No.3 Emanation of Taras - Sermo Sonam Tobkye (3/21)

Photo Credit: Alan Kozlowski

Praises to the Twenty-One Tara is a traditional prayer in Tibetan Buddhism to the female Bodhisattva Tara. (Tibetan called Drolma) also known as Arya Tara or Jetsun Dolma. The prayer is found in all four traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.  Each of the twenty-one emanations of Tara has her own name, and a specific mantra with which she is associated, offering protection from various types of fears, harm, and calamities.

Tara has Twenty-One ultimate emanations according to the mantra of the Buddha Samantabhadra called “Twenty-One Praises of Tara”. Twenty-One Tara with 21 specific colors serves with a specific function. There are different styles and designs of tangka paintings that represent the Twenty-One manifestations of Tara based on distinct lineages and practices, in which forms, colors, ritual objects and even names or functions can vary.

Homage To The No. 3 Taras - Sermo Sonam Tobkye

OM TARE TUTTARE TURE MAHA PUNYE SVAHA

Golden One Who Increases the Power of Merit

Sermo Sonam Tobkye is peaceful and golden in color. Sonam means “merit”. It is also often translated as “good fortune, prosperity” or even “luck”. Tob is the Tibetan word which means “power, the ability”, and che means “increasing” or “liberator. This is the meaning of Sermo Sonam Tobkye amd there are other very popular names for her are Vasudhari in Sanskrit and Norjunma in Tibetan. 

Her body radiates light the color of the rising sun, empowering practitioners to enact oceans of Bodhisattva activities. She bestows wealth and longevity and liberates beings through the six paramitas: generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, meditative stability, and transcendent wisdom. She has one face and two arms. She sits in the dis- mounting posture. Her right hand is in the mudra of supreme charity. Her left hand, in the Three Jewels mudra, holds an utpala flower. Upon her utpala flower is a wish fulfilling-jewel that showers down whatever one desires.

She is beautiful; her skin is the color of pure gold glittering in the early morning sun. Her left hand is adorned with a blue lotus, upon which sits a gem that bestows all wishes. She is the lord of the Bodhisattvas’ sphere of activity, which encompasses the transcendent perfections of generosity, patience, diligence, ethics, tranquility, wisdom, and meditation. Austerity, (in this context) is ethics, and tranquility is wisdom and meditation.

We pay homage to the unchallengeable lady who has the ten powers: the power over life, the power over the mind, the power over wealth, the power over action, the power over birth, the power over inclination, the power over aspiration, the power over miracles, the power over primordial wisdom, and the power over Dharma. 

She has attained the completion of the six perfections, in just one meditation. The inner meaning is that her singular meditation is like a lotus, free from the flaw of adherence to subject and object, and is endowed with the completion of the six perfections.

The effect of practicing on this Tara of prosperity is not just that we will acquire external or material wealth, but also that we will develop inner or spiritual wealth. By practicing on Tara Sonam Tobkye, we can develop both forms of wealth.

Om jetsunma pakma drolma la chaktsal lo

Om Homage to the noble lady Tara

Chaktsal ser ngo chu ne kye kyi

Homage to you, graced with lotus-like hands

Peme chak ni nampar gyenma

And a water-born flower blue-gold in hue

Jinpa tsondru katub shyiwa

You who show generosity, diligence, strength

Zopa samten choyul nyima

Patience, serenity and meditation

Prayer of the Benefits

Whoever is endowed with devotion for the goddess and recites this with supreme faith, remembering it at dawn upon waking and in the evenings, will be granted all fearlessness, will perfectly pacify all negativities, and will eliminate all unfortunate migrations.

The multitudes of conquerors will quickly grant initiation: Thus, endowed with this greatness, one will eventually reach the state of a Buddha. If affected by the most terrible poison, whether ingested, drunk, or from a living being, just by remembering will one be thoroughly cleansed.

