SAMANTABHADRA BODHISATTVA’S THIRD GREAT VOW: TO MAKE ABUNDANT OFFERINGS
Master Jun Hong Lu: Samantabhadra Bodhisattva’s third great vow is to make abundant offerings. What does this mean? It means to make offerings to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the Ten Directions and Three Periods of Time and to have deep respect for Them.
When we guard our actions, speech and thoughts, all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the Ten Directions and Three Periods of Time shall receive our offerings. We also make offerings by giving the Buddha’s teachings, wealth, and with deep respect we make offerings through ensuring the purity of our body, speech and mind.
Let me ask you, when you show respect to a person, don’t you think you are ‘making offerings’ to him? When I greet someone, “How are you?” and bow to him, am I not making offerings to him?
When you see Guan Yin Bodhisattva, even if you do not make any fruit offering, when you sincerely prostrate before Her, don’t you think you are making offerings to Guan Yin Bodhisattva?
When the three actions of the body, speech and mind are used as respectful offerings, it is considered the giving of praise and worship to all Buddhas.
Your diligence in worshipping the Buddhas, praising others for doing so and you doing so yourself, these are ways to make offerings.
This also includes your every effort to persuade others to recite the Buddhist scriptures or the sacred names of the Buddhas.
Many people say “Amituofo” when greeting others. They also do the same when they bid farewell to others. As for us, the practitioners of Guan Yin Citta, our greeting is “Deepest gratitude to Guan Yin Bodhisattva”. This is what the disciples, who go on stage to ask questions, will say, “Deepest gratitude to Guan Yin Bodhisattva.”
Therefore, whenever you greet someone in this way, and you convince them to do the same, this is what ‘offering of dharma’, the giving of the Buddha’s teachings, is all about.
Source: Master Jun Hong Lu’s Buddhism In Plain Terms, Volume 11 Chapter 12
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