So, I thought to explain the, before we make offering, the benefits of the mantra blessing the, the benefits of the mantra, the clouds of offering, so that has a lot of benefits. So the reason why I often recite that, so of course, doesn’t mean, sometimes I miss, sometimes food goes first. Then after eating then remember the offering. So I thought to mention all the benefits. So it’s very important to memorize. If you don’t memorize prayers then everywhere you need the paper. Everywhere you need the paper, so it makes it very uncomfortable. I don’t have a good memory, very bad memory, to remember prayers, so even I remember, even I know by heart but then sometimes I get, suddenly when I chant or something important occasion then I don’t remember. But anyway, I emphasize very important to memorize, to do some memorization, because if you don’t do that then when you are not with the books, then you’re, then you have no practice. When you you’re not with the books, you have no practice. So if you memorize, even in the car, airplane, wherever you are, so makes it very easy, like the Tibetans how they do, so it’s very simple and gives so much opportunity.

I can make good sound.

So tonight I want to go over these benefits, I think it’s very important. And if you can memorize this, it’s extremely important. Every food you don’t have to look at, every food then you don’t have to have the paper. Also Thirty-five Buddhas, Thirty-five Buddhas must memorize. Otherwise, somebody reads, then you keep quiet, it’s like somebody eat food and then that person, like somebody eat food and you don’t get in your stomach, so you have to eat food. So similar, you have to drink, you have to eat, to solve your own problem, so somebody eating doesn’t come in your stomach, doesn’t stop your feeling of thirst. So therefore must, if somebody recite and you don’t recite, then you don’t get, you won’t get all the benefit, by reciting those Thirty-five Buddhas’ names once, many thousands of eons of, not many thousands of seconds or minutes or hours or days, lifetime, here we’re talking about, even not talking about thousands of billions of our negative karmas get purified. Here we’re talking about thousands of eons of negative karma get purified. So it’s, we have to think, to really, how it’s important we have to really think details like this well.

So then if you don’t recite then you don’t get all these benefits. The only the person who recites gets the benefit, you don’t get benefit. So you lost unbelievable, unbelievable opportunity and life is short and death can happen any moment, any day, any moment. So therefore it’s very important to, I mean these are nothing, it’s just a very few, I mean it’s just one or two pages, I mean it’s nothing, so to memorize, so this is for enlightenment and this is for you to enlighten sentient beings. So the reason is very big, so then if you can’t memorize even a few lines, then that becomes, that doesn’t look good. It becomes strange. Must memorize more. So that I want to advertise.

So, then from, you can understand why, not everybody knows but some people know that often I recite this one, so you can understand from these benefits, that explained by Buddha in the Kangyur.

So, the benefits of this sung, actually sung is, there are different types of sungs. [pause] Unforgettable wisdom which engages in the virtue, abandoning nonvirtue, there’s something like that explanation about the sung, what sung is, so normally translated as “mantra.” So, the benefits of the sung of the clouds of offerings. So the minute when you remember this the buddhas abiding in the ten directions, the numberless buddhas, but how many, like that? Buddhas abiding in the ten directions, numberless. Now like that, how many? Equaling the number of very, very subtle atoms of the sand grains of the Pacific Ocean. So I saw there’s seven very, extremely fine seven atoms, what atoms and then the seven that’s very, very, very, very small atoms, so I think, what atom, like that. Anyway, I think it’s talking about that. This sand grain, usually when you talk about the benefits of bodhicitta or in the Arya Sanghata Sutra or many, talk about the benefits, then usually the Ganga is not the River Ganga in Varanasi, not that one, but when you bless the vase, when you do tantric practice, blessing the vase, things like that, that Ganga is the River Ganga, the devas’, lhai _____, it becomes oneness with the devas’ water Ganga, that one is the River Ganga, Varanasi. But that one is interpretive meaning. Then it has definitive meaning, beyond, what it means devas’ water. It has a Highest Tantric meaning. So whatever, the devas’ Ganga water that’s interpretive meaning. The transcendental wisdom of nondual bliss-voidness, so the definitive meaning.

So now here, so this means Pacific Ocean, the word is saying Ganga, but it’s Pacific Ocean, so can’t imagine, it’s much bigger. So how many buddhas abide in the ten directions? But how many, equaling the number of the subtle atoms of the sand grains of Pacific Ocean, okay. So, buddhas abiding in the ten directions, these are already numberless. So that, like that, that many, that much, how many? Equaling the number of the subtle atoms the sand grains of the Pacific Ocean, so that is unbelievable, unbelievable number, can’t imagine. Already the very first one, buddhas in the ten directions is numberless already. So now here you, second time, that many equaling the number of subtle atoms of the sand grains of the Pacific Ocean. So you made offering to all of them. The minute when you ______ this mantra [snaps fingers] you made offering to all of them. So that’s mind-blowing. Mind-blowing. Already you get benefit having made offering to all of them.

Then also you get benefit having prostrated to their holy feet. So, that’s the second benefit.

