THE TRUE BUDDHA RICE OFFERING SADHANA

WITH ADDITIONAL ANNOTATION

A True Buddha Sadhana by Buddha Guru Lian Sheng

Translated from Mandarin to Bahasa Indonesia By: Lotus Shi An Translated from Bahasa Indonesia to English by: Lotus Nino Source: Sheng-Yen Lu, Book 68 Zang Mi Qi Zhong Qi

VER 1.0, AS PER AUGUST 29, 2011

R OOT G URU B UDDHA L IAN S HENG

The Yidam Deity of The Sadhana

SOURCE: Part 1 Book 68: Zang Mi Qi Zhong Qi (by Grand Master Lian Sheng) Part 2 Grand Master Lian Shengs dharma sermon from: http://www.tbsn.org/chinese2/article.php?id=7240&keyword=&backpage=100&page=0

CAVEAT: This is a True Buddha Tantric Sadhana. It is imperative that you request the empowerment for this sadhana before commencing with the practice. You can receive the empowerment by requesting directly to His Holiness or via remote empowerment by writing to: Taiwan Lei Tsang Temple Attn: Grand Master Sheng-Yen Lu No.100 Lane Lian Sheng, Shanjiao Village, Tsao-Tun Township, Nantou County, Taiwan, 54264, R.O.C. Tel. +886-49-2312992

COPYRIGHTS: The mantra syllables, courtesy of The True Buddha School. Photo of Root Guru, courtesy of True Buddha School, Taiwan Lei Tsang Temple. The mantra syllable 2000. TBS, TBSN. All rights reserved.

Special thanks to our dharma brother Lotus Shian for translating the articles and to Lotuschef Fashi for the clarification of the mantra. The translator appreciates any feedback from dear readers. You can send emails to: ninocandra@gmail.com

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PRAISES:

The offering of rice turns into ambrosia, I sincerely offer them to all my karmic enemies. By receiving the ambrosia, all grudges and resentments are washed away, therefore extricating the obstacles of vengeance and pacifying the enemies. This sadhana is a genuine great generosity and offering to the debt-collecting spirits and their kinfolks. Eradicating all hindrances caused by grudges and resentments. Turning them into the wisdom light and thereupon increasing auspiciousness. All wishes and edicts shall be fulfilled. May this sadhana enable me to perform offerings to all sentient beings. The provision of merit and prajna wisdom is now complete. Everyone ascends to the Lian Sheng Pure Land.

The merit of this work is totally dedicated to Grand Master Lian Sheng for His unceasing compassion and works of salvation. May it meet with worthy people endowed with the karmic connection! May it benefit those who read or get in touch with it.

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The True Buddha Rice Offering Sadhana Part 1of 2

In this manner you may perform the True Buddha Rice Offering Sadhana: First, prepare a tray made of metal, filled with rice and offer it in front of the altar. 1. Enter the mandala and recite the Purification Mantras. 2. Recite the Invocation Mantra. 3. The True Buddha Great Homage. 4. The True Buddha Fourfold Refuge. 5. The True Buddha Great Mandala Offering. 6. Armour Protection. 7. Recite the High King Avalokiteshvara Sutra (1 or 3x). 8. Form the Padmakumara mudra: Place the right hand before the right side of the chest, with the palm facing outward and fingers together, pointed up. Now bend the thumb and middle fingers so that their tips meet, form a circle. (This is the Dharma-teaching Mudra.) Place the left hand before the left side of the chest, with the palm facing inward and fingers together, pointed up. Now bend the thumb and index finger so that their tips meet, forming a circle. Then bend the middle and ring fingers in to touch the centre of the palm. The small finger remains pointed up. (This is the Lotus-holding Mudra.)

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Then recite: NAMO GURU LIVING BUDDHA LIAN SHENG (NAMO GULU LIAN SHENGHUOFO) 3x. In an instant, Living Buddha Lian Sheng enters ones heart chakra via ones crown opening. Visualise one becoming the Living Buddha Lian Sheng. There is no separation between one and Living Buddha Lian Sheng. 9. Recite the mantra: OM AH HUM. GURU BEI. A HE SA SHA MA HA. LIAN SHENG SIDDHI HUM. (108x) (or according to the sermon below, Grand Master allows us to recite His short (heart) mantra instead O M GURU LIAN SHENG SIDDHI HUM) 10. Visualise the white light of the original nature shines into the tray. The tray transforms into a jewelled ware and expands as vast as the universe. The grains in the tray become transparent, transforming into the ocean of non-leaking prajna wisdom ambrosia.

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11. Recite the verse: The wite body free from impurities, Lian Sheng Sambuddha is present to bestow stream of blessings. With the eyes of great compassion watching over sentient beings, The Living Buddha and I are no different. Specifically presenting these offerings for sentient beings, from the time immemorial in which I am indebted to. Together with all resentful debt-collecting spirits, Now I summon them all to be present here. 12. Use the Vajra Hook mudra (both hands are clasped with fingers on the outer side. The index finger, representing the wind, of the right hand erects mimicking a hook) to hook all your karmic enemies with the mantra: OM. BIEZHALA. AMOULIDAYI. DALI. HANA HANA. HUM. (3x)

Visualise your debt-collecting spirits (karmic enemies) are present in front you with each of them manifesting into a dark shadow standing in front of you.

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13. Then, bless the rice on the tray by reciting: OM. AH. HUM. (3x). Take a small portion of the rice and toss them into 4 directions. After tossing the rice, recite the mantra: NAMO SA LA KEN. TATHAGATHA. ALO GE DE. SABALA. SABALA. HUM. (3x) 14. Dedication of merit: The offering of rice turns into ambrosia, I sincerely offer them to all my karmic enemies. By receiving the ambrosia, all grudges and resentments are washed away, therefore extricating the obstacles of vengeance and pacifying the enemies. Also: This sadhana is a genuine great generosity and offering to the debt-collecting spirits and their kinfolks. Eradicating all hindrances caused by grudges and resentments. Turning them into the wisdom light and thereupon increasing auspiciousness. All wishes and edicts shall be fulfilled. May this sadhana enable me to perform offerings to all sentient beings. The provision of merit and prajna wisdom is now complete. Everyone ascends to the Lian Sheng Pure Land. 15. Clap your hands twice to dismiss all the debt-collecting spirits. 16. The True Buddha Great Prostration. 17. Recite the completion mantras. Exit from the mandala. Everything is auspicious and perfect.

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The salient point in this sadhana is that you must commence with requesting the blessing from Living Buddha Lian Sheng, you transform yourself into Living Buddha Lian Sheng and afterwards bless the rice in the tray by using the light from the heart chakra. The rice shall then turn into ambrosia water. With the ritual of summoning, you will invite all your debt-collecting spirits from your past lives since time immemorial to be present. Knowing that the negative karma from your past lives is indeed great many, then the debt-collecting spirits will correspondingly be a lot as well. You need to visualise them coming one by one in front of you. This act of generosity (in offering and scattering the rice) shall extricate your negative karma, pacify the enemies, and so on. This sadhana at a glance may seem to only purify your negative karma, but when you have gained accomplishment in the corresponding sadhana, all your debt-collecting spirits will not come to harm you. Those who at first have the intention of seeking revenge shall even be converted to good friends. This is undoubtedly a sadhana which can generate tranquillity and auspiciousness a sadhana most divine. This Rice Offering Sadhana is a Great Sadhana to eradicate negative karma, and it also goes beyond that function, it covers every characteristic and therefore must not be underestimated. Since it has wide coverage and is a reflection of great compassion itself, the egoistical view of ordinary beings can be shattered. In it, a lofty teaching exists. According to Living Buddha Lian Sheng, when negative karma has been eradicated, the light of wisdom shall radiate more brilliantly, blessings shall naturally occur, hence this is such a sadhana that embodies great blessing. I, Living Buddha Lian Sheng, put this sadhana in this book and do not set it aside since this is the Sadhana of Generosity from Great Blessing Vajra.

[End of Part 1]

Translator note: Grand Master mostly recite the syllable Hum in the tone between Hum and Hom. You can check His sermons or audio recording to get a better reference.

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True Buddha Rice Offering Sadhana Part 2 of 2

[Translated from Grand Master Lian Shengs dharma sermon]

Now we will discuss the True Buddha Rice Offering Sadhana. Earlier in my book, Ive written it down with Grand Master being the personal deity for conducting this sadhana. The Root Guru performs this sadhana. First of all, think of The Root Guru and recite: OM GURU LIAN SHENG SIDDHI HUM (3x) Visualise The Root Guru comes to and merges with you. Then, recite the mantra 108x so that the union becomes stable and firm. You may recite the short (heart) mantra instead of the long one. Prepare a bowl or rice plate/tray. Fill it with rice until it becomes full and use your heart chakra to emit light into the rice. Visualise that you are The Root Guru himself emitting the light. The tray becomes larger and wider without limit and the rice on it also multiples to fill the whole universe. The rice turns into transparent-like Dharma ambrosia and continue with reciting the following verse:

The white body free from impurities, Lian Sheng Sambuddha is present to bestow stream of blessings. With the eyes of great compassion watching over sentient beings, The Living Buddha and I are no different. Specifically presenting these offerings for sentient beings, from the time immemorial in which I am indebted to. Together with all resentful debt-collecting spirits, Now I summon them all to be present here.

This means that you summon your debt-collecting spirits to be present. In the past, I saw one of my disciples coming to consult me in Seattle. When I saw the face, I immediately knew that the debtcollecting spirits were so many, so were the entangling spirits ( chansenling). This is just like me. My entangling spirits are actually not few, since when several disciples met me, they will say Grand Master, your entangling spirits have come right away. (Audience laughs)

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That was quite tiresome with so many of them following us everywhere. So all I could do was to involuntarily lock myself in my chamber to be able to take a rest for a while. Our Rice Offering Sadhana is also to appease the entangling spirits so that they may step aside and not bother us any longer. Should you give offering to the gods and demons, then they will happily help you. If they dont have any resentment towards you, then they will definitely provide you with assistance. For those who have resentment with you, they shall withdraw because the grudges have been settled. Use the Hook Mudra with the index finger of the corresponding mudra to hook your entangling spirits. Despite your small finger, you should understand that this hook does have the power. When it is extended to reach the heaven, it can hook a goddess, when it is directed towards the earth, it can hook a woman in the earth, but this hook is herein exercised to hook your entangling and debtcollecting spirits, not a goddess. The following mantra for the hook mudra is:

OM BIEZHALA AMOULIDAYI DALI HANA HANA HUM (3x)

When this mantra is recited, then they have to appear. Visualise all your karmic enemies appear before you. One by one transforms into dark shadow. The tangible ones are those whom you can recognise, while the intangibles are those whom you cannot recognise, who objurgate or hate you. You summon all of them and have to serve them sincerely. Align them all in front of you. Your debt-collecting spirits ( yuanqinzhaizhu) are not always far away. Sometimes they are those around you. (Laughs) You know them so well. Do you know the 8 sorrows of the human world? One of them is to meet (to gather together) with your enemies (ones who have negative affinities with you), that the ones you dont like are always with you, and the ones you like are on the other hand far away from you. This is one of the humans sufferings. The one that you love is far away on the other part of the world making you yearn for everyday, but the one that you hate is sleeping with you everyday. Im not talking about a certain person, but it goes for all of us. (There is a proverb saying that) a giant always stays beside you every night. There are ones who after reaching fifty years old get into a quarrel and want to get divorced, without being aware of the true problem. So the sadhaka recites OM. AH. HUM. 3x to bless the rice and then spreads them towards his/her karmic enemis in the four directions. Afterwards, the sadhaka continues with reciting the mantra:

NAMO SA LA KEN TATHAGATHA ALO GE DE S ABALA SABALA HUM (3x)

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This means that you are presenting them offerings. Then, perform the merit dedication by reciting the verse: The offering of rice turns into ambrosia; I sincerely offer them to all my karmic enemies. By receiving the ambrosia, all grudges and resentments are washed away; therefore extricating the obstacles of vengeance and pacifying the enemies.

You may also recite: This sadhana is a genuine great generosity and offering to the debt-collecting spirits and their kinfolks. Eradicating all hindrances caused by grudges and resentments. Turning them into the wisdom light and thereupon increasing auspiciousness. All wishes and edicts shall be fulfilled. May this sadhana enable me to perform offerings to all sentient beings. The provision of merit and prajna wisdom is now complete. Everyone ascends to the Lian Sheng Pure Land.

