Protection from Spirit Harm

Protection from Spirit Harm

Illness Due to Spirit Harm
Date Posted:
April 2012

Rinpoche gave the following advice to a man who was very sick, apparently due to spirit harm.

Dear one,
I read your email and this is my advice:

1. Drugchuma puja: twice. Please request Geshe Jampa Tekchok to do this. You will need to make an offering for the pujas.

2. Focus on Most Secret Hayagriva for your daily practice—both you and your friend. Even if your friend does not have the initiation she can still do it, but she shouldn’t generate herself as the deity. Attached is a brief way to do it.

3. Wear the Liberation from the Three Lower Realms. Did you get one in France? This is the small one, sewn in a tiny yellow pouch, with a rolled-up mantra inside. I think you got one, but please can you confirm?

4. Sutra of the Sorrowless State: recite a few each day. When Ananda was attacked he used this.

5. The Mantra Completely Abandoning the Action of Mara: when 44,000 maras attacked the Buddha, he gave this mantra to Manjugosha. The minute the mantra was recited, the king of the maras heard it, he generated bodhicitta and gave up harming the “bhikshu joyful one.” If you read this mantra with devotion or write it, you purify 7,700 billion negative karmas. This is the mantra that has these benefits:

AMA LAI, PEMA LAI, NIR MA LAI, MOOGA LAI HAI, MALA ZA GHA GAI, GHA GAI, TSAMANTRA BAR TAI, SHAWA TA SA TEN NAI, BRAMA ATA TSA RA NAI, MA NA TSAI, ASHU DAI, PILA GI, AMA LAI THE, PA LAM ME, PA LAM PHA SWA RE, PUN NAI PUN NAI, MAN NO LA DE
Spirit Harm After Separation
Date Posted:
April 2012

A student advised that after separating from her partner, he had tried to commit suicide twice and she had anxiety, heart palpitations, panic attacks and an aching heart. When she entered the house she had shared with her former partner, she saw shapes and shadows and felt a presence there.

My very dear Lorna,
I am very sorry for the many eons of delay. According to my observation, this is what you need to do:

  • Practice Lion-face Dakini every day—this is the most important one. Chant the mantra and clap your hands (as it says in the practice).
  • Recite the Heart Sutra a few times each day.
  • Wear the Hayagriva protection. Holly will send it to you.
  • Wear the Sutra of Golden Light text in Tibetan as a protection. To do this you have to reduce the size of the text, but do it so you can still read it. Wrap it up in plastic so it doesn’t get wet from perspiration or water. Wear it all the time. You need to respect it, so if you are prostrating move it onto your back, and make sure you don’t lie on it when you sleep (you can take it off and keep it near your bed).
  • Do the riwo sang cho incense puja (often done by Rigpa).
  • You need the Vajra Armor protection.
  • Do the attached practice (after reciting the sutra) a few times each day, doing more of the part where you clap.
  • There is a puja called lu-zong that I will do for you.

I will bless and send you the protections. Please try this.

With much love and prayers...

Practices for Spirit Harm 
Date Posted:
April 2012

A student wrote to Rinpoche about her friend, who had psychosis that manifested mainly at night. He was afraid that someone was trying to kill him. He was seeing a psychiatrist and taking medication, but his behaviour was still erratic, restless and fearful. Geshe-la at Kopan had observed that it seemed like spirit harm and advised the student to consult Rinpoche for advice.

Dear one,
1) Arrange for the extensive White Umbrella (Sitatapatra) prayer to be recited at least 80,000 times, by the monks at Samdeling Monastery. You can go with the monk to request and arrange it. It should be explained to the monks to please do it very well. The monk can help to arrange it and also to get clear the appropriate money offering, to give you an idea of the cost.

2) Your friend should do Vajrapani/Hayagriva/Garuda retreat (this is one deity with three aspects). It is very important to do this retreat.

3) Request Geshe-la to do gagön puja in the evening time with your friend present.

