The sur is made of roasted barley flour (tsampa), yogurt, butter, milk, sugar, molasses, and honey (the three whites and the three sweets).
Many Bhutanese offer two types of Sur, Kar Sur and Mar Sur. While Kar Sur is a pure veg Sur, the Mar sur is a non veg Sur.
The Kar Sur is usually offered in the morning for the well being of all sentient beings and especially to the dead souls roaming in the state of bardo.
Mar Sur is offered to the protecting deity and evening ghosts to protect oneself. It is usually offered in the evening or night and should never be discontinued even a day. If the offering is stopped the spirits than will harm the person seriously and even take his life as they stay near you and totally dependent on you for food.
However, if Mar Sur is continuously offered it will protect you from harm and illness.
I offer only Karsur in the morning with recitation of Sur prayer and mantra.
During Sur offering, it is very important to recite prayer and mantra to benefit others. The concise prayer for both Kar Sur and Mar Sur is given below:
1. Kar Sur
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| (Ready made Kar Sur) |
༄༅། །གསུར་མཆོད་མདོར་བསྡུས།
Brief Sur Offering
by Dudjom Rinpoche
ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཧཱུྃ།
om ah hung
oṃ āḥ hūṃ
གསུར་མཆོད་འདོད་ཡོན་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་སྤྲིན་ཕུང་འདི། །
sur chö döyön gyatsö trinpung di
This sur offering, billowing clouds of oceanic sensory enjoyments,
དཀོན་མཆོག་རྩ་གསུམ་སྲི་ཞུའི་མགྲོན་ལ་འབུལ། །
könchok tsa sum sishyü drön la bul
I offer to the Three Jewels and Three Roots, the guests invited out of respect.
ཚོགས་རྫོགས་སྒྲིབ་སྦྱང་ཐུགས་རྗེས་བསྐྱབ་ཏུ་གསོལ། །
tsok dzok drib jang tukjé kyab tu sol
Protect me in your compassion, I pray, and cause me to complete the accumulations and purify my obscurations!
དམ་ཅན་ཆོས་སྐྱོང་ཡོན་ཏན་མགྲོན་ལ་འབུལ། །
damchen chökyong yönten drön la bul
I offer to the oath-bound dharma protectors, guests invited on account of their qualities:
མཉེས་ཤིང་ཚིམས་ནས་ཕྱི་ནང་བར་ཆད་སོལ། །
nyé shing tsim né chi nang barché sol
May you be pleased and satisfied and dispel all outer and inner obstacles!
རིགས་དྲུག་སེམས་ཅན་སྙིང་རྗེའི་མགྲོན་ལ་བསྔོ། །
rik druk semchen nyingjé drön la ngo
I offer to the sentient beings of the six classes, guests invited out of compassion:
སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཀུན་བྲལ་ཟག་མེད་བདེ་ཐོབ་ཤོག །
dukngal kündral zakmé dé tob shok
May you be free from all forms of suffering and gain immaculate bliss!
གདོན་བགེགས་ལྷ་འདྲེ་ལན་ཆགས་མགྲོན་ལ་བསྔོ། །
dön gek lha dré lenchak drön la ngo
I dedicate to harmful influences, obstructing forces, gods and spirits, the guests to whom I owe karmic debts:
གནོད་འཚེའི་སེམས་ཞི་ཕན་བདེས་འཚོ་བར་ཤོག །
nö tsé sem shyi pendé tsowar shok
May all violence and malevolence be pacified and may you live happily and beneficially.
འཁོར་འདས་མགྲོན་རིགས་དམིགས་མེད་ཟང་ཐལ་ངང་། །
khordé drön rik mikmé zangtal ngang
In a state of unimpeded openness, beyond any focus on the various guests in saṃsāra or nirvāṇa,
འཁོར་གསུམ་ཡོངས་དག་ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ཀློང་གྲོལ་ཤོག །
khor sum yong dak chöying long drol shok
May we be liberated in the dharmadhātu expanse that is entirely free of the three conceptual spheres.
ཅེས་པའང་འཇིགས་བྲལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེས་སོ།།
By Jigdral Yeshe Dorje.
| Translated by Adam Pearcey, 2020.
༄༅། །གསུར་མཆོད་མདོར་བསྡུས།
Brief Sur Offering
by Dudjom Rinpoche
2. Mar Sur
 |
| (Ready made Mar Sur) |
ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཧཱུྃ།
om ah hung
oṃ āḥ hūṃ
གསུར་མཆོད་འདོད་ཡོན་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་སྤྲིན་ཕུང་འདི། །
sur chö döyön gyatsö trinpung di
This sur offering, billowing clouds of oceanic sensory enjoyments,
དཀོན་མཆོག་རྩ་གསུམ་སྲི་ཞུའི་མགྲོན་ལ་འབུལ། །
könchok tsa sum sishyü drön la bul
I offer to the Three Jewels and Three Roots, the guests invited out of respect.