The third benefit, then you have made offering flower, incense, incense two things, one is powder, one is the smell, the smoke and the flower garlands and ornaments and, yeah, and then powder, then must be, then here comes the powder so I’m not sure the other one, couldn’t tell exactly. So then robes, these yellow, these robes and umbrella, banners, paden, paden means the flag that blows in the wind, paden. Then the seat and dingwa, the monks’ seat cover, then robes and also the animals, ?chen-tsik so animal, the animals offering to the protectors or the buddhas, many animal offering called chen-tsik, they’re called chen-tsik. So anyway, in Tibet there are animals offered to the Fifth Dalai Lama, to His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the park, who are called chen-tsik. Like deers, whatever, elephants, whatever, offered to His Holiness, they’re called chen-tsik. So then food, ornaments and so forth. With all these things that you have made offering to all of them, you get the benefit that you have made all these offerings to the numberless buddhas abide in the ten directions, but how many? Equaling the number of the subtle atoms of the sand grains of the Pacific Ocean, okay. So number, third benefit.

Then the fourth benefit, all your negative karmas get purified. Then you receive all the virtue. Then you see all the buddhas, bodhisattvas, they liberate you, they free you from the sufferings. Then, next, I don’t remember, now I lost the number. The number sixth, I think. So the benefit is that you will be protected by nagas, so there’s cancers caused by nagas, cancers and arthritis and ulcers and leprosy and all these many sicknesses, skin disease, all those caused by nagas, all those skin diseases. So you are protected by nagas, devas, harm-givers, and smell-eaters, and suras, the garudas, then, I don’t know, I saw in a book but I’ve forgotten, mem-ji, I don’t remember now. I’ve seen in a book but I’ve forgotten what it means. Then, great, then there’s landlords, I think, dorje chenpo. Dorje chenpo might be landlord, dorje chenpo. Then this is not the landlord , this is not your landlord, who’s selling house or the land. This is the other being, I think, who possessed the ?earth. Then the Vajrapani, Secret Owner, Vajrapani, the four guardians. So they, always they follow after you and protect you. When there’s danger they hide you, from the danger.

Then after the death you go to the Amitabha pure land.

So, these benefits you get without even doing retreat, retreat means chanting the, sometimes you get the benefits only you do many hundred thousand times, then you get the benefit. But here it’s not, without need to do that you get all these benefits, just even by remembering one time this mantra. So I think that’s all of ?it. [pause]

Just beginning bit, this one. So I stop there.

So that’s from Buddha’s teaching, Kangyur. So by chanting this mantra, clouds of offering, so even you have one light, one incense, one flower, but the numberless buddhas, bodhisattvas, they receive, the offering get multiplied and each of them they receive skies of flowers, skies of incense, skies of whatever you offer. So, due to the power of mantra they receive skies of offerings, even what you actually offer is just one, one light or whatever, flower or whatever. So it has that incredible advantage.

And then second one, expressing the words of truth, ?tenzin jorwa, so expressing the words of truth, then that time if you have visualized numberless buddhas, bodhisattvas, they receive skies of offerings. Then if you have visualized then they actually receive that much. So there’s a little bit differences. The first mantra, even you don’t visualize, they get this by the power of mantra. Second one, words of truth, then that you have to visualize, so collect extensive merit, so if you visualize, depending on how many you visualize then the numberless buddhas, bodhisattvas, they actually get that.

So there is the original one, prayer, then there’s, some time ago some additional words to, it helps for visualization, so if you could get that one then better.

So read through this, the Lama Atisha’s teaching, the, I think this is from ABC in Singapore, this I think translated in English some years ago, I think. So, The Garlands, the Bodhisattva’s Jewel Garlands. So, [Tibetan] so this is talking about the place, came from India, the Lama Atisha’s from India, so then, so what it says in Sanskrit and what is said in Tibetan. Thuk je chenpo la chag tsel lo. [pause] I prostrate to the great compassion.

Lama nam la chag tsel lo. I prostrate to the gurus. [pause] Lama nam la chag tsel lo. I prostrate to the gurus.

So this is not lama that in India, they use lama for everybody, all the Tibetans. Even the Tibetan police they call “lama.” But I never heard they call “lama” to a Tibetan woman. I never remember they call “lama.” So, it’s kind of ?agreed. They have no idea they ?don’t call ?strange. But anything that’s a man they call “lama.” In India, police, Tibetan police or, I think it might be also in Nepal, lama. So this is not that way, use is not that one.

So, here it means guru. So lama means among the qualities, from the side of the qualities, very heavy from the side of the qualities. So that is called “lama,” the peerless one. So, what it’s saying is exactly the meaning, heavy from the side of the qualities, so the ultimate, that one is dharmakaya, so I think I mentioned last night, when I was talking about the guru, what is the guru, how to think, what one should think in the heart, the meaning when you see, when you think, when you recite, I mentioned yesterday, I mentioned last night. So, the dharmakaya. So that, free from all the, removed or free from all the disturbing-thought obscurations and subtle obscurations, so there’s not even a trace of, even the slightest mistakes left. So, fully enlightened mind, such this wisdom, okay. So, having, possessing that, so then who, as I mentioned the other day, then who manifest everything, from where all the buddhas come, from where all the Dharma comes, from where all the Sangha come, and who guides you through the conventional guru, manifesting through that. So now here you can understand heavy from the quality, so it means the dharmakaya, so that ultimate _______. The ultimate perfection of wisdom or, ?manifests, so anyway, so guide you. Then one prostrate to the lamas, okay.

