Making Water Offerings to the Buddhas
(By Tsem Rinpoche)
The practice of making water offerings to the Buddhas is to generate the merits for the success of our spiritual practice. Making water offerings is one of the most common but yet powerful practices to help increase our merits and cut down our miserliness. At a more basic level, making water offerings is a direct method for creating wealth and purifying poverty. The more water offerings we make, the faster our spiritual and mundane goals will be accomplished.
We make eight bowls of water offerings to represent offering of our attachments to our body, speech and mind and the five sensory attachments. We offer our attachments to the Buddhas in order to dispel it. When we give something away, we don’t have it any more.
Making eight bowls of water offerings has exactly the same meaning as making the eight sensory offerings of water for drinking, water for washing the feet of the Buddha, flowers, incense, light, perfume (scent), food and sound as water represents these peaceful sensory offerings. We should make as many sets of water offerings as we can.
Offering water for drinking that represents nourishment is a direct opponent to our attachment to food. Offering water for washing the feet of the Buddha generates humility and a mind that is in awe of an enlightened mind. Offering flowers is a direct opponent to our attachment to beautiful sight, as incense is to smell and light is to the darkness of the mind. Offering scent, food and sound are a direct opponents to our attachment towards these things.
When we make water offerings continuously, we create a subtle imprint in our subtle mind to be rid of our attachments. It is a direct opponent for lack of awareness and creates the merits for us to be accomplished in our meditation practice. We will also create the karma to have food, resources and whatever we need and be wealthy. Even if we are not born into wealth, we will be able to obtain wealth to fulfill our purposes.
Below is a wonderful article on the how to make water offerings extracted from the book, “The Preliminary Practice of Altar Set-up & Water Bowl Offerings” by His Eminence Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche. I have also included an extract of a sound clip of a teaching I gave on Making Water Offerings in 2006.
Do read and listen to these teachings and learn to make water offerings the proper way so that you may generate the maximum amount of merits to fulfill your spiritual and mundane wishes.
Much prayers,
Tsem Rinpoche
Water Offerings Teaching
A Teaching on the importance of making offerings given by His Eminence.
Water Offerings by Lama Zopa
His Holiness Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche explained to us during the Jorchoe commentary that when you clean the bowls you should use a clean towel. The significance of offering seven water bowls is to create the cause to achieve the seven limbs, or aspects, or qualities of the Vajradhara state, enlightenment. But that does not mean that you cannot offer more, that offering more is some kind of interference! `
If you do not have many water bowls it does not matter. The ascetic meditators used their own wooden food bowl. I think it was Ie Drukhangpa, a lineage lama of Lamrim, the guru of Phurchog Iamgoen Rinpoche, and who is regarded as an embodiment of Maitreya Buddha, who lived an ascetic life practising in a cave. He did not possess texts and the necessary robes (the choegu and ding-wa) nor keep many material possessions. When he ate he took his bowl from the altar and ate his food from that. Then he cleaned it well and filled it with water and offered it at the altar. For those living ascetic lives not keeping many possessions has a great purpose. If you are not living a strictly ascetic life you should use your possessions to accumulate as much merit as possible; then you are taking the essence from that which is essenceless.
When cleaning the bowls what you should think is the same as when cleaning the room. I do not remember word for word what Rinpoche explained, however when one cleans the room one should think that the broom represents method and wisdom, the whole path to enlightenment. So think the same in regard to the towel, and you can think that you are purifying the two obscurations of yourself as well as all sentient beings. If you have incense, light it and hold the bowls over it as a purification. Then stack the bowls.
Before putting the bowls on the altar you should put some water in them. There is a reason for this. You may have read Milarepa’s lifestory. When Milarepa made an offering to Marpa of, I think, a big copper pot, he offered it empty. It is said that he had to live on only nettles and bear great hardships in regard to food and the necessities of life because of the dependent arising due to that inauspicious offering. Marpa, knowing that it was a little inauspicious used a skillful method and asked Mila to fill the pot with butter and wax and make a light offering. That auspicious offering was the cause for Milarepa to be able to realize shunyata and generate the clear light and illusory body in that life. You can understand the purpose from stories like that; otherwise it looks like nothing more than just a rule saying one has to do this and this. So, you should not put empty containers in front of the altar; similarly, when you make offerings to the virtuous teachers put something in the container.
Fill one bowl with water, then pour most of it from that one into the next bowl, keeping a little in the first. Then again from the second one pour most into the third, keeping a little in the second. After you have put some water in the last bowl recite OM AH HUNG three times to bless the water, the same as with the inner offering.
