“Calling the Lama from Afar” and Lamp Prayer

Dear Dharma Friends,

Tashi Delek!

We will be praying entitled “Calling the Lama from Afar.” It would be good to go through the verses and see what they mean to us. This spiritual text is not only a prayer but it also offers instructions that we receive from our Lama.

The title of the prayer is “Calling the Lama from Afar.” Who is a Lama? Lama is our Root Teacher, the Lama who bestows the empowerment, reading transmission of a text, and the practice instructions that enable us to mature. One’s Root Lama is a very personal matter. One can meet many Lamas who are famous but experience no change when one does. It is possible to experience deep faith and devotion in a Lama whose name one merely hears or whose picture one only sees, without every having met him in life. So please joins for the prayers and acknowledge his great love and compassion for us and every beings The Lama who is relevant for oneself is the Lama who is one’s inner source of inspiration, who one trusts and reveres deeply.

We will dedicate all the merits to World Peace, freedom from illness and disasters.

Light a Lamp with a prayer and a wish for developing inner peace, kindness, love, compassion and for world peace. Let the light glow until the ultimate happiness for all sentient beings is attained

You have reached a place where you can make a difference to this world and for all the sentient beings, Light your Free Virtual  Lamps with a prayer and a wish for developing inner peace, kindness, love, compassion and for world peace so that we can make a better today and tomorrow. Let the light glow until we attain the ultimate happiness for all sentient beings.

In the Tune of Brahma, Shakyamuni Buddha mentioned the 10 benefits of offering lights:

One becomes like the light of the world
One achieves clairvoyance of the pure eye as a human
One achieves the Deva's eye
One receives the wisdom to discriminate virtue from non-virtue
One is able to eliminate the concept of inherent existence
One receives the illumination of wisdom
One is reborn as a human or deva
One receives great enjoyment wealth
One quickly becomes liberated
One quickly attains enlightenment

The offering of light is a means of dispelling the darkness of our own ignorance, giving rise to clarity and wisdom. We offer them with the wish that their light will illuminate the lower realms and the bardo, assuaging the torment of beings who suffer in darkness. We also aspire that all beings will develop greater mental clarity in order to discover the causes of long-lasting happiness in virtuous actions of body, speech and mind. Finally, we offer them so that the inner light of great knowing will arise in the minds of all beings and remove the darkness of ignorance and intellectual obscurations.

For the deceased - We make light offerings to ease their passage after death, with the wish that they make a positive future connection with a true spiritual path.

For someone undergoing suffering - we offer butterlamps and dedicate the merit who are suffering, with the wish that suffering and its cause may be dispelled.

As a prayer for someone's long life - You can offer butterlamps on the occasion of someone's birthday or anytime, with the wish that they remain long in this world to bring benefit to beings.

Whether you are able to attend the prayers in person or not, you are still welcome to make donations for butter lamp offerings, flower offerings, and fruit offerings.  Please contact us for details.