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General Buddhism => General Buddhism => Topic started by: Jessie Fong on October 21, 2012, 01:55:38 PM
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We know that to offer the best up to the Buddhas means that we offer whatever we can afford. In doing so and in our effort to improve on the quality of offerings, we "upgrade" the quality of our offering items.
So from the common ordinary offering bowls of glass or stainless steel, we would like to use, say silver bowls. Well and fine - question is : after we have upgraded to the silver bowls, what do we do with our old bowls? Do we discard/throw away?
Same question applies to the sensory offering -- let's say I upgrade from glass sensory flower to crystal sensory flower -- can I throw away the glass flower?
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My suggestion to this is we can offer to other people especially those who are new practitioner or people that we know but can't effort to get one. Our practice is to benefit people and with this motivation we set all the time our action will heads towards the same direction.
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I think it's ok to discard or use it for other purposes if you have already replaced them with new offerings items as it's already offered. Correct me if I'm wrong, offerings like food, flowers water would be required to be replace everyday, therefore i think it is the same. The motivation to offer is the main factor for offerings. If we buy the offerings on the pretext of " we can use it late" or "consume it later" then the motivation is not pure.
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My suggestion to this is we can offer to other people especially those who are new practitioner or people that we know but can't effort to get one. Our practice is to benefit people and with this motivation we set all the time our action will heads towards the same direction.
Your suggestion is good but isn't it better if we offer new items for beginners to start their practice?
In my opinion, it is very important to show them by example the virtue of generosity and to have a mind set that to offer to Buddha, we must offer the BEST we can afford.
Since we would like them to start something very meaningful and 'sacred', it will be better we offer them new offering bowls or sensory offering items instead of used ones.
This is just my 2-cents opinion.
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Of course it's definitely better to offer "newbies" with new offering items and such.
Perhaps we can afford 2 to 3 sets to give away. If more comes along, I don't see anything wrong with getting some hand me downs until the new practitioner is able to afford to buy their own offerings of silver ones. It's definitely better than throwing it away and keeping it for no benefit. We all have been new practitioners before. Did any of you receive any used items before, example statues, pendants, etc?
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So from the common ordinary offering bowls of glass or stainless steel, we would like to use, say silver bowls. Well and fine - question is : after we have upgraded to the silver bowls, what do we do with our old bowls? Do we discard/throw away?
Same question applies to the sensory offering -- let's say I upgrade from glass sensory flower to crystal sensory flower -- can I throw away the glass flower?
It is always meritorious to upgrade and offer the best to Buddhas. In my opinion, we can discard the old ones in this case, the old stainless steel bowls or donate to the poor who may find them useful and it will benefit the poor...why not?
Similarly, this applies to the old glass sensory offering too...donate to others who may find them useful either by recycling them creatively for other use or decoration. Contrary to this, when we offer fresh flowers, wouldn't we discard them when they are withered? Shouldn't this rule applies the same if we use fresh ones as sensory offerings? Likewise, if we changed the glass type to crystal ones? Well, just my logical thoughts.
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Correct me if I am wrong but from what I understand about offerings is that once it is offered it is done i.e. offered. The Buddhas has received. Plus items are symbolic. Thus when you remove it it s fine to use for other things or even dispose.
I have been doing this all the time i.e. the "upgrade" system. I started with much less on my altar. Now I have more and I keep them. I have also offered them to friends who are setting up altars. It is not like you give second hand but the item is blessed with every prayer we do. So you are in fact giving them an item which is blessed by the Buddhas on your altar and the sincerity of your prayers. I very often give "used" mala beads to people.
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We use offering bowls to make offerings to the Buddhas. Offering bowls are the means to help us accumulate merits. The ‘used’ offering bowls can be given away to others to use as offering bowls again or for general use. We can discard them if we want to. Similarly for the glass sensory flower, it is symbolic in nature and we offer it to the Buddhas to accumulate merits. We can reuse the glass sensory flower again and again to make offering to the Buddhas or give away to others for them to make offering or for general use. We can throw away the glass sensory flower if it is not needed anymore.
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In all cases,scriptures,sacred writings and religious items should be handled and approached with respect, courtesy and humility.
a) They should not be used in inappropriate ways i.e.door steps.insect swatters furniture levellers etc.
b) The most common means of disposal is burning or burying or burying and then burning.If replaced but still usable,they may be donated to another worshiping community or person.
c) Consecrated items used in worship that are being removed but have other uses(tables,chairs,candles, sticks etc.)should have a letter of de-consecrated if it applies.
Although Traditions vary,some tradition and/or personality held convictions require that this material be buried or treated as sacred.
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Oh Jessie. I totally understand. I love to buy offering items for my altar. Every time I go overseas, I'd buy a lot of offering items that I find beautiful! Instead of putting it in a drawer and forget about it, I'd buy more offerings bowls or simply put them around the altar. My altar is so big now because I keep adding. :P
Some times I'd give them away to friends who want to set up an altar but don't have the means.
Found this in case you want to know more.
If it is necessary to dispose of written Dharma materials, they should be burned rather than thrown in the trash. When burning Dharma texts, it is taught to first recite a prayer or mantra, such as OM , AH, HUM . Then, you can visualize the letters of the texts (to be burned) absorbing into the AH and the AH absorbing into you, transmitting their wisdom to your mindstream. After that, as you continue to recite OM , AH, HUM , you can burn the texts.
