Dharma Focus
    Offering Bowls
    (The Seven Water Bowls Offerings & The Eight Offering Bowls)
    Official Website of Karma Samten Ling
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    The Seven Water
    Bowls Offerings
    The seven water bowl offerings are traditionally presented on a Buddhist altar each morning. These seven bowls
    represent the 'seven limbed practice' for purifying negative tendencies and accumulating merit.
The seven limbed
practice
    The seven limbed practice consists of:
  1. prostrations
  2. making offerings
  3. confession of non-virtuous actions
  4. rejoicing in the positive actions of oneself and others
  5. requesting the Buddhas to reach
  6. requesting the Buddhas to remain in this world
  7. dedication of merit
    Genesis of
    offering water
    In the eleventh century, when the great Indian master Atisha was on the way to visit Tibet, he passed by a river, of
    which the water flowed from the snowy mountain, the great master tasted the water of the river and praised its
    excellent qualities.  He reckoned that the water was so refreshing and pure that it would be good to offer to the
    Buddha.  So there comes the tradition of offering water.
Steps to follow
when making the
seven water bowl
offerings
  1. Arrange the bowls to form a straight line from your left to right.
  2. The space between each bowl should approximate to the thickness of one barley grain.
  3. Fill the bowls with water from your left to right.
  4. The poured stream of water, which is described as being poured 'like a barley grain', should be thin or slow at the
    beginning, thick or fast in the middle, and tapers off to a narrow stream at the end.
  5. The bowls should be filled to within a barley grain's thickness of the top of each rim.
  6. One should not directly breathe upon the water bowl offerings, as this creates defilement in one's offering to the
    deities.        
  7. At the end of the day, empty the bowls from right to left.the bowls are wiped clean and stacked upside down in
    readiness for the next morning.

The Eight
Offering Bowls

  1. The first bowl contains pure water for drinking and rinsing the mouth.
  2. The second bowl contains water for washing the feet, as in the traditional
    Indian custom of crossing a threshold with clean and bare feet.
  3. The third bowl contains fresh flowers, representing the Indian custom of
    presenting garland of flowers.
  4. The fourth bowl contains burning incense to please the sense of smell.
  5. The fifth bowl holds an oil or butter lamp to represent light as the
    illumination of wisdom.
  6. The sixth bowl contains rosewater or perfumed water for refreshing the
    face and breast.
  7. The seventh bowl contains delicious food for the honored guests. The
    Tibetan food offering usually consists of a red or white conical 'sacrificial
    cake' or torma, made from roasted barley flour, dyes, and butter.
  8. The eighth bowl, which contains a damaru or small conch, is the offering
    of music.

    * To arrange the offering bowls,
    refer to the steps of the seven
    water bowl offerings.