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    Practices to Benefit Pretas, Nagas and Spirits eBook
    Practices to Benefit Pretas, Nagas and Spirits eBook
    Practices to Benefit Pretas, Nagas and Spirits eBook
    Ebook134 pages2 hours

    Practices to Benefit Pretas, Nagas and Spirits eBook

    By FPMT

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    About this ebook

    The practices of offering charity to spirits, pretas and nagas are often recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche - both for the benefit of the practitioner and for the benefit of the beings to which the practices are dedicated. This new PDF compilation, Practices to Benefit Pretas, Nagas and Spirits, includes advice and commentary from Lama Zopa Rinpoche as well as translation and commentary from Julia Graves.

    Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommends these practices as not only beneficial for the recipient spirits, pretas, and nagas, but also for the charitable practitioner herself.

    Contents include:
    1. Aroma Charity for Spirits (Sur Offering)
    - Commentary by Lama Zopa Rinpoche

    2. Naga Torma Offering
    - Commentary by Julia Graves

    3.Offering Water Charity to the Pretas
    - Offering Water Charity to Pretas, Intermediate State Beings and Nagas
    - A Short Practice of Offering Water Charity to the Pretas
    - An Abbreviated Practice for Offering Water to Pretas
    - Dedication Prayer for Making Water Charity
    - Appendix 1: The Daily Practice of Water Offering to Dzambhala
    - Appendix 2: Instructions for Blessing Water in an Elaborate Way with Various Deities
    - Commentary by Lama Zopa Rinpoche

    All three sets of practices in this book require the practitioner to have received a Great Chenrezig Empowerment. If you have not received a Great Chenrezig Empowerment, it is still possible to do the practices, but you may not do the self-generation as Chenrezig. Instead, at the point of the self-generation in the sadhana, visualize Chenrezig on top of your head performing all the actions in the practice.

    2014 edition.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFPMT
    Release dateSep 17, 2018
    ISBN9780463806807
    Practices to Benefit Pretas, Nagas and Spirits eBook
    Author

    FPMT

    The FPMT is an organization devoted to preserving and spreading Mahayana Buddhism worldwide by creating opportunities to listen, reflect, meditate, practice and actualize the unmistaken teachings of the Buddha and based on that experience spreading the Dharma to sentient beings. We provide integrated education through which people’s minds and hearts can be transformed into their highest potential for the benefit of others, inspired by an attitude of universal responsibility and service. We are committed to creating harmonious environments and helping all beings develop their full potential of infinite wisdom and compassion. Our organization is based on the Buddhist tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa of Tibet as taught to us by our founder, Lama Thubten Yeshe and our spiritual director, Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.

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    • 5/5
      Very wonderful, thank you so much for talking about The Vajra Armor Mantra. I have also seen Lama Jigme Namgyal Rinpoche giving out online transmissions (lung) for this powerful mantra that cures all diseases and sickness. I went to the Padma Rigdzin Ling Buddhist Temple and received this amazing mantra. I chant it everyday now and it helps so much with everything. Please if you can receive the instructions for this mantra, please do so!

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    Practices to Benefit Pretas, Nagas and Spirits eBook - FPMT

    Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, Inc.

    1632 SE 11th Avenue

    Portland, OR 97214 USA

    www.fpmt.org

    © 2014 Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, Inc.

    All rights reserved.

    No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system or technologies now known or developed, without permission in writing from the publisher.

    Practice Requirements

    All three practices in this book require the practitioner to have received a Great Chenrezig Empowerment. If you have not received a Great Chenrezig Empowerment, it is still possible to do the practices, but you may not do the self-generation as Chenrezig. Instead, at the point of the self-generation in the sadhana, visualize Chenrezig on top of your head performing all the actions in the practice.

    Aroma Charity for Spirits

    (Sur Offering)

    by Pabongkha Rinpoche

    Additions by Lama Zopa Rinpoche

    General Instructions

    Meaning of the term sur, translated here as aroma

    Here, the Tibetan word sur (gsur) refers to the smell of roasted flour that is offered to spirits. Usually this offering is made at sunset or thereafter because spirits are on the move then, and it is known as the time when spirits gather. This is also the time when dakinis (a class of tantric deities) gather.

    Materials needed and practice tips

    Use a roasting pan that is not cracked, broken, or worn out and is clean. (It may be possible to dispense with the roasting pan and sprinkle the flour directly onto hot coals.) The fire itself should not produce much smoke, because smoke disturbs spirits; a smokeless bed of red hot coals will do. The fireplace should be clean.

    Use clean flour mixed with men-chey (sman phye). Men-chey can be obtained from the Tibetan Medical Center, Dharamsala or other Tibetan pharmacy or from a Tibetan doctor. I think it is a mixture of sang-druk (bsangs drug), an incense made of six different shrubs. It is also used for black tea offerings. One can also use tantric nectar pills. When His Holiness Song Rinpoche offered tea to the merit field, to protectors, or to worldly gods, he used a mixture of men-chey and black tea. See also, the list of twenty-five torma substances and their benefits for additional substances that can be added to the Sur offering.

    In addition to men-chey, include the powder of crushed jewels, such as coral, pearls, lapis, gold, silver, or other jewels. All this is mixed with the flour. This mixture would be a perfect substance for the offering. Mix clean, roasted flour with butter and then add these other ingredients, if possible. Bless the sur substances with the vase water as indicated below, and then place them on the hot coals. Make sure to allow enough air circulation so that the fire doesn't go out; i.e. don't fully cover the coals, but make a small mound of the sur substances on top of the coals.

