Maṇḍala Offering Series

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A maṇḍala offering plate

Courtesy of Himalayan Art Resources

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The ground is purified with scented water and strewn with flowers.

It is adorned with Sumeru, the king of mountains, the four quarters of the universe, and the sun and the moon;

Thinking of it as the blessed buddha-fields, I offer it.

By virtue of this offering, may all beings here and now attain the happiness of that pure land!

A series of texts related to the practice of maṇḍala offering (maṇḍal ’bul ba), symbolizing the gift of the entire universe according to Buddhist cosmology:

Commentaries

Offering

The most popular maṇḍala offering liturgy in Tibetan Buddhism, through which one offers the outer and inner universe complete with thirty-seven features: 1) Mount Meru; 2-5) the four continents; 6-13) the eight subcontinents; 14) the jewel mountain; 15) the wish-fulfilling tree; 16) the wish-fulfilling cow; 17) the harvest which needs no sowing; 18-24) the seven attributes of royalty; 25) the vase of great treasure; 26-33) the eight offering goddesses; 34) the sun; 35) the moon; 36) the precious umbrella; and 37) the royal banner victorious in all directions.

This short maṇḍala liturgy is included within the Compendium of Sādhanas (sgrub thabs kun btus). It features seven heaps representing: 1) Mount Meru; 2-5) the four continents; 6) the sun and 7) the moon.

This four-line prayer is sometimes used for the accumulation of maṇḍala offerings in the Longchen Nyingtik tradition. Khenpo Ngawang Palzang, for example, recommends accumulating this prayer seventy thousand times (following thirty thousand recitations of the three-kāya maṇḍala from the Longchen Nyingtik).

A short maṇḍala offering from the revelations of Jatsön Nyingpo. These lines are also recommended in Chatral Rinpoche's edition of Khenpo Ngawang Palzang's notes (zin bris) to the Longchen Nyingtik preliminaries.

Sometimes known as the seven-point maṇḍala offering, this is an extremely popular text that is sometimes appended to the 37-Point Maṇḍala Offering. Its precise origin is unknown, however. The earliest available version appears in a consecration manual by Drakpa Gyaltsen, but it has been attributed to various authors, including Pakpa Lodrö Gyaltsen and the legendary bodhisattva Dharmodgata.

This four-line prayer to accompany the maṇḍala offering is extracted from the common preliminary practices of the Longsal Dorje Nyingpo tradition. It also appears in Chatral Rinpoche's edition of Khenpo Ngawang Palzang's famous guide to the Longchen Nyingtik preliminaries.

A three-kāya maṇḍala offering composed at Mount Kailash at the request of a student named Tendzin Repa.

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