If you are a gelong and offering incense you should immediately remember: I‘m doing this for Dharma practice; I‘m doing it for other sentient beings. The reason for remembering at the time is to get permission. Saying the relevant prayers in the morning is a tradition from Panchen Losang Choegyen; it is a method for somebody who forgets to seek permission at the actual time of the action to receive fewer vices. In this way one gets permission in the morning to do actions during the day such as sing or touch and keep things in one’s house, to keep more food than is needed that day, to make fire and cook, to eat foods which have been gathered. I am not sure that if one has done the prayers in the morning but at the time of actually doing these things it is alright to have worldly concern and not think it is for the sake of other sentient beings, for Dharma reasons. I think that to remember at the actual time is the main thing: that is why it is called du ten – remembering at the time. So when a monk lights incense he should remember the gelong vow immediately, and think that it is for the sake of sentient beings, for Dharma practice. Then one will not degenerate the vows or receive vices.
Each time you light incense or a butter-lamp or some light, just before you offer it recite OM AH HUNG, then offer it. There are various interferers, three hundred and sixty or something different dooens, who take the essence. Maybe that is sort-of their enjoyments. If you offer without blessing you do receive the merit, but there is some interference in regard to the offering it affects the mind, making it kind~of unclear or unstable. In order for these things to not happen recite the mantra OM AH HUNG and blesses the offerings.
You should cover your mouth in order to not pollute the offerings with a smelly breath. His Holiness Serkong Rinpoche said the scarf should be white. We see the servants of the high lamas such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama cover their mouths with a white cloth or scarf when serving tea and so on. Also the offerings are carried high.
So when you make offerings in front of an altar you should not think, I am just putting water in front of clay statues or pictures. You should act as if you are in front of a king or high lama and serving him. Due to our karmic obscurations we do not see the images as real, but Chakrasamvara is there, Tara is there, all the Buddhas are there. The whole merit field is there, but due to karmic obscurations we do not see them. The karma that we have at the moment is to see merely pictures and statues of the deities. This is explained in the Lamrim teachings, as well as by Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo, I think, and His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche, His Holiness Ling Rinpoche, as well as Serkong Rinpoche.
The bowls should be placed so that they are not touching nor too far apart. Due to inauspiciousness or dependent arising of them being too far apart you will be distant from the virtuous teacher in the future. So do not place them far apart, but also not touching. I think due to the dependent arising from placing them too close you will have a dull mind, without sharp intelligence. You should place them the distance of one rice grain apart. In regard to pouring the water His Holiness Song Rinpoche used to advise to first pour slowly, then faster, and then again slowly. Doing it that way does not make a loud splashing noise. If you put too much water into the bowl and it overflows you will have intelligence, but it will not be stable. You will easily forget or will not have a clear mind, things will get mixed up. You will not remember words or the meanings of things, or the meanings will get mixed up. Also it may affect your moral conduct causing it to degenerate. Some bowls made in Nepal have lines to indicate how much water to offer in the bowl. About one grain-length of space should be left at the top, rather than filling it completely. That also makes it easier to avoid making a mess when you remove the bowls from the altar.
You can recite the mantra OM AH HUNG again while you are offering, or the long mantra for blessing and multiplying the offerings:
OM NAMO BHAGAVATE BENDZA SARWA PRAMADANAYE TATHAGATAYA ARHATE SAMYAKSAM BUDDHAYA
The benefit of reciting this is that not only are the offerings blessed, but clouds of offerings are received in front of each of the beings in the merit field. You can think in this way even at the very beginning of the offering. Whether you have Chakrasamvara or Guru Shakyamuni or Vajrasattva, or whatever, as your field of merit, think that what they see is nectar. To you it is water, but what the Buddhas see is nectar. For a preta it is blood and pus, for us it is water; even the devas see it as nectar, so without question it is nectar for the Buddhas who have completed the merit of transcendental wisdom and method. Think, I’m offering them the nectar which appears to them. While you are offering think that whatever pictures or statues of guru-deities you have are the embodiment of all Buddhas of the ten directions, the embodiment of the guru, of all three refugee, and that you are offering to all of them and that it generates infinite bliss in their minds. As explained in the section on making offerings, offer the water bowls to every single holy object and actual living Buddha and Bodhisattva in the ten directions. You can concentrate on this while you are offering. As you are filling the bowls, with your mouth recite the mantra for blessing, with your mind offer to all of them. After you have finished a set of offerings you can do the same meditation of offering over again.
