Odiyana Buddhist Centre, Malaysia

Bathing the image of the Buddha with auspicious water, they vow to cultivate themselves in attaining the purity of their three karmas (body, speech, and mind) in the past, present, and future. They should receive the great and remarkable teachings and guidance of the buddhas and uphold the correct belief. In this way, they can correspond to the great and compassionate vows of the buddhas and attain accomplishment with the Bodhi state without regression. They should carry out the cultivation of a bodhisattva life after life until they attain the supreme enlightenment of a Buddha.

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The Reasons of Bathing Buddha's Statue on Wesak Day

Vajrasattva is Buddha of primordial purity and is the condensed essence of the 100 peaceful and wrathful appearances that arises in the Bardo.

Vajrasattva practice is an essential element in the daily practice of a Vajrayana practitioner as it helps in purifying all sorts of negativities and bad karma. He is known as the king of purification.

JANG CHOG means "Purification Ceremony." It is a skilful Vajrayana practice for purifying the negative karma of those who have died, and transferring their consciousnesses to a Pure Land. It can liberate beings from the lower realms, and can benefit those who have died recently and are in the intermediate state on their way to a lower rebirth, by changing their rebirth to the human realm or a Pure Land.

In that way, those beings have a chance once again to meet the Dharma and meet a fully qualified virtuous friend. At the same time, the ashes or remains of the deceased can be blessed, so they actually become holy objects, at which time they can then be placed in holy objects like stupas and statues. This becomes highly beneficial for the deceased and for those family or friends left behind, because every time they make offerings such as flowers or lights and pay respects to the deceased, they create a great deal of merit.

A fire puja is an offering of a large number of specific substances tossed into a fire during an elaborate ritual. As these offerings are made, violations are purified.

Fire pujas are also performed to enhance the four actions— of pacifying, enriching, magnetizing and destroying—that are performed by enlightened beings to benefit others and eliminate unfavorable circumstances.

For the living, a fire puja ceremony purifies obstacles, increases life, health, merit, and wealth. For the deceased, the ceremony is an excellent method of purifying negative karma and attaining higher rebirth.

Shakyamuni Buddha Puja is a source of good collections: a rite of homage, worship (making offerings) and prayers to the teacher, the King of Sages, remembering his previous lives and biography.

The main point of the puja is to develop one's faith in the Buddha and collect vast merits by thinking about the wonderful things he has done - both in his countless previous lives as a bodhisattva and in his life as Shakyamuni, feeling joyful about them and making offerings, both real and visualized.  One also purifies one's negative karmas by confessing them with regret and creates further merits by auspicious wishes and prayers for the flourishing of the Buddha's doctrine.

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The Story of the Shakyamuni Buddha's Birth
Four Major Buddhist Festivals in Tibetan Calendar

A protector of the Buddhist teachings, is also known as the chief dharmapala. Dharmapalas are basically Buddhas who undertake the role of removing obstacles on the path of practitioners.

The function of Mahakala is to assist practitioners in removing anything that impedes their practice, as well as to encourage exertion and devotion and at the same time purify obscurations and wrongdoings. Thus, if one prays earnestly to Mahakala, blessings will be bestowed and obstacles will be removed.

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Mahakala Puja

Offering butter lamps is the most powerful offering because their light symbolizes wisdom. Just as a lamp dispels darkness, offering light from a butter lamp represents removing the darkness of ignorance in order to attain Buddha’s luminous clear wisdom.

The lamp offering is a sense offering to the Buddha’s eyes. Because Buddha’s eyes are wisdom eyes, they do not have the extremes of clarity or non-clarity. Our ordinary eyes, however, are obscured by the darkness of the two defilements–gross afflictive emotional defilements and subtle habitual defilements. While the Buddha does not have desire for offerings, we make offerings for the purpose of our own accumulation of merit & wisdom.

Through the power of this accumulation, we can remove the cataracts of our ignorance eyes in order to gain Buddha’s supreme luminous wisdom eyes.

When we offer light, the results are the realization of Clear Light wisdom phenomena in this life; the clarification of dualistic mind and the dispersal of confusion and realization of Clear Light in the bardo; and the increase of wisdom in each lifetime until one has reached enlightenment.

Traditionally, butter lamps are also offered as a dedication to the dead in order to guide them through the bardo by wisdom light. We can pray as well that this light guide all beings of the six realms, removing their obscurations so that they may awaken to their true wisdom nature.

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Benefits of Making Lamp Offering
The Story Of Lamp Light Offering

The release of life is to set beings free, for whom are about to die or to be killed. The practitioners who often perform this activity will have their life-span prolonged, wisdom and compassion increased, and will never encounter accidental and untimely death.

Amongst the various long life practices, the release of life is the most effective and supreme one. It is said -"OF ALL THE VIRTUOUS DEEDS, THE RELEASE OF LIVES ACCUMULATE MOST MERITS."

The act of killing lives generates the most negative karma, therefore, the act of releasing lives, on the other hand, accumulates immeasurable positive merits. During the ritual of releasing lives, the motivation and aspiration of the practitioners to save lives and set free of beings manifest the ultimate level of compassion, and their prayers ensure that these beings will in the future attain Buddhahood.

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The Acts of Saving Lives