A Selection of Teachings from a Tibetan Buddhist Tradition

[From a teaching on Songs of Barway Dorje, Part 11, by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso.]

Before partaking of something you desire, principally food before you eat it and new clothing [before you wear it], you offer it to the Three Jewels. You are slightly going against your desire, because you come second. You don’t get to eat it right away. First you at least think about offering it to the Three Jewels. You still get to eat it, but because you become second, you are confronting desire in a certain way that slightly lessens it. That’s the real reason why we make such offerings.

In addition to that, if you find yourself eating some especially delicious food and you wish to offer the sensation of doing so to the Three Jewels, that’s fine. But you can’t be offering the food because it’s already in your mouth. That would be offering them your leftovers.

[From a Q&A session during a teaching on Songs of Barway Dorje, Part 11, by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso.]

Q: How can we purify negative thoughts that arise in meditation?

A: If a person is actually resting in recognition of the mind’s nature, then they’re resting in freshness. When a thought arises that is a recollection of previous wrongdoing, they wouldn’t entertain the recollection, which is the content of the thought. That would be stale, because it’s a past event. They look directly at the nature of the thought. And if they’re really recognizing their mind’s nature, the heightening of that recognition through the emergence of that thought would itself be enough for purification.

But in practical terms most of us are still trying to calm our minds down and work toward some kind of recognition. And if realistically that’s where we are, then the best way to deal with it is when a thought of a previous action and associated regret arise, to pause and think, “May this act of meditation purify that wrongdoing.” And then go back to the meditation.