To anyone who comes to this room to fulfill all the wishes, to practice Dharma, to make offerings to the Stupa:

Think that all these offerings belong to sentient beings and then, on their behalf, make offerings to the Stupa.

It is not just a stupa. To me, for example, it’s in essence His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which means of all the past, all the present, and all the future buddhas. You can think like that for whoever your own root guru is, which means [think that] your root guru is all the three-time and ten-direction buddhas.

Your root guru is the one to whom you make offerings, and, by so doing, you make offerings to all the numberless buddhas. By making an offering to your guru—for example, even if you offer a tiny drop of perfume that would stay on the tip of a needle to just one pore of your guru—you collect far greater merit than making offerings to the numberless Buddhas, numberless Dharma, numberless Sangha, and to the numberless statues, stupas, and scriptures of the Buddha.

There’s no question how much merit you will collect with each offering you make to the Stupa while thinking that, in essence, it is your root guru. You collect the most unbelievable merit and it becomes purification as well.

Please think this with any offering you make to the Stupa, and then offer it on behalf of all sentient beings: the offerings are theirs and you are offering them on their behalf. So then every sentient being gets merit—every hell being gets merit, every hungry ghost gets merit, every animal gets merit. For example, every ant gets merit, every mosquito gets merit, and every chick gets merit. No matter how tiny it is and no matter how big it is, every animal gets merit. Also, every human being, every asura, and every sura gets merit. In this way, the offering helps them to become free from their suffering of pain and to receive peace and pleasure. You can also dedicate the merit of having made the offerings to achieve enlightenment and for them to achieve enlightenment. So, it’s unbelievable.

Generally, whenever you collect merit, such as by rejoicing, do it as expansively as possible and especially, do it with bodhicitta. Then, if you dedicate for sentient beings, everyone gets merit. That’s the way to help sentient beings achieve enlightenment.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much for spending your precious time reading this, understanding it, and practicing it.

Please dedicate your merits to the Chinese students who pay the rent here, giving us the opportunity to practice.* Dedicate that they will never be born in the lower realms, but will become free from samsara, achieve buddhahood as quickly as possible, and enlighten all sentient beings.

* At the time of this advice, the room’s rental was being paid by some Chinese students, thus the dedication.

Find links to a PDF of this practice, and watch Rinpoche making prayers in the offering room next to Boudha Stupa in this FPMT News post. 

Colophon:

Advice dictated by Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, transcribed and lightly edited by Ven. Tenzin Namdrol, Kopan Monastery, January 2022. Further editing by Ven. Joan Nicell, January 2022, and FPMT Education Services, March 2022.