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Essential Mantras for Holy Objects (statues, stupas, and tsa-tsas)

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Essential Mantras for Holy Objects (statues, stupas, and tsa-tsas)

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Essential Mantras for Holy Objects


Essential Mantras for Holy Objects 5 The Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras and Their Benefits 11 The Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras 19 Blessing Building Materials for Tsa-Tsas and Stupas

Essence of the Advice

w All statues and stupas should contain the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras and the separate Zung of the Exalted Completely Pure Stainless Light mantra. w The Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras are what give power to stupas. Their benefits are inconceivable. (see p. 11) w Bigger stupas should contain 100,000 copies of the Stainless Pinnacle Deity mantra (one of the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras). Smaller stupas should contain as many of these as possible.

All stupas should contain the Namgyälma mantra w Clay and powder for making tsa-tsas and the building materials for stupas should be blessed with the mantra of Vairochana and the Great Wisdom mantra. A meditation on Vairochana to use in this case has been given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. w The Great Wisdom mantra blesses any object and makes it a holy object w A holy object is not properly consecrated until the Great Wis-dom mantra has been recited

Editor’s note:

Building and filling holy objects can be complex and is beyond the scope of this booklet. All Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice for building and filling holy objects – along with a translation by Rinpoche of The White Crystal Mirror, a classic text which explains how to fill holy objects – is available in the book Benefits and Practices Related to Statues and Stupas, Vol. 2; Building and Blessing Holy Objects. This book also contains Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice for the area surrounding a stupa, plans for stupas, color photographs, and advice from experienced FPMT stupa builders.


The Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras

Every time a stupa is built, it is very important that it has the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras inside. I keep finding more and more benefits of these mantras, and it seems there are still new discoveries to be made!

The most powerful one is the mantra of the Stainless Pinnacle Deity. Put-ting this mantra inside a stupa is like a fire blazing – everything develops so fast and it brings all inner and outer success. If you build a stupa and put this mantra inside it, you will never take rebirth in the lower realms. In-stead, you will take pure rebirth in every life until enlightenment is achieved.

You will meet the buddhas and receive a prediction to enlightenment. If you circumambulate a stupa that contains this mantra while reciting the mantra 100 times, all past negative karma or future rebirth in the lower realms is purified. It is such an unbelievable thing that these mantras exist to benefit oneself and all sentient beings.

People who make stupas filled with these mantras are so fortunate! Of course, you have to understand the suffering of the lower realms to really appreciate this. If you don’t feel upset when thinking of the lower realms, then you don’t really appreciate pure rebirth. You don’t see how impor-tant and precious it is.

Bigger stupas should have 100,000 copies of the Stainless Pinnacle De-ity mantra, and smaller stupas should have as many as possible. There are two Stainless Pinnacle Deity mantras, the root mantra and heart mantra.

The heart mantra is shorter, so you have a choice – put a few of the root mantra inside the stupa and then the rest can be 100,000 copies of the heart mantra. It would be good to put these mantras on microfiche so we can also put 100,000 of them inside smaller stupas, such as stupa tsa-tsas.

It is important that the syllables of the mantras are not so small that you can’t read them. They need to be readable. Also, before we use micro-fiche, I really need to know how long these last and if the weather and different conditions effect it. This is also relevant for prayer wheels. I al-ways wonder if the mantras fade and eventually disappear. I think its important we know for sure. Maybe a prayer wheel should be opened and the mantras checked. The prayer wheel

at Land of Medicine Buddha has had microfiche inside for more than ten years. I think we need to check for ourselves. Otherwise, we start using microfiche and then later, we will find out that the mantras have faded or even disappeared.* If the mantras are not there, but you believe they are there, you still accumulate merit by turning the prayer wheel. For example, if you visualize the Guru Puja merit field and you circumambulate it, you accumulate merit, even

though there is no thangka there. If you think that one statue is all Gurus, Buddhas, Dharma, Sangha, and all the ten-direction holy objects, and make offerings with this understanding, there is benefit. If you believe there are one billion mantras inside a prayer wheel and you turn the prayer wheel, visualizing light radiating and sound emanating from each syllable, there is merit. But it is even better if the actual mantras are inside.

How I Discovered the Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras and Started Building Stupas

I met one geshe who lived at Deer Park who was very skilled with Tibetan language and poetry. I think Choden Rinpoche and other monks learned poetry from him. One morning, I asked him, “There are these Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras. Are they Nyingma?” I thought they might be Nyingma because there is a text called The White Crystal Mirror, which ex-plains how to put mantras in statues and stupas [editor’s note: this text was translated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and is included in Benefits and Practices

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That text mentions the name of the mantras, but doesn’t contain the actual mantras. That means those who rely only on this text don’t build stupas that contain these incredible, most powerful, most important Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras, which give all the power to the stupa.

Geshe Dönyo was also in the room, and he said that there were two volumes from one great Sera Je lama that mentioned these mantras. I read that text and found where in the Kangyur these mantras existed.

Once I read about the mantras, I was completely amazed by the skies of benefit these Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras have. Then, when I went to Kopan, I suggested they build the eight types of stupas. This is how all the stupa building in FPMT started.

Then recently, I was reading the benefits again, and I found out more about the Stainless Pinnacle Deity mantra. I actually have the Kangyur in the house, because Ven. Roger offered it to me. It helps a lot; it helps me discover many things. There are amazing, amazing, mind blowing things in the Kangyur! Even the Golden Light Sutra is in there! Therefore, all those benefits I discovered in the Kangyur actually came from Ven. Roger. If he hadn’t bought the Kangyur, we wouldn’t have all these discoveries. So actually, the project of building all the stupas in FPMT is Ven. Roger’s fault.

