Imaginary offerings
Making imaginary offerings is also useful in opening our minds to the practice of giving. If we can overcome the obstacles to offering our bodies, wealth and sources of merit, it will give rise to immeasurable virtue. Generally, the main obstacle to giving away our material possession is the thought that if we do so, we will have less left for ourselves. In the case of imaginary offerings, such anxiety has no place for we can cause even the smallest mental offering to become limitless.

In Tibet, in the centuries following the advent of Buddhism, rituals of offering, have taken countless forms. Offerings are laid out in a formal manner, according to specific instructions. This physical aspect of the offering is called the surpassable offering. It should be clean, honestly obtained, and offered with a proper motivation. However, the most important aspect of the offering in terms of merit, is not the physical aspect of the ritual cake or flowers, but what is imagined or meditated upon by the practitioner, the transformed aspect. This is called the unsurpassable offering.

All the physical offerings arranged in rituals provide a basis for transformation into the unsurpassable offering. Because all Buddhist offerings originated in India, many of them retain characteristics of that land. As the practitioner progresses on the path, he or she becomes less dependent on such as basis. Other unsurpassable offerings consist of non-physical substances, such as offering virtue or the awakening mind. Because these offerings are created in our minds and are based on an understanding that all phenomena are empty of intrinsic existence, their potential is limitless. By making such offerings we can acquire limitless merit.

To make an unsurpassable offering, the practitioner must have perfect motivation and a high level of meditative stabilization. If he or she can do the visualizations correctly, the splendour that appears to the mind will surpass the most exquisite mundane beauty. In the light of this the faults of ordinary existence, such as impermanence, appear obvious, which leads to a further loosening of attachment to the world and enhances the determination to be free.

Altar offerings
In every Tibetan home, a place is reserved to make offerings to the Three Jewels, the Buddha, Dharma and Spiritual Community. The Three Jewels are often represented by a statue or thangka painting, a scripture and a stupa or a reliquary object. Before them is space to set up a set of standard offerings, represented by bowls of water, and the occasional torma ritual cake or other offerings of food. The water in the bowls would be changed every morning. For a practitioner, such offerings provide a basis for transformation into unsurpassable offerings.

According to the Buddhist scriptures, all the faults in the universe are the result of sentient beings disturbing emotions. Instead of dwelling on the faults to be seen in our offerings, but imagining them as pure and faultless, we create an imprint for purifying our minds of obstruction and defilement. Therefore they are imagined as pure and beautiful as possible, incorporating the best of everything existing in the past, present and future and the ten directions of the universe.

The exalted beings to whom we make offerings do not apparently consume the physical substances before us. Nevertheless, as a basis for acquiring merit, such physical offerings should be clean, made of the best substances, attractive to ourselves and acquired through honest means. Consequently, they will form a better basis for imagining perfect offerings.

When preparing to make offerings, we should begin by meditating on the wisdom of great bliss and emptiness, imagining it has taken the form of the offering. When making the offering, we should think of it as empty of intrinsic existence. In this way, we purify the offering of its ordinary aspects and also purify our minds. We should abandon any thought of immediate benefit, especially in relation to ourselves in this life. It is also important not to entertain doubts about the quality of our offering and whether or not it pleased the exalted being to whom we presented it. Instead, think that the deity rejoiced at the offering and generated great bliss from partaking of it.

Water-bowl offerings
The traditional set of offerings, commonly represented by bowls of water, derives from the customary offerings presented to an honored guest in ancient India.

The first bowl contains clear water for the newly arrived guests to drink. The water should be imagined as pure as nectar and offered in vessels made of precious substances. In the second bowl is water for the guest to wash his or her feet; a reminder that in India people walked barefoot. In the third bowl are flowers, reminiscent of the crowns of flowers offered to women and the garlands offered to men. Masses of fragrant, beautiful flowers can be called up in the imagination.

In the fourth bowl is incense, an offering to please the sense of smell. In the imagination, billowing clouds of fragrant incense are offered. The fifth offering, pleasing to sight, is bright light commonly in the form of a lamp, which, like the sun and the moon, illuminates darkness. This light is imagined to be so clear that you can see even the smallest atoms without obstruction. Sometimes, colored lights are offered and imagined to be emanating from nectar. In Tibetan tradition different colors are believed to have various healing properties. Colored or not, the light offered should be very clear. Light is imagined as dispelling the darkness of ignorance. Shariputra, the Buddhas main disciple renowned for his intelligence, had, in a previous life, offered a bright light before a stupa. As a result, he was reborn with great intelligence.

