FUNCTIONS OF WATER
Master Jun Hong Lu:
Disciples should take note that, when you offer water to Bodhisattvas, do not place empty cups on your Buddhist altar before filling with water. Instead, the cups must be filled with some water beforehand. Water cleanses away greed. When making offerings to Bodhisattvas, you must do so wholeheartedly without any hesitation. Offering water will help subdue greed, aversion, delusion and stinginess.
Water has four functions:
1. It purifies your senses. When offering water to Bodhisattvas, your mind and body feel relaxed and healthy, and your six senses are temporarily pure.
2. It tones down your personality and softens your mind. People who drink water regularly have a calm mind while those who don’t tend to lose their temper easily. It’s the same thing when you are feeling thirsty ─ your body heats up and you become easily provoked.
3. It soothes your throat and enables you to speak clearly and articulately, which sounds pleasing to the ear. Drinking water also calms the mind and enables you to think clearly.
4. It keeps your intentions wholesome and pure.
Source: Master Jun Hong Lu’s Buddhism In Plain Terms, Volume 2 Chapter 3
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