Author Topic: Offerings... an act of Generosity!  (Read 7480 times)

Positive Change

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Offerings... an act of Generosity!
« on: July 31, 2012, 12:39:50 PM »
Dana the perfection of generosity

Uh-oh It's about money

Most of us have made different kinds of donations or offerings to teachers and institutions that help us in various different capacities.  However, in the West, there is no infrastructure in place to take care of those who are generous with their time and energy by providing dharma teachings. Often extensive travel is involved, which is very expensive.  It is for those reasons that students of Buddhism will often see signs with "suggested donation" followed by an amount of money.

Did you know that you can participate in a retreat by supporting another's practice?

Puja

The offerings directed to deities, Buddhas, or Bodhisattvas are of a different nature; these donations are made in order to create connections with them.  The Sanskrit word for offering is puja meaning to please.

Offerings please the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, not because they are pleased to receive gifts, but because they delight in the virtue of the givers, which is determined by the quality of their motivation in making the offering. Offerings need not even be material. Milarepa offered his spiritual practice, his most cherished attribute. The best offerings are of virtuous accomplishments. Thus, the offering of religious practice is what most pleases the deities and creates a bond between them and the practitioner, which provides a basis for his/her further development.

Several factors determine the quality of an offering. Prominent is the giver's motivation, though the status of the recipient and the nature of the offering also contribute. The giver acquires the greatest merit when he/she is motivated by a wish to attain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is much less if he/she aspires for his/her own enlightenment alone and even less if he/she wishes merely to obtain a good rebirth in his/her next life. The poorest motivation is the wish to gain some benefits in this lifetime, such as wealth and a long life, or to be completely mundane in seeking a reputation  for generosity.

The status of the recipient is an important factor. The merit gained by making an offering with absolutely pure motivation to a Buddha is immeasurable. Since images and other manifestations of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are to be regarded as no different from them in nature, making offerings such as are made to the mandala deities in the consecration rituals is equivalent to making offerings to the Buddhas.

The Buddhas are exalted objects of offering because they are the ultimate source of refuge, not because they will snatch us out of cyclic existence, but because the teachings they demonstrate enable us to do so ourselves. One's own lama or teacher is also an exalted object of offering, because it is due to his personal kindness and guidance that one can make any progress on the path of development for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Nevertheless, since pure motivation is so important, a gift made with a very pure motivation to a needy person is also very meritorious.  One can reflect that this needy person has at sometime been one's own kind mother or consider the fact that one depends on others to attain enlightenment, for without them one would have no opportunity to practice giving, ethics and forbearance, which are essential in the quest for Buddhahood.  Thus it could be said that the merit obtained from making a modest gift to a needy person with an exalted motivation is far greater than one made to a Buddha with a poor motivation.

Whatever is offered should always have been honestly obtained, for a wrongly acquired object severely detracts from the wholesome quality of giving it.  Offerings should always be of the best one has.  Food offered to the Buddhas should not be bad or rotten on the pretext that no one will eat it. It is good to offer one's own food before eating it. Since the main purpose of making offerings is to reduce avarice, one should do so without a trace of regret. The Buddha recommended that avaricious people should initially accustom their minds to sharing by giving something from one hand to the other.

Honoring the Deities

Tantric Buddhism uses the skillful means of ritual as a form of training.  The methods include self-purification, the development of virtues ("perfections") such as humility and generosity, and a devotion to forms ie. deity worship and the commitment to regularly attend to unseen beings.  While deities are ultimately understood to emerge from, and to return to Emptiness, they are also viewed as having existence.

The Heart Sutra encapsulates the fundamental principle behind what some might find to be a contradiction in terms.

Not all deities must be worshipped on a regular basis, but a lama can make regular deity practice a requirement for receiving the transmission or empowerment of  certain deities.  When a teaching is announced with the phrase "certain commitments may be imposed" the student might like to inquire beforehand what they might entail.  Commitments range from adopting a respectful attitude, repeating a mantra or engaging in a formal bond or samaya [vow] to undertake a number of prayers, mantras, or daily ritual practices.

Flowers

The ten blessings that are traditionally considered to accrue from offering flowers are: A long life; good health; strength; beauty; wisdom; ease of progress along the Buddhist Path; future rebirth in pleasant environment;  rebirth as an attractive person with a fine complexion and hair; having a sweet-scented body, and pleasant relationships with others.

