The Preliminary Practice of Altar Set-up & Water Bowl Offerings eBook

By FPMT

This eBook provides a complete explanation of how to set up a personal altar, how to make water bowl offerings, and how to offer them in the most extensive and beneficial way. This edition includes information on water bowls, meditations to use while doing the practice, and a mantra to recite when removing food offerings from the altar to avoid creating the karma of stealing from the Triple Gem.

Contents Include:
- Altar Set-up and Water Bowl Offerings
- The Practice of Offering by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
- Guidelines for Completing 100,000 Water Bowl Offerings
- Extensive Offering Practice
- Light Offering Prayer by Lama Atisha
- Appendix: How to Fill a Small Statue

2016 Edition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: FPMT
• Release date: Mar 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370073498

FPMT

The FPMT is an organization devoted to preserving and spreading Mahayana Buddhism worldwide by creating opportunities to listen, reflect, meditate, practice and actualize the unmistaken teachings of the Buddha and based on that experience spreading the Dharma to sentient beings. We provide integrated education through which people’s minds and hearts can be transformed into their highest potential for the benefit of others, inspired by an attitude of universal responsibility and service. We are committed to creating harmonious environments and helping all beings develop their full potential of infinite wisdom and compassion. Our organization is based on the Buddhist tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa of Tibet as taught to us by our founder, Lama Thubten Yeshe and our spiritual director, Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.

Book preview

Altar Set-up and

Water Bowl Offerings

Walk into the meditation hall of any Tibetan Buddhist Dharma center or monastery and the eye is irresistibly drawn to the altar. Bursting with color and filled with stunning statues dressed in elaborate brocades, texts wrapped in traditional golden cloth, and offerings of saffron-colored water, incense, and flowers, the altar is designed to inspire the mind and move the heart. Most Tibetan Buddhist practitioners also keep altars in their homes, and a common question from beginning students is how to set one up for themselves.

Holy objects such as buddha statues, stupas, and texts are extremely beneficial to have. They inspire our practice and help us remember our goal of transforming our minds into compassion, peace, wisdom, and kindness. They also help purify our minds of negative emotions. When we see an image of the Buddha, a positive imprint is created in our minds. Later, that imprint or karmic seed causes us to be able to understand and practice the Buddha's teachings more clearly. When we practice well, our delusions and our suffering decrease, while our positive qualities increase. Eventually, we will eliminate all the negative problems and emotions in our minds and develop the positive ones to their highest potential; at that point, we become, just like the Buddha, fully enlightened.

Traditionally, we make light offerings in front of the images of buddhas and holy beings. The buddhas do not need these offerings, but from our side, this practice helps us learn to practice generosity. And by offering to the buddhas, we create a huge amount of positive potential (merit), and this too nourishes our practice and study and helps us attain liberation from suffering and enlightenment as quickly as possible.

Creating Your Own Practice Space

It is very helpful for your practice to have a special room or space set aside in your home that is reserved just for practice. This is your gompa or meditation place. The main items to go in your gompa are an altar, your meditation seat, and, perhaps, a text table and a bookshelf to hold your Dharma books. The altar is where you place the holy objects, pictures, and texts that inspire your mind. It should be used only as an altar and not double as a coffee table or desk, and it should be in a clean, respectful place. The objects should be placed higher than the level of your head as you sit facing your altar.

Before setting up your altar for the first time, clean the space well and burn incense to purify the place. After your altar and the rest of the space are complete, always keep the area clean. Sweep and dust every day before making offerings.

The Objects on the Altar

The Tibetan Buddhist altar contains a statue or photo of Buddha Shakyamuni and other deities with whom you feel connection. These symbolize the enlightened holy