If this prayer is recited two, three, or seven times, It will pacify all the sufferings of torments caused by spirits, fevers, and poisons, and by other beings as well. If you wish for a child, you will get a child; if you wish for wealth, you will receive wealth. All your wishes will be fulfilled and all obstacles pacified.

Dana (Donations for our Buddhist research and development) 

Do you earnestly cherish our devoted work? Assuming this is the case, we are delighted that you are finding our blog useful and valuable. Would you consider making a donation for our Buddhist research and development?  

We need your help to secure the future of scholarly interaction with Buddhism. Since our very first publication of Dharma works and activities in the year 2008, we had been effortlessly providing free distribution of Dharma posts and articles throughout the previous 13 years.  We have exceptionally constrained supports and do not receive subsidized or funding from people in general. 

Please help us and to develop our Dharma activities that will not only benefit you, but to all Dharma readers on the planet. Please consider showing your support. Your generosity will certainly help us to enhance our work and to accomplish for a better and brighter prospect to come. 

Thank you for reading, may you find peace and great bliss. With your support it helps to spread the Buddha’s precious teachings and turning the Dharma wheels in the world.

Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

*Note

I do not own or infringe any copyright of the picture(s).

Picture(s) courtesy and credit to the rightful distributors and or studios.

Picture(s) is/are intended for editorial use only.

No.2 Emanation of Taras – Loter Yangchenma (2/21)

Photo Credit: Alan Kozlowski

Praises to the Twenty-One Tara is a traditional prayer in Tibetan Buddhism to the female Bodhisattva Tara. (Tibetan called Drolma) also known as Arya Tara or Jetsun Dolma. The prayer is found in all four traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.  Each of the twenty-one emanations of Tara has her own name, and a specific mantra with which she is associated, offering protection from various types of fears, harm, and calamities.

Tara has Twenty-One ultimate emanations according to the mantra of the Buddha Samantabhadra called “Twenty-One Praises of Tara”. Twenty-One Tara with 21 specific colors serves with a specific function. There are different styles and designs of tangka paintings that represent the Twenty-One manifestations of Tara based on distinct lineages and practices, in which forms, colors, ritual objects and even names or functions can vary.

Homage To The No. 2 Taras - Loter Yangchenma 

OM TARE TUTTARE TURE PRAJNA HRIM HRIM SVAHA

Melodious One, the Treasure of Intelligence

Loter Yangchenma is peaceful and white in color. She unlocks the treasures of music, art, wisdom, and the four types of knowledge: meaning, phenomena, definitive words, and courageous eloquence. Upon her utpala flower is a clear mirror marked with the syllable HRIM, which radiates light. Her face glows with the white light of one hundred autumn full moons.

Loter means “knowledge giver” and Yangchenma means “melodious, one who possesses melodies” or “source of melodies”. So she is called Drolma Loter Yangchenma: Melodious Liberator, Source of Wisdom. In Sanskrit, she is called both Sarasvati and Vajrasarasvati.

Om jetsunma pakma drolma la chaktsal lo

Om Homage to the noble lady Tara

Chaktsal tonke dawa kuntu

Homage to you whose countenance

Gangwa gya ni tsekpe shyalma

Resembles a hundred full autumnal moons

Karma tongtrak tsokpa nam kyi

Smiling and glowing with brilliant light

Rabtu chewe O rab barma

Like the radiance of a thousand stars

The “Lady with a shining face like an array of hundred autumn full moons,” means her face is a hundred times fairer and more beautiful than the moon. Her right hand holds a mirror, which is like a full moon engraved with an HRIM syllable. 

The “perfect spacious constellation of a thousand stars,” refers to the field of her wisdom, which is abundantly spacious, and vast, like the countless, resplendent rays of the full moon. This light clears the darkness of the ignorance of practitioners, which is the cause of dullness, disease and possession by evils. 

It opens the door to the treasury of knowledge and illuminating the light of the four specific perfect understandings. These are the perfect understanding of the Dharma (teachings) the perfect understanding of the definitive meaning, perfect confidence (in the doctrine) and the perfect knowledge of the Victorious Ones, (brilliance).

