Smoke in Bhutanese language means ‘Sang'. It is customary especially in rural villages that the first thing they do in the morning is to offer Sang. This type of offering is made by burning incense powder or Sang leaves. While the incense powders are readily available in the market, the Sang leaves have to collect from the forest and the most common are pine, juniper, cypress and Sangzay Karchu.
The Sang offering is dedicated to the three jewels the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha along with mountain, river, earth and various realms of Gods offerings.
‘Sang’ smoke must be very clean. This is a very important factor; it also has to be 100% vegetarian.
‘Sang’ smoke offering is a method of removing negative karma, accumulating merits, a supreme Dharma practice. For temporary purposes, it helps to achieve worldly necessities.
Externally, through the smoke offerings, it will carry three types of purifications namely: external, internal and secret purification.
External purification means smoke offering and burning various offerings to four types of guests, in order to purify obstacles and negative karma.
Internal purification means purifying the five poisons of delusions.
Secret purification means purifying one’s self- grasping and attachment.
Finally it is also very important to recite Sang Choe when offering are made. This will ensure that sang are effectively offered to choice of your deities. The following is brief Sang Offering prayer which may be recited whenever Sang offering are made.
༄༅། །བསང་མཆོད་བསྡུས་པ་བཞུགས།
Brief Sang Offering
by
Mipham Rinpoche
ཧོ། བསང་མཆོད་ཀུན་བཟང་མཆོད་པའི་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོས། །
ho, sang chö kunzang chöpé trin chenpö
Ho! With this smoke
offering, in great clouds like those of Samantabhadra,
བླ་མ་ཡི་དམ་སངས་རྒྱས་བྱང་སེམས་བསང་། །
lama yidam sangye changsem sang
We sanctify the guru,
yidam deity, buddhas and bodhisattvas,
དཔའ་བོ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་ཆོས་སྐྱོང་ནོར་ལྷ་བསང་། །
pawo khandro chökyong norlha sang
We sanctify the
vīras, ḍākinīs,
dharma protectors and
wealth deities,
དགྲ་བླ་ཝེར་མ་གནས་གཞི་གཏེར་བདག་བསང་། །
drala werma né shyi terdak sang
We sanctify the
warrior spirits, wermas, regional deities and treasure-keepers,
འགོ་བའི་ལྷ་མགོན་གཉན་པོ་ཐམས་ཅད་བསང་། །
gowé lha gön nyenpo tamché sang
We sanctify all the
personal gods and powerful guardians,1 ཚིག་རྐང་འདི་ལྷ་གང་འདོད་ཁ་བསྒྱུར་ཀྱང་ཆོག
ཕྱི་སྣོད་ནང་བཅུད་དག་པ་ཆེན་པོར་བསང་། །
chi nö nangchü dakpa chenpor sang
We sanctify the outer
environment and its inhabitants into vast purity.
འདོད་ཡོན་མི་ཟད་ནམ་མཁའ་མཛོད་ཀྱིས་མཆོད། །
döyön mizé namkha dzö kyi chö
And we offer a
sky-treasury of inexhaustible sensory delights.
གེགས་ཞི་བསམ་དོན་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཤོག །
gek shyi samdön lhündrub tashi shok
Let everything be
auspicious so that hindrances are pacified and all our wishes spontaneously
fulfilled!
ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿ་ཧཱུྃ་ཞེས་བཟླ།
om ah hung
Recite Oṃ āḥ hūṃ.
ཤིང་སྦྲུལ་ཟླ་ ༧ ཚེས་ ༤ ལ་ཁྲ་འགུའི་རི་ཁྲོད་དུ་མི་ཕམ་པས་བཀོད་པ་དགེའོ།། །།
The one called Mipham composed this in Thrangu hermitage on the fourth day of the seventh month of the Wood Snake year (1905). May virtue abound!
| Translated by Adam Pearcey,
2019.
1. ↑ A note says that
this line may be adapted to any deity of your choice.
