When we are making prostrations it is helpful to remember all the benefits. According to Sutra the ten main benefits are that in the future we will obtain:
(1) A healthy and beautiful form
(2) Rebirth in an honoured family
(3) A great circle of assistants
(4) Offerings and respect from others
(5) Abundant resources
(6) The many benefits of listening to Dharma
(7) Strong faith in the Three Jewels
(8) A good and vast memory
(9) Great wisdom
(10) A deep and vast realization of concentration
There are also many other benefits. For example, prostration purifies negative karma and creates the cause to attain the Form Body of a Buddha.
offering
There are two types of offering, ordinary and sublime. All material offerings are ordinary. They can be either actually arranged before our shrine or imagined, and they can be either owned or unowned. If we see a beautiful garden and mentally offer it to the Three Jewels, this is an owned offering because the garden belongs to someone. If we see wild flowers and mentally offer them, these are unowned offerings.
There are four types of sublime offering. Two are mentioned in Sutra Requested by Sagaramati – the offering of putting Dharma into practice and the offering of generating bodhichitta. Applying effort to learn Dharma, meditating on it and explaining it to others are all examples of the sublime offering of putting Dharma into practice. Generating the minds of love and compassion are also sublime offerings.
The third type of sublime offering, mentioned in White Lotus of Compassion Sutra, is the offering of putting into practice whatever special instructions we have received from our Spiritual Guide. The great Yogi Milarepa said:
I do not have wealth or possessions and so I cannot make material offerings, but I will repay the kindness of my Spiritual Guide by putting the Dharma he teaches into practice.
The best offering that we can make to our Spiritual Guide is to practise the instructions he or she has given us. One Kadampa Teacher said:
Any Spiritual Teacher who prefers material offerings to the practice of his disciples is not qualified and creates the cause to take rebirth in the lower realms.
The fourth type of sublime offering is the offering of our virtuous actions imagined as beautiful substances. For example, if we meditate on love we can mentally transform this virtue into a gem, or a flower or a Pure Land, and offer it to the Three Jewels.
We can mentally arrange offerings by reciting prayers such as the one included in Yeshe Tsondru’s Lamrim, Essence of Nectar, or the verses of offering from the King of Prayers of Superior Excellent Deeds Sutra:
Sacred flowers, sacred garlands,
Cymbals, balms, supreme parasols,
Supreme butter-lamps and sacred incense,
I offer to all the Conquerors.
Superb garments, supreme scents,
Medicinal powders, vast as Meru,
Everything supreme, especially arranged,
I offer to all the Conquerors.
For all the Buddhas I visualize
A vast array of unsurpassed offerings.
By the power of my faith in their excellent deeds,
I prostrate and make offerings to them all.
Or we can make offerings mentally with the short prayer:
May all of space be filled
With offerings from gods and men,
Both set out and imagined,
Like offerings of the All Good One.
confession
The practice of confession is not just a matter of verbally or mentally admitting to negative actions we have committed. Confession includes all the practices of purification. We definitely need to purify the negative actions that we have committed because they are the main cause of all our suffering and unhappiness.
Even though we may try very hard it is difficult to develop realizations. When we draw close to gaining some experience from our Dharma practice our effort often degenerates and we do not succeed. At times we may feel strong faith in our Spiritual Guide but we can lose this feeling. It is hard to develop faith in Dharma and understand the real meaning of the teachings we receive. When we try to meditate we do not find it easy to concentrate, and when we try to put Dharma into practice in our daily lives we hardly ever maintain a pure practice even for one hour. These difficulties arise because we carry a burden of negativity within our mind, the heavy inheritance of all the non-virtuous actions that we have committed.
In Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life Shantideva says:
Who purposely creates the weapons
That harm the beings in the hells?
Who creates the blazing iron ground?
From where do the tempting hallucinations arise?
The Able One says that all such things
Come only from evil minds.
To understand how our own negative actions have caused our present difficulties and unhappiness we need to study and meditate on actions and their effects, the law of karma. This will be explained in detail below. By meditating on karma we will realize that our bad experiences have been created by our negative mind, and we will see that it is much more appropriate to develop aversion for the cause than for its effect. We will easily develop regret for all the negative actions that we have committed and we will develop the determination to engage in the practice of purification to destroy the negative potentialities that those actions have left within our mind.
If we remember all the negative actions that we have committed we may become discouraged and conclude ‘I am a hopeless case. My mind is so full of negativity that I will never be able to make it pure.’ If we start to think like this we need to recall the examples of Angulimala, Tong Den and Ajatashatru. Inspired by the perverse advice of his bad friends, Angulimala killed nine hundred and ninety-nine people. He then received Dharma teachings and realized his error, but instead of giving up hope he practised purification. As a result he purified all his negative karma and gained a direct realization of emptiness in that very life. The king Ajatashatru killed his father who was a Foe Destroyer and disrobed a nun who was also a Foe Destroyer, but when he heard Buddha expound the Confession Sutra he developed strong regret and purified all his negative karma. He gained a direct realization of emptiness and attained the state of a Stream Enterer. The Brahmin Tong Den killed his mother but later purified his mind and became a great disciple of Buddha Shakyamuni.
If it is possible for such heinous crimes to be completely purified, can we doubt that our own non-virtue can be eliminated? At present our mind is like an overcast sky, but if we purify all our negativity and keep the promise to refrain from harmful actions in the future, our mind will become like a clear and cloudless sky.
In Friendly Letter Nagarjuna says:
If anyone who has previously been extremely reckless,
Later practises conscientiousness sincerely,
That person will become pure like a stainless moon.