There were a few of the root and heart mantras missing from the last printing of the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras. We checked against different texts based on the Kangyur and Tengyur and I have made some corrections. It is now organized correctly and I am quite satisfied with this version. This version can be used now to make many billions and billions of stupas!

Also, the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras can be put inside prayer wheels, in tsa-tsas, in statues etc. In this way, we benefit the whole world.

We liberate so many sentient beings and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible. For the benefits of the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras, see p. 11.


Namgyälma Mantra


If you put Namgyälma mantras into a stupa, when the shadow of that stupa touches sentient beings, it frees them from heavy suffering and negative karma, and liberates them from rebirth in the hell realms, or as hungry ghosts, animals, or yamas. One also receives predictions from buddhas and one never turns away from the path to enlightenment.

Therefore, we should put many Namgyälma mantras inside stupas, as well as the five great mantras of the deities for purification (Kunrig, Namgyälma, Mitrugpa, Stainless Pinnacle, Wish-Granting Wheel).

Zung of the Exalted Completely Pure Stainless Light

Stupas should contain 100 copies of the Zung of the Completely Pure Stain-less Light [this is a different Zung of the Completely Pure Stainless Light than the mantra contained in the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras. It is also available for free download from the FPMT website at www.fpmt.org/ teachers/zopa/advice/zopa_recommends.asp].


The Great Wisdom Mantra (Vimala Ushnisha)


This is new mantra that I have not taught before. It is called the Great Wisdom mantra (Vimala Ushnisha). This is very, very important.

When you make tsa-tsas or a stupa, you need to bless the building mate-rials (or clay powder) with this mantra. Reciting this mantra purifies all the negative karma accumulated over unimaginable eons. You purify even the stains of negative karma and the defilements. Because of reciting this mantra, you will be reborn as an extremely high, wealthy lord (sala chenpo) and you will achieve the bhumi of a [[non-

returner]]. This means you will never go down; you only go up. If you use this mantra to bless the powder for making tsa-tsas, or the stones or wood that you will use to make the stupa, then without doubt you will be reborn like that and you will achieve the ten bhumis. This mantra can also be recited after the tsa-tsas are made and are in the process of curing.

Anyone who memorizes this Great Wisdom mantra, who keeps this mantra, who writes this mantra, who reads this mantra, who listens to this mantra, purifies all past negative karma. The ten non virtuous actions and even the five uninterrupted negative karmas are completely purified. This Great Wisdom mantra (Vimala Ushnisha) is:


OM TADYATHA/ SARVA TATHAAGATA HRIDAYA GARBE/ ZOLA

DHARMA DHATU GARBE/SAMHARANA AYUR SENSHODHAYA/

PAPAM SARVA TATHAAGATA SAMANTA USHA NISHA VIMALE

BISHUDDE SVAHA

(21x)


Reciting this mantra makes an object a holy object. For example, while you are crossing the road, if there is a mountain and you chant this mantra, it makes the mountain into a holy object. If there is a tree or log that people go around, and you bless it by chanting this mantra, it becomes a holy object, like a stupa. Recite this mantra whenever you want to bless something. Then people can circumambulate for merit.

There is similar mantra that you can use for blessing water, and there is another slightly different mantra for blessing the sky, so they become like holy objects. So there are different mantras, but the Great Wisdom mantra is the basic one.

The minute you recite this Great Wisdom mantra, the whole world transforms into the nature of a stupa. If you write the Great Wisdom mantra on the bark of a tree, or on cloth which you then hang from the roof or put on top of a banner, then all human beings [who see it]

become holy objects. Even the devas prostrate and make offerings to these humans, because they are now objects of respect. If you wear this mantra, all human beings and non-human beings will look at you with respect, as if you are Buddha. Wherever you go – to a park or an isolated place, to the mountains – if you recite this mantra, everything you see becomes blessed, like a stupa.

Anyone who reads this mantra, or writes it, memorizes it, or keeps it on the body, becomes like a stupa, which is the holy body of the Buddha. This person will perform perfect works for themselves and all sentient beings.

A stupa is not consecrated if this mantra has not been recited. This means after you make a holy object, you need to recite this mantra. This is mentioned in the main scriptures of the Buddha himself.

If you make just one stupa and recite this mantra, you collect the merit of having made ten million stupas.

This mantra purifies all negative karma, no matter how much there is, including the five uninterrupted negative karmas. It purifies all the huge piles of negative karma that are like mountains, and which make you circle in samsara for an unbelievable length of time. Everything is purified and you will have long life and all your wishes will succeed perfectly.

In all your lifetimes you will have a sublime holy rebirth, be extremely glorified, and have supreme enjoyments; you will be reborn as a wheel-turning king. It is not possible to have two wheel-turning kings in the world; there can only be one. The wheel-turning king has no comparison to other kings. When the wheel-turning king comes to the world, he causes everybody to engage in the ten virtues.

If you recite this mantra, you will be able to remember all your past and future lives, and you will never be separated from Triple Gem. You won’t receive harm from the harm-givers or interferers, and all your wishes will be completed up to ultimate enlightenment.

Here the Great Wisdom mantra (Vimala Ushnisha) is completed.


Colophon:


Advice given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and scribed by Ven. Holly Ansett, Kachoe Dechen Ling, March 2007. Great Wisdom Mantra teaching from a teaching given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kachoe Dechen Ling on November 26, 2006. Transcribed by Ven. Lobsang Yangchen, and checked by Ven. Holly Ansett. Both teachings compiled in this form and edited by Ven. Gyalten Mindrol, FPMT Education Department, May 2007. All errors are Mindrol’s responsibility.Essential Mantras for Holy Objects


The Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras and Their Benefits

The Benefits of the Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras

The four dharmakaya relic mantras (Stainless Pinnacle Deity, Secret Relic, Zung of the Exalted Completely Pure Stainless Light, and 100,000 Ornaments of Enlightenment) are a sacred relic. They are the highest relics of Buddha, relics of the dharmakaya. Other relics, the ones that we normally see, such as relics of the robes or parts of Buddha’s holy body, are secondary relics.