Then, the next one, I prostrate to the devotional deity. [pause] So there, I’m not a hundred percent sure but maybe this is your own personal deity that one practice in daily life, to be one with. It may be that.

Then, abandon all the doubts. [Tibetan] And then, cherish precisely the practice.

So, [pause] there’s one side that, it’s good to have doubts, so that then if you have doubts then you, then that makes you to clarify, to discover what’s right. There’s one side like that, especially at the beginning. But generally speaking, so if you have doubts, for example, if you’re going to, if you’re traveling if you have doubts whether this road, whether you can trust this road or not, whether it leads you there or not, if you have doubt then you wouldn’t go, you’re unhappy to go, you won’t go there. That doubt interrupts you to take that road. So even though it’s the correct one, wrong one, it’s okay, but even though it’s the correct one that leads to the place where you want to go, then doubt it stops you to take that road to go to that place. So here, having doubt then it makes, having doubts to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha or having doubts the path, it interrupts you to enter in the path, to liberation, to enlightenment. Therefore then, to engage in the path to liberation, enlightenment, then you have to abandon the doubts, because it’s obstacle. So that’s I think, so you abandon all the doubts and cherish precisely the practice.

Then it says, Abandon sleep and drowsiness, like when you meditate, your mind becomes like dark, drowsiness, or dark. Like a dark ?house, that one, your mind becomes like that, not clear, it’s dark, kind of. Not ______ but dark, drowsiness. So, not, to abandon _____ ______. So this, abandon sleep and drowsiness and laziness, so it says ?rab rang, so rab means extremely abandon, extremely or, you know, so because why? So then it wastes your life, it wastes the precious, the most precious human life that you can achieve three great, if you have achieved this perfect human rebirth, which has eighteen qualities, with that if you have achieved this then you can achieve three great meanings. You can achieved any temporary happiness, at the time of death you can go to a pure land of the buddha, where you don’t have to be reborn in the lower realms at all or you can achieve enlightenment, so forth, and then that means can achieve the future life, the perfect human rebirth and, yeah, the human rebirth that has the eight ripening qualities that Lama Tsongkhapa highly admired, then that’s, you need to achieve that so that you can have quick progress attaining the realizations of the path to enlightenment, you achieve the eight ripening aspect human body. Then there’s the seven, human body with seven qualities. Then the, the countries where they regard caste, then if you are very high caste then everybody respect you so then you can benefit. Wealth, power, wisdom, long life, no sicknesses, so forth, then seven like this. Also then the four Mahayana Dharma wheels, where you are born in the right family or right environment, that no obstacle accept the Dharma, right family, right environment and then place where you do practice, no harm from the place, healthy and like that. Having done prayers in the past, then actualize the prayers that you have done in the past, and then collecting merits. So then things like that.

Then, ultimate happiness, liberation, enlightenment. And then also, even within one second you can achieve any of these, whatever you wish. So three great meanings, so by practicing Dharma. So then you don’t achieve those things because due to, you don’t abandon the sleep and the drowsiness, the laziness, those things.

So here, it’s written sleep, I mean there’s some meditators they’re not sleeping, but however, usually it means, in the lam-rim teachings it usually means, the upper night is not sleeping, the upper night is the time to practice, and the later part of the night also get up to practice, so only the middle is the sleeping time. So, I don’t know how to find the middle one. So, you have to look for the middle one. So anyway, so I don’t practice that, so I think I don’t know, I’m not practicing that so then could not find the middle one. Anyway, so my sleeping is the wrong time.

Yeah, so that’s very important, so that, so this is unbelievable opportunity, this is incredible what you can do, achieve, for you and for other sentient beings, to cause happiness to so many sentient beings and cause happiness, cause sentient beings happiness all the future lives and liberation from samsara, enlightenment, so much, cause numberless sentient beings through Dharma practice. So then, if these things become obstacles, the sleep, drowsiness, then you can’t remember the teachings clear, so laziness, so then you lose all these things, such as this perfect human rebirth that you can achieve all these unbelievable things and then this is just about one time and doesn’t last long, this can be stopped any time. So therefore, so the little time that we have if we, drowsiness and we spend in laziness and all this, then just the pleasures of this life and then attachment, so such as the attachment, can’t achieve realization, can’t achieve liberation, can’t achieve, not only can’t achieve enlightenment, can’t achieve liberation from samsara, then even the happiness of future lives cannot achieve [a few words inaudible].

Then he says, the next one, [Tibetan] so always attempt perseverances.