Saturday, May 19, 2012

Wealth Vase

Treasure Wealth Vases by Karma Kagyud Buddhist Centre
In conjunction with His Holiness Arrival to Singapore from 25-31 May 2012

 The preparation of treasure wealth vases is finally completed. The process though tiring was very auspicious and smooth. Tseyang Rinpoche along with many of my Lamas and wonderful volunteers together put in lots of thoughts and tireless efforts in making this project a huge success.
When the management committee of Karma Kagyud Buddhist Centre first broached the subject of wealth vases to me, my reply to them was that it would be a rather difficult task. Nonetheless, they were not discouraged and said they would endeavour no matter how tough it was going to be. So I started making plans for the treasure wealth vases. The first step was the selection and ordering of the ideal vases. I felt that classic and traditional vases would be wonderful for this project as compared to the elaborately ornate ones. When I was back in Nepal, I found a beautiful traditional vase that is hand-carved and made of copper material with silver and gold polish.

At the same time, I started sourcing for all the precious substances that were needed for the wealth vases. Fortunately, I managed to acquire many of these rare and invaluable spiritual items from several of my close Rinpoches. As for the herbal and mineral related substances, I consulted with a Tibetan physician named Ngawang who helped me gathered all the precious herbs that I needed. He ground the materials and moulded them into pills form.
Over the last 30 years, I have collected many treasures little by little. Very carefully, I combined and ground them into powder. These treasures include precious pills that contain more than 900 substances of blessings given to me by Sherab Rinpoche; relics of former Buddhas and Arahants; relics and blessed substances of many lines of Karmapa; and blessing substances of many great and well-known masters of every tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.

I have also received similar precious pills wrapped in yellow cloth from Sang Sang Rinpoche. They contain over 600 blessing substances such as blessing materials of Guru Rinpoche and the 1st to the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa.
One of the significant ingredients that I wish to highlight is the wealth flourishing substances called Yangze Rilbu. They comprise of so many substances combined into the form of pills in order to preserve them in their entirety. The substances include ancient wealth materials of Kings, royalties, rich families and noble people who were never in poverty for many generations. Also, they include materials such as gems, soils, water from ancient temples of various famous holy places of Tibet and India. These places are believed to be sources of good energy with wonderful elements that are capable of generating positive magnetic fields that attract wealth and longevity. The exact list of ingredients that go into the Yangze Rilbu pills is rather lengthy.

Some of the more significant ingredients that went into the wealth vases are as follows:-

1.     Pieces of materials of Guru Rinpoche’s hat;
      2.     Pieces of robes of first, third and fifteen Karmapa’s;

3.     Black Pill Karmapa;
      4.     Nectar Pills made by Guru Rinpoche and his 25 disciples;

5.     Pieces of the Great Translator Vairochana’s handwritten manuscript; and
       6.     Longevity pills from the blessing treasures of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

The main filling substances of the wealth vases are the Tibetan and Ayurveda herbs. We obtained the raw materials from an herbalist and our Tibetan doctor in Nepal carefully checked each ingredient for its quality. Altogether, there were five large boxes weighing over 250 kilograms of materials for this project.

With all these wonderful and incredibly precious substances, we instructed every participant to adhere strictly on the discipline of cleanliness to prevent any contamination.

All the materials were cleansed and blessed through a ceremony called Jong Tru. This involved the dispelling of negative elements and cleansing the substances. So once this ritual is completed, the Lamas and volunteers spent five long days of hard work to complete the vases. Rinpoches executed the inner filling of the vases using life sticks and mantras. The Lamas then filled up the vases with the remaining materials. The vases were closed and sealed by our volunteers. This is to ensure that every vase is filled correctly and that the life sticks and mantras are properly aligned in the right directions without even a minor mistake.

At the same time, I also instructed the volunteers to prepare the mini longevity flags for the wealth vases. This is actually not compulsory but for the sake of longevity, which is particularly important for leading a meaningful life and for increasing the opportunities for dharma practise, I asked for their preparation and blessed them over the three days puja. All our Sangha and volunteers complied with my instructions to the hilt. The longevity flags were tough to make due to their miniaturised parts. Nonetheless, our volunteers worked very hard making them beautifully and I am certain they will truly gain the blessings of longevity.

When the vases were finally filled, cleansed and blessed, we created a mandala to place the vases. So many auspicious substances and wealth vases were beautifully displayed.

The second part of blessing is similar to the first Jong Tru, i.e. the dispelling of negative elements or obstacles if any. The vases and shrine were then thoroughly cleansed.

This is followed by the ritual ceremony of invocation of wealth deities into the vases.

Subsequently over the next few days, a series of Zambhala puja and Guru Rinpoche inseparable from Amitayus puja were performed. They were important for wealth and longevity. The pujas comprised of invocation, offerings, praise, developing of self, shrine and vase to transform the substances into wealth deities and their sublime environment. The pujas help to attract and amplify the life forces from the four elements, great masters and enlightened ones. These are then absorbed into the vases and longevity flags.  Thus, the vases manifest as outer wish-fulfilling gems as well as inner palace for the wealth deities.

This is my explanation on the preparation of the treasure wealth vases as far as I could think of. Hope everyone will benefit from the wealth vases in terms of wealth, longevity and in all spiritual activities.

སྐྱེ་འགྲོའི་དབུལ་བ་སེལ་བའི་ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར།
The wish-fulfilling gem that relieves the suffering of poverty of beings,


སྨུག་འཛིན་དབང་པོའི་གཏོང་བའི་མཛོད་སྒོ་ལས།

From the door of Zambhala's treasure of generosity,


གཅིག་ཏུ་འཕྲོས་པའི་ནོར་གྱི་བུམ་བཟང་འདིས།

Arises the continuous flow of profound vases of wealth,

ཆོས་ནོར་བདེ་བས་འགྲོ་ཀུན་ངོམས་གྱུར་ཅིག།
May these satisfy everyone with bountiful wealth and spirituality.


Shangpa Rinpoche

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