According to a tantra, the inner meaning is “to serve the mother of the sphere” which means emptiness or the nature of mind. In order to look at our innate self, the face of the ultimate Vajravarahi, we must accumulate merit and purify our mind-streams, so that they are like an “array of a hundred pure white moons.”

Because of these practices, the door to her blessing will be opened by our true inclination. In that way, we can see ultimate luminosity and ignite our dynamic wisdom.

Loter Yangchenma, she has one face, two arms and two legs. She sits in the dismounting posture. Her right hand is in the mudra of supreme charity. Her left hand, in the Three Jewels mudra, holds an utpala flower blooming at her ear. 

On its pistil is a clear ritual mirror (melong) marked with the syllable HRIM, radiating light. She opens the treasure of wisdom, the blazing display of supreme knowledge of all the Victorious Ones and their sons. 

This wisdom of the four analytical knowledges instantly and completely dispels the darkness of stupidity and ignorance of all sentient beings. Thus, meditate on Vajra Sarasvati and recite the mantra.

Prayer of the Benefits

Whoever is endowed with devotion for the goddess and recites this with supreme faith, remembering it at dawn upon waking and in the evenings, will be granted all fearlessness, will perfectly pacify all negativities, and will eliminate all unfortunate migrations.

The multitudes of conquerors will quickly grant initiation: Thus, endowed with this greatness, one will eventually reach the state of a Buddha. If affected by the most terrible poison, whether ingested, drunk, or from a living being, just by remembering will one be thoroughly cleansed.

If this prayer is recited two, three, or seven times, It will pacify all the sufferings of torments caused by spirits, fevers, and poisons, and by other beings as well. If you wish for a child, you will get a child; if you wish for wealth, you will receive wealth. All your wishes will be fulfilled and all obstacles pacified.

Dana (Donations for our Buddhist research and development) 

Do you earnestly cherish our devoted work? Assuming this is the case, we are delighted that you are finding our blog useful and valuable. Would you consider making a donation for our Buddhist research and development?  

We need your help to secure the future of scholarly interaction with Buddhism. Since our very first publication of Dharma works and activities in the year 2008, we had been effortlessly providing free distribution of Dharma posts and articles throughout the previous 13 years.  We have exceptionally constrained supports and do not receive subsidized or funding from people in general. 

Please help us and to develop our Dharma activities that will not only benefit you, but to all Dharma readers on the planet. Please consider showing your support. Your generosity will certainly help us to enhance our work and to accomplish for a better and brighter prospect to come. 

Thank you for reading, may you find peace and great bliss. With your support it helps to spread the Buddha’s precious teachings and turning the Dharma wheels in the world.

Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

*Note

I do not own or infringe any copyright of the picture(s).

Picture(s) courtesy and credit to the rightful distributors and or studios.

Picture(s) is/are intended for editorial use only.

No.1 Emanation of Taras - Jetsun Drolma Nyurma Pamo (1/21)

Photo Credit: Alan Kozlowski

Praises to the Twenty-One Tara is a traditional prayer in Tibetan Buddhism to the female Bodhisattva Tara. (Tibetan called Drolma) also known as Arya Tara or Jetsun Dolma. The prayer is found in all four traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.  Each of the twenty-one emanations of Tara has her own name, and a specific mantra with which she is associated, offering protection from various types of fears, harm, and calamities.

Tara has Twenty-One ultimate emanations according to the mantra of the Buddha Samantabhadra called “Twenty-One Praises of Tara”. Twenty-One Tara with 21 specific colors serves with a specific function. There are different styles and designs of tangka paintings that represent the Twenty-One manifestations of Tara based on distinct lineages and practices, in which forms, colors, ritual objects and even names or functions can vary.

Homage To The No. 1 Taras - Jetsun Drolma Nyurma Pamo 

OM TARE TUTTARE TURE BODHICITTA SVAHA

Swift heroine who increases Bodhicitta and overpowers obstacles.

