THE BUDDHA SAKYAMUNI, at the moment of enlightenment, invoked the earth as witness, as indicated by the fingers of his right hand, which spread downward in bhumisparshanamudra, the “gesture of touching the earth”.

As the Buddhist Sutras relate, the sun and moon stood still, and all the creatures of the world came to offer obeisance to the Supreme One who had broken through the boundaries of egocentric existence.

Every living being contains the seed of Buddhahood.

As our most beloved Bhagawan Baba always exhorts,

“I am you; you are ME. 
You are the waves; I am the ocean. 
Know this and be free, be DIVINE.”

Buddha Sakyamuni declared at the end of His life, “Be a light upon yourself!”

“Become a Buddha, an awakened being,” He urged, “but never a blind follower of tradition”.

|| One-Day Retreat With Medicine Buddha ||

17th March 2012 – Auspicious Merit Multiplying Day

Sai Ram Dear Brothers and Sisters,

With the blessings of Bhagawan Baba, 
the One-Day Retreat With Medicine Buddha 
was successfully conducted last Saturday, 17th March 2012,
on a very auspicious merit-multiplying day.

The retreat was initiated by Brother Sathya Ganesan Viswanathan, with the following prayer to Swami:

“Most Beloved Bhagawan, 
we, Thy children and all sentient beings, 
in one voice and with one heart, 
invoke the supreme potency of this profound prayer, 
The Medicine Buddha Mantra
in absolute dedication to Thee, 
and pray that may You, Our Most Precious Swami,
eradicate the suffering that sentient beings are enduring 
due to the sickness of the body or the mind.”

This retreat saw the Medicine Buddha Mantra being diligently chanted and offered 279 297 times.

Furthermore, with a global outreach through BuddhaSai, many more devotees were able to participate in the retreat as well. Names along with chant counts were submitted either by email or through the website. By including the mantras recited internationally, the total rises to more than 400 000. It is most blessed that devotees around the world were able to unite in such a beautiful effort.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Before the start of the retreat, heaps of offerings, comprising fruits, biscuits, packet drinks, chocolates, candies, and more, were offered at Swami’s Lotus Feet as Naiveydyham.

A magnificent altar with Swami was installed in the front of the auditorium. Medicine Buddha was seated to Swami’s right with a statue and accompanying Thangka.

Placed on the altar was the sutra that was offered to Swami in the Tibetan Buddhist Chants For World Peace 2008 programme by Venerable Ngawang Sangye. Swami graciously accepted it during the programme, and the following day, Swami offered it back to Venerable Ngawang Sangye, blessing him to be successful in his future endeavours.

A total of 108 bottles of blessed Holy Medicine Buddha Water were laid out before the altar. These bottles of Holy Water had been mixed with water from Mount Kailash and Maratika. They had also been blessed by Rinpoches and Lamas chanting the Medicine Buddha Mantra continuously for one week.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

During the retreat, some of the residents of SWAMI Nursing Home joined in to chant and offer the Medicine Buddha Mantra for World Peace. They were each given the Medicine Buddha pill, which promotes the powerful healing of both the mind and body.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

During lunch and tea, freshly-brewed coffee and tea were served, along with fruits and homemade sandwiches.

More importantly, the beverages was prepared with the Sevadals visualising the following for purification purposes:

‘As the hot water filters through the coffee/tea powder into the cup, that we are filtering away all the negative karma accumulated from our actions in this lifetime as well as past lifetimes from beginningless time.Pray that, like the coffee/tea powder that is captured within the strainer, that all our negative tendencies are siphoned off.’

Likewise the sliced fruits and sandwiches with the following visualisation, with the very same purifying intent:

‘That all sentient beings have a smooth life free from obstacles and calamities.’

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

At the end of each of the three Medicine Buddha chanting sessions, dedication and merit-multiplying prayers were offered to dedicate all the prayers and merits to all sentient beings, especially those who are suffering from sickness, illnesses and diseases.

At the end of the retreat, extensive and very strong dedication and merit-multiplying prayers for World Peace were offered, which included the ‘Water Bathing Pooja’, which was conducted by Venerable Ngawang Sangye.

The ‘Water Bathing Pooja’, which was carried out before Swami in the Tibetan Buddhist Chants For Universal Peace 2012 programme, is a powerful metaphor signifying our own purification process during which the Buddha is lovingly cleansed with saffron water.

While the ‘Water Bathing Pooja’ was being offered at the end of the retreat, the names and prayers of over 300 people, which were submitted to BuddhaSai for the individual name prayer dedication, were read out.