Fire

In 1996, the 12th Tai Situ explained fire offerings:

Three Types

The 3 kinds of offering involving fire are the sang, the sur, and the third which is the jin-seig. There are also various types of these.

The major objective of any fire puja [worship ritual] is offering. You put the food and whatever ingredients into the fire.  As the fire burns, the offering is consumed.  When everything is totally burnt the offering has been accomplished.

In a sang, the smoke is being offered. In a sur, it is the scent. And in the jen-seig, it the actual fire itself, the flames and the burning.

Four Categories of Intended Recipient

These offerings are made to 4 different categories of recipient. The first one consists of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and the deities. The second comprises protectors, and very high spiritual gods [Brahma, Indra, etc.] The third category consists of all sentient beings.  And the fourth consists of ghosts, and hungry ghosts, and also all those to whom one owes karmic debts.  The first two offerings are referred to as just that: offerings, gifts. However, the last two are called "generous gifts" they are especial expressions of generosity.

Sang, or Smoke Offering

Sang focuses on mountain deities, sky gods, river gods, and all such gods of location. It is especially intended for these. Although we invite the gods of the entire universe, we are especially honouring the local deities. This is normally performed on the house-top, or the peak of a mountain, and the smoke is usually quite big.

It is very important that the products used for the sang be clean, and 100% vegetarian. No meat or animal products [such as butter or musk] can be used.

Sang-sol, is a ceremony performed by Tibetans on the occasion of all kinds of significant events. The housewife, or any other individual, or a lama in the interests of a group, will go up on the roof of a building or to another high spot to burn juniper branches or other fragrant substances.  The aromatic smoke is offered to local deities and the beings of all the realms. This is actually the simplest form of incense offering.

The wood should be clean and free of insects, and the offering is usually made in the morning. There are a variety of offering prayers.

Sur or Smell Offering

Although a sur is for all 4 categories, it is mainly directed towards ghosts and spirits, and beings to whom one has karmic debts. We can give anything to them, all types of foods. In fact, some surs need to be non-vegetarian.  That is, we also burn meat.

Vegetarian and non-vegetarian surs are two distinct types, and they are kept separate. Even the prayers are kept separate, and a different fire has to be built for each type.

Jin-seig, the Fire Offering

Jin-seig concentrates on a deity. Therefore, each jin-seig has different components depending on the type of deity. It is only done by a priest, not by the general public. [It is a true fire sacrifice deriving from the Vedic tradition.] In fact, an ordinary person is not supposed to handle the substances intended for these offerings.

[It uses special utensils.] A special order must be followed, and there are particular times and places for this type of offering. Every substance must be handled and offered according to the ritual.

Four kinds of jin-seig relate to the types of deity. That is, peaceful, wrathful, powerful, and magnetizing.  Sometimes there is a combination of all four aspect.

Honour to the Protectors

At large institutions, there are separate gonkang or chapels specifically dedicated to the dharmapalas.  Where there is only one shrine, the protector deities have a special place in relation to the other figures and items. 

A practitioner advises,

"If you've had an "entrustment" to a particular protector, you *must* do them daily.

We've only received transmissions, which technically means if we miss a day, we don't have to go to extraordinary lengths to repair our samaya vows.

We do our protector prayers every night. It was explained to us that one cannot expect a favor of a friend if one never invites them over to dinner. I have a friend who has received entrustment, and in a fit of busy-ness forgot to do her protector prayer that day. She approached her lama, who had to go to great lengths and expense in order to repair the situation.

If one hasn't already got a protector practice, doing them on the 9th, 19th, and 29th days of the lunar month is appropriate, and probably sufficient, unless your lama advises you to do them more often, or less...

Protector practices help to clear obstacles on the path, so it stands to reason that a healthy protector practice might afford one more advantage in attaining realization."

Other Symbolic Offerings

Another kind of offering consists of tormas. These are the special cakes originally made of roasted barley flour, but now they are often very elaborate and made of a non-perishable substance such as clay or Plasticene.

In tangkas and other kinds of symbolic representations there sometimes appear at the foot of the main image, ie. in the foreground, some sets of offerings. On an 18th century painted scroll or, tangka, no deity is portrayed.  However, we can recognize that it is intended as a tribute to the guardian deity, Mahakala, for we can see his various "attributes" or implements along with various sets of offerings traditionally believed to please him.   

