Blog » Symposiums And Lectures » Repentance » The Merit and Virtue of Making Offerings
The Merit and Virtue of Making Offerings2014-03-07
♦ Spoken by Dharma Master Heng Shen
English Translation by Lotus Lee
Each fascicle in Emperor Liang’s Jeweled Repentance always starts with an offering. The first is the offering of incense. The reason we offer incense is in the hopes that we will not create negative karma in life after life. When we uphold the precepts, we will not suffer bad retributions in the future. This is the significance of making the offering of incense.
There are a total of ten fascicles, making a total of ten different kinds of offerings. The first is incense, the second is flowers, the third is lamps, the fourth is water, the fifth is fruit, and the sixth is tea. The praise for the sixth fascicle says: “The story of Master Zhaozhou is repeated again,” because Master Zhaozhou’s response to any question asked of him was to have some tea. In addition, Master Zhaozhou continued to travel and visit other Dharma Masters at the old age of eighty, which is a sign of his vigor and diligence. Drinking tea can help one to be more diligent. Therefore, the praise says: “How many sunset battles can the sleeping demon king win?” Blessings and wisdom require diligent cultivation to be perfected. The seventh offering is food, the eighth is jewels, the ninth is dharma, and the tenth is cloth and garments.
Making offerings of incense and flowers will garner similar wholesome retributions. There are ten kinds: first, one will born with a nice appearance; second, one’s body will not be evil-smelling; third, the fragrance of one’s blessings and precepts will pervade everywhere; fourth, one will have good nose; fifth, one will surpass all in the world and be revered by the multitudes; sixth, one’s body will always be fragrant and pure; seventh, one will take delight in, read, and uphold the proper dharma; eighth, one will have great blessings; ninth, one will be reborn in the heavens; and tenth, one will quickly attain Nirvana. In the case of each of these ten kinds of offerings, they all culminate in being reborn in the heavens and ultimately attaining Nirvana. Describing these benefits to you is to help you understand the blessings you already have. Otherwise, even if you had them, you would not know where it existed. For instance, perhaps you bowed to the Buddhas or made offerings, thus accruing a lot of merit and virtue, but if you do not know they exist, you will not make use of them. The Venerable Master said that when we are making offerings, we should not be attached to merit and virtue accrued. But if we know where the merit and virtue is and can make dedications properly, it can help us quickly attain Bodhi.
The Buddha said that making the offering of cloth and garments has ten kinds of merit and virtue (wholesome retribution). First, one’s face will have a pleasant appearance; second, one’s skin will be fine and smooth; third, dust and dirt cannot alight on one’s body; fourth, one will be born wearing wonderful clothing; fifth; one will always have fine and beautiful garments to wear; sixth, one will be replete with a sense of shame; seventh, all who see one will be respectful and delighted; eighth, one will have great wealth; ninth, one will be reborn in the heavens; and tenth, one will quickly attain Nirvana. This is the merit and virtue of making the offering of cloth.
The measure of the blessings you accrue is determined by your mind. For instance, if there are two people who have the same amount of wealth, same abilities, and make the same kinds of offerings, but if one person makes the offering with a sincere, respectful, solemn, and joyful state of mind, while the other makes the offering an ordinary affair, then the person who makes the offering respectfully and joyfully will obtain a greater amount of merit and virtue. Here is a story.
In India, there was a king, who when sitting in the garden one day, saw a golden cat. The cat traversed the distance between the garden’s east and west gate in a single leap, and the king thought this very strange, because the cat disappeared when it landed near the gate. He told his servants to dig at the spot where the cat vanished, to see if he could find the cat. What they uncovered instead was three drona-s of gold pieces. One drona is ten bushels, so there were thirty bushels of gold. In any case, it was an incredible amount of gold. When they dug nearby, there were more containers of gold. They dug all around the area encompassing five li and found gold pieces everywhere. Now the king was many times richer, but he did not dare to use his newfound wealth because the way he had obtained it was too eerie for comfort.
The king went to ask the Venerable Katyayana and said: “Venerable One, something weird happened to me. I found a lot of gold, but I’m afraid to use it. Could you observe the causes and conditions for me and tell me why this happened?” The Venerable Katyayana used his spiritual skills to observe the king’s past life, and said: “It was meant for you to find this gold.” After Kashyapa Buddha entered Nirvana, one of his disciples was going on alms round in the street, and he set his alms bowl on the ground, saying: “Who is willing to put his worldly wealth into this firm and indestructibly treasury of mine?” In that life, the king was a poor woodcutter. He had just sold the wood he had cut that day for three pennies, happened to be passing by.