It is recommended that photos or images of holy beings, deities, or other holy objects not be burned. Instead, they should be placed with respect in a stupa, tree, or other high, clean place. It has been suggested to put them into a small structure like a bird house and then seal the house. In this way, the holy images do not end up on the ground.
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Correct me if I am wrong but from what I understand about offerings is that once it is offered it is done i.e. offered. The Buddhas has received. Plus items are symbolic. Thus when you remove it it s fine to use for other things or even dispose.
I have been doing this all the time i.e. the "upgrade" system. I started with much less on my altar. Now I have more and I keep them. I have also offered them to friends who are setting up altars. It is not like you give second hand but the item is blessed with every prayer we do. So you are in fact giving them an item which is blessed by the Buddhas on your altar and the sincerity of your prayers. I very often give "used" mala beads to people.
[I do the same too. I usually give them to kids who are setting up their altar for the first time. Provided these offering items/sensory items are still in good condition. With time, these kids learn to save up and buy with their own saving nicer items to offer. ]
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One should always the best offerings which we can afford best. Altar always started from small in size and it'll grow. What i usually do to my old offering is i'll keep it and will give it to my friend if they need it. I don't see any wrong doing here because in a way we are encouraging and spread Dharma indirectly. Moreover those items were blessed.
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Dear Icy,
My suggestion is to donate these offerings that you no longer placed on your altar (provided they are still in excellent condition) to gift shop that is being ran by a spiritual organization.
By doing this:
1. You are putting recycling (good citizen of the earth!!)
2. the gift shops could sell the items to raise fund
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There are actually many ways to "dispose". A lot of them have been mentioned. So i would like to add one more...
We can actually donate back to the center or temple, so they can sometimes use for retreat purposes and loan to the newbies, if not they can also give to the newbies. Giving back to the center is good because they can also use the items for teachings etc...
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We know that to offer the best up to the Buddhas means that we offer whatever we can afford. In doing so and in our effort to improve on the quality of offerings, we "upgrade" the quality of our offering items.
So from the common ordinary offering bowls of glass or stainless steel, we would like to use, say silver bowls. Well and fine - question is : after we have upgraded to the silver bowls, what do we do with our old bowls? Do we discard/throw away?
Same question applies to the sensory offering -- let's say I upgrade from glass sensory flower to crystal sensory flower -- can I throw away the glass flower?
I suggest that you keep the old bowls and offer the new expensive bowls to your Guru.
Then you avoid the risk of looking at the expensive bowls everyday with pride.
Then also your Guru will be able to help someone with your offering.
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Thank you for all your suggestions.
We now have :
* dispose/discard -- in a respectable way, of course
* give away to someone who is just starting on the path but do not have the financial means for a lot of offering items
* offer to the temple to gift to someone else
Hope Rainbow - you suggested for me to offer the new/expensive bowls to my Guru -- in doing so, I still have my old set - how / when will I ever "upgrade"?
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You don't have to necessarily dispose of items offered on your altar,...you could always create a new altar in your home or work place and recycle the items! or yes, donate it to someone who needs/wants the items or the center or use it as a decorative item! hehe. Like diamond girl, I know that once an item is offered to the Buddhas sincerely from the heart, it's already counted. Of course, you don't go having a bad motivaiton, thinking that whatever you offer can benefit you somehow..then that's opposite to what an offering should be.
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You don't have to dispose the offering items. Sometimes you may need more offering items when you do a particular puja at home (especially when you reach higher practices) then you can use these 'older' offerings to set up an extra row of sensory offerings.
However, if you've changed everything, then the older ones which you do not use anymore, you can give them to a friend to encourage them to start their own altars, or even set up another offering set in front of a Buddha statue in your house that may not be your altar.
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I started with a simple basic altar but since then I have done a lot of upgrading. The older offerings I kept them for use during retreat, while some I offered to newbies who are setting up their altar, provided they like what I have to give away. When I first set up my altar, I had a few things given to me by a good friend and some of them are still on my altar as I still like them.
Making offerings allows one to practice giving, express gratitude and respect. It is an act of veneration for TheThree Jewels and making an offering develops wholesomeness and positive karma. While tangible objects may be given in abundance, the most perfect gift is an honest and sincere heart. So even the offerings are old or used but if given to another person who likes them, I think it is alright as the receiver visualized as a beautiful offering and offered up to The Three Jewels.
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For me I will choose to give to friends or someone who need it to help and encourage them to start up with their alters.
I received a small set of silver offering bowl from my friend a few years back as he just got a bigger set. I was very happy about it, not just because of it 'silver' but because of his kind thought and i grew up with the culture that believe that when someone give you a Buddha statue, pendant, image etc that relate to Buddhism or your practice we are lucky and the person whom give you are thinking and caring about you and your practice.
So later when I have a chance I bought lot of stainless steel bowls with motivation to make lot of water offering and i can offer to someone who i come across and want to set up the alter and i offered a few sets of them with happy mind. I also lend sensory offering to friends when they do retreat as well as we need to use many set of sensory offering for that.
We can choose ways that suit with us as long as it benefit someone and harmless.
What hope rainbow said is true and thoughtful for a practitioner and student of guru.