His Holiness Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche used to advise that at the end you should dedicate the merit in this way: May this merit from making offerings (and all the merit accumulated by me and all other sentient beings) not be experienced by me but rather only by other sentient beings. Rinpoche’s specific advice is to pray that the merit and whatever resultant happiness will come from that be received and experienced by other sentient beings, and that oneself not experience it. You should think like that. Each time dedicate for the generation of Bodhicitta with the prayer jung chub sem chog rinpoche… even if you do other dedications; then it becomes a practice of the five powers of thought-training. Accumulating merit in order to generate Bodhicitta is the practice of the power of the white seed. You should dedicate the merit to achieve enlightenment quickly and quicker for the sake of all sentient beings in whatever way you know.”
When you do a hundred thousand water bowl offerings offer them inside if it is easier, if not then at the beach! Fill the whole beach with bowls! Then maybe the next day you will be taken to an institution or a psychologist! If it is difficult to bring water repeatedly from some distance then go to a place having water such as a river and set up the bowls on a big board. That may be easier. When it rains it may be even easier as you will not have to pour water! You just put the bowls out! When you clean the bowls each day you should clean them well, not just patting them with the towel. You must dry them well, not leaving them damp. Not just like giving them a sort-of blessing! If there are any stains you should try to clean them with sand or other cleaning materials.
You can begin with the refuge and Bodhicitta prayer sangye choe dang. Then on the basis of the Lama Choepa or the elaborate Gaden Lha Gyama, make the offerings by setting out the fifty or one hundred or more bowls at the offering section of the seven limb practice. Then there is a dedication at the end; Then you pour out the water and rinse the bowls with water. Then you begin again with sangye choe dang… and then do the offering section of the seven limb practice and again do the meditation of offering. Then again the dedication, and then pour out the water. And perform the offering again. “Beautifully performed, without being crooked” could mean performing the external offering in a symmetrical way; but the main thing is to do it without having a crooked mind, which means make the offering without being stained by worldly concern.
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If you are in the United States, please note that your offerings and contributions are tax deductible. ~ the tsemrinpoche.com blog team
In Buddhism, symbolic offerings are made to the Triple Gem, giving rise to contemplative gratitude and inspiration. Water symbolizes life , the purest form of food , and water is the particular element which in nature carries everything together . Water symbolizes purity , clarity and calmness , and reminds us to cleanse our minds and attain the state of purity . Offerings in general, are an antidote to greed and attachment, and can include charity, donations, and shrine offerings. Making offerings to the Three Jewels is a wonderful daily practice. Recalling enlightened qualities and cultivating a generous attitude and delight in giving is a wonderful way. The act of offering is for our own benefit, good article .
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing, more people will understand better.
Thank you Tsem Rinpoche for such sharing. We truly have no more excuse not to make water offering which is so easy to obtain during our time yet give us such a great merit in return. The point of making offering without having a crooked mind is also truly important. The motivation is what really sets the motion, not just physical effort alone that counts.
I remember the first time I saw eight bowls of water offerings in KFR, I felt its like an art, so pretty! The flowers, incense, light, perfume (scent), food and sound place beautifully surrounded by pearls. I did not know it has such meaningful before this article, now I could understand much better and do my offering in a proper way to honor this tradition.
It’s interesting to know the offering represents nourishment is a direct opponent to our attachment, especially offering flowers is a direct opponent to our attachment to beautiful sight. At the beginning, my thought was just offer beautiful things to Buddha and its good enough to make me happy, I believe everyone love to see beautiful things. Yet the truth is Buddha actually dont mind what you offer, for him, if you offer water, what he see is nectar. Then I realise all the beautiful things I see is actually something from my mind, everyone has different vision even seeing a same thing.
Making offerings is a practice for accumulating positive potential and for purifying clinging and miserliness. One of the important ways that Buddhists can collect good karma is by making offerings to shrines with good motivations. Water offerings give us a precious opportunity to create merit and good karma.
Great teachings for us to learn and understand all about making water offerings the proper way so that we may generate the maximum amount of merits to fulfil our spiritual wishes.
Thank you Rinpoche for this great sharing.
The Buddhas are so very compassionate that They even make offerings by us to be easy and effective.
As we all know water cleanses and purifies and it is something that is not difficult to obtain during these modern times. Therefore offering water to the Buddhas is not an insurmountable task and Rinpoche has kindly taught why and how beneficial it is for us to make water offerings to the Buddhas.