Jetsun Drolma Nyurma Pamo is one of the forms of 21 tara. The name of the first Tara, with all her Tibetan titles, is Jetsun Drolma Nyurma Pamo. Nyurma means that Tara’s activity is very quick and swift, without delay. Pamo is the feminine form of the term for a hero, which can be translated as “heroine”. It describes Tara’s heroic courage and commitment to the liberation of all beings.

Jetsun Drolma Nyurma Pamo is semi-wrathful and red in color. She liberates beings from the suffering of Samsara and protects them from fear. With her compassionate power, she removes obstacles and increases Bodhicitta, awakened heart. Upon her utpala flower is a white conch shell that curls clockwise, symbolizing the glorious sound of relative and absolute Bodhicitta pervading the entire world.

Om jetsunma pakma drolma la chaktsal lo

Om, Homage to the noble lady Tara

Chaktsal drolma nyurma pamo

Homage to Tara, swift and gallant

Chen ni kechik lok dang drama

Whose glance flashes like lightning

Jikten sum gon chukye shyal gyi

Born on the heart of a blossoming lotus

Gesar jewa le ni jungma

From the face of the triple-world’s lord

Prayer of the Benefits

Whoever is endowed with devotion for the goddess and recites this with supreme faith, remembering it at dawn upon waking and in the evenings, will be granted all fearlessness, will perfectly pacify all negativities, and will eliminate all unfortunate migrations.

The multitudes of conquerors will quickly grant initiation: Thus, endowed with this greatness, one will eventually reach the state of a Buddha. If affected by the most terrible poison, whether ingested, drunk, or from a living being, just by remembering will one be thoroughly cleansed.

If this prayer is recited two, three, or seven times, It will pacify all the sufferings of torments caused by spirits, fevers, and poisons, and by other beings as well. If you wish for a child, you will get a child; if you wish for wealth, you will receive wealth. All your wishes will be fulfilled and all obstacles pacified.

Dana (Donations for our Buddhist research and development) 

Do you earnestly cherish our devoted work? Assuming this is the case, we are delighted that you are finding our blog useful and valuable. Would you consider making a donation for our Buddhist research and development?  

We need your help to secure the future of scholarly interaction with Buddhism. Since our very first publication of Dharma works and activities in the year 2008, we had been effortlessly providing free distribution of Dharma posts and articles throughout the previous 13 years.  We have exceptionally constrained supports and do not receive subsidized or funding from people in general. 

Please help us and to develop our Dharma activities that will not only benefit you, but to all Dharma readers on the planet. Please consider showing your support. Your generosity will certainly help us to enhance our work and to accomplish for a better and brighter prospect to come.

Thank you for reading, may you find peace and great bliss. With your support it helps to spread the Buddha’s precious teachings and turning the Dharma wheels in the world.

Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

*Note

I do not own or infringe any copyright of the picture(s).

Picture(s) courtesy and credit to the rightful distributors and or studios.

Picture(s) is/are intended for editorial use only.

Twenty-one Emanations of Taras

Praises to the Twenty-One Taras is a traditional prayer in Tibetan Buddhism to the female Bodhisattva Tara (also known as Arya Tara, or Jetsun Dolma) 

The prayer is found in all four traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. Each of the twenty-one emanations of Tara has her own name, and a specific mantra with which she is associated, offering protection from various types of fears, harm, and calamities.

The iconographical traditions

The various authors of the commentary tradition often placed a special emphasis on the iconography of each of the 21 forms of Tara, describing her colour, seat, posture, number of faces and arms, implements and hand gesture. The iconographical descriptions in the commentaries may not always correspond to the description of the Taras in the Praises to the 21 Taras. There are three main iconographic traditions that formed in Tibet.

Suryagupta Tradition

Depicting the 21 Taras as differing in all details such as posture, number of heads and hands, colour, implements and hand gestures.