These four mantras are the highest relic. After I learned about the unbelievable benefits of each of these mantras, I had them written down and we printed many. These are normally what we should put inside stupas, statues, and so on. These very special mantras give unbelievable power. If you have put these mantras inside a statue, the devas will come to worship that holy object three times a day.

By putting these mantras inside a stupa, even a bell that is offered to the stupa brings unimaginable benefit. For example, the negative karma of all sentient beings who hear the sound of that bell is purified. They are liberated from the lower realms. Their negative karma is purified and they receive a good rebirth. In that way, there is unbelievable benefit. It makes it so easy for sentient beings to purify negative karma and reach enlightenment.

Also, if you circumambulate a stupa that has these mantras inside even one time, it purifies the negative karma that causes you to be reborn in all the eight hot hells. The negative karma that causes you to be born in all the eight hot hells – from the lightest down to the heaviest, most unbearable suffering hell realm – is completely purified by going around a stupa with these mantras inside just once.

The Very Essence of the Extensive Benefits of the Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras

The benefits of circumambulating and so forth are extensively explained, including the benefits from the tantric side, in the sutra called Arya Com- passionate Eye Looking One and in the sutra called Compassionate White Lotus, and so forth.

Stainless Pinnacle Deity Mantra (Tsugtor Drime)

As explained by the Buddha in the Kangyur, there are skies of benefits for making even just one prostration, circumambulation, or offering to a holy object containing the mantra of the Stainless Pinnacle Deity (Tsugtor Drime): It purifies completely the karmic obstacles of the five uninterrupted negative karmas (killing one’s father or mother, killing an arhat, causing blood to flow from a buddha, and causing a schism in the Sangha).

One will be completely liberated from the hell, hungry ghost, and ani-mal realms and from the evil-gone realm of the yama world. One will have a long life.

Like a snake changing its skin, when leaving the body, one will have the fortune to go to the blissful realm (i.e., a pure land). One will never be stained by the smell of the womb.

All one’s wishes will be completely and exactly fulfilled.

If you put this mantra inside a stupa, you will never be reborn in the lower realms and will have a pure life until you achieve enlightenment. You will have good rebirths up until enlightenment is achieved. This is most amazing. We have so many human problems that we can’t bear, so how could we bear the sufferings of the lower realms, such as

being born as an insect, much less being born a hell being, animal, or preta? When human beings have problems, they can communicate. They can try many ways to resolve the problems. But animals and pretas cannot do this, and their suffering is so much greater. They have unbelievable problems, so there is no question about the hell beings whose suffering is unimaginably heavier.

So it is unbelievably precious that we can be freed forever from these sufferings, just by putting the Stainless Pinnacle Deity’s mantra inside stupas (100,000 copies of this mantra should be put into stupas). From now on, we will have pure lives and higher rebirths up until enlightenment is achieved. So there are incredible benefits from building stupas and putting these Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras inside. It is so easy to purify all the heavy negative

karmas from beginningless rebirth. Anyone who has the opportunity to put this mantra inside a stupa is therefore the most fortunate being in the world. They create the cause for long life, as well as to be reborn in a pure land. Of course, this brings a lot of merit, but that didn’t happen without cause and effect and conditions, meaning we created a lot of good karma in the past.


Secret Relic Mantra (Sangwa Rigsel)


Also, as explained by the Buddha in the Kangyur, if you have this mantra inside a holy object, then all the buddhas will abide in that holy object.

Therefore, there are skies of benefits for making even just one prostration, circumambulation, or offering to a holy object containing the Secret Relic mantra (Sangwa Rigsel):

One purifies the negative karma of the ten non-virtuous actions and so forth, and will be completely liberated from the eight hot hells, including the unbearable hell (Avici). One also purifies the five uninterrupted negative karmas One will never turn back from peerless enlightenment. (That is, one will never go down; one’s life will always be directed toward enlighten-ment. This is irreversible; one will never go in the opposite direction.) One will always attain higher rebirth.

By printing the Secret Relic Mantra just once, you collect the same14 Essential Mantras for Holy Objects amount of merit as making offerings to 100,000 x 10 million x 100 billion buddhas. This was told to Vajrapani. Having made offerings to as many buddhas as there are in ninety-nine sesame seed pods – that is how much merit you create and you are always guided by that many buddhas.

This is just a drop from the unimaginable benefits of this mantra.

Zung of the Completely Pure Stainless Light (Özer Drime)

There are many Zung of the Exalted Completely Pure Stainless Light man-tras, and they are all contained within the Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras. These mantras have unbelievable, mind blowing skies of benefit. As explained by the Buddha in the Kangyur, there are skies of benefit in making even just one prostration, circumambulation, or offering to a holy object containing the Zung of the Completely Pure Stainless Light (Özer Drime):

If one offers even a bell to a stupa containing this mantra, all the sentient beings in that area, animals or humans, by hearing the sound of that bell will be completely purified of the five uninterrupted negative karmas.

Normally, committing the five uninterrupted negative karmas causes one to be reborn in the lowest hot hell, which is extremely heavy suffering, but having this mantra inside a stupa purifies it all. This shows how unbelievably powerful this mantra is. Since even hearing the sound of a bell offered to such a stupa has incredible power to purify, there is no question that any insect or other being who sees or touches the stupa is purified of negative karma. Even just thinking about the stupa purifies the five uninterrupted negative karmas. That is amazing! It is so powerful! It is like a small flame that eventually grows into a fire that burns many thousands of miles of forest or entire cities.