ཚོགས་རྫོགས་སྒྲིབ་སྦྱང་ཐུགས་རྗེས་བསྐྱབ་ཏུ་གསོལ། །
tsok dzok drib jang tukjé kyab tu sol
Protect me in your compassion, I pray, and cause me to complete the accumulations and purify my obscurations!
དམ་ཅན་ཆོས་སྐྱོང་ཡོན་ཏན་མགྲོན་ལ་འབུལ། །
damchen chökyong yönten drön la bul
I offer to the oath-bound dharma protectors, guests invited on account of their qualities:
མཉེས་ཤིང་ཚིམས་ནས་ཕྱི་ནང་བར་ཆད་སོལ། །
nyé shing tsim né chi nang barché sol
May you be pleased and satisfied and dispel all outer and inner obstacles!
རིགས་དྲུག་སེམས་ཅན་སྙིང་རྗེའི་མགྲོན་ལ་བསྔོ། །
rik druk semchen nyingjé drön la ngo
I offer to the sentient beings of the six classes, guests invited out of compassion:
སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཀུན་བྲལ་ཟག་མེད་བདེ་ཐོབ་ཤོག །
dukngal kündral zakmé dé tob shok
May you be free from all forms of suffering and gain immaculate bliss!
གདོན་བགེགས་ལྷ་འདྲེ་ལན་ཆགས་མགྲོན་ལ་བསྔོ། །
dön gek lha dré lenchak drön la ngo
I dedicate to harmful influences, obstructing forces, gods and spirits, the guests to whom I owe karmic debts:
གནོད་འཚེའི་སེམས་ཞི་ཕན་བདེས་འཚོ་བར་ཤོག །
nö tsé sem shyi pendé tsowar shok
May all violence and malevolence be pacified and may you live happily and beneficially.
འཁོར་འདས་མགྲོན་རིགས་དམིགས་མེད་ཟང་ཐལ་ངང་། །
khordé drön rik mikmé zangtal ngang
In a state of unimpeded openness, beyond any focus on the various guests in saṃsāra or nirvāṇa,
འཁོར་གསུམ་ཡོངས་དག་ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ཀློང་གྲོལ་ཤོག །
khor sum yong dak chöying long drol shok
May we be liberated in the dharmadhātu expanse that is entirely free of the three conceptual spheres.
ཅེས་པའང་འཇིགས་བྲལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེས་སོ།།
By Jigdral Yeshe Dorje.
| Translated by Adam Pearcey, 2020.
There’s a story about spirits that illustrates this point which was told by His Holiness the Dalai Lama once.
"In Tibet there was somebody who could see spirits. His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche who was His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s guru.
The sur was prepared, but this simple mantra ༄།ན་མཿ སརྦ་ཏ་ཐཱ་ག་ཏ་ཨ་ཝ་ལོ་ཀི་ཏེ། ཨོཾ་སཾ་བྷ་ར་སཾ་བྷ་ར་ཧཱུྃ།། (NAMA SARVA TAHTAGATA AVALOKITE OM SAMBHARA SAMBHARA HUM) had not been chanted yet.
This mantra is very simple but unbelievably beneficial. It causess, those beings to receive food like the sky, food like a whole city! It’s amazing what the spirits are able to receive through the power of that mantra. The Buddha gave that mantra out of his great compassion to benefit sentient beings, and it really makes unbelievable difference for them.
His Holiness said that this person could see the beings the spirits there before the mantra had been chanted, and the sur was there but they couldn’t eat. Then, when the mantra was chanted, they could eat. The person even heard the sounds of eating something like “chomp, chomp, chomp!”
Just burning the sur ingredients isn’t enough. Without reciting the mantra, the sur is there but they cannot eat the food. But if you do the actual practice and chant mantra, then it’s so amazing that they are able to eat food vast like clouds in the sky. They receive so much by the power of the mantra, through the Buddha’s kindness.
After having recited that mantra seven times, next you also recite the mantra: OM GANDE KAME GUNA PUJA IDAM KHA KHA KHAHI KHAHI seven times as well, snapping each time you recite it.
In particular, sur offerings nourish those in the bardo, the intermediate state after death. These beings experience hunger and thirst but can be nourished only through their sense of smell. This practice can be done for forty-nine days after someone's death, with emphasis on dedicating the merit of this virtuous activity for the benefit of the deceased.
These days we can get readymade Kar sur and Mar sur. You can