Nagarjuna and Atisha’s tradition

In which the 21 Taras are rarely distinguished except by colour, peaceful or wrathful expression, and the colour of the vessel that each holds in the left hand.

The Nyingma Terma tradition of Jigme Lingpa and Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa

Depicting them as in Nagarjuna and Atisha’s tradition, but of different colours and holding individual emblems on top of the lotus in the left hand, rather than vessels. Jikme Lingpa’s and Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa’s tradition differ only slightly from each other.

The individual of the Twenty-one Emanations of Tara based on Nyingma Terma traditions:

1. Tara, who is swift and courageous for development of Bodhichitta
2. Tara, who is melodious for knowledge and wisdom (i.e. Sarasvati)
3. Tara, who grants supreme merit for the force of merit
4. Tara, who is completely victorious for long life (i.e. Ushnishavijaya)
5. Tara, Kurukulla for magnetising people and wealth
6. Tara, who causes terror for destroying the power of harmful influences (i.e. Vajravidarana)
7. Tara, who is invincible for protection from hailstorms and lightning
8. Tara, triumphant over others for repelling blame
   
9. Tara of the Khadira Forest for protection from the eight great fears. (She is the main Tara, green in colour)
10. Tara, who conquers the three worlds to have power over the world
11. Tara, who bestows wealth for dispelling poverty and granting good fortune
12. Tara, who brings auspiciousness for the auspiciousness of children, fame, rain and so on
13. Tara, who destroys the power of enemies for victory in war
14. Tara, furrowing Brow for protection from spirits
15. Tara, who is perfect peace  for purifying harmful actions
16. Tara, who is ablaze with light for dispelling spells and negative effects
17. Tara of limitless subjugation for protection from robbers, thieves, animals and hunters
18. Tara, majestic as the Great Peahen to protect from and neutralize poison
19. Tara, who is unconquerable and victorious for protection from quarrels and bad dreams (i.e. Sitatapatra)
20. Tara, Dweller in the mountains for protection from epidemics
21. Tara, ‘Rays of Light for restoring the spirits and energies of sick people (i.e. Marichi)

Dana (Donations for our Buddhist research and development) 

Do you earnestly cherish our devoted work? Assuming this is the case, we are delighted that you are finding our blog useful and valuable. Would you consider making a donation for our Buddhist research and development?  

We need your help to secure the future of scholarly interaction with Buddhism. Since our very first publication of Dharma works and activities in the year 2008, we had been effortlessly providing free distribution of Dharma posts and articles throughout the previous 13 years.  We have exceptionally constrained supports and do not receive subsidized or *funding from people in general. (* Total public donations from 2008 to 2021 October was about US$ 40.00)

Please help us and to develop our Dharma activities that will not only benefit you, but to all Dharma readers on the planet. Please consider showing your support. Your generosity will certainly help us to enhance our work and to accomplish for a better and brighter prospect to come. 

Thank you for reading, may you find peace and great bliss. With your support it helps to spread the Buddha’s precious teachings and turning the Dharma wheels in the world.

Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

*Note

I do not own or infringe any copyright of the picture(s).

Picture(s) courtesy and credit to the rightful distributors and or studios.

Picture(s) is/are intended for editorial use only.

Lamp Aspiration Prayer

Lamp Aspiration Prayer (from the Tsok Offering - A Rain of Blessings) 

By The Fourteenth Karmapa, Tekchok Dorje.

Recite the hundred-syllable mantra, oṃ Vajra sattva. Then the assembled Vajra brothers and sisters should hold lamps and recite the following with a single voice:

Om Ah Hung

Dechen dewé kyilkhor dampa di

In this joyous and sacred mandala of great bliss

Dak sok ngo mnn zangpo le drelwe

We are all connected through noble aspirations of the past

Dorje che cham dir tsok tamche kyi

As Vajra brothers and sisters, all gathered for the feast

Ngo jor cho trin zangpo lek sham shing

With gifts, perfectly arranged as offering clouds

lhak sam mo lo gya cher pel che ne

Multiplied and made vast through positive intent and imagination

Sonam yeshe tsok chen rab sak te

To gather perfectly vast stores of merit and wisdom

Monlam di tu ma ong chime du

Through the power of this aspiration, when in the future

Bardo trul nang sam de tongwe tse

We see the delusory appearances of the Bardo, beyond imagining

Ying rik osel ma bu ngo tro ne

May mother and child luminosities of space and awareness unite

Ngang trak jikpa dralwe o lam la

And on the path of light with its terrifying sights and sounds

Chomden o pak me kyi dun ne su

May the Buddha Amitabha, “Boundless Light”, lead the way

Chang sem khor tsok gyatso gyab ne kyor

As a vast retinue of bodhisattvas support us from behind

Jik rung khorwe yang sa lam drol ne

Then, saved from saṃsara's terrible abyss

Dechen pemo kope shying kham su

May we be reborn in the heart of a lotus flower

Peme nyingpor trung shing sangye jel

In the blissful land of Lotus Array, there to meet the Buddhas

Dampe cho tob sa lam tar chin ne

Receive the sacred Dharma, and complete the paths and stages

Dzok sangye tob kha nyam sem chen kun

Once perfectly awakened, may we become great guides

Ring min de ne dewar go nupe

Capable of leading all beings, as infinite as space

Depon chenpor daknyi gyurwar shok

Swiftly, from one blissful state to another

Sherab yeshe salwe dronme di

May this lamp of discerning and primordial wisdom

Lei nyon drip nyi mania Rab sells shying

Banish entirely the darkness of karmic and emotional veils

Yang dak lam gyi nangwa cher gye ne

Greatly enhance the light of the pure, authentic path

Ten de gyalsar gope dronmer shok

And illuminate the way to the kingdom of everlasting bliss

When you have made this prayer of aspiration, offer the lamp to the recipients in front. Compose by the 14th Karmapa at his great seat of Akanistha Tsurphu.

Dana (Donations for our Buddhist research and development) 

Do you earnestly cherish our devoted work? Assuming this is the case, we are delighted that you are finding our blog useful and valuable. Would you consider making a donation for our Buddhist research and development?  

We need your help to secure the future of scholarly interaction with Buddhism. Since our very first publication of Dharma works and activities in the year 2008, we had been effortlessly providing free distribution of Dharma posts and articles throughout the previous 13 years.  We have exceptionally constrained supports and do not receive subsidized or funding from people in general. 

Please help us and to develop our Dharma activities that will not only benefit you, but to all Dharma readers on the planet. Please consider showing your support. Your generosity will certainly help us to enhance our work and to accomplish for a better and brighter prospect to come. 

Thank you for reading, may you find peace and great bliss. With your support it helps to spread the Buddha’s precious teachings and turning the Dharma wheels in the world.

Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

*Note

I do not own or infringe any copyright of the picture(s).

Picture(s) courtesy and credit to the rightful distributors and or studios.

Picture(s) is/are intended for editorial use only.

Lamps Lighting Offering

Offering butter lamps are deeply ingrained in the Tibetan tradition and sometimes as many as 10,000 are offered. Butter lamps may be offered for many occasions. Lighting butter lamps represent relief from suffering and provides you with a guiding light to find enlightenment.

The butter lamps help to focus the mind and aid meditation. According to the Root tantra of Cakrasaṃvara Tantra, "If you wish for sublime realization, offer hundreds of lights". The Pilgrims also supply lamp oil to gain merit. Externally, the lights are seen to banish darkness.

What does butter lamp symbolize? 

Light is the source of goodness and the ultimate reality, and it accompanies transcendence into the Nirvana of Buddhist doctrine. It is the sun, and it is the avenger of evil forces and darkness. Light is knowledge. Purity and morality are connected terms as well.

Butter lamps are a conspicuous feature of Tibetan Buddhist temples and monasteries throughout the Himalayas. Each morning Tibetans offer a lighted butter lamp, representing the illumination of wisdom, along with seven bowls containing pure water before the images on their household shrine.