Even water, rain or dust that just touches the stupa is so blessed that it purifies all the negative karmas of the insects on the ground who come into contact with it. And the wind that touches such a stupa purifies the negative karmas of people or animals that it contacts and brings a good rebirth. Even if the shadow of the stupa touches people and insects, their heavy negative karma is purified. From the Kangyur:Essential Mantras for Holy Objects 15


If this mantra is put inside a stupa then any being, including evil transmigratory beings, who sees the stupa, hears of the stupa, touches the stupa, or who is touched by dust or wind that comes from this stupa, will be free from all negative karmas. They will be born in the realms of happy transmigratory beings and they won’t be reborn in the lower realms.

Everything that touches the land the stupa is on becomes meaningful, including the rain that touches the stupa and then flows to the ground and touches worms. The worms’ negative karma is purified and they will receive a higher rebirth.

If there is a stupa containing this mantra in the center of a road or above a road and cars can pass under it or go around it, this is unbelievable purification. It doesn’t only purify the negative karma of this life, it purifies the negative karma of many past lives and plants the seed of enlightenment.

The Destroyer Qualified Gone Beyond Shakyamuni Buddha advised the Bodhisattva Great Sattva: Eliminating All Obscurations, Owner of the Secrecy, Vajra in the

Hand Vajrapani, the four guardians, the [[deva] Unforgettable Owner Brahma, and the devas of Tsangri, the Maha Deva, [the Hindu God Mahashora, and so forth: “You, the capable holy beings, I hand over this heart of the king of the secret mantra. Always keep it, put it in a jeweled samato [container]. Then proclaim it to all places. Continually reveal it to sentient beings. If you make sentient beings hear and see this mantra, their five uninterrupted negative karmas will be purified.”

100,000 Ornaments of Enlightenment (Jangchub Gyänbum)

Finally, as explained by the Buddha in the Kangyur, there are skies of benefits for making even just one prostration, circumambulation, or offering to a holy object containing the mantra of the 100,000 Ornaments of Enlightenment (Jangchub Gyänbum):

By putting even just one mantra of the Ornament of Enlightenment inside a stupa, it brings the same merit as having built 100,000 stupas – whether the stupa is gigantic like Bodhgaya or tiny like the size of a finger. Then, if you dedicate this merit for sentient beings, for their happiness up to full enlightenment, they receive unbelievable benefits and you receive unbelievable merit.

One collects the merit of having made offerings to all the buddhas, to all the Dharma, and to all the Sangha. Why? Because when you make offerings to a stupa containing the 100,000 Ornaments of Enlightenment Mantra, you are not only making offering to a stupa. It becomes an offering to all the buddhas, the Three Rare Sublime Ones – all the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha that exist in the ten directions, in any universe.

After a person has died, chant that person’s name during the exact mo-ment you put the mantra inside the stupa (before placing it inside the stupa, the mantra should be rolled correctly and covered in yellow cloth).

Then you make offerings to the stupa – either actual offerings, or visualized, as in the seven limb prayer. If you visualize offerings, visualize all the flowers inside and outside, all the food offerings, all the water offerings, all the light offerings, everything! You can use all the offerings at my houses in California and Washington, as well as all the offerings at all the FPMT centers.

Buddha said to Ananda: “I explained this sutra for those beings who have very little merit and no devotion, for those who are overcome by doubt and cannot believe in the Dharma. For those sentient beings, I explained the 100,000 Ornaments of Enlightenment mantra.” That means Buddha explained this mantra for us.

Buddha also told Ananda: “In future times, if ordained ones don’t read this sutra that contains the benefits of this mantra and don’t make offering to this mantra, which makes it so unbelievably easy to purify the negative karma that causes one to be reborn in the lower realms and to accumulate the merit to

achieve enlightenment and then offer extensive benefit to sentient beings, those ordained ones will suffer in the same way as householders. But if one listens to this teaching and then makes even one stupa with this mantra inside, one makes offering to all the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha.” This means that this mantra is an antidote to the 84,000 delusions, and one creates inconceivable heaps of merit. This is the same as reading the sutra called Tongpa Denpe Do (Sutra of the Ornamented Trunk)

When you put these four dharmakaya relic mantras inside a stupa, even mentioning the name of a person or animal that has died and praying for them brings them a good rebirth, such as birth in a pure land. That person will definitely be liberated from the lower realms. It is very powerful. You

can also do the same for very sick people, making dedications for them to be healthy. As you put the mantras inside the stupa (or holy object), you should do the seven-limb practice and make the dedication for that per-son. This is a very powerful method for healing.

Holy objects such as these liberate sentient beings continuously twenty-four hours a day, every day. They purify the causes of the lower realms and bring sentient beings to the higher realms where they can meet the Dharma and then reach liberation and enlightenment.

Creating holy objects with these special mantras inside and making them available to others brings constant, unbelievable benefit to sentient be-ings. As soon as stupas and statues of the Buddha are made, they have the power to cause sentient beings to do actions such as circumambulating, prostrating, offering, and so forth, which then become virtuous actions creating the cause of enlightenment, even if those

actions are done with the eight worldly dharmas and nonvirtuous thoughts. These holy objects make it possible for sentient beings to create the cause to meet the Dharma and actualize the path. So even though we who are making these holy objects do not

have realizations such as bodhichitta or emptiness, nor have we reached any of the bodhisattva bhumis, the holy objects we make still have the power to liberate sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering, to actualize all the realizations of the pathGuru devotion, the three principles of the path, and the two stages – and then to achieve enlightenment.

