During the festive seasons, many Buddhist temples and shrines gather crowds to offer lamps, praying for peace and smoothness throughout the year. While many are aware that offering lamps is a way of seeking blessings for oneself and family, what other benefits does it offer? How many lamps can one offer? Is it feasible to dedicate the lamps to others, or offer lamps on behalf of others? Read on to find out more about offering lamps and how it could help you cultivate blessings, enhance wisdom, and gain merits.
Why Light-Offerings?
Light symbolizes spiritual brightness. It dispels darkness and is the source of energy for all growth. Offering lamps to the buddhas illuminates not only the buddhas but also one’s heart to open wisdom for discerning right from wrong and gaining guidance in crucial moments. In addition, offering lamps to the buddhas brings protection, the buddhas’ illumination, and the blessings of the buddhas. It eliminates ignorance, obstacles, and dangers, helping you accumulate immeasurable merits and virtues. Offering lamps for others is a way to extend the blessings of the buddhas’ light and all goodness to them, granting them the protection and blessings of buddhas and bodhisattvas, fulfilling their wishes, and bringing them peace and auspiciousness.
The 10 Benefits of Light-Offering
According to traditional folk belief, offering lamps brings good fortune and protection for the family. In Buddhist light-offerings, the benefits go beyond these. According to The Sutra of Merits of Offering Lamps, those who offer lamps in Buddhist stupas and halls will gain immense wisdom and blessings. Here are explanations of the 10 benefits of offering lamps to the buddhas:
1.Graceful Appearance:
Offering lamps to the buddhas results in a graceful and complete appearance, regardless of gender.
2.Attainment of Divine-Eye:
Those offering lamps are likely to attain the Divine-Eye through meditation practices, which allows them to see beyond time and space and perceive things ordinary mortals cannot see.
3.Transcendent Wisdom and the Ability to Discern Right and Wrong:
Lamps symbolize illumination and wisdom. Offering lamps to the buddhas is akin to illuminating one’s own mind with buddhas’ wisdom, thus clearing ignorance and achieving discerning judgment of right and wrong, and making wise choices in all matters.
4.Guidance of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to Avoid Confusion:
The buddhas and bodhisattvas will guide the lamp-offerors to stay away from straying onto the wrong path and to move out of darkness toward the light.
5.Health and Longevity:
With the blessings of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, lamp-offerors are free from disasters, enjoy a long and healthy life, experience physical and mental purity and tranquility, and are relieved from the suffering of illness.
6.Wisdom and Success in Life:
Lamp-offerors gain great wisdom and illumination, leading to a successful career, abundant wealth, and overall auspiciousness in life matters.
7.Elimination of All Disasters:
Offering lamps to the buddhas ensures the protection of buddhas, preventing all disasters and even turning misfortune into auspiciousness, bringing joy and harmony to life.
8.Elimination of Accumulated Past Karma:
Offering lamps to the Buddha can eliminate accumulated karmic obstacles, ensuring peace and auspiciousness in the present life and preventing rebirth in impoverished or dark realms in the next lifetime.
9.Swift Attainment of Enlightenment:
Meditation practitioners who offer lamps to the buddhas can overcome obstacles in their spiritual practice to achieve positive results and attain enlightenment quickly, obtaining liberation and leaving suffering.
10.The World Illuminator:
Lamp-offerors, like bright lamps, illuminate the world and the hearts of sentient beings, so that these sentient beings are willing to listen to the teachings of buddhas and gain right understanding, stepping onto the liberation path to benefit themselves and others.
