June 22, 2024, is the Zamling Chisang (literally meaning World Smoke-offering Day) – a universal day of prayers, which is an important day in the Vajrayana Byddhist calendar. It marks the day when Guru Padmasambhava completed the taming and liberation of all demonic forces opposing the construction of Samye monastery in Tibet. Thus, it falls on the Full Moon of the Trelda month (Guru’s month) in the lunar calendar.

In most Vajrayana schools, the day is marked as a day of purification of mind, body, and speech, which is celebrated by putting up colourful prayer flags, and large bonfires for incense offerings as a gratitude to the Four elements of nature and to all the sentient beings of the six realms.

As is with all Buddhist practices, the day is also about the inner contemplation where “taming the demon” could also mean calming of your restless “mind” and your inner demons, which you may be struggling against. Either way, it is a day to contemplate, and celebrate.

On this auspicious day, I am blessed to participate in the Riwo Sangchoe organise by members of Dorje Phagmo Foundation.

Riwo Sangchoe

Riwo Sangchoe (Dz. རི་བོ་བསང་མཆོད་), literally meaning “Mountain Smoke Offering”, is a popular practice of offering sang (incense and smoke) to the universe.

Among various Riwo Sangchoe that were instituted by various masters over the ages, the one discovered as terma by terton Lhatsuen Namkhai Jigme (1597-1653) is the most popular. It was extracted from Lhari Yosel Nyingpo in Sikkim.

The terma which is referred to as Rigzin Sokdrup (Accomplishing the Vidyadharas’ Life-Force) was later condensed by Dudjom Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje Rimpoche (1904-1987) who was popularly known as Dudjom Rimpoche – one of the greatest yogis of our time. This is one that is practiced today in Bhutan.

The overall purpose of Riwo Sangchoe is to achieve the perfection of wisdom. On a practical side it is believed that the blessings of Riwo Sangchoe has a dual purpose of Realisation through giving, and Purification from obstructions. The obstacles can come in every form – health issues, relationships, loss of property or reputation, etc.

The practice has the potential to also help beings of all the Six Realms and hence it is a very popular practice in Vajrayana Buddhism.

Does your prayer matter?

Finally, there is a myth that only lamas and rimpoche can help the sentient beings. This is furthest from the truth especially as Mahayana Buddhist. What is important is one’s intention and thought. Even ordinary people with right intention can benefit others by participating and through offering moelam and prayers. Every person has the agency.

As you read this and see the pictures from today’s event from across the Buddhist world, take a moment to offer prayers and compassion to all sentient beings – and especially for those whose lives are not the same like ours.

For those struggling to pray or have positive thoughts here is a para from the Riwo Sangchoe ceremony.

རྒྱལ་བ་མཆོད་པས་མཉེས་གྱུར་ཅིག །
May all the buddhas be pleased with this offering!

དམ་ཅན་ཐུགས་དམ་སྐོང་གྱུར་ཅིག །
May the solemn promise of the protectors be fulfilled!

རིགས་དྲུག་འདོད་པ་ཚིམས་གྱུར་ཅིག །
May the wishes of the six classes of beings be satisfied!

ལན་ཆགས་ཤ་མཁོན་སྦྱང་གྱུར་ཅིག །
May the enmity of karmic debtors be assuaged!

ཚོགས་གཉིས་ཡོངས་སུ་རྫོགས་གྱུར་ཅིག །
May we complete the accumulation of merit and wisdom!

སྒྲིབ་གཉིས་བག་ཆགས་དག་གྱུར་ཅིག །
May we purify cognitive and emotional defilements, and karmic traces!

དམ་པ་སྐུ་གཉིས་ཐོབ་གྱུར་ཅིག །
May we attain the dharmakāya and rūpakāya, for the benefit of self and others!

🙏🙏🙏