Propitiating Local Deities
There have been many different things going on in our village over the past few months. The medicine factory was built, which will be such a blessing to our village once it is open. Also, we have almost completed the new library and printing press here at the nunnery. It has come together nicely and we are so grateful that we were given this wonderful gift and opportunity from the Lama who visited a while back. It was his generosity that has made all of this possible. A few of my fellow nuns and villagers have been working hard to organize the consecration rituals that are required for the opening of the medicine factory, and the new library, so everything should be up and running soon.
There was a group of villagers who went out on an excursion of the mountains and caves recently, where there were rumors of many historical texts to be found there. One of the discovered texts they found in the caves had a record of our village history and had information concerning a location on the edge of our village where there used to be a cairn to the local protector deity. The cairn over time has been destroyed, and needs to be rebuilt in order to put a stop to any future disasters and suffering that our village may incur. It is important to appease the local deities and keep them happy, and in order to do this, we have several traditional rituals that we perform.
An essential part of gaining the favor of the local deities among my fellow Tibetan people, is the ritual of incense burning. Incense burning is a fundamental ceremony that invites the local deities to remove defilements and pollution from our world. The practise of incense burning as a way to remove impurities, has been part of Tibetan culture since the earliest of times.
A purification ritual is a common ritual performed to the local deities in our Tibetan culture. When impure actions are taken, a purification ritual is necessary. The local deities are displeased with what people do to themselves, others, and the environment. The local deities are of great important to theses rituals as they are the original ancestors to our local people. The deities will become angry if their descendants do not properly observe the purification rituals. These rituals are most commonly practised in the mountains or hills where it is believed that the local deities abide. The purification ritual starts off with a prayer to the guru who embodies all buddhas of the past, present and future, who protects all living beings; the prayer is offered in order to ask for protection and compassion. It is known, that the people who perform this ritual often will be blessed. While performing this ritual, the most beautiful offerings are to be made and arranged in an appeasing manner. It is valuable to remember, that while participating in the rituals, it is of extreme importance to find oneness between our body, mind and speech, as it is not enough to simply recite the words of the ritual. It will never be enough in any ritual to only recite words. There must be visualization, as well as good intent. Our effort matters and play a role in the quality of purification. Without visualization and oneness of body, mind, and speech, one would be simply wasting their time and exhausting themselves.
As a preliminary step to the purification ritual, we recite the verses of refuge and bodhichitta, this is the desire for all sentient beings, ourselves and all living beings to reach perfect enlightenment.
The purification ritual has 4 types of guests. The first guests are the ones who are invited out of respect, and are known as the rare and supreme ones, “the Jewels”. By inviting them, we benefit by receiving merit and awareness, purifying emotional and mental obscurations, and by achieving the ability to perform spiritual practises such as yoga and meditation. The second guests that are invited are the protectors; they are invited for their qualities. The benefit received by inviting the protectors, is they shield us from any obstacles or adversities, as well as bring about virtuous and positive circumstances that make anything we choose to do achievable. The third guests, are invited out of compassion, they are the six classes of beings, the gods, demi-gods, human beings, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings. These are the six different classes any being may obtain based on karma, in samsara. The benefit of inviting the six classes is more of a gift to those invited, it frees them from the karmic vision, giving them the opportunity to be awakened. The fourth and last guests invited are the ones who we owe karmic debt to, the obstructive ones. By inviting the obstructive ones, we pay off our karmic debt, and also free them from their anger and vengeance, giving them the opportunity to gain compassion, loving kindness, and the cherished bodhichitta (which is the desire motivated by compassion for all sentient beings to reach enlightenment).
Another significant ritual we perform is the wind horse ritual. The Tibetan term for wind horse is rlung rta. Wind horse is both symbolic of good fortune and well-being in our Tibetan culture, as well as the name that was given to a prayer flag. The wind horse prayer flag depicts the wind horse in the center with four animals surrounding it, one in each corner. In the upper two corners there is an eagle and a dragon, in the bottom two corners there is a tiger and a lion. The four animals found in each corner are called the ‘four great gnyan’. In order to provide a symbolic meaning to the horse in the center of the flag, the soul was added to the four astrological elements. The eagle is symbolic of the sky, which represents eternity. The tiger is symbolic of the forest which represents growth. The dragon is symbolic of the astrological element of a lake which represents fullness. The lion is symbolic of a snow mountain which represents lustre, and the astrological element for the horse is a cloud, which represents abundance. These animals are symbolic of qualities that are desired by many to have on their journey to enlightenment. Also, culturally, each one of the animals came to be a representation of a specific Tibetan clan, but that is a story for another day.
The ritual of the wind horse is a variety of different prayers and offerings made to the local deities, the masters of the earth who protect all that is good and beneficial in this world. The ritual is offered in order to acquire comfort, happiness, health, prosperity, and good fortune.
A mandala is a spiritual and ritual symbol in Buddhism meant to represent the universe. A mandala is often used as a tool for practitioners to focus and concentrate on creating a sacred space, and as an aid for meditation. In our Tibetan culture there a few different ways to produce a mandala, but a very common practise is to create the mandala with colored sand. A long time ago, different natural colored stones were ground up to create the mandala; however, in our current day of age, white stones are ground up and different colors of die are added to the sand to create different colors of sand to produce the mandala. We have a variety of tools we use in order to apply the sand to the mandala, such as tubes, funnels, and scrapers. Typically, to create a mandala takes several weeks because of the great detail that is applied to it. Often a mandala contains many deities that the ritual is attributed to. Once the mandala has filled its ritualistic purpose, it is destroyed; however the destruction is also very ritualistic. The mandala is take apart in a specific order, with different deities being removed in a specific order. The sand is scrapped into jars, wrapped in silk, and transported to a river or any location that has moving water. The jars are then dumped into the water where the sand is released back into nature. This practise is symbolic of the impermanence of life and of the world we live in.
The purification ritual, wind horse ritual, and mandala ritual are just a few of the common rituals we perform and practise here in the village in order to appease the local deities, and there are many more I did not get a chance to write about. It is time for meditation, so I must go.