Everything we offer to Buddha is a form of mind transformation and practise our mind to be focus even when doing water offering. When pouring the water into the bowl we have to recite Om Ah Hum (3 times), think positively and pouring it slowly so it does not spill and leaving the space of a grain of rice before reaching the top. After offering we also have to clean the bowls properly without leaving stain. All this is to train our mind.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing the many benefits and water offering in a simple to understand article.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing.After reading i could understand much better …the proper way to do it and so forth.The teaching and explanation is simple to understand.and anyone of us can practice with much benefits.I will share it with my friends about water offering.
Thx Rinpoche for sharing. Water offering of course can bring much benefits to us but if we can afford others offering as well is more merits we going to collect.Om Ah Hum mantra must be recited on every time we make any offering to deity for purification.Do invite a copy of Tsongkhapa box set.It can help us more understanding on this topic. Tsongkhapa Boxset (English)
http://www.vajrasecret.com
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this.
After reading this post, I have better understanding about water offering..
How to do offering better…I will start practice it now….
讀完這篇文章後，讓我更了解供水的殊勝功德。非常简单易明的教言，
謝謝仁波切的分享。
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing. We will learn to make water offerings the proper way so that we can generate the maximum amount of merits to fulfill our spiritual and mundane wishes.
I havent got the chance to do water offering yet because i dont have my own altar but will try to setup a mini one soon. i have also shared this topic to my close friend who is planning to setup a mini altar with tsa tsa.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this. After reading this post, I have better understanding about water offering and how to do it. It is really amazaing that this is so simple and easy to do, but with so much of benefits.
To me, by doing water offering, it can calm me down and help me to be more mindful and patience. When I am in a hurry or my mind is not calm, water will spill out from the bowl and there was once I end up flooding my altar. I think by making water offering, is a good way to train us to be mindful and start on meditation.
众所周知，供养三宝，是能有效的让我们可以累积功德。。。
因此，我们应该根据自己的能力，献上最好的供养于佛与菩萨。。
在做每一次的供养的同时，要谨记念着 Om Ah Hum 三次来净化所有的供品，再做回向，那么就功德无量。。。
Making water offering is a powerful practice for us to generate merits to fulfill our spiritual path. It helps to offer up our negativites such as our attachment & delusions and purify our negative karma. It develops concentration, awareness & mindfulness to accomplish our meditation practice.
We must learn and follow the proper way of making water offering with good motivation and complete it with prayers and making dedications. With good motivation, we can generate & dedicate the merits to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. This is also explained in Day 4 of Lamrim teachings.
Thank you Rinpoche for the clear explaination & teachings. Wishing Rinpoche good & stable health always and will continue to teach us the Dharma. May Rinpcohe’s teachings always reach out and benefit all beings quickly.
With folded hands
Rena
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing.In the future I will practice water offering while being mindful of my action and the benefit of such significant act of offering.
感恩仁波切的开示与教诲
许多时候，在因缘不足的情况下，我们却步在许多的供养，然而有一种供养是如此的殊胜强大与能够累积功德与净化业障，也是非常容易取得的供养，那就是水供
当我们在做水供时，处了能帮助我们累积功德与消除业障外，更能够培养我们的专注力，我非常喜欢做水供，每每当我倒水与排放供碗时，直线与无论水的满溢度与碗与碗的距离都需要保持在一粒米的距离
我常在水供时，完全放空我的脑，心无杂念的，细细的做着水供，在倒水时学习控制着手腕的力度，深怕水溢出，每当完成108次的水供，整个人都感觉到法喜充满的，记得我刚刚开始做水供时，紧张的手一直发抖，也无法排直线，现在慢慢的可以了，手不抖了，也发现我在禅修时更容易专注了
感恩仁波切，祈愿您长驻在世，常转法轮
Je Atisha was very kind to adapt a practice for the Tibetans. So the Tibetans can make offerings easily.
By now, many may have already done countless superd water-offering practices and have achieved expertise at it! For others, especially the new practioners, this teaching serves the best and most appropiate practice to learn and follow to the letter! This is a very precise, concise and useful procedure of water-offering to adhere to, which is so beneficial to everyone, yet simple and easy to understand and can generate so much merits for oneself if done properly and continously. Many happy-water offerings to everyone!
Lama Zopa’s Water Offering Teaching refreshes my memory on the Day 4 -Preparatory Rites from the Lamrin text “Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand”…..If we offer water to represent the seven offering substances and if the water we offer has eight good qualities, we experience eight special benefits. The Sunday Dharma Class conducted by knowledgeable Pastors and Seniors of Kechara has brought me to a higher height towards my spiritual path and of course this has to be accompanied with the involvement of Dharma works. Thank you Rinpoche for your constant reminder.
