Offering to buddha in virtual world

[nagaseeker]

If theres an app that you can download from apple app store , android market which it can let you make offering in you ipad/iphone or any android tablet/phone to the buddha image in it,will one gain any merit by the action without any real incense,water or flower ?

if yes ,then why should we offer real incense ,water or flower to buddha statue ?

if no , then why when we do our daily sadhana ,we visualize that we offer up ocean like of offering to buddha ?

[Midakpa]

Why do we offer real incense, water, or flower to the Buddha statue? Because when we pray, we invite the wisdom beings (the Buddhas who are the Field for Accumulating Merit) to come before us and be one with the commitment beings (the Buddha statues). Therefore, we must offer the best that we can afford. Even our offering bowls should be of the best quality if possible. When we visualise, we visualise Samandrabhadra clouds of offerings filling the whole of space. This is so we can accumulate a lot of merits.

Buddha Shakyamuni says: "Whenever anyone develops faith in me, I am present." Therefore, it is certain that when we recite the prayer of invitation with faith, the wisdom beings will come. That is why it is very important to make a lot of offerings, both real and visualised. Of course, in the case of a very poor monk who has only one bowl, he can visualise his offerings, for eg. he can fill his bowl with sand and visualise it as gold.

The prayer of invocation is as follows:

You, Protector of all beings,
Great Destroyer of hosts of demons,
Please, O Blessed One, Knower of All,
Come to this place with your retinue.

Once, Buddha Shakyamuni, with his clairvoyance, heard the invitation of Magadhabhatri who had immense faith in the Buddha. The Buddha emanated 18 forms in similar aspect to himself in each of the 18 gateways of the town. Although one Buddha entered Magadhabhatri's house, everyone in the town saw the Buddha and developed strong faith in him.

[valeriecheung]

I understood midakpa said is true all about benefit of real offering to three jewel. This phisically practising generosity and gaining merit. At the same time if has this game or app to download i love to do so, everyday made offering inside games better than nothing for non dharma practitioner. Set an imprint in their mind make connection slowly let their dharma seed open.

The issue is if only make offering in mind but real body and environment still attach with materialistic. This action won't bring us to gain attainment. Make offering also very effective of purify bad karma of body for example prostration.

[nagaseeker]

i was having dinner with my friends and their son which is 7 years old playing with his ipod ,he is very good in solving the levels in the games, and after a while he start to browse the apple app store for new games.his mom said he never pay attention in the class or when ever she teach him anything. Imagine theres game that related with dharma or have buddha image in it,it will definitely plan some imprint to the young generation mind . it will be fun if can do mantra retreat , water offering and from there when hit certain amount of offering or mantra , gain some merit "points/gold" and can use the points to upgrade your personal virtual altar ~ every time you done with certain virtual retreat , there will be some extra bonus like dharma that teach you how to upgrade your id or altar ~ hahaha , i would like to download it ! 

[Big Uncle]

I believe an offering constitutes time, effort and resources. In other words, an offering could come in the form of doing something that is in accord with the Dharma for others that takes time. Another would be the amount of effort that would be needed to make the offering and last of all, the amount of resources that we employed in order to make that offering. The greater the offering is reflected in the greater amount of time, effort and resources spent in making that offering. Hence, the virtual offering is valid but would be less of an offering when compared to making the real offering because it takes much more in the 3 areas I mentioned.

[kris]

I was told that offering incense is very effective because the smoke will make the Dakinis in the area very happy (the Dakinis can smell the incense and it smells great).

However, I felt the most important when making offering, is our motivation. As such, I felt that making an online offering using iPad or Android is perfectly valid, as long as our motivation is correct.

What do you think?

[pgdharma]

I think that it is valid to make virtual offerings. In this degenerate age, where monks even have to be bar tenders and serve alcohol in clubs http://www.dorjeshugden.com/forum/index.php?topic=1534.0, we have to find all means to reach out and spread the dharma.

Most of the younger generations own an ipad/iphone/android etc to play games. So if there is an app that can download to make virtual offerings or a game to play and learn the dharma, it will create an imprint on their minds.  It may not be as beneficial as the actual offerings but it will be the first step to connect the dharma to  them through the virtual world.

[Galen]

If theres an app that you can download from apple app store , android market which it can let you make offering in you ipad/iphone or any android tablet/phone to the buddha image in it,will one gain any merit by the action without any real incense,water or flower ?

if yes ,then why should we offer real incense ,water or flower to buddha statue ?

if no , then why when we do our daily sadhana ,we visualize that we offer up ocean like of offering to buddha ?

If there is an app online which offers offering to buddha, i don't think by doing so, one will gain merit. It probably will create imprints in one's mind and when the time is right, their karma to receive Buddhism will open.

