Pūjanā

pūjanā [alt. pūjana] (T. mchod pa phul ba; C. guangxiu gongyang 廣修供養). Translated as "to make offerings," "to perform offerings," etc. This term refers to various rituals for making offering to the buddhas or other deities. There are many different types of offering ceremonies or rituals in all traditions of Buddhism. For example, simple offerings can be made in preparation for a meditation session or any other type of practice. The tantric tradition includes elaborate offering ceremonies, in which both material and mental (i.e. visualized) offerings are made to the buddhas and other deities.

Making offerings is considered to be an antidote to attachment and stinginess, and a means for generating merit.

Making offerings in preparation for a meditation session

It is common practice to make offerings to a shrine or altar containing symbols of the Buddha or other deities, or images of one's teachers. These offerings can be made in preparation for a meditation session or other practice.

The Library of Wisdom and Compassion (Vol 2) sates:

Making offerings enables you to create vast merit and cultivate the mind that delights in giving. Offer items that are pure in two regards. First, they are procured honestly, through right livelihood. Avoid obtaining offerings — or for that matter, daily life requisites — through the five wrong livelihoods of flattery, hinting, giving a small gift in the hopes of receiving a large one, coercion, or hypocrisy. Second, the offerings are given with a pure motivation — a sincere wish to practice the Buddhadharma for the sake of all beings — not simply to receive some benefit for this life alone or to have a beautiful altar.

We may offer things from our own culture and items easily available in the place where we live. It is not necessary to imitate Tibetan-style offerings. In Tibet we made food offerings and tormas (ritual cakes) out of tsampa (barley flour) because it was readily available. But in the West tsampa is hard to come by, and it seems strange to eat one thing and offer something else to the Three Jewels, so offer fruit, cookies, and other foods that you consider delicious instead of tormas made of tsampa. I do this too when traveling in other countries.

Most important, the offerings to the buddhas and bodhisattvas should be the same or better quality than what we eat. Avoid making lavish offerings with the hidden motivation of eating them later. [...]

Arrange the offerings nicely with respect for the Three Jewels and with the motivation that the Buddhadharma long endure and sentient beings benefit from it. Whether we are able to offer a lot or a little, our motivation is most important because it is the purity of our intention that determines the value of our actions. Although Milarepa was impoverished, he gained high realizations because of his strong faith, correct motivation, and joyous effort.

Making visualized offerings within the seven-branch practice

Making offerings is one branch of the seven branch practice (saptāṇga pūja). In this context it is common to offer visualized offerings.

The Library of Wisdom and Compassion (Vol 2) sates:

Making offerings reduces attachment and stinginess and increases our generosity and delight in giving. Offer actual objects on the altar — fruit, flowers, lights, incense, water, perfume, and so on — and mentally offer beautiful objects that we possess or forests, wildflowers, and other places of natural beauty that are possessed by others. When making mental offerings, imagine objects of incomparable beauty that fill the universe, offer them to the Three Jewels, and imagine them experiencing bliss from receiving your offerings.

Offer your Dharma practice — your effort, understanding, and virtue — by imagining them in the form of magnificent objects that you present to the merit field. This is the supreme offering that pleases the buddhas and bodhisattvas because it contributes to their aim of liberating all sentient beings.

As Śāntideva stresses in Engaging in the Bodhisattvas’ Deeds (Bodhicaryāvatāra), making offerings is necessary to accumulate the merit that supports us in generating bodhicitta and attaining full awakening. High bodhisattvas, such as Samantabhadra, emanate a vast display of sumptuous and glorious items that they offer to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas in all the pure lands throughout the universe. While we are currently unable to emanate these elaborate offerings, visualizing them brings great benefit because they are free from the attachment we may have for our possessions. In addition, since visualized offerings are mentally fabricated and do not exist in the way they appear, it is easier to contemplate that phenomena arise due to designation by name and concept and thus are empty of inherent existence. You may want to meditate using the verses of offering that Śāntideva wrote in chapter 2 of his inspiring book.

Sources

• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University 
• Dalai Lama; Thubten Chodron (2018), The Foundation of Buddhist Practice, The Library of Wisdom and Compassion, Volume 2, Wisdom Publications