On Mo divinations

Forum for discussion of Tibetan Buddhism. Questions specific to one school are best posted in the appropriate sub-forum.
Post Reply
User avatar
qwerty13
Posts: 124
Joined: Mon Aug 26, 2013 5:41 pm
Location: Finland, Europe, Earth

On Mo divinations

Post by qwerty13 »

I have question regarding doing Mo divinations. I bought some months ago out of interest a small book called Mo: The Tibetan Divination System http://www.amazon.com/Mo-The-Tibetan-Di ... 1559391472

There is no indication in the book with regarding who can do divinations, only instructions on how to do divination and answers.
I know that usually people go to Lamas to ask divinations. But reading this book, I get sense that anyone can do divinations.

I'm bit confused, are there some prerequisites for doing dice divinations? If so what are they?
Who should we turn to for refuge? We should seek refuge in the Buddha. He is the one we weep before
-H.H. 14th Dalai Lama
User avatar
Losal Samten
Posts: 1591
Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2014 4:05 pm

Re: On Mo divinations

Post by Losal Samten »

Anyone can do them successfully although there are mantras to empower divinations for which you'll need a lung. It seems that to get the best out of the ones from the book you'll need a Manjushri lung (possibly just the standard mantra?) and do its mantra accumulations.
Lacking mindfulness, we commit every wrong. - Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche
འ༔ ཨ༔ ཧ༔ ཤ༔ ས༔ མ༔
ཨོཾ་ཧ་ནུ་པྷ་ཤ་བྷ་ར་ཧེ་ཡེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།།
ཨཱོཾ་མ་ཏྲི་མུ་ཡེ་སལེ་འདུ།།
User avatar
Karma_Yeshe
Posts: 316
Joined: Mon May 26, 2014 3:47 pm
Location: Berlin, Germany

Re: On Mo divinations

Post by Karma_Yeshe »

qwerty13 wrote:I have question regarding doing Mo divinations. I bought some months ago out of interest a small book called Mo: The Tibetan Divination System http://www.amazon.com/Mo-The-Tibetan-Di ... 1559391472

There is no indication in the book with regarding who can do divinations, only instructions on how to do divination and answers.
I know that usually people go to Lamas to ask divinations. But reading this book, I get sense that anyone can do divinations.

I'm bit confused, are there some prerequisites for doing dice divinations? If so what are they?
First, you must receviece transmission for this practice, second, you must attain some kind of realisation (siddhi) in it, then you (and everybody else who went through both steps) can do Mo divinations.
User avatar
Ivo
Posts: 224
Joined: Sun Aug 04, 2013 9:34 pm
Location: EU
Contact:

Re: On Mo divinations

Post by Ivo »

All Tibetan divination practices have specific requirements, ranging from lungs, to receiving empowerments to practicing in retreat prior to using them. However you can attempt using the Manjusri based divinations without these and see for yourself if you can pull it off. There is some chance that you might. Apart from the really esoteric systems, like mirror divination, etc., the principle behind most MO practices is simple - you have to have confidence while performing the practice, which should be strong enough to overcome the scattered dualistic mind, every time you do it. This confidence can come from an yidam, or from any other form of connection to your basic sanity. Anyone who can achieve this level of confidence can do successful divinations.

On another note, and with no intention to divert the topic, if you have trouble getting the necessary transmissions for one of the Tibetan systems, just learn Tarot, which is one of the most extensive divination systems ever designed and which surpasses 98% of the Tibetan systems in complexity and scope. In this regard THIS is the book to get (two volumes).
User avatar
Tsongkhapafan
Posts: 1244
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2011 9:36 am

Re: On Mo divinations

Post by Tsongkhapafan »

Why not do a close retreat of Manjushri, accumulating 600,000 recitations of Manjushri's mantra and receive blessings and then use the wisdom you have developed to make the best decisions?

Wisdom is the supreme attainment and something you can take to your next life whereas Mo is relying on an external method and therefore less reliable and beneficial.
User avatar
Grigoris
Former staff member
Posts: 21938
Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 9:27 pm
Location: Greece

Re: On Mo divinations

Post by Grigoris »

Palden Lhamo is another deity linked with dice and mirror divination.
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
Schrödinger’s Yidam
Posts: 7885
Joined: Wed May 29, 2013 6:13 am

Re: On Mo divinations

Post by Schrödinger’s Yidam »

Screw all that. Just go buy an I-Ching (Wilhelm-Baynes edition) and throw some coins. It's even online.
1.The problem isn’t ‘ignorance’. The problem is the mind you have right now. (H.H. Karmapa XVII @NYC 2/4/18)
2. I support Mingyur R and HHDL in their positions against lama abuse.
3. Student: Lama, I thought I might die but then I realized that the 3 Jewels would protect me.
Lama: Even If you had died the 3 Jewels would still have protected you. (DW post by Fortyeightvows)
Post Reply

Return to “Tibetan Buddhism”