According to Tibetan and Vedic astrology, there are a cluster of stars, called the ‘Rishi’ stars that appear for one week each year usually during the 8th lunar month (September). This year, according to Tibetan astrology, the Rishi stars will be ‘out’ from Sept. 9 till 16th September. In Tibetan this is known as ‘Karma Rishi.’
Bhutanese also celebrate similar type as “Blessed Rainy Day” but towards the third week of September. This year it falls on 23rd September 2020.
According to Hindu legend, these stars were
once great sages of the past, who, upon their death, ascended up into the
heavens and became these stars. When they are visible in the night sky, their
light is said to possess special healing powers that transform all water into healing
nectar.
Typically, Tibetan doctors and healers would place buckets of water outside during this time, and then use this water for making their medicines.
Another way of benefiting from this healing water is to bathe in pools, ponds or rivers during this time. Or, collect water in buckets and use that for bathing. Any water – whether it is ocean, river, stream, or water in pools, is imbued with the healing qualities of the stars. This water can be used to make healing tinctures, or for giving to pets and plants. Even the water in our own bodies can be ‘blessed’ and purified by this special healing energy by exposing your body to the night sky when the stars are out. It is a particularly auspicious time to do practices such as the Vajra Armor mantra,
which is used to consecrate water, or Medicine Buddha mantras and offering pujas.
Please offer the following prayer and mantra while
taking a bath outside under these stars. You can also use the mantra when you are taking normal bath also.
Prayer:
༈ཇི་ལྟར་བལྟམས་པ་ཙམ་གྱིས་ནི།
ལྷ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ནི་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་ལྟར།
JI-TAR TAM-PA TSAM-GYI NI / LHA-NAM KYI-NI TRU-SOL TAR /
ལྷ་ཡི་ཆུ་ནི་དག་པ་ཡིས།
དེ་བཞིན་བདག་གིས་ཁྲུས་བགྱིའོ།
LHA-YI CHU-NI DAG-PA YI / DE-ZHIN DAG-GI TRU-GYI O /
Mantra:
ཨོཾ་སརྦ་ཏ་ཐཱ་ག་ཏ་ཨ་བྷི་ཥེ་ཀ་ཏ་ས་མ་ཡ་ཤྲཱི་ཡེ་ཧཱུྃ༔
OM SARWA TAT’HAGATA ABHISHEKA TA SAMAYA SHRI
YE HUNG
Aspiration:
འདི་ནི་ཁྲུས་མཆོག་དཔལ་དང་ལྡན།
ཐུགས་རྗེའི་ཆུ་ནི་བླ་ན་མེད།
DI-NI TRU-CHOG PAL-DANG DEN / T’HUG-JE’I CHU-NI LA-NA MED /
བྱིན་རླབས་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཆུ་ཡིས་ནི།
ཅི་འདོད་དངོས་གྲུབ་སྩོལ་བར་མཛོད།
JIN-LAB YE-SHE CHU-YI NI / CHI-DOD NGO-DRUB TSAL-WAR DZOD /
Courtesy: Phurba Thinlay Ling, Mediatation, Yoga & Healing
