Report August 2023
We hope everyone had joyful summer holidays. During the holiday season, we still managed to publish two small translations: the white sur practice of the Longchen Nyingtik and a famous short petition to the protectors written by Patrul Rinpoche.
Our first text is the White Sur Offering That Permeates All Realms, by Jigme Lingpa, in which one visualizes oneself as Khasarpaṇi and presents burnt offerings to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, gurus, deities, goddesses, protectors, and spirits and to all sentient beings. This text had already been translated several times, and thus we carefully compared all existing translations in order to arrive at our new translation. Siddharta’s Intent writes on their website:
“Sür is a practice in which food is charred to release its scent as an offering to the four classes of guests. The interdependence of this aroma as the offering substance, along with the practitioner’s motivation, visualization and dedication, provides an offering that is completely satisfying to the entire range of beings, from the enlightened ones down to the most malicious holders of karmic debts.
In particular, sür offerings nourish beings in the bardo, the intermediate state after death, because such beings experience hunger and thirst, yet can take in nourishment only through their sense of smell. Thus this is a practice that can be done for forty-nine days after the death of loved ones, with special emphasis on dedicating the merit of this accomplishment to them. As a practice for those who have died, this sür practice is far easier to perform than the more elaborate Korwa Dongtruk [a guidance or nedren practice], and can be performed by anyone with [the oral transmission].”
Our second text is the petition by Patrul Rinpoche that starts with ‘As Those Individuals Who Possess Bodhicitta…’. This three-verse exhortation to the dharmapālas, which is regularly recited by followers of the Longchen Nyingtik tradition, was composed for Tsamtrul Rinpoche, the incarnation of Jigme Gyalwai Nyugu, when he was about to travel through the bandit-filled land of Golok.
We conclude our brief monthly report with Jigme Lingpa’s reminder that ‘Samsaric chores never end’:
“Jigme Lingpa was so wise. Some of us imagine there will come a point when we can give up our samsaric activities and worldly duties completely and devote our time to the Dharma, but Jigme Lingpa pointed out that such a time will never come.
It’s not that you must cease all worldly activity and only practice the Dharma but rather that you should train yourself to remember that your worldly activities don’t come to an end. He is saying that you shouldn’t kid yourself into believing that at some point in this lifetime you won’t have anything else to do.
With this procrastinating attitude—imagining that there will be an end to our activities—we may never begin to practice. Samsaric endeavors are endless and fruitless; samsaric activities never end.
So whenever and wherever devotion arises spontaneously, use it. Don’t imagine you will be able to practice later using that moment of devotion as your inspiration, because by the time you practice, the devotion will have been exhausted.”
