Lama Zopa Rinpoche

these offerings.” Even without bodhicitta, the merit of offering to the many fully ordained
monks is unbelievable. The higher number of vows they live in, the more unbelievable merit
we collect by making offerings of food, tea, money or whatever.
Even offering to one monk with bodhicitta motivation collects skies of merit. There are
thousands of monks in each monastery—Sera Me, Sera Je, Ganden Shartse, Ganden Jangtse,
Drepung Gomang and Drepung Loseling—so after generating bodhicitta, I think, “I make
this offering to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings.” If you offer to each monk in this
way you collect more than skies of merit.
After that, I think they are all His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s pores. Literally, pores are tiny
holes in the skin of the body but these pores are different. Pores here means not only the
disciples of the guru but, if the guru is a layperson, it can also mean his or her spouse,
children and any animals he or she has, dogs, horses and so forth. Even the guru’s neighbors
are pores.
After generating bodhicitta, while making the offering, I think wherever they are, whatever
college or khangtsen they belong to, they are His Holiness’s pores. So I offer to all the
thousands of monks in Sera Je and Sera Me thinking that they are all His Holiness’s pores.
By generating bodhicitta at the beginning and thinking of the monk to whom we are making
an offering as one of His Holiness’s pores, we collect inconceivable merit. The merit of
offering to just one statue of the Buddha is utterly beyond our comprehension, yet we collect
far more merit by offering a glass of water, tea, money or whatever to a monk we see as a
pore of His Holiness than we do by making offerings to the numberless Buddhas, the
numberless Dharma, the numberless Sangha, the numberless statues, the numberless
scriptures and the numberless stupas combined.
Now that is by thinking of just one monk as a pore of His Holiness and making an offering
to him. Of course, this is multiplied when offered in this way to all the other monks. They
are all disciples, or pores, of His Holiness, so when we make offerings to them we can think
that we are making offerings to the guru’s pores. If offering to just one monk brings greater
merit than offering to the numberless holy objects in all the universes, now there is not just
one monk but thousands of monks and many of them are fully ordained. By thinking of
them all as the pores of the guru and making offerings, the merit we create is utterly
unimaginable.
It’s the same at the centers, even in the West, when we make offerings to students who are
disciples of His Holiness. If they have received teachings or initiations from His Holiness
and see him as their guru, can you imagine the merit we create by offering them just one cup
of tea? Or a milkshake! In the West there are many things we can offer, not just momos. We
can offer ice cream or hot apple pie. By thinking of those students at your center as pores of
His Holiness and offering them something, you create incredible merit, even if there are only
three students. So it’s not just in faraway monasteries that you can create this kind of merit.
What a great opportunity we have to make ourselves beneficial for sentient beings, to help
free them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. Even if
we just offer a little candy, the merit can be unbelievable. The opportunity is always there.
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