Why do we offer light to Buddha and enlightened beings?
The act further honors the Triple Gem (the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha), deepening one's commitment to the Buddha's path. Material offerings might be imbued with the following symbology: the lighting of a candle or an oil lamp represents the light of wisdom illuminating the darkness of ignorance.

The tradition of offering lamps lighting

Since Buddha Shakyamuni attained enlightenment 2,500 years ago and dispelled the darkness of ignorance that obscures the mind’s true nature, lamp offerings in Buddhist practices have symbolized his realization. Each lamp offering celebrates the Buddha’s enlightenment and thus is associated with great good fortune.

For Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, a lamp offering also carries the wish to attain Buddhahood and the aspiration to recognize the clear light at the time of death, thereby experiencing liberation in that moment. In this way lamp offerings are associated with transitions in one’s life. Lamp offerings are best made before consecrated representations of fully awakened wisdom, loving-kindness, and compassion.

The right motivation 

Because of the association with great good fortune, lamp offerings are made for any individual or family life event that is celebrated, such as the birth of a child, the marriage of a couple, the graduation of a son or daughter, the birthday of a friend, and the anniversary of one’s parents. Lamp offerings may also be made in difficult times or uncertain transitions.

The gift of light and the accompanying prayers help to bring about less suffering and greater happiness in times of illness, loss, uncertainty, and death. Lamps may be offered for a parent who is facing an operation, for a friend changing careers, for a student facing a difficult exam, and for a family member experiencing extreme stress. At the time of someone’s death, it is traditional to offer a Bardo lamp for 49 days.

When we make light offerings, just as when we engage in any other virtuous activity, we begin by engendering the correct motivation. Therefore, we pause before we start our offerings to recall the vast attitude of bodhicitta. To inspire you, here we include a beautiful aspiration prayer by Mipham Rinpoche. 

Mipham Rinpoche

Jamgon Ju Mipham Gyatso, or Mipham Jamyang Namgyal was born in 1846 and pass away in 1912. Mipham Jamyang was a very influential philosopher and polymath of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He wrote over 32 volumes on topics such as painting, poetics, sculpture, alchemy, medicine, logic, philosophy and tantra.

Lamp Aspiration by Mipham Rinpoche

• This illuminating lamp of original pure awareness
• I offer to the mandala deities of Vidyadhara Padmakara.
• May all beings, my mothers, wherever awareness pervades, attain the Dharmakaya level of aware emptiness.

Do you earnestly cherish our devoted work? Assuming this is the case, we are delighted that you are finding our blog useful and valuable. Would you consider making a donation for our Buddhist research and development?  

We need your help to secure the future of scholarly interaction with Buddhism. Since our very first publication of Dharma works and activities in the year 2008, we had been effortlessly providing free distribution of Dharma posts and articles throughout the previous 13 years.  We have exceptionally constrained supports and do not receive subsidized or funding from people in general. 

Please help us and to develop our Dharma activities that will not only benefit you, but to all Dharma readers on the planet. Please consider showing your support. Your generosity will certainly help us to enhance our work and to accomplish for a better and brighter prospect to come. 

Dedication 

Thank you for reading, may you find peace and great bliss. With your support it helps to spread the Buddha’s precious teachings and turning the Dharma wheels in the world.

Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

*Note

I do not own or infringe any copyright of the picture(s).

Picture(s) courtesy and credit to the rightful distributors and or studios.

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Om Ah Hung - The Mantra of Inner Purification and Divination

The syllables OM AH HUNG / OM AH HUM has outer, inner, and "secret" meanings. At each of these levels, however, OM stands for the body, AH for the speech, and HUNG (HUM) for the mind. They represent the transformative blessings of the body, speech, and mind of all the Buddhas. Externally OM purifies all the negative actions committed through your body, AH through your speech, and HUNG (HUM) through your mind. 