    Aroma Charity for Spirits

    (Sur Offering)

    Refuge and Bodhichitta

    Recite the prayer taking refuge and generating bodhichitta three times. Rely on Buddha with your whole heart, for the sake of all sentient beings as well as yourself. You can think of all the numberless buddhas or just think of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha as the object of refuge.

    SANG GYÄ CHHÖ DANG TSHOG KYI CHHOG NAM LA

    I go for refuge until I am enlightened.

    JANG CHHUB BAR DU DAG NI KYAB SU CHHI

    To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly.

    DAG GI JIN SOG GYI PA SÖ NAM KYI

    By my merits of giving and other perfections,

    DRO LA PHÄN CHHIR SANG GYÄ DRUB PAR SHOG (3x)

    May I become a buddha to benefit all sentient beings. (3x)

    Then generate bodhichitta by considering each beneficiary in the six realms, such as:

    I must free every one of the numberless hell beings, who are the source of all my past, present, and future happiness, from all suffering and its cause, the defilements, and bring them to enlightenment.

    I must free all the numberless spirits, who are the source of all my past, present, and future happiness, from all suffering and its cause, the defilements, and bring them to enlightenment.

    I must free all the numberless animals, who are the source of all my past, present, and future happiness, from all suffering and its cause, the defilements, and bring them to enlightenment.

    Likewise, I must free all humans, gods, demigods, and intermediate state beings, who are the source of all my past, present, and future happiness, from all suffering and its cause, the defilements, and bring them to enlightenment.

    To do this I must achieve enlightenment myself. Therefore, I am going to practice the charity of aroma: offering aroma to the merit field and giving aroma to sentient beings.

    Self-Generation and Invocation

    Instantaneously I appear as Khasarpani [an aspect of Chenrezig], white in color with one face and two arms. My right hand is granting sublime realizations, and my left hand is holding the stem of a white lotus and resting on a moon cushion. I am seated in the half-vajra posture and have an antelope skin draped over my left shoulder. Light radiates from the syllable HRIH in my heart, inviting the guests of nirvana and samsara¹ who take their seats on comfortable cushions.

    Blessing the Substances

    Here, the flour mixture is blessed.

    OM VAJRA AMRITA KUNDALI HANA HANA HUM PHAT

    Sprinkle blessed water from the vase² on the flour mixture while reciting this mantra. Visualize that each drop of water transforms into hundreds of wrathful Kundali deities who dispel all interferers from the offering substances, like using the inner offering to dispel interferers.

    OM SVABHAVA SHUDDHA SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA SHUDDHO HAM³

    Meditate on the emptiness of the offering substances and the emptiness of yourself (including the mind itself) such that no dualistic objects appear. Everything becomes emptiness.⁴ Meditate so there is no gap between the object meditated on and the meditator. This wisdom ceases the two kinds of defilement: the obscuration of disturbing thoughts, and with the support of bodhichitta, the obscuration of knowledge. Through the cessation of these two defilements your ordinary body, speech, and mind are transformed into your deity's vajra holy body, vajra holy speech, and vajra holy mind.

    Within this state of emptiness the syllable BHRUM appears. This syllable is in actuality your non-dual wisdom experiencing emptiness with great bliss. The syllable BHRUM transforms into a precious vessel, vast and spacious. The syllables OM AH HUM⁵ appear above the vessel and melt into light, which transforms into perfect aroma that pervades all the earth and sky, delighting all the senses. This is enjoyed by the guests merely through the power of reciting the words.⁶

    Mantras

    OM AH HUM (3x)⁷

    NAMA SARVA TATHAGATA AVALOKITE OM SAMBHARA SAMBHARA HUM (7x)

    This mantra is called The Mighty and Great King. It functions to allow the guests to receive the gift just as you imagine it. It may also be possible for them to receive the gift just as they wish.

    OM GÄNDE KAME GUNA PUJA IDAM KHA KHA KHAHI KHAHI* (7x)

    *This mantra has not yet been checked against the Tibetan.

    Outer Offerings

    Small ting-sha cymbals may be used for the music offering. Before making the offerings and using the cymbals, recite:

    OM PÄDMO USHNISHA VIMALE HUM PHAT (7x)

    Then blow on the cymbals. This empowers the cymbals to purify with their sound the negative karma of anyone who hears them, thus liberating these beings form the lower realms. Offer the sound to the merit field keeping in mind that this includes the three jewels of refuge encompassing the ten directions.

    OM ARGHAM, PADYAM, PUSHPE, DHUPE, ALOKE, GANDHE, NAIVIDYA, SHAPTA PRATICCHA HUM SVAHA

    Recite the Four Tathagatas' Names:⁸

    DE ZHIN SHEG PA RIN CHHEN MANG LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO

    I prostrate to the Tathagata Many Jewels

    DE ZHIN SHEG PA SUG DZÄ DAM PA LA CCHHAG TSHÄL LO

    I prostrate to the Tathagata Holy Beautiful Form.

    DE ZHIN SHEG PA KU JAM LÄ LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO

    I prostrate to the Tathagata Very Gentle Body.

    DE ZHIN SHEG PA GYÄL WA THUG JIG PA THAM CHÄ DANG DRÄL WA LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO

    I

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