100,000 candles??

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KonchogUrgyenNyima
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100,000 candles??

Post by KonchogUrgyenNyima »

Hey everyone,

I need to burn 100,000 candles as offering. Does anyone know where i can get a ton of candles for cheap??
Cinnabar
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Re: 100,000 candles??

Post by Cinnabar »

KonchogUrgyenNyima wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:01 pm Hey everyone,

I need to burn 100,000 candles as offering. Does anyone know where i can get a ton of candles for cheap??
You can get 100 tea lights for 5$US, but that would still be 5000$US total. Probably the cheapest candles I can think of getting.
Tenma
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Re: 100,000 candles??

Post by Tenma »

KonchogUrgyenNyima wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:01 pm Hey everyone,

I need to burn 100,000 candles as offering. Does anyone know where i can get a ton of candles for cheap??
I have no clue; make your own or set up an event for an entire community to make renewable, environmentally-friendly candles? That way, everyone gains merits!
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Cinnabar
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Re: 100,000 candles??

Post by Cinnabar »

Tenma wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:43 pm
KonchogUrgyenNyima wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:01 pm Hey everyone,

I need to burn 100,000 candles as offering. Does anyone know where i can get a ton of candles for cheap??
I have no clue; make your own or set up an event for an entire community to make renewable, environmentally-friendly candles? That way, everyone gains merits!
Are there environmentally friendly candles?

I used tea lights here and people in the sangha flipped out because they were environmentally horrible. Parafin.

Then I got little rechargeable tea lights. That was worse. Plastic bits, batteries.

Either way I go, I’m breaking my vows, as far as I can tell.
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KonchogUrgyenNyima
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Re: 100,000 candles??

Post by KonchogUrgyenNyima »

Cinnabar wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 6:11 pm
Tenma wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:43 pm
KonchogUrgyenNyima wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:01 pm Hey everyone,

I need to burn 100,000 candles as offering. Does anyone know where i can get a ton of candles for cheap??
I have no clue; make your own or set up an event for an entire community to make renewable, environmentally-friendly candles? That way, everyone gains merits!
Are there environmentally friendly candles?

I used tea lights here and people in the sangha flipped out because they were environmentally horrible. Parafin.

Then I got little rechargeable tea lights. That was worse. Plastic bits, batteries.

Either way I go, I’m breaking my vows, as far as I can tell.
lol there is no way to do it that's environmentally friendly, i don't think. I'm there with you.
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Könchok Thrinley
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Re: 100,000 candles??

Post by Könchok Thrinley »

Cinnabar wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 6:11 pm
Tenma wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:43 pm
KonchogUrgyenNyima wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:01 pm Hey everyone,

I need to burn 100,000 candles as offering. Does anyone know where i can get a ton of candles for cheap??
I have no clue; make your own or set up an event for an entire community to make renewable, environmentally-friendly candles? That way, everyone gains merits!
Are there environmentally friendly candles?

I used tea lights here and people in the sangha flipped out because they were environmentally horrible. Parafin.

Then I got little rechargeable tea lights. That was worse. Plastic bits, batteries.

Either way I go, I’m breaking my vows, as far as I can tell.
There are these discs into which you can put a wick and you put it into water with a bit of oil in it. It will burn the oil. But dunno how enviromentally friendly is this. But good news is that the oil can be just regular canola oil. But for sure it is not suitable for big offerings.
“Observing samaya involves to remain inseparable from the union of wisdom and compassion at all times, to sustain mindfulness, and to put into practice the guru’s instructions”. Garchen Rinpoche

For those who do virtuous actions,
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For those who do non-virtuous actions,
that becomes suffering indeed.

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KonchogUrgyenNyima
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Re: 100,000 candles??

Post by KonchogUrgyenNyima »

    Cinnabar wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:09 pm
    KonchogUrgyenNyima wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:01 pm Hey everyone,

    I need to burn 100,000 candles as offering. Does anyone know where i can get a ton of candles for cheap??
    You can get 100 tea lights for 5$US, but that would still be 5000$US total. Probably the cheapest candles I can think of getting.
    yah it looks like around $5000 is the cheapest i can be expecting to pay here. I don't have that kind of money lol.

    There's got to be some other way of going about this.
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    Aryjna
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    Re: 100,000 candles??

    Post by Aryjna »

    KonchogUrgyenNyima wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 6:27 pm
      Cinnabar wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:09 pm
      KonchogUrgyenNyima wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:01 pm Hey everyone,

      I need to burn 100,000 candles as offering. Does anyone know where i can get a ton of candles for cheap??
      You can get 100 tea lights for 5$US, but that would still be 5000$US total. Probably the cheapest candles I can think of getting.
      yah it looks like around $5000 is the cheapest i can be expecting to pay here. I don't have that kind of money lol.

      There's got to be some other way of going about this.
      You can visualize the candles.
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      KonchogUrgyenNyima
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      Re: 100,000 candles??

      Post by KonchogUrgyenNyima »

      Aryjna wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 6:39 pm
      KonchogUrgyenNyima wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 6:27 pm
        Cinnabar wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:09 pm

        You can get 100 tea lights for 5$US, but that would still be 5000$US total. Probably the cheapest candles I can think of getting.
        yah it looks like around $5000 is the cheapest i can be expecting to pay here. I don't have that kind of money lol.