Understanding the Six Lamps That Dispel Calamities and Offer Blessings
While all light-offerings have the effect of dispelling calamities and offering blessings, various types of lamps have been developed to meet the specific needs of the public. Bodhi Meditation, as a legitimate Buddhist practice institution with light-offering being one of its three treasures, features up to SIX types of light-offerings, including the Lamp of Auspicious Blessings, Lamp for the Departed, House Protection Lamp, Medicine Buddha Illuminating Lamp, and special lamps for occasions such as the New Year (Tai Sui Calming Lamp) and Qingming Festival (Ancestral Memorial Lamp). Read on to find out what the differences are among these types of lamps:
1.Lamp of Auspicious Blessings
This lamp is for the living. Light-offerors pray for blessings from buddhas and bodhisattvas to fulfill various wishes, such as smooth work, success in exams, safety in daily activities, and the elimination of current troubles, obstacles, or dangers.
2.Lamp for the Departed
Offering this lamp seeks the blessing of the buddhas to eliminate the sins of the deceased, resolve grievances, increase merits, and liberate the souls of the departed from the three evil paths, that they may be placed in realms of illumination and goodness. This lamp is said to guide the deceased to the Pure Land, liberating them from the cycle of rebirth.
3.House Protection Lamp
Ensuring the peace and wellbeing of the home is crucial for physical and mental health, financial fortune, and harmonious relationships. Offering this lamp can prevent interference from malevolent spirits, turn misfortune into auspiciousness, improve feng shui, and promote family harmony, smooth career, and overall peace and auspiciousness.
4.Medicine Buddha Illuminating Lamp
This offering is made to the Medicine Buddha, providing both the lamp-offeror and the one being blessed with the compassionate blessings and protection of Medicine Buddha. It dispels calamities, extends life, promotes physical and mental health, and brings auspiciousness.
5.Tai Sui Calming Lamp
The Tai Sui god is believed to govern people’s annual fortune. Each year, there are specific zodiac signs that clash with the Tai Sui god, leading to fluctuations in luck, including career, wealth, health, marriage, and investments. To seek the god’s blessings for a peaceful and successful year, people offer this lamp from the end of the current year to the 15th day of the Lunar New Year. This practice helps resolve obstacles, dispel calamities, and ensure a year of peace and success.
6.Ullambana Festival Lamp for the Departed
On the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, Buddhists observe Ullambana Festival (also known as Buddha’s Joyful Day). On this day, Buddhists conduct blessing ceremonies and offer lamps to the buddhas for their departed loved ones. The purpose is to send illumination, warmth, and energy to the deceased, guiding them out of suffering and darkness toward joy and liberation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Having understood the benefits and types of light-offerings, you may want to know how many lamps to offer and how to do light-offering correctly. Read on to find out.
1.How Many Lamps to Offer?
There is no restriction on the number of lamps to be offered. From a sincere and faithful perspective, the more lamps, the better. However, it should be done within one’s capacity. The essence of offering lamps before the Buddha lies in sincerity and faith, rather than being overly attached to quantity. In most cases, people choose numbers with auspicious significance, such as 3, 7, 12, 18, 21, 36, 49, and so on. In The Medicine Buddha Sutra, the Buddha states that if we light 49 lamps to the Medicine Buddha and keep the lamps burning for 49 days without interruption, it can eliminate immediate dangers, dispel worries, and quickly fulfill our wishes.
2.Can You Dedicate/Offer Lamps for Others?
Offering lamps on behalf of others not only sends blessings of illumination and auspiciousness to them, but also brings greater benefits to the offerors. The Earth Store Sutra states that “In all meritorious deeds, one-seventh is obtained for others, and the other six-sevenths are for oneself.” Therefore, helping others is helping oneself, and in the process of assisting others, you accumulate immeasurable wisdom and merits.
Light-Offerings at Bodhi Meditation
The extent of a person’s blessings can be altered through their actions, and one of the quickest and most effective ways to increase blessings is offering lamps. If you wish to pray for yourself and your family, illuminate your path, and fulfill heartfelt wishes, you can visit Bodhi Meditation College to make light-offerings for blessings. Present the beautiful and auspicious lamps to the Buddha and join Grandmaster JinBodhi in chanting to swiftly connect with the auspicious energy of buddhas. You shall receive protection and blessings and dispel worries and obstacles. Thus, all matters will proceed smoothly, and your beautiful aspirations will be realized.
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