These are illustrations of the activity of the Buddha’s unbelievable com-passion toward us sentient beings and are but a few of the drops of Buddha’s unbelievable methods to liberate sentient beings quickly from the sufferings of samsara.


Colophon:


This teaching is a compilation of advice from three different occasions: dictated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to Ven. Holly Ansett, Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, November 2002. Section of the benefits is from the Kangyur, which is the essence of all the Buddha’s teachings. Additional benefits for the Stainless beam mantra extracted from “Zung of the Completely Pure Exalted Beam Stainless Light,” translated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and dictated to Ven. Matthew Tenzin, Kachoe Dechen Ling, February, 2005. Lightly edited by Holly Ansett and Kendall Magnussen, May, 2005.

Additional teachings on the benefits of these mantras from a teaching given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kachoe Dechen Ling on November 26, 2006. Transcribed by Ven> Lobsang Yangchen, checked and arranged by Ven. Holly Ansett, and edited by Ven. Gyalten Mindrol, FPMT Education Department, May 2007. All teachings compiled in this form by Ven. Gyalten Mindrol, FPMT Education Department, May 200718 Essential Mantras for Holy Objects

The Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras

This is the Tibetan text of the most recent version of the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras, as corrected by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, January 2007. These mantras have been formatted for rolling and are available for free down-load from: http://www.fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/ zopa_recommends.asp. Tsugtor Drime

Tsa Ngag (root mantra)

Sangwa Ringsel

Jangchub Gy änbum (100,000 Ornaments of Enlightenment) Zung (dharani)

Colophon:

This version of the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras was corrected and prepared by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, relying on many texts, including the Kangyur. Where there were discrepancies be-tween texts, Rinpoche used “mo” or divination techniques to choose which syllables were most correct to use. Therefore, this version of the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras does not exist in any classic text, but is a compilation of sources that Rinpoche found most beneficial. Prepared January 2007.

Tibetan text copied and input by Ven. Tsen-la. Missing syllables added from handwritten notes and consultation with Ven. Tsen-la by Ven. Gyalten Mindrol, FPMT Education Department, January 2007.

Blessing Building Materials for Tsa-Tsas and Stupas

The most important thing to do when making tsa-tsas is generate the correct motivation. Before making tsa-tsas, spend some time generating the correct motivation.

The next important thing is how the tsa-tsa is actually made. In the Tibetan style, we make them with earth, clay, or with a brass mold or stamp. The next thing to do bless the powder that will be used in making the tsa-tsas. To do this, we recite the mantra of Buddha Vairochana (and also the Great Wisdom mantra; see below). If you bless the powder before making tsa-tsas, then – after you make the tsa-tsas – you collect the merit of making the same number of tsa-tsas as there are the number of atoms in the powder or clay. That is unbelievable!

This advice comes from the Kangyur and is extremely important. His Holiness [[Chögye [richen Rinpoche]] has also explained these benefits. Even if you make a tsa-tsa the size of a thumb or even smaller, because there are so many atoms, you still collect so much merit! If you make a tsa-tsa the size of your palm or bigger, then you will create unbelievable merit!

It will blow your mind! If you think of the benefits from doing this, you will faint.


How to Bless the Building Materials


Using this technique of reciting the mantra and doing the visualization and so forth to bless the materials, you collect the merit of making the same number of statues or stupas equal to the number of atoms in each.

If you make a stupa one or two stories high, then you can bless the powder, concrete, stones, or bricks. You can put them in a big pile and then bless them with this meditation and mantra. This is amazing!

You collect the merit of having made as many stupas as there are atoms in the building materials. First, generate yourself as the deity. Then purify the clay or powder by reciting this mantra and meditating on emptiness:


OM SVABHAVA SHUDDHA SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA SHUDDHO

HAM

When you meditate on emptiness, you recognize the object to be refuted, which is the merely labeled clay or powder. In reality, that is totally non-existent. It’s not there. It is totally empty.

Then you look at the emptiness of the truly existent I, which is apprehended by the self which grasps at the aggregates. You look at the emptiness of the aggregates which you see as truly existent, which are apprehended by the thought which grasps at the aggregates, those

aggregates which are seen as real and apprehended by ignorance. Then you look at all phenomena which appear to you as not merely labeled by your mind. The object which appears as truly existent and which you believe is truly existent is actually empty. Even the perceiver, the mind which holds the object as appearing not merely labeled by mind, is actually empty.

Then, while everything is empty, a lotus appears. On the lotus is a moon disk, and on the moon disk appears the syllable BHRUM. The syllable BHRUM transforms into piles of jewels.

At the heart of yourself visualized as the deity is the seed syllable. From the seed syllable, light beams radiate, invoking Bhagavan Vairochana from Ogmin (where the sambhogakaya abides). These light beams persuade Bhagavan Vairochana’s holy mind. Then light beams radiate from the holy mind and absorb into the clay or powder. The clay or powder be-comes in the nature of the transcendental wisdom of the holy mind of all the buddhas, the tathagatas.

While doing this meditation and reciting the mantra, your hands should be in this mudra: Your left hand is held above the bucket of powder, palm down with the thumb pressing down the pinky finger. Your right hand is held below the bucket, palm up with the thumb pressing down the pinky finger.

Then, holding this mudra and doing the meditation, you chant the mantra:


OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VAIROCHANAYA/ PHRABA RANZAYA /

TATHAGATAYA/ ARHATE SAMYAKSAM BUDDHAYA/ TADYATHA

OM SUSHAME SUSHAME / SAME SAME / SHANTE / DANTE

ASAMA ROPE / ANALAMPE / TARAMPE / YASHOWATE / MAHA

TENDZA / NIRA GULE / NIRUWANI / SARVA BUDDHA /

ADHISHTANA ADHISHTITE SVAHA (3x)


After you recite the Vairochana mantra, there is another mantra to recite over the clay or powder (or building materials). If you recite this mantra, you collect the merit of having made ten million stupas:


TADYATHA / SUKSHAME SUKSHAME / SAME / SAMAYE / SHANTE

DANTE / NIRA GULE / YASHO TENDZA / SARVA BUDDHA /

ADHISHTANA ADHISHTITE / ANUMITE SVAHA

Then recite the Great Wisdom mantra (see p. 8 for Rinpoche’s teaching on this mantra).


Concluding Practice


Then when you take the tsa-tsa out of the mold, recite:

OM DHARMADHATU YE SVAHA / DHAMADHATU GARBHE SVAHA (7x)


When you recite this mantra, the tsa-tsa becomes numberless holy objects.

The Non-dual Method Wisdom Sutra it says, “This holy object does perfect work for all the transmigratory sentient beings until the end of samsara.”


Colophon:


From a teaching given by the incomparably kind Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kachoe Dechen Ling on November 26, 2006. Transcribed by Ven. Yangchen. Checked and arranged by Ven. Holly Ansett.

Edited by Ven. Gyalten Mindrol, FPMT Education Department, June 2007.

Statue of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha in Samboghakaya aspect, (copy of the Jowo Rinpoche statue in the Jokhang in Lhasa,) FPMT International Office (photo by Paddy Ryan)


Filling Statues and Stupas


Introduction

It is not good to leave statues or stupas completely empty. To leave a statue empty is like offering nothing to the buddhas and can create obstacles. Therefore, it is important to put something inside of the statue, even as little as a few mantras and some incense. This is also true when offering statues to your teachers; there should always be something placed inside of them for auspiciousness. If you need to wait awhile until your statue/stupa can be properly filled and consecrated, then roll up a copy of the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras, or the five powerful mantras and place them inside the statue with some incense for the time being.

Below are instructions for properly filling and consecrating your statue or stupa. You will roll the mantras that go inside the statue, gather the various substances that are also placed inside, bless these substances, clean the statue, fill it, and then perform a final blessing ceremony. The root text of Shälkar Melong with commentary by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, which provides more instructions on filling holy objects, can be found in Benefits and Practices Related to Statues and Stupas, Part 2 (available from the Foundation Store, www.fpmt.org/shop)


Step One: Gather the Ingredients


Gather all the things that need to go inside: life tree (sog shing), mantras (already rolled), relics (if you have them), small statues and tsa-tsas (for big statues or stupas), loose incense (there are up to twenty-five different ingre-dients that can be used in incense, so collect together as many different kinds of incense as you can, such as medicinal incense, etc.), precious jew-els, etc. For large statues, you can also place wealth vases (one or more) inside. Articles should be pure and properly blessed. Hair, fingernails, and so on of lamas are not necessarily suitable. Check with the lama who is blessing the statue.

As no space should be left empty, it is necessary to have a large amount of clean powdered incense or medicinal herbs that can be packed tightly amongst the mantras, filling every space.

Smaller statues and tsa-tsas of buddhas, Lama Tsongkhapa, Guru Rinpoche, etc. to be placed inside a larger statue or stupa can be placed adjacent to their corresponding mantras. In a Guru Shakyamuni statue, Guru Shakyamuni tsa-tsas can be placed everywhere. Tsa-tsas of stupas should only be placed in the lotus. Only good quality tsa-tsas should be used; never those that are damaged or imperfect.

Precious objectsgems, gold, money, sandalwood, perfumes, holy pills, and so on are placed in the lotus. “Five Metal Powder.” At the time of filling the statue, scatter every-where, especially in the lotus, a powder made from ground gold, silver, copper, iron, as well as a powder made from diamond, sapphire, ruby, and pearl.

Five seeds (small quantities): Barley, black sesame, yellow mustard, peas, wheat (ne, dro, tel, lung kar, drema). These can be placed in glass jars to avoid attracting insects.

Holy water and soil from Mt. Kailash, Benares, Bodhgaya, etc., holy wood and leaves from the Bodhi tree, and so on.

Several layers of yellow cotton cloth or silk. After each section of the statue/stupa is filled, you will put a piece of this cloth inside as an internal barrier to keep what has been put into the statue/stupa in place. The cloth gets tucked in around the edges, keeping the contents securely in place. If the statue is big enough, you should also include a small picture of the mandala wheel of Dzambhala (male) and another one of Nörgyünma (fe-male) among the

items to put inside. You will also need a picture of the mandala wheel of Ganapati, a picture of the eight auspicious signs, and a picture of a double dorje. Once the consecration (step six below) has taken place, you will need a mixture of honey, butter, and sugar together with the powder or precious stones (if available) and perfume to stick the male (Dzambhala) and female (Norgyunma) mandala wheel pictures together. See below for instructions.


Step Two: Mantras


Make extensive copies of the various mantras to go inside the stupa or statue. Master copies of mantras are available from the Foundation Store (www.fpmt.org). Roll up a sufficient number of them until you think you have enough (see next page for estimated number of sheets of each mantra needed to fill an 80 cm (32-inch) statue).

Mantras should be printed on yellow paper. If they are printed on white paper, then it should be colored yellow with saffron water. The mantra text should be cut so that there is minimal margin on the four sides.


Rolling the Mantras


Mantras are usually rolled around sticks of incense and wrapped with saf-fron-colored cloth. For small statues, you should still roll your mantras around incense; however, wrapping them with a cloth is optional if it will make it too difficult to put the mantras inside the statue.

Break off a piece of incense the width of the text. Roll the first sheet with the incense inside, beginning at the “head” (start) of the text, which faces inwards. Additional sheets are then added, in groups of one or more, de-pending upon your dexterity, with an overlap of about 2 cm. The sheets should all have the same orientation. The rolls should be as tight as possible. This can be achieved by rolling them on a firm surface with an ob-long block of wood. Finish

the roll with a single sheet, gluing firmly the final 2 cm. When rolling mantras be sure to mark which way is “up” so that the mantras are not put into the statue/stupa upside down. Also, mark the number reference of the mantra on the outside to be sure which mantras are which so they can be put in the appropriate places of the statue. According to the text, Shälkar Melong, roll mantras from “head to tail,” i.e., left to right. (Please note there is also an equally valid tradition of rolling mantras from tail to head.) Then wrap the outside of mantra roll with yellow/gold cloth or ribbon the exact width of the roll. Glue the ribbon all around and over the junction of its ends. The rolls can be any size, according to the size of the statue.

When it comes time to fill your holy object, the rolls are placed in the following sequence. Variations in numeric sequence and type of mantra exist for statues of different deities. The numbers shown are the approximate number of mantra sheets (5 x 40 cm) needed for an 80 cm (32-inch) Guru Shakyamuni statue with a double lotus base.

1 dbu zung Head mantra 300 2 mgrin zung Throat mantra 200 3 thug zung Heart mantra 300 4 bla med Highest yoga tantra 400 5 khong sa H.H. the Dalai Lama’s name mantra 600 6 yong dzin Two tutors’ name mantras 600 7 thub mtshan Guru Shakyamuni mantra 1500 8 jei mtshan Lama Tsongkhapa mantra 600 9 Padmasambhava mantra 600 10 ma ni Chenrezig mantra 600 11 nal jor Yoga and charya tantra mantras 600 12 ja gyud Kriya tantra mantras 700 13 drolma Tara mantra 700 14 tsho lha Three

long life deities 700 15 sde lnga Five collections of great mantras 800 16 mdo zung Sutra mantras 800 17 rten nying Essence, dependent arising mantras 800 18 so jong Guru Shakyamuni & previous buddhassojong 800 19 dod gso Kyabje Ling Rinpoche’s

requesting prayer 800 20 mig tse Praise to Lama Tsongkhapa prayer 800 21 shis brdod Verses of auspiciousness – prayers 800 22 ta shi Verses of auspiciousness – verses 800 23 nor lha Wealth deitiesmantras 800 24 cho kyong Dharma protectorsmantras 800 25 thug sel Purifying mistakes mantras 800 26 yig rgya 100-syllable Vajrasattva mantra 1000 27 pad zung Lotus mantra 4000E


Step Three: Preparing for the Ritual to Bless the Ingredients

You will need to bless the statues, mantras, other ingredients, wealth deity mandalas, etc. There is a text for this blessing practice called Sung Drub (see p.291 of the book Benefits and Practices Related to Statues and Stupas, Part 2 (available from the Foundation Store, www.fpmt.org/shop), for setup instruc-tions and the ritual text).


Step Four: Clean your Holy Object


Carefully wrap the statue’s face in cotton wool to protect the painting.

Thoroughly clean the inside of the statue/stupa with nice smelling soap and water. The inside of statues often has a fair amount of resin residue from casting. You may need to clean out some of the resin from inside the statue. Pick it off with a screwdriver or similar tool. Often with small stat-ues,

the neck is blocked, or the hole is not smooth so it is difficult to insert the mantras to fill them. Also there can be small metal protrusions that need to be broken off or filed down so that there are fewer obstructions to putting the mantras inside. Then rinse the inside of the statue well with saf-fron water and allow it to dry.

For large statues, paint the inside with a red color. While the paint is still wet, inside the statue sprinkle some ground up pachug pill (cow pill) as well as medicinal and other incenses. Alternatively, you may paint the inside with a thick “leather-like” coat of paint made from the following various substances:

six great medicines powder (zang drub), obtained from Tibetan Medical Centre, McLeod Ganj, Dharmasala, India. medicinal powder (man che). saffron (a very large amount). five cow substances pills (bajug rilbu). These are obtained by keeping a red or a pink cow separate from other cows for one month, feeding it on grass and water from a high, clean pasture – a special grass that grows in Tibet. During this month the cow must be looked after by a34 Essential Mantras for Holy Objects

gelong with pure vows, not a getsul. The gelong then collects the milk, butter, curd, urine, and manure produced by the cow, mixes them, and makes pills out of the drying mixture. This same mixture is used to coat the base of the board used for drawing sand mandalas, for stupas, and for statues; it can be obtained from Namgyäl Monastery. camphor (quite a large amount, to repel insects). glue (not mentioned in the text, but useful to make the paste stick to the inside of the statue).

All of these ingredients are heated and mixed together into a thick paste, several coats of which are applied to the inside of the statue. The wet paint helps the substances to stick inside. The paint may also help to preserve the metal (if your statue is made of metal). Allow the paint to dry before filling the statue.

Seal all holes that may allow insects to get inside.


Step Five: Fill the Statue or Stupa


Fill the statues inserting the appropriate mantras and substances in the correct order and in the correct places (note that there are many traditions for how to do this and one should seek the advice of a qualified lama or geshe). Instructions on the attitude one should have while filling the statue as well as what rituals to perform while filling, etc., can be found in Benefits and Practices Related to Statues and Stupas, Part 2 (available from the Foundation Store, www.fpmt.org/shop).

Use a mixture of honey, butter, and sugar together with the powder or precious stones (if available) and perfume to stick the male (Dzambhala) and female (Norgyunma) mandala wheel pictures together – as if they were embracing – with Dzambhala on top facing downwards. After they are stuck together, make sure to mark on the outside of the pictures to be able identify both Dzambhala and the placement of the heads of the deities.

When the wheels are placed inside the statue, Dzambhala will be on top and the heads of the deities will be directed towards the back of the statue (so if they “stood up,” they would be facing the same direction as the statue).

Then, beneath the picture of Nörgyünma, add the mandala wheel of Ganapati, followed by the picture of the eight auspicious signs (both facing up), and finally the double dorje. The double dorje faces down toward the base of the statue like Dzambhala. These can all be stuck together with the sweet paste offering. It is also recommended to offer a nice cloth by wrap-ping it around all of them together.

Paste the following syllables inside the statue: behind the eyes KSHIM KSHIM, the ears DZIM DZIM, the nose KHAM, the tongue RAM, the forehead KAM, the navel SAM, the crown OM, the throat AH, and the heart HUM. All syllables should be written in Tibetan. (These syllables are illustrated in

Tibetan in the book Benefits and Practices Related to Statues and Stupas, Vol.

Within the ushnisha, place a relic pill of the Buddha or, if that is not available, a single pearl. Then place the central wooden stick (sog shing) with the eastern side facing towards the front, holding it in with the man-tra rolls placed in horizontal layers in the sequence mentioned earlier. Pack each level of mantras with a piece of yellow cloth (where possible - it is too difficult to do this with small statues).

Tsa-tsas are placed at the level of their corresponding mantras. Tsa-tsas and small statues placed inside a large statue should be wrapped in yellow cloth. In a Guru Shakyamuni Buddha statue, his mantras are placed not only at their appropriate level, but also everywhere within the statue. Similarly, for a Lama Tsongkhapa statue, his mantra can be placed anywhere, and so on.

The “purifying mistakes mantra” (#25 of the twenty seven mantras) is placed everywhere, to overcome errors that may have been made in the prepara-tion. When filling small statues wherein all the listed mantras will not fit; the “five groups of great mantras” (de nga #15), the five great mantras, and the four dharmakaya relic mantras can be used throughout. Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommends using the four dharmakaya

relic mantras as much as possible. The five great mantras compiled by Lama Zopa Rinpoche are called also called de nga, but should not be confused with the traditional de nga (#15 of the twenty-seven mantras). Rinpoche recommends to use these five great mantras in addition to the traditional ones.

Relics of high lamas, their robes, and so on are placed at the level of the heart and above. Lama’s robes may be used to wrap the mantras. Fill the lotus with mantras 21–27. In the center place the auspicious mantras (#s 21 & 22), to the Buddha’s right place the protector mantras (#24), to his left the wealth deity mantras (#23), and the others in all the remaining spaces. Other substances mentioned above are also placed in the lotus. Finally, place the five wheels horizontally so that the male will be on top when the statue is righted, and the heads of the deities are towards the back of the statue or stupa. Cover everything with a yellow cloth and then close and seal the base of the statue so that no insects can gain access.


Step Six: Perform the Final Consecration (Rab Nä)


The specific text and prayers required to perform the final consecration is referred to as Rab Nä. There are three versions of Rab Nä – abbreviated, middle, and extensive: Abbreviated version. This is done on the basis of refuge, bodhichitta, and a guru yoga (e.g., Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga). Then, the buddhas of the consecration are invoked, and they request that the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions come

and abide with that statue until it is destroyed. The consecration verse(s) is/are recited three times. This is supplemented by a few other verses. Then the mantra of dependent-arising is recited three times, followed by other prayers and mantras, and finally, verses of auspiciousness. The short consecration ceremony takes approximately 20–30 minutes.

Middle version. This is a more elaborate version of the short Rab Nä wherein more extensive offerings, etc. are done. The middle version takes approximately 2–3 hours.

Extensive version. The extensive version takes three days. This is rarely done, except for very large statues or stupas, and it is very difficult to find all the substances required to do it. If the extensive version is done, then special effort is made to find all of the required ingredients so as to make the ritual extremely precise and complete.

Colophon:


Material collected and compiled by Kendall Magnussen, FPMT Education Department, 2003.

Further information added by Ven. Gyalten Mindrol, FPMT Education Department, 2006. This is an excerpt from the larger book, Benefits and Practices Related to Statues and Stupas, Part 2.


Additional Resources


Benefits and Practices Related to Statues and Stupas, Part 2; This book gives all the tools you need to create a holy object, including tips from stupa builders, architectural drawings, photographs, and ritual texts needed for building, filling, and blessing a statue or stupa. In addition, it contains all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s holy advice on building and blessing holy objects. This book empowers you to create new places of pilgrimage and peace, for the benefit of the entire world.

Mantras for Filling Statues and Stupas; This pack contains all the man-tras needed to fill statues and stupas, including the new version of the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras, which Lama Zopa Rinpoche says are required to fill statues and stupas.

Mandala Wheels for Filling Statues and Stupas; This is a set of the mandala wheels needed to fill statues and stupas, as indicated in Benefits and Practices Related to Statues and Stupas, Part 2; Building and Blessing Holy Objects.


FPMT Education Department

The aim of the Education Department at FPMT International Office is to serve the needs of Dharma centers and individuals in the area of Tibetan Buddhist educational and spiritual materials. This includes prayers and practice texts, retreat sadhanas and other practice materials, a variety of study texts and translations, deity images for meditation, and curricular materials for study pro-grams in FPMT Dharma centers.

One of our principal objectives is to serve as a repository for a wide variety of practice texts primarily within the Gelug tradition, especially those authored or translated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Thubten Yeshe. We work in close collaboration with the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, Boston, Massachusetts, which serves as a repository for the commentaries and transcripts of teach-ings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe.



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