Then clap your hands twice again. It has two meanings, the first clap and finger clicking (in the beginning) is to summon, the second in the end of the session is to dismiss the spirits and to announce that ritual has ended. The crucial point is that you have to visualise yourself as the Root Guru himself. You are no different than the Guru and the Personal Deity (yidam). Afterwards you can perform this sadhana and radiate the light from the heart chakra to shine over the rice and turn them into the limitless the ocean of ambrosia. Then you summon your debt-collecting spirits by using the Hook Mudra. One by one comes in front of you to get the ambrosia dharma taste. This way their grudges and resentments shall disappear. They shall instead come to assist you and behave in a very good manner towards you. As long as you perform this offering to the debt-collecting spirits frequently, then they will change into good friends. Even arch-enemies shall turn into helpers and supporters. In the past, Ive been told a story by my mother. It was a daughter-in-law (DIL) who could not get along with her mother-in-law (MIL). They often got into big disputes and disagreements. The DIL finally asked for a help from a sage. The sage told her that he had a special scheme to handle the
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problem. He asked her to cook a very delicious food for her MIL. In addition, he gave her a poison to be added to the food everyday. He also explained that the poison could still kill a person when consumed little by little. The DIL trusted what the sage had told her. So, she tried her best to behave very nicely to her MIL. She would cook the dishes that her MIL liked the best, added with a bit of poison. However, things were not going as per her expectation that the more her MIL ate the food, the more she got energised. As time went by, the MIL gradually behaved nicer towards her DIL. The MIL thought that despite her behaving so cruel towards her DIL, her DIL kept on doing good things towards her. She gradually started to care for her DIL eventually. Her attitude changed after some time she received the offering of dishes from her DIL. She even became attentive towards little things like: "please put on another layer of clothing, it's very cold outside.", "don't forget to bring the umbrella with you!", "I have repaired the shoes for you to wear!" Those things surely made the DIL felt very touched, but alas, she realised that she had been putting poisons inn the dishes for many times and it almost ran out. She hurried into the sage to ask for the antidote and to her astonishment the sage replied: Actually, I didn't give you poison. It was a generic non-toxic medicine. When eaten, it will only increase the appetite. I was teaching you a lesson that if you put all of your heart to be good to your MIL, then she will definitely feel that you have changed and she will in turn be good to you too. It goes the same with the offerings, if you're kind towards Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, then even though they previously feel that you are a very stubborn person, they will still feel that you're very kind to them, they will be unable to say no to you. (Grand Master laughs) They will still help you. This is an important point. As with your debt-collecting spirits, when you perform offerings to them everyday, your action shall impress their hearts. Those who previously wanted to cause you harm shall in turn be loving and kind towards you. They will help you and the hindrances shall transform into a supporting power. So this truly is a great sadhana to extricate your unwholesome karma. Such offering can be performed towards gods and ghost as well. With this sadhana, they will surely come to assist and support you. In this world, the spirits with the closest frequency to us, humans, are not Buddhas and Bodhisattvas since they have apprehended and realised the emptiness and are immovable (stable). Buddhas are in the state of nirvana, while Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings, but they will still come when you invite them. The closest beings to us are actually gods and ghosts. When you are to perform charity towards gods and ghosts, in addition to offering tangible things, you can also use the Dharma. Offer them the most valuable things with your sincere heart. This way, they will rejoice over your offerings and your unwholesome karma can be eradicated. They will even support and assist you in the road of cultivation. When the non-virtuous karma has been eradicated, then blessings and prajna wisdom shall naturally occur.

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There was someone without good fortune who came to see me and asked if he could buy lottery or gamble. I soon saw that he had the countenance of a beggar (fated to be poor). So, what to do about it? No progress could be seen in his fate, I didnt have the heart to let him be in this condition since he would definitely be poor. His blessings were insufficient and he had plenty of unwholesome karma. He should try his best to immediately perform sadhana, recite sutra, or at least recite the High King Sutra 1000 times, and we would see whether he could still be rescued. We should understand that money and wealth have been predestined (based on what we did in our previous lives). In one lifetime, your fortune has been fixed, (sometimes) when it increases, it may only cause trouble, and in lieu (still sometimes) it is best to decrease. Why is it so? Because humans desires are literally limitless. We need to know when enough is enough and how to be satiable. When something is fated, you will definitely get it, otherwise please dont protract yourself to ask for something because it may endanger yourself instead. Grand Master suggests you to change your fate naturally. What has been fated will naturally come to you. It is real that many wealth deities will deliver riches to your home. They will still come and deliver provisions to you even when you dont need wealth. Gods and ghosts will even wait for you when you leave your house. They will still even want your dirty clothes as well. This is the reality. If you want to accumulate blessings, then you need to cultivate the sadhana of offerings (pujana). Quickly cultivate it, be it once a day, or three times a day, or by using this True Buddha Rice Offering Sadhana, or in fact you can perform offerings everytime for as long as you know how to perform them, then they will become a means of accumulating your blessings. Now you know that the way of generosity and performing offering is very easy and does not have to always cost you extra money. It is just that you have to know how to perform the rice offering, water offering, or offering to the Three Roots. Should you continually perform the offerings, your action shall transform calamities into auspiciousness. When your blessings are increasing, dont you think that its very good? Sure it is! Today Im telling you, if you want to acquire blessings, then you must know how to perform the offerings. Perform them with your utmost sincerity and the the lights from Buddhas and Bodhisattvas shall descend upon you. Gods and ghosts will lean their supports towards you. This is a very good thing! Now that Ive told you, the blessing of most immense lies in the act of performing offerings. The fact that you understand this thing is a great blessing itself. This sadhana is indeed a great sadhana in Tantrayana. Om Mani Padme Hum.

[End of Part 2]

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