Eva Natanya, 28 Apr 2020
We start the session with a short surprise meditation. After meditation, Eva (Yangchen) starts the explanation of the mandala offering, she comments that emptyness is the most essential point for understanding this practice. As she says, we will go into the question on how Buddhist cosmology fits within our current “map” of the universe (on session 16). We will also explore the meaning of the three stages: outer, inner, and secret mandala (on this session).
Yangchen goes then to the recitation in the brief preliminaries. She explains that it is longer in English, basically because more words are needed to wrap up all that is encompassed in the Tibetan. Eva is drawing from Thinley Norbu’s commentary, which says that there are two mandalas, the one we reach to and the one we offer. She describes then the visualization of these two mandalas, and the representation of them by physical substances (5 piles of what one has arranged). In this context she talks about the qualities of Padmasambhava (within the mandala to be accomplished) which encompass each of the 5 Buddha Families, and what should be set physically, or what can be visualized to represent those Buddha Families.
Yangchen continues with the text, the collection of merit is great through mandala offering, but it is essential to know what the steps in the practice mean and symbolize. She explains what is the idea behind the ‘best, medium, and lowest quality’ mandalas that one can offer.
One is instructed to imagine the physical mandala as the three realms of existence, Mount Meru, and the four continents, together with other ingredients of Buddhist cosmology, as much as one wants to visualize. Yangchen recites now the mandala offering from the Khandro Nyingtik, and explains what a ‘billionfold world system’ is. The aim is to go to the limits of our imagination. One transforms then the billionfold world system into a nirmāṇakāya buddhafield, one’s own body into a sambhogakāya buddhafield, and one’s mind into a dharmakāya buddhafield; this constitute the outer, inner, and secret mandala. Then, one offers all this to one’s guru. She comments that the last three lines of the recitation each refer to the outer, inner, and secret mandala.
At the end Eva gives some details about the steps one follows to arrange the physical offering, the location of the piles, and what each pile in the mandala represents.
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