Offerings made to a wrathful deity include special protector cakes (T. dragpoi torma)" - made of different types of flour and water or milk to which alcohol, blood, pieces of meat, or some medicine may be added. These cakes, which have a stepping, pyramidal appearance, are specific to wrathful deities with their wavy outer lines representing smoke and flames. "

Another special torma or offering cake is present on the shrine which stands for the five senses. "It consists of the disembodied organs of the senses sitting in a skull cup. To the right of this is an incense burner which would probably contain burning poisonous datura leaves and/or a black incense known as gu gul."

Sets of Offerings

Two sets of offerings depicted in the Mahakala banner mentioned above appear frequently in other aids to visualization:

Seven Jewels of Royal Power (T. rgyal-srid rin-chen sna-bdun, Skt. saptaratna) are the accessories of a universal monarch (T. khor-los bsgyur-bai rgyal-po, Skt. chakravartin). They represent the accoutrements that a king must possess in order to stay in power. 

The precious queen (T. btsun-mo, Skt. raniratna)- who completes the poles where the chakravartin is the masculine aspect, and she the feminine. Those working to abandon negative mental states regard her as mother or sister. Her beauty and love for her husband are representative of the radiating, piercing joy of the Buddha's enlightenment.

The precious general (T. dmag-dpon rinpoche, Skt. senapatiratna) symbolizes the wrathful power to overcome enemies.

The precious horse (T. rta-mchog rinpoche, Skt. asvaratna) serves as the chakravartin's personal mount and shares similarities with the lung ta referred to earlier, both in appearance and in the ability to travel among the clouds.  Its qualities mirror the Buddha's abandonment of, or "rising above", the cares of worldly existence.

The precious jewel (T. nor-bu rinpoche, Skt. maniratna), which is depicted on the back of the precious horse and separately in the upper left corner, deals with the themes of wealth and unfolding (power and possibility).  The jewel is said to aid the chakravartin in his ability to see all things.  In the same way, a Buddha can perceive all things; recognizing the manifold connections between all events, the relentless chain of cause and effect, and the nature of compounded existence.

The precious minister or householder (T. blon-po rinpoche, Skt. parinayakaratna) represent two different aspects of the rule of the chakravartin which are closely related.  The minister aids the chakravartin in carrying out his commands expeditiously, while the householder provides the very basic support, given with devotion, without which the chakravartin would be unable to rule.  The knowledge of the Buddha, like the minister, is always present to him who has realized it, allowing him to cut through the bonds of ignorance. While the householder represents the support of the lay community, without which the monastic community could not continue. Each community playing its part, the lay providing physical sustenance, and the monastic, the sustenance of the Dharma.

The precious elephant (T. glang-po rinpoche, Skt. hastiratna)  The elephant is a symbol of both strength and the untamed mind in Buddhism. The precious elephant represents the strength of one's mind tamed, through Buddhist practice.  Exhibiting noble gentleness, the precious elephant serves as a symbol of the calm majesty possessed by one who is on the path.  Specifically, he embodies the boundless powers of the Buddha which are miraculous aspiration, effort, intention,
and analysis.

The precious wheel (T. khor-lo rinpoche, Skt. chakraratna), which is depicted both on the back of the precious elephant and separately in the upper left corner below the precious jewel, is a symbol of motion and power, representing the ability to "roll over" all obstacles. In Buddhism it symbolizes the truth and power of the noble path as realized and taught by the Buddha to deliver all from suffering.  For just as the chakravartin has conquered the world, so the Buddha has overcome the defilements with the aid of the Dharma."

Ensapa

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Re: Offerings... an act of Generosity!
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2012, 06:09:16 PM »
here's another brief explanation on the various offerings for the beginner.