Before the retreat came to a close, Mangala Aarathi was offered, and heaps of Naiveydhyam offerings that were offered to Swami and were distributed to the participants of the retreat.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

In conclusion, we, the Children of our Most Beloved Sai, are extremely grateful to Swami, our most beloved Bhagawan, for granting us this rare and golden opportunity to offer the most excellent Medicine Buddha Mantra for World Peace.

We pray that our most Beloved Swami continue to shower all sentient beings with His Divine blessings, and that all suffering that sentient beings undergo due to the illnesses and diseases of the body, and the sickness of the mind, all be eradicated!

Jai Sai Ram!

With Love,
BuddhaSai

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

|| One-Day Retreat With Medicine Buddha ||

Saturday : 17th March 2012

“Tadyatha Om Bekandzey Bekandzey
Maha Bekandzey Randza Samu Gate Svaha”

In this era of ruthless material pursuit and endless aggravations of our minds and bodies, so many of us are struggling to find a higher meaning to our very existence.

We crumble under the weight of mental anguish, flounder against the stress of coping with the multitude responsibilities in life and find ourselves beset with diseases that render our bodies weak.

But as Swami’s beloved children, we are capable of so much more! 
We must rise above this, for this life bestowed upon us is meant to sing His Glory!

To this end, we are organising a One-Day Retreat with Medicine Buddha on a very auspicious merit-multiplying day, 
Saturday, 17th March 2012, 10:00 AM – 08:00 PM at SWAMI Home located at 5 Sembawang Walk.

The Medicine Buddha represents the healing aspect of the absolute Buddha-nature, and is extremely powerful for the purification of negative karma.

Chanting the Medicine Buddha mantra eliminates both the pain of physical diseases and the major sicknesses of attachment, hatred, jealousy, desire, greed and ignorance.

It also empowers us in overcoming our problems and removing our unhappiness and suffering. In fact, simply by seeing an image of the Medicine Buddha, or hearing His name can confer inconceivable benefits!

The power of the Medicine Buddha mantra in healing our inner and outer illnesses cannot be underestimated. Indeed, this Mantra has been recited in the Divine Presence of our Beloved Bhagawan in Puttaparthi for many years.

Swami Himself has mentioned that the purification of the mind with such a mantra is essential for the purification of mankind as a whole.

So do come down with your family and friends on Saturday, 17th March at SWAMI Home and join us as we pray for Medicine Buddha’s Ever-Compassionate radiance to illuminate not just our lives, but the lives of all sentient beings.

To those in other countries who are unable to join us physically in Singapore to offer this most potent Medicine Buddha mantra, please do set aside some time wherever you are to offer the mantra at the same timings. The day would be a merit-multiplying one, and the merits accrued from offering the Medicine Buddha mantra would be multiplied countless times.

As we understand that not everyone will be able to attend the Medicine Buddha retreat on the 17th March at SWAMI Home,

If would like to dedicate prayers either in your name or in those of your loved ones, do drop us an email at dedication@BuddhaSai.com.

Kindly include:

FULL NAME(S): ________________________________
PRAYER:  _____________________________________
SICKNESS (if applicable): __________________________

The names and prayers submitted would be compiled into a list, with the dedication conducted at the end of the retreat along with merit-multiplying mantras.

May our Most Beloved Bhagawan, 
the Healer of All Healers, 
Doctor of Doctors, 
cure us from this sickness of negativity that shrouds us all.

And may every sentient being, in every corner of the universe, awaken from this darkness, so that we may all truly shine as genuine sparks of our Divine Mother Sai!

For more information, kindly check out the Facebook event page – [fb.com/375009025844095]

Jai Sai Ram.

Sai Ram dear Brothers and Sisters,

BuddhaSai’s Facebook [fb.com/BuddhaSai] has reached the limit where BuddhaSai is no longer able to accept anymore friend’s request.

As such, a BuddhaSai Facebook Page has been created.

Please do visit the Facebook page at [fb.com/290405237652658].

Jai Sai Ram!

? BuddhaSai

|| Tibetan Buddhist Chants For Universal Peace 2012 ||

- Water Bathing Pooja -

The Water Bathing Pooja, during which the Buddha is lovingly cleansed with saffron water, is a powerful metaphor signifying our own purification process.

Purification of ourselves is a fundamental core of our spiritual journey. Indeed, there is no need for grand or complicated rituals.

Chanting the Medicine Buddha Mantra or even just hearing it, is in itself a potent cleansing force, and something easily accessible to every one of us. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said that even if an animal hears the Medicine Buddha mantra, it will never be reborn in the lower realms!