With folded hands
Such a nice teaching Rinpoche. I will try my best to do more and more water offering to my altar back home now that i know this teaching. Thank you for sharing this with us Rinpoche.
常常听说供多多的水供，就会累积更多的财富或供水就是财，种种的说法。但我们供水供时，是真的要考我们的眼力，心力，定力和毅力。我们真的要很关注和用很平静的心去供好每一杯水。从中就是训练我们的耐心和心思。慢慢的我们做每一件事都会得心应手，事事顺利，财利双收。
Many thanks for sharing this comprehensive and informative teaching on water offering by Lama Zopa. I never knew that water offerings will help eliminate our attachments. Now I know how some of my attachments are gone and some others are slowly but surely eroding away. 🙂
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this simple but powerful water offering article to us. Previously I totally don’t know anything about water offering but luckly I have the opportunity to read about this article from Rinpoche blog. Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing!
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this teaching with us. I will keep that in mind to include visualization when making offering with visualization will serve the purpose of why we need to make offering otherwise we will do it for the sake of doing only.
Offering of water to the 3 jewels is the skillful way of making offering teach by Tibetan Buddhism. Why is it skillful? Just look around and one will find that the offering on most altar will be the cheapest of cheap items available!cheap incense which contain mainly saw dust, recycle oil to fuel the lamp, low grade tea leave…by offering these items one will demerit rather than collect merit. Beside water is the most precious item to human life. Thanks you Rinpoche for teaches us on correct ways of making offering.
水供让我们得到这些特质。早前寻找净水和水源并非易事。所以供水也同时供养了我们的毅力、诚心。
其实供养就是培养我们慷慨布施之心，让我们学习如何将物质之看成身外之物，所以供养是可以非常有创意的，能供养我们最为 执着的物品是最棒的。
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing on the benefits of water offering. The water offering is simple to follow, easy to understand and some more we can gain a lot of merits by offering the 8 bowls of water to Buddha.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing. We can collect more merits by make water offerings to Buddha and also can creating wealth and purifying poverty. So much benefits, i will share to everyone that should make more and more water offerings to Buddha.
水供的好处非常之多，供养清洁的水，帮助我们洗去穷困、负面思想，由于水容易取得，因此也帮助我们能有效的供养三宝而不会因供养物而起贪念。
Dear Rinpoche, thank you for sharing this teaching I’m truly benefited from it. I do water offering without having much thought previously, it was like doing for the sake of doing. After attending a Ritual Class which explained peaceful offering and so on, I realized that I needed to know more about it and not just do for the sake of doing but to understand the meaning of doing it and how this offering can assist us in our spiritual journey. Once again thank you and I will remember these advises above when doing water offering.
Thank you Rinpoche for putting up information on water offerings as well as a voice recording on this subject.
It amazes me that simply by doing water offerings, the doer can generate merits for both mundane and spiritual reasons. How wonderful is that!
I started with a very simple altar last year, with no proper set-up (such as body, speech and mind and water offerings). After my refuge day, I had this pressed feeling inside me that I wanted to have a proper altar set-up. After a few weeks of preparation, I got all my equipments ready and I set up by altar (On Buddha day, how auspicious is that!!!!) and I started my water offerings. I feel happy every time when I do water offerings. While I did not know the significance of water offerings in the past, the only thought that I had is that I felt glad to be able to provide some offerings to the buddhas. Something that is so simple and widely available yet helps generate so much merits for ourselves.
I hope that I am able to generate the resources necessary through water offerings so that I can do more to benefit others.
Great job Sheryl, i feel proud with your efforts. Please carry on, as we learn more details again Cause & Effect, our efforts will not be wasted. Rejoice Sheryl…
After reading this article, i understand more on water offerings. Very informative on Rinpoche and Lama Zopa explanation. Will put down in my note so that i can remember and able to explain to newbies.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this. Take care ya 🙂
Thank you for this 🙂 I want to get started asap.
Thank you for your teaching on water offering .From now onwards, I will be more mindful whenever I do my water offering, knowing its significance. I hope Rinpoche is resting and recuperating. We are all looking forward to seeing Rinpoche well again. With folded hands, I wish to thank Rinpoche for all the blessings given to me and my family.
Reading this article refreshes memories of the teaching that Rinpoche has taught many times in the past. I’m going to get more new bowls and make more water offering!
The Tibetans like to have accomplished 100k water bowl offerings before passing on, they truly believe the words of their gurus and lamas. The practise of offering water bowls is a type of meditation also IMHO.