Quote
What offerings do Buddhists make and why?
Most Buddhist altars display some sort of offering. Making offerings allows one to practice giving, express gratitude and respect, and reflect upon the life sustaining law of interdependence. A Buddhist offering is not a sacrifice it never involves killing and it is not given in order to please the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Rather, it is an act of veneration for the Triple Gem. As such, 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. Some common offerings and their symbolic import are:

Flowers: Flowers are beautiful and fragrant. Yet, their splendour will not last forever, and as such they illustrate the impermanence of all things.
Fruit: Fruit is nutritious, as well as pleasing to the taste. It also represents the result of our spiritual cultivation and helps us be mindful of the law of cause and effect.
Grain: Grain is a basic dietary staple necessary to sustain life.
Incense: Aromatic incense purifies the atmosphere as well as the mind. Just as its fragrance travels afar, so do good deeds extend to the benefit of all. Burning incense also embodies the transience and dissolution of phenomena.
Light: Light extinguishes darkness in the same way that wisdom dispels ignorance.
Water: Water signifies the force of life and washes away impurities.


pgdharma

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Re: Offerings... an act of Generosity!
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2012, 07:06:19 AM »
It is a common custom for people to make offerings at the shrine in the home or temple as a way of expressing one’s appreciation and veneration to the Three Jewels.  We offer the best that we consider as pleasant, pure or valuable. We make offerings to the Three Jewels to create positive energy and develop good qualities such as giving/generosity with the right motivation and to collect merits.

We do not make offering because the Buddha needs our offerings. The Buddha has purified all defilement and enjoyed the bliss that come from wisdom, Buddha do not need an incense or any offerings to be happy.  Neither do we made offering to win Buddha favour. The Buddha has developed impartial love and compassion and will not be swayed by flattery and bribery by us.  However, making offering is a way  for us to create positive potential and to develop our mind.

RedLantern

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Re: Offerings... an act of Generosity!
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2012, 03:30:38 PM »
In Buddhism,symbolic offerings are made to the three jewels giving rise to contemplative gratitude and inspiration.Material offerings involve simple objects such as a lit candle or oil lamp,burning incence,flowers fruits,water or drinks.
Traditional Buddhist framework of karma and rebirth.Offerrings.lead to a better rebirth,progress towards release from sufferings. The lighting of candle or oil lamp represent the light of wisdom illuminating the darkness of ignorance. The offering of incense represents the fragrant scent of morality. Flower represents the aspiration to achieve the body of the Buddha with the 32 marks of the Buddha as well as the teaching of
impermanence.Alternately a Zen verse were express the desire for the mind's flower to bloom in the springtime of enlightenment. Food,fruit,water, drinks represent the nectar of Dharma and the wish to achieve it
In some traditions,two different types of offerings are identified which are material and hospitality offerings.
In  this context ,material offering are considered external offerings of 'words and deeds.'
Practice offerings may be manifested by practicing.


brian

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Re: Offerings... an act of Generosity!
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2012, 06:32:45 PM »
It is a common custom for people to make offerings at the shrine in the home or temple as a way of expressing one’s appreciation and veneration to the Three Jewels.  We offer the best that we consider as pleasant, pure or valuable. We make offerings to the Three Jewels to create positive energy and develop good qualities such as giving/generosity with the right motivation and to collect merits.

We do not make offering because the Buddha needs our offerings. The Buddha has purified all defilement and enjoyed the bliss that come from wisdom, Buddha do not need an incense or any offerings to be happy.  Neither do we made offering to win Buddha favour. The Buddha has developed impartial love and compassion and will not be swayed by flattery and bribery by us.  However, making offering is a way  for us to create positive potential and to develop our mind.

Offering the best from what you can best afford also is a way for us to let go of attachment and practice generosity and discard miserliness. Offering to the Buddha is the best thing to do in our life apart from learning the Dharma. When you offer to your best ability to the Three Jewels, it is said to be collecting merit because we are able to learn how to detach from our attachment and Buddha have said before that by offering anything to His images is as good as making offerings to Himself directly.

biggyboy

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Re: Offerings... an act of Generosity!
« Reply #5 on: August 04, 2012, 07:48:44 PM »
According to the Buddha sharing whatever we have, whether it be money, time, work, nurture or resources, is one of the central pillars of a spiritual life.

In the course of our act of giving, we develop an ability to let go and cultivate a spirit of caring over time.  An act of generosity that can be spontaneous giving due to wanting or desire to support. It is important to offer with mindfulness with a heart that really letting it go and free from grasping and not expecting something in return ...genuine wish to help others.

The karmic result of generosity is to live with abundance, to live fearlessly and to live open hearted with a strong sense of kinship and interconnectedness within the web of life.