Om Ah Hung(Hum) is an ancient Tibetan Buddhist mantra used to purify the mind, speech, and heart. This guided practice lets you quiet the thinking mind and go beyond it, using a silent mantra meditation. This is an excellent daily exercise - be it morning or evening.

Mantras are sounds and phrases that can help us concentrate our minds. We can use mantras  as a way to concentrate on a given intention. This mantra can be seen as a means of helping us to focus our intentions to clarify, or purify, our body, speech, and mind. 

We can regard ourselves  while we chant as asking our own being, the parts of us that put up blocks and barricades to real contentment, to let our better parts, our pure, good intentions, get stronger, shine through, and help us let go.

Chanting of mantras brings peace in your mind. When you recite mantras your mind releases the stress and your body will automatically start to relax. Mantras are positive words or phrases. When you chant mantras your mind releases the positive energy that decreases the negative thoughts or stress.

The Mantra of Om Ah Hung (Hum)

OM stands for the body, AH for the speech, and HUNG (HUM) for the mind. They represent the possibility of transformative blessings of the body, speech, and mind of all the Buddhas— past, present, and future.

In chanting OM we are asking ourselves to purify, to release all guilt and shame, of all the negative actions committed through our body, and we commit to an intention to do better in the future. When chanting Om, all knowledge is being drawn into the body and mind. The entire universe gathers within the field of Om. 

In chanting AH we are asking ourselves to purify, to release all guilt and shame, of all the negative actions committed through our speech, and we commit to an intention to do better in the future. With Ah the energy of the universe is transformed into a still and open realm, enabling engagement with all appropriate communication processes. Ah symbolized the potential of being.

In chanting HUNG (HUM) we are asking ourselves to purify, to release all guilt and shame of all the negative actions committed through our mind, and we commit to an intention to do better in the future. With Hung (Hum)  the enlightened energy flows back into, to spread its benefits in all directions. With Hum enlightened energy is embodied.

The recitation of the divine mantra with mala beads

The word mala means "garland" or "rosary" in Sanskrit. A mala consists of 108 or 27 beads. Buddha recommended the mantra practice as a path to enlightenment for ordinary people. Counting mantra with a mala engages the hand (body), the voice (speech) and the mind by visualizing the deity. Hold the mala gently and with respect. Start counting with the first bead after the 'guru' bead. 

Count a bead for each completed recitation. When you complete either 108 or 4x27 recitations, do not pass over the 'guru' bead. Instead, flip the mala around 180 degrees, and keep going the same direction. In closing you may like to dedicate merit to a specific person or group of people and all sentient beings.

How to bless the food with Om Ah Hung(Hum)

Blessing the food, you recite OM AH HUNG (HUM) and visualize all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas blessing the food with the qualities of holy body, speech and mind. This is absorbed into the food where the food is. It is all absorbed into the food.Then recite OM AH HUNG (HUM)

Visualize that then every grain, and part of the food is a blue HUNG and into that numberless buddhas’ and bodhisattvas’ holy body, speech and mind all absorb into that. Then do that quite a number of malas of the mantra (OM AH HUNG/OM AH HUM) the more you do, the better. The HUNG become the grains or food particles.

Then make a prayer to the merit field, Medicine Buddha, Tara and Chenrezig (but particularly Medicine Buddha) and pray that all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas bless the food and that there never comes from it any side effects; it immediately purifies, the minute the food goes inside the mouth, it immediately purifies all the negative karmas collected from beginningless rebirths, not only that envy, but all diseases and spirit harms are purified. 

The minute the food goes inside the mouth, it immediately purifies all the negative karmas collected from beginningless rebirths, not only that envy, but all diseases and spirit harms are purified. Also, pray that all realizations from guru devotion up to enlightenment are actualized, all the realizations are generated, especially bodhichitta, and it brings to all sentient beings perfect peace and happiness in this world. Then all the wishes of happiness and all successes – according to holy Dharma – are immediately received. All the wishes up to enlightenment are actualized.

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Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

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