Making Offerings

In all traditions of Tibetan spiritual practice, offerings are regularly made to spirits.

The mandala offering, part of the foundational practices of Bön as well as the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, is an offering to the first and second guests.

The practice of chöd is an offering to all four guests and particularly to karmic guests.

The dedication of merit that follows every practice is an offering to all, particularly the lower three guests who are still in samsara.

We offer the food we eat and whatever we drink. We offer what is beautiful to those above us. We offer our wastes to whomever can benefit from them.

Everything can be offered; the only limit is whatever limit we impose. In the causal vehicles a large number of offering practices are described.

Making offerings can be very simple. When Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche first visited the United States, I took him to a large grocery store. He was amazed at the amount of food in the stores. He said it was a good place to practice offering, walking through the aisles, offering the food to the four guests. We don’t even need to buy anything.

In all types of offerings, we have to use our minds and energy to make the offerings real. The actual offering is given on the imaginal level. The physical offering is the ritual that supports the actual, energetic offering.

There are many spirits who would like to participate and to receive some of the offerings, but they are too weak or afraid to come unless we invite them. When we do, they are able to attend.

Before eating a meal, offer it up to the first and second guests.

At the end of the meal, simply allow the third and fourth guests to have what remains. Nothing will disappear from our plates, but energetically something is being given and something received.

When lighting a fire, we can offer the smoke, which with imagination can be turned into anything you think a spirit will need.

Make offerings to all four of the guests.

Don’t forget the karmic guests, the beings to whom you have a connection, to whom you may owe a debt of some kind. Invite them—they are going to be in your life anyway. Open your heart and ask them to come, to receive what you are offering.

Making offerings develops the capacities of generosity, sensitivity, and compassion.

When you move to a new place, pay attention to dreams and experiences. You have new spirit neighbours as well as physical neighbours, and in both cases, it is good to develop good relationships. Make offerings to the spirits of the place.

As I wrote before, offering isn’t about getting physical substance to non-physical beings, it’s about using physical substance to empower internal practices. It’s the imagination and the feeling brought to the practice that will make it effective or not.

Making offerings is a gesture of the heart and a beautiful expression of generosity. If you consistently generate this experience in your life, it will have a positive effect.