A general guideline of the Dana / Ubuntu Economy is ‘Give what you can and only take what you need.’ The direct practice of generosity transforms greed and supports an inner attitude of letting go or renunciation. In these times when global resources are severely challenged, we face the reality that our collective sustainability is under threat. A direct remedy is therefore for each of us to learn to live more simply. The Dharma teaches us that endlessly seeking the fulfillment of desires can never bring about peace. Peace and deep contentment arises with the letting go of desire.

A Teaching From Master Hua

Giving cures greed, if you are unable to let go, practice giving. Only through giving can you gain. If you don't give you can't gain anything. Giving and Receiving. You have to give to receive.

There is the giving of wealth, of Dharma and the giving of fearlessness.

1. The Giving of Wealth - This means giving money, goods and resources, including sharing the wealth of your blessings and virtue. When you give you should empty three aspect of giving: 'there is no giver, no receiver and nothing that is given or received.'

2. The Giving of Dharma - This means bestowing teachings that awaken, encourage and transform (the Buddha-Dharma) upon living beings who request it. Speak the Dharma to help those who are hungry and thirsty for it.

3. The Giving of Fearlessness - This means that when living beings are in fear, you comfort them and help them not to be afraid. In fearlessly standing by others you protect and support them.

lotus1

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Re: Offerings... an act of Generosity!
« Reply #6 on: August 04, 2012, 08:33:53 PM »
As mentioned by Positive Change, “the highest form of offerings, are the offering of virtuous accomplishments. Offerings need not even be material.” It is the motivations when we do offerings that count. For one who are poor, or do not know what to offer, water offerings would be the simplest yet with lots of benefits.

According to Lamrim, water has eight properties. The eight properties of water and the corresponding benefits are:
1 Cool – Your ethics will be pure because the water you offer is cool.
2 Delicious – Because it is also delicious, you will come to enjoy most delicious food.
3 Light – The lightness of the water means your mind and body will become fit [and pliable].
4 Soft – The water’s softness results in a gentle mind stream.
5 Clear – A clear mind results from the water’s clearness.
6 Odorless – Its odorlessness will purify you of [karmic] obscurations.
7 Easy on the throat – Its being easy on the throat means you will come to have pleasant speech.
8 Kind to the stomach – Because the water does not hurt the stomach, your body will be free of illness.

dsiluvu

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Re: Offerings... an act of Generosity!
« Reply #7 on: August 04, 2012, 09:05:27 PM »
Offering is an act of generosity which is one of the 6 paramitas or 6 perfections which is part of a Boddhisattva's action.

The Bodhisattva's Actions

The six perfections (paramitas) are: generosity, ethics, patience, enthusiastic perseverance, concentration and wisdom. For each perfection we will be looking at its meaning, the method of following it, its divisions and what should be done in the practice of that perfection.]

Even though we try to meditate on teachings such as the development path of the Highest Yoga Tantra, the Madhyamaka, the Mahamudra and Kundalini Yoga, with the expectation of reaching enlightenment, if we do this without bodhicitta, we cannot pass through the door of the Mahayana path, let alone get closer to that supreme and perfect goal. Therefore, bodhicitta should be the main point in the practice of all practitioners, those who thirst for the most supreme happiness. After numberless eons of observation, even the Buddha's omniscient holy mind could not find any door of entry to the Path nor any special method other than bodhicitta.

When we take the Bodhicitta vows, with prayers, in the presence of a holy object, we receive the bodhicitta ordination that was not received before and we are able to keep it without letting it degenerate. But merely receiving the Bodhicitta vows is not enough; they must be put into action, just as merely having the will to go to some country and save living beings suffering there from some epidemic disease is not enough—it is necessary to act by going there with the required equipment.

Therefore, to benefit the innumerable, different, suffering living beings through being enlightened, it is necessary to achieve the two kayas: the rupakaya and the dharmakaya. To achieve these two results, it is necessary to follow the inseparable path of method and wisdom. All the buddhas' deeds are included in method and wisdom. The first five perfections are the method and the last perfection, penetrative insight, is the wisdom.