Indeed, every daily chore and activity can be ‘spiritualised’. Our Beloved Swami has put this so beautifully and simply for everyone to understand – When you are sweeping your house, for instance, imagine that you are sweeping away all your impurities and negative thoughts. And when you cutting vegetables or fruits, visualise that you are cutting off your inner sicknesses of hatred, ego, attachment, etc.

Let us give humbly offer more of such examples.

• While spreading jam/butter on sandwiches: Visualise that all sentient beings have a smooth life free from obstacles and calamities.

• When making offerings at the altar: Pray that all sentient beings are freed from the scourge of hunger and thirst.

• When you are making coffee or tea: Visualise, as the hot water filters through the coffee/tea powder into the cup, that you are filtering away all the negative karma accumulated from your actions in this lifetime as well as past lifetimes from beginningless time. Pray that, like the coffee/tea powder that is captured within the strainer, that all your negative tendencies are siphoned off.

Every action of ours can be beautifully moulded into an act of purification, not just for ourselves, but for the benefit of all sentient beings!

This is an exceptionally powerful prayer composed by Mipham Jamyang Namgyal Gyamtso (1846–1912) who was also known as ‘Mipham the Great’. Jamgön Mipham Rinpoche was one of the most preeminent scholars of recent times.

According to Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, this famous prayer is very effective in accomplishing positive aims, aspirations and good fortune – such as the health and wellbeing of oneself, the human species and the living world with its great ecosystems.

Likewise, on this extremely auspicious day of the Buddha’s First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma, we would like to offer all this prayer to you and all mother sentient beings.

We look forward to the blessings and merits that you and all mother sentient beings will accrue.

As seen in the book ‘A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency’:

Q: What is the role of Buddhist prayer and puja to reverse, in the invisible real, the potential disasters of global warming?

Thrangu Rinpoche: In general, when we talk about making aspirations and prayers in Buddhism, it looks superficially like mere blind faith. You might think there is no way it could help at all. Yet if we look at it closely, it really does help. This is my experience. For example, I have a well-off student in Malaysia who built a thirty-two story hotel. No matter how hard he worked, nothing came of it. One partner was less than honest and he simply lost lots of money. He asked me what to do about the problem and I suggested he recite the Verses of the Eight Noble Auspicious Ones daily. He learned it by heart and did so. The hotel ended up a complete failure – but his other property in Australia jumped so much in value that he recouped all the losses in Malaysia. He told me, “Reciting that prayer was really wonderful!’ This is just to show that reciting such prayers is not blind faith, but something genuinely beneficial.

for the full Tibetan version with accompanying translation:

Verses of the Eight Noble Auspicious Ones

Jamgön Mipham Rinpoche’s

Verses of the Eight Noble Auspicious Ones

Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche stated that this famous prayer is very effective to accomplish positive aims, aspirations and good fortune – such as the health and wellbeing of oneself, the human species and the living world with its great ecosystems.

Om: Homage to the Buddha, Dharma and Noble Sangha — 
All who dwell in the auspicious realms of the ten directions, 
Where all appearance is completely pure, its nature spontaneously perfect, 
May all be auspicious for us!

Homage to the Eight Sugatas, 
Merely hearing your names increases auspiciousness and success.
King of the Lamp, 
Stable Strength of Wisdom Accomplishing All Aims, 
Glorious Adornment of Love, 
Sacred and Glorious One Renowned for Virtue,  
Vastly Renowned & Considerate of All, 
Glorious One Renowned as Perfectly Strong and Exalted like a Mountain, 
Glorious One Renowned as Considerate of All Sentient Beings, 
Glorious One Renowned as Perfectly Strong who Satisfies the Minds of Beings.

Homage to the Eight Bodhisattvas,
Supreme in granting auspiciousness and success, 
Gracefully holding your emblems -
Utpala flower, vajra, white lotus, naga-tree, 
Jewel, moon, sword and sun -
The youthful Manjushri, the glorious Vajrapani, 
Avalokiteshvara, the protector Maitreya, 
Kshitigarbha, Nivaranavishkambin,
Akashagarbha and noble Samantabhadra.

Homage to the Eight Auspicious Goddesses -
Of beauty, garlands, song, dance flowers, incense, light and perfume,
Pleasing with offerings the Buddhas of all directions and time,
Holders of the eight precious symbols -
The precious umbrella, the auspicious golden fishes, the wish-fulfilling vase, the exquisite lotus, the conch of fame, the glorious knot of prosperity, the victory banner and the majestic wheel.
Pleasing with offerings the Buddhas of all directions and time,
Thinking of your essential qualities makes success and fame grow.

