My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
I am so sorry for the many eons of delay in replying to your email.

When you give food to hungry ghosts it is so important to recite the mantras that allow the hungry ghosts to get the food. It’s very important for you to do this.

It’s OK to do it inside, but if you can do it outside that’s better, like on the windowsill or outside the door or someplace like that. If you can’t do it outside, then it’s OK to do it inside, but if you can do it outside the window, that might be better. Maybe you can have a window box and do it like that, outside the window.

Here, in past times I used to do Dzambala water offering and water charity for the pretas. This is giving them three different water offerings. In general, giving water charity to the pretas, we collect more merit than giving food charity to all the numberless beings in the desire realm, deva realm, form realm and formless realm.

One preta has flames coming from its mouth, so by making charity to this preta, we collect more merit than making charity to all the general pretas. Then there is the preta who has twenty-three knots in its throat. Making one drop of water charity to them and making charity to the ones with flames coming from their mouths, the merit is unbelievable.

I have a whole practice of food charity, three or four kinds, then if I am near the water (a stream or the ocean), there are also five different ways to give it to pretas. Normally there are three, or you can do four. I haven’t translated the book completely; it is from the Buddha’s teachings from the Kangyur. I have one book that I thought to translate well, so that many people can have the opportunity to do the practice of charity for the numberless pretas. This would be unbelievable, so they get water and food, and each person who does the practice would benefit.

I will send you the book when it is translated, meanwhile we do have one translation here. [Find links to Practices to Benefit Pretas, Nagas and Spirits in the FPMT Catalogue]

I think if we could see pretas, it would be like another universe, another world. It is supposed to be like a forest outside, but that’s not what I see. One time we did Chenrezig retreat at a monastery in Taiwan. The monastery had a cemetery and people brought bodies there to bury. We began the retreat and as advised, I tried to do prayers to generate the outside marker or boundary of the retreat place. You put stones there and visualize the protectors and so forth. It is for protection for the retreat, to not allow interferers to come in.

I was just reciting the words, but what happened is that one girl was possessed by a naga, which was trying to come inside during the retreat. The naga had some good karma, so even though the protector outside would not let the naga come inside, the protector kicked the girl and she had a pain in the neck, so the naga was able to come in through the girl doing the retreat. When the naga came into her, she was not able to walk. She could not separate her feet; it was like the two feet were stuck together. 

The naga asked me to show the path to practice, so I told it to not harm the girl, to free the girl. The naga explained how helpful the blessed water from the last nyung nä session is. During a nyung nä, the water is blessed in the last session; everyone normally blesses it. So I just do it, not really thinking that Chenrezig is blessing the water, but actually Chenrezig is blessing the water, because Chenrezig has infinite compassion.

After the water is blessed, it is sprinkled outside. The naga explained how helpful this is, so then each day we would fill three buckets of water and bless it all together. One very good nun, who never wastes her time and is always practicing, brought the water outside to sprinkle for the pretas, but she got scared. Then the girl who was possessed by the nagas sent her boyfriend outside to sprinkle the water, but he didn’t know how to do it, so she explained that outside it is like a forest of pretas. There are so many pretas, it is like a forest.

So then every evening three buckets of water were carried out and sprinkled around by her boyfriend. So we did that. It seems from that I understood how Chenrezig actually blesses the water. The point to know is that Chenrezig actually blesses the water.

In the last session, the student drank the water and her mind become Kuan Yin, then the naga became Kuan Yin and went away from her crown. So it’s very, very interesting. She said the naga didn’t want to talk much because this was the only opportunity to do prayers and practice. Anyway, she gave us much understanding of how fortunate we are.

So please make sure you are doing the mantras when you offer the food and water to the pretas.

Regarding all the practice you are doing, that is good, but it’s most important to do the practice How to Make My Lives Wish-Fulfilling: The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness every day.

What makes our life most meaningful, most happy, with real happiness, inner peace, and most beneficial for every sentient being, is living our life with bodhicitta, with compassion for others. Then there are no regrets now or in the future, and no regrets at the time of death. Especially, there are no regrets in the future, only the greatest rejoicing in the merits that are more than the sky.

Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers ...