Gyabshi Ritual
“The Four Hundred”, popularly known as Gyabshi Choga in Tibetan, is a powerful extermination ritual based on Buddha Shakyamuni’s subdual of the four classes of evils (mara)—non-human spirits, death, afflictive thoughts and emotions, and a psycho-physical basis of a Karmic being—through his wisdom and compassion.
In an extensive systematised form, the ritual makes use of 100 set each of four religious items—sacred statuettes (satchaya), butter lamps (mar-mey), food offerings (torma), and dough figurines (lü). These four sets represent enlightened beings, pure offerings, ritual cakes, and ransom effigies.
The “Four Hundred” ritual will include refuge-taking, bodhicitta cultivation, meditation on emptiness, visualization of deities, extending of food offerings or Tormas to enlightened beings, seeking of blessings, visualization of the classes of evil spirits, granting of Torma, sending off of ransom effigies, exterminating of all evil spirits, and chanting of prayer for auspiciousness.
Unlike normative rituals, this ritual involves a series of visualization of malignant negative spirits and non-humans such as Bhuta, Rakshasa, Yakshasa, Kinnara and so forth. Through recitation of mantra, a meditation on emptiness and compassion, granting of Torma, and sending of effigies, the monk ritualist seeks to pacify and subdue these malignant spirits and non-humans. Together with the sending off of effigies, the monk ritualist will also visualize extermination and purging of all negative factors such as sickness and diseases; untimely death; loss and failures; disputes and dissensions; wars; and natural and man-made calamities. The ritual ends with a prayer of auspiciousness to herald a new life free of impediments and harms and filled with virtues and merits.
Event details
Date: 17 February 2015 (Friday)
Time: 8pm
Venue: 512A Sims Avenue