Amulets and protection diagrams

[Könchok Thrinley]

Hi,

I would like to ask about which diagrams, mandalas, buddha pictures, etc. could be printed out and hanged in my house for protection, blessings etc.? I know there are some but I have a bit hard time finding those. And while it is a very secondary thing, I think it can be a useful thing for me and my friends who come over to have this sort of imprint.

Thank you.

I will start with sharing and that is this great blessing mantra that Garchen Rinpoche gives out.

[GrapeLover]

Here is Namgyalma’s mantra mandala from Garchen Rinpoche’s site, which says:
“If her mantra is hung from a high place (like a stupa, a tree, a rooftop, or a mountain peak) every being – even the tiniest insect, or being without a body – who walks in, on or under that structure, or who is even touched by its shadow, will be liberated from rebirth in the lower realms. Any wind or breeze that touches her mantra will purify the negative karma of any being it touches thereafter”

Similar benefits noted here: https://fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/sit ... gyalma.pdf

[GrapeLover]

And here is an image of Amoghapasha:

From the Amoghapasha Tantra:
Just by seeing Amoghapasha Avalokiteshwara and Potala Mountain with its celestial mansion, one is freed from the eight great hells and the eight great fears. It even liberates from all the suffering of having committed the five sins of immediate retribution. It completely purifies even the very heavy sin of having abandoned the holy Dharma, all obscurations, etc. Just seeing this Deity totally purifies all the sins and obscurations of having criticized Buddhas and Bodhisatvas. Just seeing this painted holy body totally purifies even those who are to be reborn in the lowest hot hell, Inexhaustible Suffering. One will collect hundreds of thousands of times more merit than Brahma and other worldly Gods. One will achieve the sublime merits of all worldly beings. Even when one dies, Amoghapasha Avalokiteshwara will directly show His face and free your breath. Even after death, one will be reborn in Amitabha's Sukhavati where one will be freed from all obscurations and one will remember up to 50,000 past lives. This will be your last life in samsara and your next life will only go forward toward the ultimate heart of Enlightenment. Just by seeing this holy body once, one will accumulate inconceivable merit. [Thus,] if one continually sees this holy body, there is no question of turning back from Enlightenment. One will achieve the peerless happiness of Buddhahood with the cessation of all obscurations and the completion of all Realizations.

[karmanyingpo]

Here are a couple other Just By Seeing mantras: https://fpmt.org/edu-news/just-by-seeing-mantras/
My question is, if all of these things are sooo beneficial, why aren't they more widely propagated? Just seeing an image enough to prevent lower rebirths??? What an immense benefit. So I don't understand why these aren't spread like wildfire. Someone please help me understand thanks.

KN

[FiveSkandhas]

Here are a couple other Just By Seeing mantras: https://fpmt.org/edu-news/just-by-seeing-mantras/
My question is, if all of these things are sooo beneficial, why aren't they more widely propagated? Just seeing an image enough to prevent lower rebirths??? What an immense benefit. So I don't understand why these aren't spread like wildfire. Someone please help me understand thanks.

KN

They are not unknown. They spread through the internet. This thread is spreading them.

Perhaps people encounter them in accordance with their karma.

Your question could be asked of the Dharma in general. Remember, it is said to be inconceivably rare to be blessed with a human existence and to have the good fortune of encountering the Dharma.

[cjdevries]

I like the "Wheel of the Meritorius Elephant Generating Power" that's featured on this page: https://shop.fpmt.org/Digital-Cards-Posters-_c_712.html

Also good is the "purifying the cause of samsara" door mantra further down the page.

[karmanyingpo]

Here are a couple other Just By Seeing mantras: https://fpmt.org/edu-news/just-by-seeing-mantras/
My question is, if all of these things are sooo beneficial, why aren't they more widely propagated? Just seeing an image enough to prevent lower rebirths??? What an immense benefit. So I don't understand why these aren't spread like wildfire. Someone please help me understand thanks.

KN

They are not unknown. They spread through the internet. This thread is spreading them.

Perhaps people encounter them in accordance with their karma.

Your question could be asked of the Dharma in general. Remember, it is said to be inconceivably rare to be blessed with a human existence and to have the good fortune of encountering the Dharma.

You are right that they are spreading. I just wonder why sanghas or teachers don't try to find ways to spread them even more. Valid point about karma and dharma but with some of these all you need to do is look and see and you benefit which isn't the case with dharma talks and teachings for example.