[negra orquida]

Having a Dharma computer game, application or social media game sounds like a good idea to educate the youngsters on how to make offerings, its purposes and its usefulness/benefits.  I've played some of the facebook games before (farmville, social city, cafe world, sorority life) and believe it or not, it does take much effort and time to play the game well!  Would be an interesting way to leave imprints on and increase Dharma knowledge of the gamers.  Nagaseeker, are you planning to create a Dharma game for computer / social media gamers??

[nagaseeker]

Having a Dharma computer game, application or social media game sounds like a good idea to educate the youngsters on how to make offerings, its purposes and its usefulness/benefits.  I've played some of the facebook games before (farmville, social city, cafe world, sorority life) and believe it or not, it does take much effort and time to play the game well!  Would be an interesting way to leave imprints on and increase Dharma knowledge of the gamers.  Nagaseeker, are you planning to create a Dharma game for computer / social media gamers??

Dear negra orquida, it does take much effort and time to play the game well. i played social city before and i had created over 20 ids to increase my gift and game money , it was really stupid and at the end, what did i get ? nothing at all . But if theres a games that can put some imprint to youngster mind , theres at least what we can do to benefit them right ? i'm a developer of apple store app and i did some researched on how to create the app or game .i downloaded the software which is cosco 2D but it is very hard for me to program out the dharma game because i'm not a programmer .And once the apple rejected your submission ,you can never submit the same game/app again. you actually need a team of at least 3-5 ppl to create a game/app and test it for many times before you submit, because once apple rejected it , all the effort will be gone with the wind....i might made the app again if i have few friends to do it together.

[Mana]

It really depends on the power of meditation. An attained practitioner with powerful meditation and able to generate great motivation, his offering of an object will collect more merits than a normal person offering the same object.

If comparing two normal persons of equal mental capacity, then it depends on the number of atoms and value of the object of offering. Therefore, a real gold butterlamp definitely has more atoms and value than a virtual one!!!

Moral of the day: don't be lazy.

[Galen]

It really depends on the power of meditation. An attained practitioner with powerful meditation and able to generate great motivation, his offering of an object will collect more merits than a normal person offering the same object.

If comparing two normal persons of equal mental capacity, then it depends on the number of atoms and value of the object of offering. Therefore, a real gold butterlamp definitely has more atoms and value than a virtual one!!!

Moral of the day: don't be lazy.

I totally agree with Mana on "Don't be lazy". One should not take the easy way out in anything including offering to Buddha.

Any by offering something that is tangible will make you more appreciative of what you have. What I mean is that offering a Big candle may cost $1000 but a virtual one may cost $20. There is definitely a disparity in price and when someone offers a real candle, they may be more appreciative of what they have benefited from Buddha for them to part with the money.

[nagaseeker]

It really depends on the power of meditation. An attained practitioner with powerful meditation and able to generate great motivation, his offering of an object will collect more merits than a normal person offering the same object.

If comparing two normal persons of equal mental capacity, then it depends on the number of atoms and value of the object of offering. Therefore, a real gold butterlamp definitely has more atoms and value than a virtual one!!!

Moral of the day: don't be lazy.

I totally agree with Mana on "Don't be lazy". One should not take the easy way out in anything including offering to Buddha.

Any by offering something that is tangible will make you more appreciative of what you have. What I mean is that offering a Big candle may cost $1000 but a virtual one may cost $20. There is definitely a disparity in price and when someone offers a real candle, they may be more appreciative of what they have benefited from Buddha for them to part with the money.

ok, i'm agree with mana too but its only apply to dharma practitioner right ? to me , i will definitely offer the best i can afford . But how about those young kids who doesn't care about religions ? if we have some dharma games/apps , it can help to plan some imprint to the young generation mind, right ?

[yontenjamyang]

From the side of the serious individual practitioner, then I agree with Mana.

However, if the application is made available for the reason to encourage non practitioner, or "borderline" practitioner ie those who want to practice offerings but not really into it, then by the reason of "better have some than not", I think it is of some benefit. The appts could encourage users to make real offerings as the next step. Better then appts that encourage killings etc, even though virtually.

After all, this is the cyber age. Appts can be use to reach out in a fun way.

What do everyone think?

[vajrastorm]

I totally agree with Mana that, unless one is highly attained and possessed of great powers of meditation, one should be making real offerings and not virtual or visualized offerings.

One makes offerings , among other things , to accumulate much needed merits. The merits we will actually accumulate depends on: our motivation, on whether we are offering the best we can afford, our efforts and the sincerity of our giving( whether accompanied by or devoid of the 8 worldly concerns). In this respect, the story, from Lord Buddha's time, of a poor lady who could only offer a little lamp to Buddha, shows all the qualities in the  making of an offering. Because she gave sincerely all that she could afford, when a gust of wind snuffed out all the other light and candle offerings to Buddha, hers was the only one that kept burning and giving off light.