Homage to the Eight Guardians of the World -
Each one holding your divine emblem -
Wheel, trident, lance, vajra, vina, sword, stupa and banner of victory. 
Mahabrahma, Shiva, Vishnu, Indra the Thousand-Eyed, 
The Kings; Dhritirashtra, Virudhaka, Virupaksha Lord of Nagas and Vaishravana.
Auspiciously develop happiness and virtue in the three realms!

With all obstacles and harmful influences pacified, 
May the work we are now about to begin
Meet with ever-growing fulfillment and success, 
And bring good fortune, prosperity, happiness and peace!

Colophon:
If you recite this upon waking, all the tasks of the day will be accomplished.
If you recite it when going to sleep, it will bring you good dreams.
If you recite it when entering battle, it will bring total victory.
If you recite it at the outset of a project, all aims and wishes will be fulfilled.
If you recite it continually, you will enjoy a long life, glory, renown, prosperity,
auspiciousness, abundant happiness and positivity, and the fulfilment of all wishes.
All your misdeeds and obscurations will be purified,
and you will achieve the higher realms and liberation.
This was declared by the sublime victorious one himself.

This arose from the lake of the mind of Jampal Gyepé Dorjé  on the third day of the third month of the Fire Monkey year (1896),  an auspicious time according to the configuration of planets, sun and constellations. Mangalam!

The Eight Auspicious Symbols

Tibetan Mantra Offering 2010

Pray for Universal Peace in the Divine Presence of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba this coming February 2011 in Prashanti Nilayam, the Abode Of Supreme Peace.

By doing so, innumerable merits would be accumulated, multiplied across the number of sentient beings participating.

As blessed by Bhagawan Baba, the following Tibetan Buddhist Mantras would be chanted during this year’s programme:

1. Short Mantra of Chenrezig [108x]
2. Medicine Buddha Mantra [9x]
3. Green Tara Mantra [36x]
4. The Extensive Mantra Of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha [5x]
5. Bhagawan’s Eternal Mantra [9x]
6. Long Dharani of Chenrezig [9x]

For the Extensive Mantra Of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha and Bhagwan’s Eternal Mantra, the audio chanting and mantra sheet can be downloaded here:

http://buddhasai.com/category/audio

Jai Sai Ram.
Samastha Lokha Sukhino Bhavanthu.

? BuddhaSai
www.BuddhaSai.com
www.facebook.com/BuddhaSai

*Tibetan Buddhist Chants For Universal Peace 2011 is not an organisation-organised event.*

Om Mani Padme Hung (Bodhisattva Chenrezig Mantra) carved and painted on stone wall.

The power of a mantra mainly depends on your faith in the mantra. How much negative karma you can purify or how many activities you can accomplish by reciting the mantra comes from your faith in the mantra, not from how you recite it. In other words, it doesn’t depend on whether or not you recite it correctly according to Sanskrit. Most Tibetans don’t learn Sanskrit; in Tibet, they recite mantras in their own way.

The power comes from having strong faith in the mantra and its benefits. Those of you who have heard of lam-rim teachings many times will know the story of the old woman who was able to cook stones by reciting the deity Chunda’s mantra. The mantra is actually OM CHALE CHULE CHUNDE SVAHA, but she recited OM BALE BULE BUNDE SVAHA.

One day, her son, a monk living in thirty-six vows, came home and heard his mother reciting OM BALE BULE BUNDE SVAHA. He corrected her, and she then changed to reciting OM CHALE CHULE CHUNDE SVAHA. This mantra is used when there is a famine; you recite this mantra and are then able to cook and eat stones. She was able to cook the stones with the mantra she used before, OM BALE BULE BUNDE SVAHA, but when she changed to the correct mantra, the stones didn’t cook. When the correct mantra didn’t work, she changed back to the incorrect one, which again worked.

The power of mantra comes from faith, not from how you recite it. Because they don’t know Sanskrit, many Tibetans recite mantras in a way that is not correct according to the Sanskrit. This might also be the same in the Chinese community. With those who don’t know how to recite in the Sanskrit way, the pronunciation changes.

It is said in The Ten Wheel Sutra of the Essence of Earth (Lord Ksitigarbha), “All comfort, happiness and peace in this world come from making offerings to the Rare Sublime Ones (the Triple Gem). Therefore, those who want comfort, happiness and peace should always try to make offerings to the Rare Sublime Ones.”