I hope I don't come off the wrong way, I am sure there is a good reason why there aren't more efforts to widely spread these things even more than they already are spread. I am not a teacher and I am sure those teachers are way more wiser and compassionate then me
but I just asked to get a better understanding of why. Yes karma is involved but if we follow that way of thinking too much then it becomes way too passive and we may end up not trying hard enough to benefit others because we figure they get whatever there karma makes them deserve. So there is some balancing there I think.

Thanks for your response btw.

KN

[FiveSkandhas]

You are right that they are spreading. I just wonder why sanghas or teachers don't try to find ways to spread them even more. Valid point about karma and dharma but with some of these all you need to do is look and see and you benefit which isn't the case with dharma talks and teachings for example.

I hope I don't come off the wrong way, I am sure there is a good reason why there aren't more efforts to widely spread these things even more than they already are spread. I am not a teacher and I am sure those teachers are way more wiser and compassionate then me
but I just asked to get a better understanding of why. Yes karma is involved but if we follow that way of thinking too much then it becomes way too passive and we may end up not trying hard enough to benefit others because we figure they get whatever there karma makes them deserve. So there is some balancing there I think.

Thanks for your response btw.

KN

Well, every non-Buddhist I have ever shown them to has been at the very least pleasantly receptive and intrigued.

As another poster reminded me earlier today, "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink." I suppose teachers could stand on the street corners waving them and raving about their benefits, but how many "normal citizens" would just hurry by, avoiding the cultish-looking weirdo? Even many Buddhists probably have doubts about their efficacy. "Here I am sweating away in zazen for 20 years with a stiff back, and you are telling me all my efforts are worth less than a glance at a drawing? Too good to be true!" Or, "So why did I bother with those 300,000 Ngondro prostrations, then?" Or, "I chant Amida Butsu's name 800 times a day, which purifies me to an even greater extent." And so on.

In a way, the question is like a Christian asking, "Why doesn't the Gospel spread everywhere when God offers such an amazing free gift of salvation through simple surrender to Christ?" All religions will only spread as far as people are receptive to them. Who can say why you and I are more receptive to "Liberation through Seeing" than we are through "simple and complete faith in Jesus?" Karma? Past merit? Sharp perception? Other causes and conditions arising from reality in general?

But since "liberation by seeing" devices are so easy to spread and so beneficial, I have confidence they will indeed spread.

[cjdevries]

I tend to rely more on tried and true methods like prostration, 35 or 88 Buddhas, and recitation of mantras and Amitabha's name. It's hard for me to rely on something when I can't really measure the effectiveness of it. For example, if I do 500 prostrations often I will feel a sense of warm light filling my body; a purifying feeling. Same thing if I do 35 Buddhas or 88 Buddhas repentance; I often feel a genuine feeling of energy cleansing my body; similar to the feeling you might get when receiving a dharma transmission. However, I've only had that feeling a few times from looking at documents designed to liberate the consciousness; and the feeling was not as deep as the purification I felt when doing prostrations or reciting mantras. Personally, I do believe in "liberation by seeing" documents and the like and do believe they plant beneficial seeds in the consciousness and can help lead one to liberation; however personally I would rely more on practices and spend more time on practices that I can feel a concrete result from like mantras; but still use the "liberation by seeing" as a supplement to the main practice. I went to a dharma talk by a well known reincarnated Rinpoche who said that whenever they print something on a text like "you will be born for 100,000 eons in the Brahma heaven if you recite or write this mantra" it is meant symbolically. He said it does not mean literally that you will be born for 100,000 eons in the Brahma heaven; he said something like: rather, it's symbolic of something really good. Like if you do this action, there will be immeasurable benefit. So, maybe I won't attain enlightenment right away from writing out or reciting this mantra, or even looking at it, but I will probably plant genuine seeds for enlightenment by doing so.

[FiveSkandhas]

