This is an excerpt from a teaching given by H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche at Khadro Ling, Brazil, in March of 1999.
In the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition, we accumulate merit in order to create positive short-term circumstances such as health, wealth, and longevity and, more deeply, to reveal our wisdom nature. Of all the methods for accumulating merit through generosity, offering butterlamps is one of the best, second only to the practice of tsok, or feast offering.
What is the meaning of butter lamp offerings? We do not offer butterlamps because enlightened beings need to see them. Rather, the offering of light is a means of dispelling the darkness of our own ignorance, giving rise to clarity and wisdom. We offer them with the wish that their light will illuminate the lower realms and the bardo, assuaging the torment of beings who suffer in darkness. We also aspire that all beings will develop greater mental clarity in order to discover the causes of long-lasting happiness in virtuous actions of body, speech, and mind. Finally, we offer them so that the inner light of great knowing will arise in the minds of all beings and remove the darkness of ignorance and intellectual obscurations.
The pure and excellent ones to whom we offer are the Three Jewels--the Buddha, dharma, and sangha, who encompass all enlightened beings; the Three Roots--guru, yidam, and dakini; and the dharma protectors.
We exercise great care in offering, for the merit created is dependent upon our pure motivation, visualization, and proper gathering and preparation of the substances. If everything is done mindfully, our merit increases, as do our positive qualities. On completion of our offering, we dedicate the merit for the benefit of all beings so that this accumulation of virtue cannot be destroyed.
We offer butterlamps every day at Rigdzin Ling, and on special feast (tsok) days many sangha members sponsor the offering of butterlamps for friends or relatives who are suffering or facing difficulties. If you would like to sponsor such an activity call Chagdud Gonpa Foundation at (530) 623-2714.
To order the entire text of this teaching click here: TEOOBUL $1.00. A special Butter Lamp Offering Prayer is also available.