        There's got to be some other way of going about this.
        You can visualize the candles.
        haha i thought of this too, but i don't think that's what my lama wants me to do.
        Marpa: "Build me a tower!"
        Mila: *visualizes the tower* :thumbsup:
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        Aryjna
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        Re: 100,000 candles??

        Post by Aryjna »

        KonchogUrgyenNyima wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 6:42 pm
        Aryjna wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 6:39 pm
        KonchogUrgyenNyima wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 6:27 pm
          yah it looks like around $5000 is the cheapest i can be expecting to pay here. I don't have that kind of money lol.

          There's got to be some other way of going about this.
          You can visualize the candles.
          haha i thought of this too, but i don't think that's what my lama wants me to do.
          Marpa: "Build me a tower!"
          Mila: *visualizes the tower* :thumbsup:
          No matter how cheap they are, its going to be a few thousand I guess, unless you steal a crate of candles or something like that.
          Visualizing may not be that bad, if you really visualize 100.000 distinct candles it is going to take a long time, or in batches of 10 or something like that.

          Or could be virtual candles.
          philji
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          Re: 100,000 candles??

          Post by philji »

          Share it out with 100 or 1000 people?
          Tenma
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          Re: 100,000 candles??

          Post by Tenma »

          KonchogUrgyenNyima wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 6:23 pm
          Cinnabar wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 6:11 pm
          Tenma wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:43 pm

          I have no clue; make your own or set up an event for an entire community to make renewable, environmentally-friendly candles? That way, everyone gains merits!
          Are there environmentally friendly candles?

          I used tea lights here and people in the sangha flipped out because they were environmentally horrible. Parafin.

          Then I got little rechargeable tea lights. That was worse. Plastic bits, batteries.

          Either way I go, I’m breaking my vows, as far as I can tell.
          lol there is no way to do it that's environmentally friendly, i don't think. I'm there with you.
          Oof! What about making a community entirely based on locally made butter lamps (you can somehow sponsor the dairy farmers to gather together or perhaps have a school convince some dairy farms/industry to sponsor them making butter lamps)? I noticed that the Tara Mandala charges a dollar a butterlamp, so perhaps that should work! (I noticed that Lama Yeshe once advised about making electric light offerings as well).

          What about this list (though it's most likely expensive):
          https://www.goingzerowaste.com/blog/15- ... c-candles/
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          Sādhaka
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          Re: 100,000 candles??

          Post by Sādhaka »

          There are beeswax candles, soy candles, and I’m sure other types of non-toxic natural waxes.

          But uh, physical offerings are good; yet since this was asked in the Dzogchen sub-forum, the Natural State is always the best purification, and even visualized offerings can be as effective as physical ones, if you get the essence of the principle.

          Just my two cents. I don’t want to actually prevent anyone from making physical offerings; because of course it’s always good.
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          Queequeg
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          Re: 100,000 candles??

          Post by Queequeg »

          Just thinking of the logistics... would you try to light all of these at once? By my napkin calculation, if you could light 60 candles a minute, it would take you like 28 hours.

          I remember visiting a temple in China where someone was making offerings and the entire floor of the chamber was covered with butter lamps. The fumes were offensive - black and sooty.

          I'll be interested to hear how this goes.
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          Kurp
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          Re: 100,000 candles??

          Post by Kurp »

          1 really nice candle placed in between
          + 2 mirrors facing one another
          ___________
          infinite light offerings
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          Konchog Thogme Jampa
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          Re: 100,000 candles??

          Post by Konchog Thogme Jampa »

          KonchogUrgyenNyima wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:01 pm Hey everyone,

          I need to burn 100,000 candles as offering. Does anyone know where i can get a ton of candles for cheap??
          Light 1000 a month at 50 Dollars a month for the next 100 months.

          So that’s 8 years or so of lighting candles as offering :mrgreen:
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          Hazel
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          Re: 100,000 candles??

          Post by Hazel »

          There seems to be the assumption that each candle can only be offered once. Can't you offer them once, then the next day offer the same set of candles again? And so on until they burn out? Sure it may take a few years, but likely WAY more practical than trying to light 100,000 different candles.

          The offering is the light, not the entirety of the candle, right?
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          PadmaVonSamba
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          Re: 100,000 candles??

          Post by PadmaVonSamba »

          Why not just burn one candle a hundred-thousand times?
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          Re: 100,000 candles??

          Post by Arnoud »

          In Tibetan monasteries you can offer butter lamps for cheap so 100000 isn’t that much. But maybe your lama doesn’t realize it will be quite expensive in the west. You can buy 10/100/1000 butter lamps and many wicks and reuse them. That’s what they do in the monasteries too.
          Or, you can sponsor 100000 offerings.
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          Sādhaka
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          Re: 100,000 candles??

          Post by Sādhaka »

          Sādhaka wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 7:08 pm...yet since this was asked in the Dzogchen sub-forum....

          Or I could have sworn it was.

          Either it got moved to this subforum, or I was mistaken....
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