit in general and the lamrim lineage gurus in particular to bestow their blessings
Now we request blessings to attain three great purposes:
(1) To stop wrong thoughts and attitudes from arising in our minds
(2) To cultivate correct thoughts and attitudes
(3) To eliminate outer and inner obstacles to our Dharma practice
If we can perfectly accomplish these three aims we will attain enlightenment in this life. Although there are countless wrong thoughts and attitudes, there are sixteen in particular that we should know and strive to abandon because they directly prevent realizations of the stages of the path. They are:
(1) Disliking or having disrespect for our Spiritual Guide
(2) Not wishing to take the essence of our precious human life
(3) Not remembering death
(4) Being attached to the pleasures and happiness of this life alone
(5) Not fearing rebirth in the lower realms
(6) Not wishing to go for refuge to the Three Jewels
(7) Not having faith or conviction in the laws of karma
(8) Seeking to accumulate non-virtuous actions and not virtuous actions
(9) Regarding samsara as having the nature of happiness
(10) Wishing to increase delusions and contaminated actions
(11) Being uninterested in attaining liberation
(12) Not wanting to practise the three higher trainings, which are the causes of liberation
(13) Forsaking mother living beings
(14) Self-cherishing
(15) Self-grasping
(16) Disliking the practice of Secret Mantra
Corresponding to these there are sixteen correct thoughts and attitudes that we need to cultivate:
(1) Relying faithfully upon and having respect for our Spiritual Guide
(2) Wishing to take the essence of our precious human life
(3) Remembering death
(4) Not being attached to the pleasures and happiness of this life
(5) Fearing rebirth in the lower realms
(6) Wishing to go for refuge to the Three Jewels
(7) Having faith and conviction in the laws of karma
(8) Seeking to accumulate virtuous actions and not non-virtuous actions
(9) Regarding samsara as having the nature of suffering
(10) Wishing to abandon delusions and contaminated actions, which are the causes of samsaric rebirth
(11) Being determined to attain liberation
(12) Wanting to practise the three higher trainings
(13) Cherishing all mother living beings
(14) Forsaking self-cherishing
(15) Realizing selflessness
(16) Liking the practice of Secret Mantra
In addition to these sixteen correct thoughts and attitudes there are many other virtuous states of mind that we need to cultivate and for which we need to request blessings. For example, when we train our mind in the stages of the vast path of Sutra we cultivate special minds of great love, great compassion and bodhichitta; and based on these the determination to practise the six perfections of giving, moral discipline, patience, effort, mental stabilization and wisdom.
The realizations of the stages of the vast path of Secret Mantra – namely, the realizations of the generation stage practice of bringing the intermediate state into the path of the Enjoyment Body and the completion stage realization of the actual illusory body – are the essence of the stages of the vast path for which we need to request blessings. The resultant vajra body that is attained when we attain Buddhahood is the quintessence of all the stages of the vast path of Sutra and Tantra.
The realizations of the stages of the profound path of Secret Mantra – namely, the realizations of the generation stage practice of bringing death into the path to the Truth Body and the completion stage realizations of example clear light and meaning clear light – are the essence of the stages of the profound path for which we need to request blessings. The resultant Truth Body, or Dharmakaya, is the quintessence of all the stages of the profound path of Sutra and Tantra.
To remove all the wrong thoughts and attitudes mentioned above, and to cultivate all these virtuous states of mind in their place, we request the blessings of the Field for Accumulating Merit with the following prayer:
Please pour down your inspiring blessings upon myself and all my mothers, so that we may quickly stop all perverse minds, from disrespect for our kind Teacher to the most subtle dual appearance.
Please pour down your inspiring blessings, so that we may quickly generate pure minds, from respect for our kind Teacher to the supreme mind of Union.
Please pour down your inspiring blessings to pacify all outer and inner obstructions.
When we have made these requests we imagine that the blessings of all the holy beings descend from their hearts in the form of lights and nectars. These enter our body and mind, purifying our negative karma and obstructions, and increasing our merit, good qualities, life span and realizations. These blessings greatly increase our potentiality to gain the realization of the meditation we are about to do.
We then make requests to the Lamrim lineage Gurus, beginning with our principal Spiritual Guide, reciting the prayer three times:
So now my most kind root Guru,
Please sit on the lotus and moon on my crown
And grant me out of your great kindness,
Your body, speech and mind’s attainments.
Our