I tend to rely more on tried and true methods like prostration, 35 or 88 Buddhas, and recitation of mantras and Amitabha's name. It's hard for me to rely on something when I can't really measure the effectiveness of it. For example, if I do 500 prostrations often I will feel a sense of warm light filling my body; a purifying feeling. Same thing if I do 35 Buddhas or 88 Buddhas repentance; I often feel a genuine feeling of energy cleansing my body; similar to the feeling you might get when receiving a dharma transmission. However, I've only had that feeling a few times from looking at documents designed to liberate the consciousness; and the feeling was not as deep as the purification I felt when doing prostrations or reciting mantras. Personally, I do believe in "liberation by seeing" documents and the like and do believe they plant beneficial seeds in the consciousness and can help lead one to liberation; however personally I would rely more on practices and spend more time on practices that I can feel a concrete result from like mantras; but still use the "liberation by seeing" as a supplement to the main practice. I went to a dharma talk by a well known reincarnated Rinpoche who said that whenever they print something on a text like "you will be born for 100,000 eons in the Brahma heaven if you recite or write this mantra" it is meant symbolically. He said it does not mean literally that you will be born for 100,000 eons in the Brahma heaven; he said something like: rather, it's symbolic of something really good. It's more like an aspiration for something really beneficial to happen. Like if you do this action, there will be immeasurable benefit. So, maybe I won't attain enlightenment right away from writing out or reciting this mantra, or even looking at it, but I will probably plant genuine seeds for enlightenment by doing so.

This is an understandable perspective.

I spent some time earlier contemplating the Amoghapasha Avalokitesavara image above, focusing on the iconography after some research, and also just basking in its presence and contemplating some of the immeasurable compassion and merit of an advanced Bodhisattva. I definitely felt immense peace and joy from that simple practice, for whatever it is worth.

[Aryjna]

Here are a couple other Just By Seeing mantras: https://fpmt.org/edu-news/just-by-seeing-mantras/
My question is, if all of these things are sooo beneficial, why aren't they more widely propagated? Just seeing an image enough to prevent lower rebirths??? What an immense benefit. So I don't understand why these aren't spread like wildfire. Someone please help me understand thanks.

As I have heard it explained, they create a cause for liberation. Everything has to ripen at some point, as is true for any action no matter how small. It is a seed which has to ripen, when certain conditions are present. Since it creates a connection with the sutra, tantra, or buddha in question, when it ripens, you will enter into a genuine school/lineage and then practice. It doesn't mean that you see a sticker and then you don't have to do any practice.

[pemachophel]

[karmanyingpo]

Here are a couple other Just By Seeing mantras: https://fpmt.org/edu-news/just-by-seeing-mantras/
My question is, if all of these things are sooo beneficial, why aren't they more widely propagated? Just seeing an image enough to prevent lower rebirths??? What an immense benefit. So I don't understand why these aren't spread like wildfire. Someone please help me understand thanks.

As I have heard it explained, they create a cause for liberation. Everything has to ripen at some point, as is true for any action no matter how small. It is a seed which has to ripen, when certain conditions are present. Since it creates a connection with the sutra, tantra, or buddha in question, when it ripens, you will enter into a genuine school/lineage and then practice. It doesn't mean that you see a sticker and then you don't have to do any practice.

I totally agree. I was not trying to imply at all that this was a magic pill that everyone should use as a substitute for meditation and other practices.

KN

[Aryjna]

Here are a couple other Just By Seeing mantras: https://fpmt.org/edu-news/just-by-seeing-mantras/
My question is, if all of these things are sooo beneficial, why aren't they more widely propagated? Just seeing an image enough to prevent lower rebirths??? What an immense benefit. So I don't understand why these aren't spread like wildfire. Someone please help me understand thanks.

As I have heard it explained, they create a cause for liberation. Everything has to ripen at some point, as is true for any action no matter how small. It is a seed which has to ripen, when certain conditions are present. Since it creates a connection with the sutra, tantra, or buddha in question, when it ripens, you will enter into a genuine school/lineage and then practice. It doesn't mean that you see a sticker and then you don't have to do any practice.

I totally agree. I was not trying to imply at all that this was a magic pill that everyone should use as a substitute for meditation and other practices.

KN

Yes, I was not implying that you said so. Just giving a possible reason why most teachers do not focus too much on spreading liberation on seeing etc. But some do to some extent. For example Garchen Rinpoche, as already mentioned, and Lama Zopa have some relevant material.

[karmanyingpo]

As I have heard it explained, they create a cause for liberation. Everything has to ripen at some point, as is true for any action no matter how small. It is a seed which has to ripen, when certain conditions are present. Since it creates a connection with the sutra, tantra, or buddha in question, when it ripens, you will enter into a genuine school/lineage and then practice. It doesn't mean that you see a sticker and then you don't have to do any practice.

I totally agree. I was not trying to imply at all that this was a magic pill that everyone should use as a substitute for meditation and other practices.

KN

Just giving a possible reason why most teachers do not focus too much on spreading liberation on seeing etc.

Oh now I have connected the dots. Sometimes I need someone to spell it out for me, thank you.
That makes sense and I had not looked at it that way before.
Still I am very glad these exist and are being shared in some way!

KN