The Sitatapatra Grand Puja and other Pujas, 8 to 11 Nov 2024

This 3 days Grand Puja is one of our tradition’s most powerful and sacred pujas which will involve the consecration and offering of tormas (ritual cakes) to dispel negative disturbances and subdue evil forces. By the blessings of the White Umbrella Goddess and her retinue of deities in the form of tormas, we seek their protection from various obstacles. The tantric monks will perform this elaborate ritual, prayers and offering of the tormas into a huge fire to dispel the negatives forces. With this Puja, we will receive the protection from divine guardians and goddesses. Through Her practice, one can ward off the influence of black magic, malicious spirits, attacks or harassment by formless beings, and help increase one’s fortune, wisdom and longevity by preventing untimely death. It will also help multiplication of merits, and liberation of other sentient beings from suffering. The White Parasol signifies that Buddha’s blessing is present everywhere throughout all realms of existence. Engaging in the White Parasol tantric practice will create the conditions for one to enter the gates of the Pure Land of Buddha Amitabha.

“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.

This ritual is for pacifying and exterminating of negative and destructive forces involves chanting and meditation on the teachings contained in the Heart Sutra (Ch. 般若心經). On the contrary to externalised performative rituals, this Heart Sutra ritual involves internalised chanting, meditation, and visualization.

With its earliest versions dated circa. 350 to 700 CE, the Heart Sutra exists in the form of a dialogue between Bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara (Ch. 观音菩萨) and Shariputra (Ch. 舍利弗) in an assembly presided over by the Buddha Shakyamuni. To Shariputra’s inquiries on perfection of wisdom, Avalokiteshvara explains how it can be achieved by seeing all phenomena—from form to enlightenment—are empty because they all equally lack true, inherent, and independent existence. The Buddha, extremely delighted, approved of their dialogue as valid and conforming to reality.

Based on the above teachings of Heart Sutra, the ritual involves visualization of all evil, negative, and destructive forces such as malignant spirits, sickness, failures, diseases, calamities and war that impede experience of happiness, success and contentment in this world. The ritual looks at these negative forces and sees how they are all empty and lacks true existence. This positively changes of thought, attitude, perception and feelings to even these negative forces and help rid fear, anxiety and horror. It also helps engender strength, confidence and invogration to effectively counter these forces.

The sutra, followed by mantra “Om tadhyatha gatae gatae paragatae parasamgatae bodhiye svaahaa” (Ch. 揭谛揭谛，波罗揭谛，波罗僧揭谛，菩提萨婆诃), help develop merits to graduate through the five spiritual paths (pañcamarga) for one’s eventual attainment of enlightenment. A brief extermination prayer supplemented at the end of the Sutra is intended to pacify all unwanted forces and factors such as, and others.

Fire ritual is one of the few efficacious secret Tantric rituals performed by a Tantric master for accomplishment both personal and universal objectives and goals. Involving a series of preparatory rites, the actual fire offerings include meditative visualization, Tantric transformation, Mantra recitation, offering of ritual cakes, burning of medicinal herbs and substances through homa-rites besides other. Prayers, invocations, and offerings are mostly made to one’s spiritual guru Buddha Shakyamuni, meditational deities, the eonic Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Dakas and Dakinis, Dharma-protectors, guardian deities, and treasure gods. 

In general, the four types of fire rituals which will be conducted are:

1. Peace Ritual For Purification Of Negative Karma; 
2. Proliferation Ritual For Increase Of Positive Karma And Furthering Of Physical And Mental Well-Being; 
3. Subduing Ritual For Protection From And Subdual Of Harmful Forces; And 
4. Forceful Rituals For Eradication And Extermination Of Harmful Non-Humans Forces And Evil Spirits. 

All rituals are conducted through strict observance of Tantric precepts and commitments, genuine admiration for the teachings of emptiness, and simultaneous cultivation of unconditional love and compassion towards all sentient beings including the harmful spirits.