The bhikshu continued: “The wealth that anyone places in this firm and indestructible treasury cannot be taken away by floods, fire, robbers, or kings.” The woodcutter was very happy when he heard this, and thought: “That’s wonderful. I will put the three pennies I earned today into this firm, indestructible treasury.” After he made this offering, he bowed to the bhikshu and made wholesome vows. He was so happy that he skipped all the way home. His home was five li away from this street, and he effectively skipped for five li straight. Before entering his house, he turned around and again made bows to the bhikshu and thanked him for giving him this opportunity. He made vows again afterwards. From that life on, he was reborn as a king in life after life, until the time of the Buddha.
The Venerable Ananda is a similar example. The Venerable Ananda was foremost in memory and learning. “The Buddhadharma is like a great ocean that flows into Ananda’s mind.” The memory of the Arhats could not compare to Ananda’s abilities, even though he was only a shrotapana. Before he had attained fruition, his memory was already exceptional; he could recollect everything that the Buddha said. A sutra can be quite long, and we might have difficulties reciting even five sentences from memory, but Ananda was fully capable of reciting the entire sutra from memory. This is also due to a wholesome retribution.
Ananda was an incense seller in a past life, and he was very sincere. He saw that a novice monk would come out for alms round every day, diligently memorizing and reciting sutras all the while. He saw this novice monk working very hard and asked how much of the sutra he would memorize in a day. The novice replied: “If I didn’t come out for alms round, I could memorize ten fascicles per day, but because I have to go on alms round, I can only get two or three.” The incense seller said: “You don’t have to come out for alms round anymore. I will provide you with everything you need.” Because of his sincere and joyful offering to support the novice in memorizing sutras, thus helping him accomplish the merit of memorizing sutra and enabling the novice to eventually become a Tripitaka Master, with this wholesome cause, the incense seller received the reward wholesome retribution of a perfect and flawless memory.
The retribution from a good cause is the best of all things. It is like being born in royalty and being in line to the throne. As an ordinary person, one might not be able to memorize even a section of the Avatamsaka Sutra even if one spent an entire lifetime trying to do so. However, the wisdom that one would obtain as a result of wholesome retributions is supreme, and would make one keen and sharp. Therefore, memorizing sutras will not be difficult. Likewise, when we are offering incense and flowers, if we do so with sincerity and simultaneously visualize making this offering to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the ten directions, then you will attain the merit and virtue of making this offering to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the ten directions. You can dedicate this merit and hope that in life after life, you will attain the Buddha’s thirty-two hallmarks, and quickly attain Nirvana; or you can dedicate it to your family and friends, so that they will quickly attain wholesome dharmas. As long as you know how to make dedications, you will reach your goals very soon.
Giving and making the offering of food is the easiest. In reality, the Buddha has no need of our offerings, because the Buddha is replete with everything in the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light. However, making offerings is a representation of our sincerity. Although the Buddha does not physically receive the offering, the one who makes the offering will naturally obtain the wholesome retribution. When you bring forth the resolve and intent to make the offering, the merit and virtue is already there. As for the ten wholesome retributions of making offerings of food, they are: first, one will have a long lifespan; second, one will obtain a pleasant appearance; third, one will have a strong physical body; fourth, one will have unobstructed eloquence; fifth, one will be fearless; sixth, one will not be lazy, and will be respected by all; seventh, one will be loved and liked by all; eighth, one will have great blessings; ninth, one will be reborn in the heavens; and tenth, one will quickly attain Nirvana. This is the merit and virtue of making the offering of food.
The Karuna-pundarika Sutra says that if a person makes an offering of flowers, bows to the Buddha, circumambulates a stupa even once, or makes an offering by putting his/her palms together in reverence, the merit and virtue accrued by this action will never be lost. You will be able to attain whichever of the three vehicles you wish. Therefore, the merit and virtue accrued from making offerings to the Buddha and the Sangha is inconceivable, but you have to know where this wealth is and how to use it. We should know where the merit and virtue is, and how to make dedications for vital ends.
Among these ten kinds of offerings, the offering of Dharma is most supreme. The Chapter on Samantabhadra’s Conduct and Vows says: Among the kinds of offerings, the offering of Dharma is the most supreme, that is to say, the offering of cultivating according to the teachings, the offering of benefiting sentient beings, the offering of gathering in sentient beings, the offering of undergoing suffering in the place of sentient beings, the offering of diligently cultivating wholesome roots of goodness, the offering of not forsaking the Bodhisattva Path, and the offering of not forsaking the Bodhi resolve. The immeasurable merit and virtue created from making those offerings, when compared with the merit and virtue from a single thought of offering the Dharma, does not equal one part in a hundred shares, one part in a thousand shares, one part in a hundred thousand nayuta kotis of shares, or even one part in an Upanishad. And why? Because all Tathagatas honor the Dharma, and cultivating according to the teachings is the source of all Buddhas. If all Bodhisattvas make the offering of Dharma, they perfect the making of offerings to all Tathagatas. Cultivation in this manner is a true offering, a vast, great, and most supreme offering. I hope that all of you can practice the making of this supreme kind of offering, dedicate the merit to ultimate and decisive ends, and quickly attain Buddhahood.