Source: http://www.bodhicitta.net/Six%20Perfections.htm

Manjushri

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Re: Offerings... an act of Generosity!
« Reply #8 on: August 05, 2012, 09:22:33 PM »
How often have we, wanting to buy an offering or something for the altar (or even someone), tailor it to satisfy our own conditions and rules. We'd buy the cheapest alternative, sometimes don't buy at all, because we are all so attached to what we have, and what we are "giving up". Offerings are the best way to rid one's attachment, especially to materialism. Offer up the best, for it will always come back to you. There are mayn benefits stated in the Lamrim with respect to offerings. Give what your heart can afford, with much sincerity, and your offering could be as possible as someone who have laid gold all over their altars/offerings, as it is a form of "giving all you have". This quality enables you to surrender to the Dharma.

In the Lamrim, there are benefits even in offering water from your heart:

Water Offerings
When we offer water, we should try to offer water that is cool, delicious to taste, light, soft, clear, sweet smelling, good for the digestion, and soothing on the throat. Offering cool water causes us to develop pure moral discipline, offering delicious water ensures that we will always find delicious food and drink in future lives, offering light water will cause us to experience the bliss of physical suppleness, offering soft water makes our mind calm and gentle, offering clear water makes our mind clear and alert, offering sweet smelling water brings easy and powerful purification of negative karma, offering water that is good for the digestion reduces our illnesses, and offering water that soothes the throat makes our speech beautiful and powerful. If we cannot find water that possesses these eight qualities, we should imagine that we are offering such water and then we shall receive the same benefits. 

buddhalovely

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Re: Offerings... an act of Generosity!
« Reply #9 on: August 06, 2012, 08:54:05 AM »
Meaning and Purpose
The basis for offering is the practice of generosity. Generosity helps us to be less self-cherishing and thereby more loving to others. In the Buddhist tradition one makes offerings to the Three Jewels which are the Buddha, Dharma, the Sangha and the Lama that embodies all three. Offerings are a way of honoring the mind of Enlightenment and the potential within all of us to awaken to our true nature. Also one makes offerings with joy and sincere appreciation for the countless blessings we have been given by our teachers who by their supreme generosity have given us the Path and a way to end our suffering. The practice of offering is another way to acknowledge the boundless love and infinite compassion shown to us by all those who have attained Enlightenment solely for the benefit of sentient beings.

On a deeper level, the practice of offering can be done mentally, where one offers everything one sees and experiences such as the beauty of fresh flowers, the wonderful scents in our world like freshly baked bread, the comfort we feel from being warm when it’s cold outside, the taste of delicious food, the happiness we feel when we see a friend we haven’t seen in a while. As we walk through a mall, we can even offer everything we see and experience; all the beautiful colors and the amazing array of gadgets, clothes, furniture, etc. When one is practicing generosity in this way, it is also viewed as a way of renouncing our attachment to these worldly things that are impermanent anyway and only give us temporary happiness. This method of practice if cultivated, becomes a potent way of accumulating merit and virtue that can then be offered for the benefit of sentient beings.

What to Offer
Usually one offers that very best that can be obtained or that one has the means to offer. If the offering is given sincerely from the heart, then whatever is given becomes a treasure. Flowers, light, incense, perfume or sweet sent, pure water, conch shell (music), food are the traditional offerings. In addition, crystals, jewelry, malas and money would be suitable offerings.

How To Make Offerings
When entering the Shrine room three prostrations are made to the altar. Then one would generate the Bodhichitta thought, which is the sincere wish or motivation to be of benefit to sentient beings by working to achieve enlightenment. The offering is made on the lowest level of the altar or could be placed at the base or foot of the altar. In the case of offering a mala, the mala should be placed on the foot of the image of the Buddha but never around the neck. If offering a BLESSED mala, the mala once it has been offered can never again be used for personal use. The practice of offering is considered to be a virtuous act, it is important to remember to dedicate the merit and offer it as well for the benefit of all sentient beings.

What Not To Offer
It is best not to offer anything sour or bitter line lemons or limes. Also one would not offer an image of the Buddha such as a statue or a photograph or the Buddha.

When to Make an Offering
Offerings can be made an anytime on wishes, however, on the Tibetan lunar calendar there are auspicious days that are traditionally observed when merit is increased by making offerings. For example, the 10th Day or Guru Rinpoche Day, the 25th Day or Dakini Day, 10 Million Days (there are four during the year) which mark different events in the life of Shakyamuni Buddha, and Losar the Tibetan New Year.