The sixth offering consists of a bowl of scented water. Intended to soothe the mind, it is applied at the heart. Seventh is an offering of food, commonly in the form of a torma or ritual cake. In India, this offering traditionally contained three sweet substances: molasses, honey and sugar and three white substances: curd, butter and milk. In Tibet, these would be mixed with tsampa or parched barley flour to make an offering cake. The result is like ambrosia, pleasing in color, form, smell and taste. Eighth is an offering of sound. It is not represented on the altar, but can simply be imagined as beautiful music.

Offerings of the five sense objects
When making offerings of the external objects of desire, the practitioner imagines emanating offering goddesses from the heart, each holding something symbolic of one of the objects of the five senses.

Sensory Offerings

Form
Form is symbolized by a mirror, which reflects any pleasing objects before it.

Sound
Sound, is represented by the melodious sounds of musical instruments and singing. In the drawings, these are depicted by a lute.

Smell
Smell is represented by substances to soothe the mind, aromatic substances to be anointed at the heart.

Taste
Fine tasting substances are represented by a mango.

Touch
Objects of touch are offered in the form of soft cloth, or beautiful clothes. These are like celestial garments, so fine that a fold can pass under a fingernail, so extensive they could cover Mount Meru. They are warm or cool, according to need, and stunningly beautiful.

To make these offerings a meditator vividly visualizes himself or herself as a deity, as described in the Tantras, generating what is known as divine pride in that identity. The meditator then visualizes making theses offerings, each of which is carried by an offering goddess. They are emanated from the meditators heart and either make offerings to the meditator manifested as a deity or to a deity visualized in front of him.

These offerings give rise to great bliss in whoever they are offered to. Whatever tantric offerings we make should be qualified by three characteristics: their nature must be the wisdom of bliss and emptiness; their form should correspond to whatever is being offered; and they should have the power to induce uncontaminated bliss in the one they are offered to. By dissolving these offerings into the mandala deities, the practitioner gains a special power for inducing bliss. Once the particular offering has been made, each offering goddess dissolves back into the meditator's heart.

There are many meditations for making unsurpassable offerings. Many involve the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, who emerges from the meditator's heart, holding a jewel at his own heart. From this emerge countless more jewels, which spread all over the world making unsurpassable offerings. These can take the form of jewels, victory banners or any other beautiful object we can bring to mind. When non-physical offerings are made, they are given physical form to facilitate visualization.

For example, in the Offering to the Spiritual Master, the practitioner makes an offering of his or her own spiritual practice in the following form:

"On the shore of the wish-granting sea grow lotuses,
Which are offerings arisen from the virtues of cyclic existence and peace.
Both real and emanated they captivate all hearts;
Flowers, being both the worldly and supramundane virtues
Of my own and others three doors, Brighten all places.This garden is permeated by the myriad fragrances of Samantabhadra offerings
And is laden with fruit the three trainings, two states and five paths;
I offer this in order to please you, O Venerable Gurus."

Another common form of the unsurpassable offering is to offer the body, mind and roots of virtue.
In all three cases, the visualization and motivation are similar.

Offering the Body
Mentally offering the body in its ordinary aspect, can take the form of giving service to our Spiritual Masters and help to beings in need. There was once a practitioner who failed to serve his Spiritual Master well while he was alive. When the master finally passed away, the disciple realized his mistakes with regret. Since nothing he could do would alter the actual situation, he began regularly to imagine performing backbreaking labour for his master. He carried stones, buckets of water and so forth while imagining that he was helping countless beings. He further imagined that he thereby fulfilled his Spiritual Masters wishes and so redeemed his past behavior.

Another reason for offering our body in its ordinary form is to seek protection. If a man offers his body to a king and the king accepts it, the man becomes the kings subject and as such enjoys his protection. Similarly seeking mere physical protection from exalted beings is the motivation of someone with limited aspirations. The desire for protection, however, can be extended beyond mere physical defence to protection from obstacles on the path to enlightenment. In exchange for pledging body, speech and mind to the attainment of enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, the practitioner can receive support and protection from a meditational deity or Protector.