In general, all goodness in samsara and nirvana comes from making offerings to the Triple Gem, but specifically, different kinds of offerings bring you different benefits. Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, the forth of the thousand buddhas of this fortunate eons, whose holy mind was enriched with the ten powers, announced in the Tune of Brahma Sutra Clarifying Karma that making light offerings bring you ten benefits:

1. You become like a light in the world

2. You achieve (when born human) the clairvoyance of the pure flesh eye.

3. You achieve the devas’ eye.

4. You receive the wisdom of knowing what is virtue and what is non-virtue.

5. You are able to eliminate darkness of ignorance, the concept of inherent existence.

6. You receive the illumination of wisdom; even in samsara you never experience darkness.

7. You receive much wealth and enjoyment.

8. You are reborn in the deva or human realm.

9. You quickly become liberated.

10. You quickly attain enlightenment.

Devas or human beings who accumulate the merit of making one light offering – will see the fully enlightened Buddha, Maitreya.

The Sutra of Arya Maitreya says, “Those who offer a thousand lights or a thousand blue utpali flowers or make the pinnacle of a stupa or a holy form will be reborn when Maitreya Buddha shows the deed of gaining enlighten- ment and will receive his first Dharma teaching.”

It is also said that those who offer even one flower or rejoice in the merit of others who offer will achieve buddhahood. This means that even if you don’t get enlightened during the time of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s teaching, dur- ing Maitreya Buddha’s teaching your mind will ripen and you will gain liberation.

Offering light, in particular, is a special door of dependent arising for quickly completing the accumulation of merit and receiving great blessings. It is said in the second chapter of the root tantra of Chakrasamvara, who is a manifestation of Shakyamuni Buddha, “If you want sublime realizations, offer hundreds of lights.”

If you want to know the detailed results of making offerings to holy objects or of offering service to the buddha or other holy objects, you should study The Sutra of the One Who Looks with a Compassionate Eye (Avalokiteshvara), the Sutra of Sogyal, where Buddha gave instruction to King Sogyal, or the Könchog Tala.

The text, Immortal Drum Sound Mantra, says, “If you devote yourself to the Inconceivable One, the results will similarly be inconceivable.” In the same way, The Sutra of the One Who Looks with a Compassionate Eye says, “Since the dharmas (i.e., the qualities) of the buddha gone thus (tathagata) are limitless, making offering to the tathagata brings limitless, infinite, inconceivable, in- comparable, unimaginable, numberless benefits.”

The Small Quotation (Lungtentseg) sutra says, “It is possible for the moon and stars to fall to earth, for mountains and forests to rise up into the sky and for the water of the great oceans to completely dry up, but it is not possible for the great sage (the buddha) to tell a lie. Keep this in mind and generate strong devotion to and faith in the root of all happiness and goodness – actions and their results (karma) and the blessings of the Three Precious Rare Sublime Ones. While you have this body and possessions – which are as if borrowed for a year, a month or a few days, night and day, all the time, attend to the practice of taking the essence of this human life, whose short duration is like a flash of lightning, by planting as many seeds as possible in the special field of merit.”

The Importance of Generating a Good Motivation

Having a positive motivation is essential in all that you do, therefore begin by setting your intention correctly.

Whether an action becomes positive or negative karma, it depends on the reason why the action was committed. All actions done with attachment to the happiness in this life alone, actions done simply for the comfort of this life, are negative. The karmic imprints such actions leave on the consciousness eventually ripen into an experience of suffering.

Positive actions, actions with the motivation of experiencing happiness in a future life, that benefit others, actions done with compassion, with sincerity, which brings happiness to others – leave positive imprints on our mental continuum. The imprints they leave ripen into happiness. In fact, the more we dedicate ourselves to others, the quicker and easier our own happiness arises. This is the natural evolution of happiness.

In Tibetan Buddhism, the highest level of motivation is one that is driven by Bodhicitta. It is the great compassion for all sentient beings, the compassionate heart that cannot bear to see sentient beings suffering and deeply wish for them to be liberated – that is the Bodhicitta mind.

If we can generate such a supreme motivation, the amount of merit and benefit that we naturally accumulate is inconceivable. The more genuine and sincere we are, the greater the benefit.

The Supreme Motivation

“We can visualise that all sentient beings are similar to me, being trapped in the cyclic existence of samsara endlessly and having to experience all kinds of suffering – all these beings, everyone of them, wishes to be freed from their present sufferings and even desire to achieve happiness.

However, by contemplating on our current self, we realise that we do not even have the ability to liberate them from sufferings. So who is able to help them achieve happiness? He is none other than the Buddha.

Hence it is necessary that we practice the essence of Buddha’s teachings, so as to attain the ultimate state of Buddhahood, to liberate and benefit all sentient beings. We should have this kind of motivation.”

His Eminence Kyabje Lati Rinpoche - Spiritual Advisor to His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama