Smoke Offering Guide
SMOKE OFFERING
The benefits of the True Buddha Tantric Smoke Offering Practice are:
- To assist cultivators to resolve their personal karmic hindrances with karmic creditors. To practice compassion by offerings to ancestors & wandering spirits etc. By offering 5 auspicious offerings in the form of smoke, alongside a compassionate heart.
- To motivate cultivators to gain karmic merits and blessings by frequently offering to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas with 5 auspicious offerings in the form of smoke.
- To provide cultivators with the opportunity to perform a convenient, easy and affordable Great Offering Practice, with a simple location requirement, as frequently as their hearts desire.
2) Materials for the Practice
2.1) Incense Burner (or Smoke Offering Burner/plate)
Use a separate burner for offerings to sentient beings of the lower realm (separate from the burner on the altar dedicated to Buddha/s & deities of the higher realm). Preferably put outside the house or balcony. If inconvenient, put near a window.
A used burner should be purified first by the incense at the shrine. The size of the incense burner is determined by the quantity of the materials that you wish to burn and offer.
A small incense burner is adequate for an individual’s use. However, a bigger incense burner is recommended if you intend to conduct the Practice with a large group of people.
2.2) Smoke Offering Incense and Powder
The powder and incense must consist of 5 main flammable ingredients. However, the incense you purchase at Buddhist Shop should have the 5 main ingredient.
3) The Detailed Procedures of the Practice
3.1) Preparing the Powder and Incense
Repeatedly chant “Om Ah Hum” and “Ram Yam Kam ” as you are making and preparing the powder.
3.2) Selecting a location for the Practice.
The location of where you conduct your practice depends on to whom you wish to dedicate the Smoke Offering.
If your practice is meant to be offered to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, you would place your incense burner on the shrine table with all the windows of the room opened. You would complete the entire practice in your shrine room.
If your practice is meant to be offered to sentient beings of the lower realm: eg. Ancestors who have not liberated, karmic debtors, wandering spirits etc, you would place your incense burner outside such as on the balcony. You would conduct the entire practice facing the balcony.
Bear in mind that there MUST be adequate air flow to allow the incense’s smoke to be blown out by the winds.
3.3) Performing the Practice Ritual
Decide whether you want to make offering to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, or beings of the lower realm. To offer it to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, you would perform the ritual in the morning between 5am to 9am.
To offer it to your beings of lower realm, you would perform the ritual in the evening between 5pm to 9pm.
4) Symbolic Tantric Meanings
4.1) The flammable ingredients
five colored fabrics – so that your karmic enemies and creditors may receive and wear their favorite colorful beautiful clothing.
white and brown sugar – so that your karmic enemies and creditors may consume some sweets. After having eaten some sweets, their original anger, hatreds and vengeance toward the cultivator would be dissolved.
4.2) Recitation of The Four Immeasurable Vows
Dedicate your compassionate love and equanimity to your karmic enemies and creditors. Once their pain and sufferings diminish from receiving your Four Immeasurable Vows, they would happily accept your 5 auspicious great offerings, and consequently leave you alone.
Example :-
If Offering to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, please recite:
With the five amazing offerings, I sincerely render to
Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Vajra Protectors, Heavenly Beings
through the smoke offering.
If Offering to Karmic Debtors, please recite:
With the five amazing offerings, I sincerely render to Incense
Eating Deva, Kinnara and retinues, Five-Knots Incense Eating
Deva and retinues, Dragon Kings and Dragon Maidens,
Mountain Devas, River Devas, Ocean Devas, and all Bardo
beings and suffering beings. May their desires be fulfilled. May
all Bardo beings be liberated from fears and sufferings. May
Buddhas, of the Perfect Body, bless me to quickly attain
realization. Even if the power is not acquired yet, may Buddhas
bless me to be delivered, despite of all obstacles, by the merits of
the cultivation. I sincerely practice the supreme dharma. May I
dedicate the merits of the practice to eradicate all hindrances.
Though the sufferings of the Four Great Elements are like waves,
may I save all beings in samsara.
4.3) Visualizing the Incense Smoke Transforming into 5 Auspicious Offerings
It signifies your desire to offer the 5 auspicious offerings to Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas; or to your ghosts, spirits, karmic enemies and karmic creditors.
If you were to offer them to the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas, they would bless you with good fortunes for your karmic merits.
If you were to offer them to your ghosts, spirits, karmic enemies and creditors, they would happily accept your offerings, dissolve their grudges against you and leave you alone.
4.4) Recitation of “Om, ah-bu-la-di, pu-ba-yeh, soha” and snap fingers 7 times
The number 7 means spiritual completion and fulfillment. The symbolic meanings of mantra chanting and snapping fingers 7 times are spiritual completion and fulfillment.
To spiritually fulfill the desires of all of your ghosts, spirits, karmic enemies and karmic creditors so that they may joyfully attain spiritual completion in the spirit of the Four Immeasurable Vows.
Chant the following :-
Namo Sa Wa Da Ta Ye Tuo Wa Lu Zhi Di
OM San Ba La , San Ba La Hum (7 times)
This mantra will turn all the smoke into auspicious offering.
After that chant the following (see photo) as you sprinkle the water into the air.
Namo SuLu Po Ye
Da Ta Ye Duo Ye
Da Zhi Ta
OM Su Lu Su Lu
Bola Su Lu Bola Su Lu
Suo Po He
(7 times)
This practise will benefit the thirst of all hungry ghost.
4.5) Chant the Principal Heart Mantras (as many times as possible during the practise
a) OM MANI PADME HUM (21 times or 108 times)
Visualise yourself as Guan Shi Ying Bodhisattva
b) OM BO LA MO LIN TUO NING, SOU PO HE (21 times or 108 times)
Visualise yourself Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva (Earth Store Bodhisattva)
c) TEYATA OM BEKANDZE BEKANDZE MAHA BEKANDZE RADZA SAMUDGATE SOHA (21times or 108 times)
Visualise yourself Medicine Buddha (Namo Yao Se Fo)
d) Chant The Great Compassion Mantra ( 1 time or more)
Visualise yourself Thousand Hand Thousand Eyes Guan Yin.
If all the above is too complicated, just continue to chant
OM AH HUM non stop until the end of your practise.
4.6) Finally , at the end of your practise, recitation of “Om Ah Hum 3 times, Ram Yam Kang 3 times.
“Om” is to transform the quantity of the offerings (the flammable ingredients) into
abundance. “Ah” is to purify the abundance. “Hum” is to empower the abundance with dharma taste. Following, you would chant “Ram Yam Kang”.
“Ram ” refers to the smoke escaping from the incense burner’s top. “Yam” is the transformed winds. “Kang” refers to the winds dispersing the abundant offerings into the vast
~ End ~
Note:- To make the smoke offering turn into more smoke, you may add some dry biscuit into the powder.
May the merits from this practise benefit every cell, every body , earth and sky! May this practise benefit my past, present and future selves and may this practise benefits past, present and futureselves of all sentient being.
OM MANI PADME HUM
** There are different ways of doing smoke offering. Above is just a general guide. If have a teacher or master, do follow your master’s way. Thank you