Offering Bowls

[Ayla]

Hello,
   I had another question. I want to buy a set of offering bowls but unfortunately I can't afford metal ones. I was wondering if I could use small bowls that you would normally put small amounts of spices in? Would that be appropriate??
P.S. Please go to
 http://www.corelle.com/index.asp?pageId=4&pid=74
 and scroll down to the 6 oz bowl (it should be the 4th bowl from the top)

[spiritnoname]

 Ahh, those look good! Corelle dishes are good, not so easy to break and you can microwave them too hehe.

 If you are really pressed for cash, you might be able to find a good set of bowls at thrift stores, or ikea (dunno if they have that where you live). My mom has a habit of buying dishes she doesn't need, and she bought a bunch of bowls perfect for water offering from ikea, I like them :p

 I'm lucky, almost all my shrine things people gave to me. Really! I buy the offerings, but besides that just my bell and dorje, a khata, a few books, a singing bowl and a few little things that cost only a little bit of money, oh and my malas, I dunno if that counts as shrine stuff though. Everything else was laying around the house or gifts. The actual shrine furniture was even laying in my garage for years before one day I was thinking about buying a shrine cabinet so I could make more offerings and I was cleaning the garage and I realized I had something that would work as a great shrine in the garage!

[zhiling]

I use Ice-cream glassware and some are Japanese drinking cup for my water offering bowl.  

[yongjoon]

should the number of water offering bowls be 7 or 8? what is the different?

[spiritnoname]

Some people offer 100 bowls at a time, for example people who are doing Medicine Buddha practice.

 The difference in number is just a difference in tradition of practice, some people offer three bowls of water, some people have 7 bowls but only 2 have water in them. Unless you're doing a particular practice that requires a particular set up I don't think it's really important the number of bowls.

 If you worry about how many, offer 7 bowls, then offer an extra one, lol.

[greasypalm]

Found this resource from a website years ago:

"There is no limitations to what can be offered, and there are many levels of offering. In general, one can offer any pleasing object,
particularly objects pleasing to the five senses-form, sound, smell,taste, and touch. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition it is customary
to offer seven bowls of water which represent the seven limbs of prayer prostrating, offering, confession, rejoicing in the good
qualities of oneself and others, requesting the buddhas to remain in this world, beseeching them to teach others, and dedicating the
merits. Flowers, candles or butterlamps,a and incense are also commonly offered.

It is best to offer things that you already have or can obtain without difficulty. Don't think that you have to deceive others in order to get offering materials-they should not come from stealing, cheating or hurting others in any way. Rather, they should be honestly obtained. In fact, it is better not to offer things that were obtained in even a slightly negative way."

Also quoting from the book Path of a Bodhisattva Warrior (sorry - a little long winded but a brilliant book to possess!), "From the side of the refuge objects, the quality of the substance is insignificant.  As Arya Maitreya says in An Ornament of the Clear Realizations, 'An unpleasant taste becomes pleasant [to the Enlightened Beings]'. The Buddhas dwell in constant bliss, so for them there is no difference between good and bad. But from the viewpoint of the person making the offering there is considerable difference. Therefore to offer something inferior and then to visualise that it is the best only undermine the act of offering and destroys the merit involved.

As for the offering vessels to be used, the best are made from gold or silver. Medium quality vessels are made from brass or copper. The simplest are made from clay or wood. The quality of the vessels does not matter, although it is said to be important to use the best that one can afford.

Whether or not the offering is small or large is of little concern so long as the mind of the practitioner is not dominated by worldly considerations. The smallest offering made with a pure heart surpasses a large offering made impurely.

The practice of making daily offerings generates the merit that causes material prosperity to increase. This does not mean that one should engage in the practice in order to become wealthy as an end in itself; one should have the Mahayana aspiration of wanting to improve one's merit in order to be of greater benefit to the world. The main emphasis should be on the spirit of altruism. But if we are poor and can only afford to make very small offerings, we should do so daily. Then soon we will be in a position to increase the size and quality of the offering.

This was illustrated by the biography of Lama Drub-khang Rinpoche Glek Gyatso. In the beginning of his life he was so poor that all he owned was a wooden tea bowl. From this he would eat and drink whatever simple foods he could get. Then at the beginning of his meditation sessions he would wash the bowl out and fill it with water 8 times, each time placing it on his altar for a few moments. He also had a piece of slate he would use as a base for the mandala offering symbolic of the universe. After sometime, his merits increased and his karmic obstacles were weakened. He no longer needed to use his tea cup for offering bowls and instead had bowls of engraved silver. The slate mandala base was replaced by an iron one and then by silver. The grain he had been using for the mandala offering was replaced by precious and semi-precious gems.

That lama himself once said, "In the beginning of my practice I was dressed in rags. Often I did not even have plain barley flour to eat. But I made my water offerings daily. Then someone gave me a Nepalese coin which I used in order to buy butter. The temple in my monastery had a special butter-lamp that when filled would burn for 2 days. It was my plan to use half of my butter to fill this and to keep the other half for myself. However, when I melted the half portion of butter and poured it into the lamp, the vessel became only half filled. Therefore I melted the rest and poured it in as well. I made this offering at the time of the festival in celebration of Tsong Khapa's birthday, enlightenment and passing away. After that my fortunes completely changed. Now I am able to make many hundreds of excellent offerings daily and my resources never seem to become depleted." 

Hope the above is useful knowledge.

[Ayla]

Thank you for all of your kind advice, suggestions and wonderful words of encouragement! I really appreciate it and I will go get the bowls when I can. Again thank you so much!

[pasquale2k]

Actually when comes to offerings, is really depend on your heart and your motivation, even you offered small little bowl of water, still the called offerings, of course if you can afford, offered the best thing you can to buddha........

[wmw111]

7 is the seven steps that Buddha took when he was born , and at the seven steps he proclaimed this will be his last uncontrolled rebirth.  The example from Greasypalm is probably valid also .

8 represent the 8 sensory offerings : )

I started off with tiny cups of plastic , now I have about 3 sets of silver bowls,  I want more !

[greasypalm]

Way to go WMW111 and let's all make good aspirations and offerings to the 3 Jewels that our practice will not wane but increase forever and with clarity.

[Ayla]

 i went to go get the bowls and the store I went to didn't have them i did however find little metal "condement cups" Please click the address below to see. I think they not only are cute but i think they will work.

http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=746&f=7901

[greasypalm]

Ayla - that looks fine.  Please note, the things offered or used to offer has no mindstream. So it is from your heart - that is what counts. Good luck!

[spiritnoname]

I like stainless steel, but I worry, some stainless steel can actually rust some. Not like normal steel does, but still it can.

[pasquale2k]

Go to Kechara Paradise and look for Stainless Steel Offerings bowls, there do sell nice and high quality 1.......

If you can afford, buy the silver offerings bowls...

Cheers....

[justahripz]

Yep i have been there too, done that also, I started out with the chinese bowls you use for rice, you know the cheap ones white porcelain with blue prints on the outside, you can find them in any chinese supplies store.

When i first had them i thought they were soo good, but you can't keep offering something thats below what you could afford otherwise it wouldn't be the best offering to make huh.

So like WMW, i upgraded my offerings to next level and now have 2 sets of silver offering bowls, 1 silver butterlamp.

Beg borrow but don't steal, to get the best offerings you can afford:) After all its a direct way to make merits daily!