the path to liberation, this world would be plunged into spiritual darkness. From the depths of our heart we request Buddha’s emanations to remain with us until samsara ceases.
Requesting the turning of the Wheel of Dharma
As a result of the gods Brahma and Indra requesting Buddha to turn the Wheel of Dharma, Buddha taught many methods for curing the disease of the delusions, which have led countless beings to liberation from suffering. To ensure that these teachings remain in this world we request the holy beings to teach the precious Dharma.
Dedication
At the end of any virtuous action we should dedicate the merit that we have created toward the complete and perfect happiness of all living beings. If we do not dedicate our merit in this way, it can easily be destroyed by anger or other strong delusions, or dissipated through the fulfillment of our self-centered wishes. By dedicating our merit toward our own and others’ enlightenment, however, we safeguard it and thereby ensure that it will never be exhausted. In particular we dedicate all our virtuous actions, both past and present, toward gaining the realizations of Eight Verses of Training the Mind, and thereby to attaining the supreme happiness of full enlightenment.
These seven practices are called “limbs” because they support our meditation just as limbs support our body. Without bodily limbs we cannot accomplish much in the way of physical actions, and in a similar way, without the limbs of accumulating merit and purifying negativity we cannot accomplish much in the way of meditation. The practices of prostration, offering, beseeching and requesting accumulate merit; the practices of rejoicing and dedication multiply merit; and the practice of confession purifies negative karma. A detailed explanation of the seven limbs can be found in the book Joyful Path of Good Fortune.
Offering the mandala
The word “mandala” in this context means “universe.” When we offer a mandala to the holy beings we are offering everything—the whole universe and everyone in it. Since the merit we create when we make an offering accords with the nature of that offering, instead of offering an ordinary, impure universe we mentally transform the whole universe into a Pure Land filled with precious objects and inhabited by pure beings. Imagining that we are holding this pure universe in our hands, we offer it to all the enlightened beings. In this way we are offering everything that we have or could wish for. Making mandala offerings is very powerful, and if we wish for good fortune and spiritual attainments we should offer a mandala every day. A detailed explanation on making mandala offerings can be found in the book The New Guide to Dakini Land.
REQUESTING THE HOLY BEINGS
TO BESTOW THEIR BLESSINGS
Requesting blessings
The word for blessing in Tibetan is “jin gyi lob,” which literally means “to transform.” When we request blessings we are asking for our mind to be transformed from a non-virtuous state to a virtuous state, and from an unhappy state to a happy state. Most importantly, we need to transform our mind into the mind of an enlightened being, and it is for this purpose that we request the holy beings to bestow their blessings upon our mind so that we may attain the realizations of the stages of the path to enlightenment. To do this we recite the Prayer of the Stages of the Path while concentrating on its meaning.
Receiving blessings
We then imagine that due to our heartfelt requests the holy beings bestow their blessings, which descend from their hearts in the form of lights and nectars. These enter our body and mind, pacifying our negativity and obstacles and increasing our merit, lifespan, inner peace and Dharma realizations. We meditate on this experience for a short while.
Having received the blessings of all the holy beings we now imagine that all the holy beings surrounding Guru Buddha Shakyamuni dissolve into light and gather into him. He dissolves into Buddha Amitabha at his heart, who comes to the crown of our head. We mentally prostrate and make a short mandala offering to our Spiritual Guide in the aspect of Buddha Amitabha at our crown, and pray to him by reciting Eight Verses of Training the Mind:
With the intention to attain
The ultimate, supreme goal
That surpasses even the wish-granting jewel,
May I constantly cherish all living beings.
Whenever I associate with others,
May I view myself as the lowest of all;
And with a pure intention,
May I cherish others as supreme.
Examining my mental continuum throughout all my actions,
As soon as a delusion of self-cherishing develops
Whereby I or others would act inappropriately,
May I firmly face it and avert it.
Whenever I see unfortunate beings
Oppressed by evil and violent suffering,
May I cherish them as if I had found
A rare and precious treasure.
Even if someone I have helped
And of whom I had great hopes
Nevertheless harms me intentionally,
May I see him or her as my holy Spiritual Guide.
When others out of jealousy or anger
Harm me or insult me,
May I take defeat upon myself
And offer them the victory.
In short, may I directly and indirectly
Offer help and happiness to all my mothers,
And secretly take upon myself
All their harm and suffering.
Furthermore, through all the above practices,
Together with a mind undefiled by stains of conceptions of the eight extremes
And that sees all phenomena as illusory,
May I and all living beings be released from the bondage of mistaken appearance and conception.
We recite Eight Verses with deep faith in Guru Amitabha, repeating three times the particular verse on which we are going to meditate. We then imagine that through the power of our prayer, streams of light and nectar descend from Guru Amitabha’s body, purifying our body and mind of all negativities, delusions and obstructions and ripening our potential to gain the realization of the meditation. We then engage in the meditation and finish with the appropriate dedication prayers.
Manjushri
Learning to Cherish Others
With the intention to attain
The ultimate, supreme goal
That