We can also offer our body by transforming it into the aspect of a wish-fulfilling jewel which can satisfy the needs of all. From it emanate innumerable offerings in the form of jewels, victory banners, umbrellas and so forth which radiate out to all beings, from the enlightened Buddhas down to the most insignificant insects. Although the Buddha has no need for such offerings, great bliss arises in his continuum as a result of partaking from them.

Bodhisattvas have almost completed the path to Buddhahood and we can imagine that our offerings clear away their last and subtlest obstructions to enlightenment. By offering our body, we can fulfil the wishes of beings in an equal or worse state to ourselves. We feed the hungry, clothe the poor, relieve the suffering of beings in worse states of rebirth and provide everything we can possibly imagine to whoever may need it.

Another way of offering the body is to visualize it in the form of a deity, free from ordinary appearances. The aim of this practice is to put a stop to ordinary appearances and to attain the great bliss which is dependent on the six senses.

Offering wealth
In this case we can imagine our wealth and possessions transformed into wish-granting jewels, able to fulfil all wishes. From this jewel emanate victory banners, flower garlands and precious objects. We can also visualize the world and our environment being purified by such precious, limitless offerings. This type of practice can create imprints for future rebirths in the pure lands.

The greatest obstacle to purifying our vision is seeing things as they ordinarily appear. Special mantras are recited to help us prevent our perceiving phenomena in that way. According to the Buddhist explanation, things appear to us the way they do because of our disturbing emotions. Because all phenomena are empty of intrinsic existence, the way they appear to us and their actual mode of existence are different in nature. Since the way in which they appear reflects the state of our mind, purifying our minds will also purify our perception of ordinary appearances. In this way, it is possible to visualize a pea as a celestial mansion and then by making an offering of that celestial mansion to create corresponding merit.

There are similar methods for making an offering of our environment. We first purify it of its impure elements and then offer it. We imagine ourselves surrounded by all the beings of the six realms of existence and, acting as their leader, offer our purified world to the Buddhas for the benefit of them all.

Offering the roots of virtue
When it comes to offering our roots of virtue, we imagine all the virtue we have created in the present, all that we have created in the past and that we will create in the future. The fruits of virtue are to acquire happiness and to be parted from suffering. By offering our virtue to others we are making a gift of those fruits to them.

A practitioner on the path to enlightenment makes many pledges. Among these are pledges to give. Specifically, he or she pledges to make four kinds of gifts: material objects, Dharma, protection from fear, and love.

Material objects
Offering material objects has already been discussed. It is to give something to others with the aim of pleasing and helping them. Sometimes, giving material objects is a means of attracting someone to a higher purpose as, for example, when a teacher offers a student gifts as an incentive to study.

Offering of Dharma
Offerings commonly consist of material objects, but what monks have to offer is the Dharma. All forms of knowledge, from crafts to literature, fall into this category. The offering of Dharma is the most precious offering of all. When a person is receptive and can put into practice what has been taught, he or she can achieve not only the temporary happiness that results from ordinary offerings, but can eventually attain the ultimate happiness of liberation from suffering. If we are not in a position to give teachings, even offering our roots of virtue is a form of offering of Dharma.

Offering of safety and protection
Saving beings by any means from the fear of being killed by hunters, wild animals, or disease, from the fear of hunger and thirst, poverty or any unpleasant situation, is to offer them safety. If you have no opportunity to help in that way, simply living peacefully, in harmony with others and refraining from any kind of harmful activity is also a form of offering freedom from fear. A common practice in Buddhist countries is to save animals from slaughter. People buy animals back from butchers and offer them the freedom to live out their natural lives. Offering freedom from fear is not isolated from other aspects of practice, since it also incorporates the practices of love and compassion. For example, the meditation on equanimity that is part of what is known as the four limitless wishes, the wish that all sentient beings be freed from anger and attachment, is a form of offering of protection. Beings freed from these disturbing emotions will not encounter situations in which they need protection.

Offering of love
All sentient beings seek happiness and wish to be parted from suffering. In making the offering of love, we should first cultivate equanimity towards all beings. Beginning with those closest to us, we then reach out to include even beings we dislike until we can generate the same feeling for all of them. By generating a boundless love that encompasses infinite sentient beings we will create correspondingly vast merit. Love here means seeing all beings freed from sufferings, attaining good rebirth, accumulating merit and high levels of realization and finally reaching Buddhahood. Similarly, love can be generated to purify the environment.