4) In the evening, when it gets difficult (it could also be any time), you should listen to the Sutra for Entering the Great City of Vaishali. [Find links to Recitations for Alleviating Pain, in the FPMT Catalogue. This MP3 is an audio recording of Rinpoche reciting the Sutra for Entering the Great City of Vaishali and other prayers and mantras.]

If you find that listening to this sutra helps, then maybe your friend doesn't need the gagön puja, so you can check. Play the sutra in the bedroom and other rooms in the evening. .

5) It is important to circumambulate the Boudhanath Stupa. If you can, go there quite often and try to go around it as many times as possible, according to how much time you have. Take the opportunity to make strong prayers at the stupa. .

I am also making prayers and send my love...

Healing from Afar
Date Posted:
December 2011

A student asked Rinpoche if there is a way to increase the effectiveness of prayers for healing from afar if the sick people are not Buddhist, or if the family is overwhelmed and it’s not possible to visit the sick person often. She also asked Rinpoche about spirit harm as she is concerned this may be causing illness and injury for her friends and family.

My very dear Elaine,
Thank you very much for your kind email. Regarding your question about doing prayers from afar, that is completely ok. Overall the best practice ALWAYS is to do Medicine Buddha practice.

Regarding your question about spirit harm and sickness, I can’t say, but with most sicknesses there is some spirit harm. There are different types of spirits and that is why there are different pujas to do, according to the different spirits.

Cancers in the West are not easy to treat. Often the patients are given chemotherapy, which can be worse than the sickness.

Generally, it is difficult to help, because not everybody is interested in Buddhism or they do not want to accept Tibetan medicine and pujas, so there are all these difficulties; then also many people do not want to recite mantras, so they find this difficult to accept. How you can help is by doing the Medicine Buddha puja—that is the first thing and the best thing.

If there is someone who can accept doing pujas or practices themselves, and who is willing to recite mantras or take other medicines, blessed pills etc, then I can check. If you send me the person’s name, I can check what is best for them when I have time.

But generally, if you want to help, then best to do the Medicine Buddha puja and strong prayer to the Medicine Buddha. From the Medicine Buddha’s heart, send light that enters the body and mind of the sick person and totally illuminates their body, which is in the nature of light. Think that all sickness, spirit harm, negative karma and defilements are gone. So, do very strong concentration like this, then chant the mantra.

This can really help, but of course it also depends on the other person’s negative karma, whether it is heavy or light.

Thank you very much for your good heart, wanting to help them.

With much love and prayers...

 

Practices for Spirit Harm
Date Posted:
July 2011

A student who attended the one hundred million mani retreat in France advised that she had a spirit experience while living in a house nearby with her family. Her health problems started when she was driving back to Germany. After returning home she had heart attack symptoms many times, but the hospital couldn't find a medical reason for her poor health. She also advised that she had taken the Mahayana precepts five times a week for almost four years. Rinpoche sent her the following advice regarding spirit harm.

My very dear Anna,
I am very sorry for the delay. I checked regarding your question and this is what comes out:

  • Peaceful and Controlling Fire Pujas: have these done.
  •  Have the Prajnaparamita read: twelve volumes, one hundred thousand stanzas; three volumes, twenty thousand stanzas; and one volume, eight thousand stanzas.

It comes out more beneficial for the nuns in Mongolia to do the reading. They should be sure to read the correct text, not an incorrect translation in Mongolian, and they should start immediately. Check with the nuns how many days it will take. It is good if you offer breakfast and make a tea offering for every session. You can also offer lunch, but the nuns should then do morning and afternoon sessions. Make a money offering each day, or one at the end.

Also, offer chag-sum every day for five days, starting right away, and practice the Lion-face Dakini daily.

I am very happy that you have been taking the Mahayana Precepts five times a week for the last four years.

With much love and prayers...

 

Practices for Protection
Date Posted:
November 2009

Rinpoche sent the following advice to the parents of a boy who had recently started acting strangely.

Dear Richard and Janine,
Geshe-la, at your Dharma center, should perform ga-gön (Hayagriva ga-gön ) five times, today or tomorrow, according to how much time he has. When Geshe-la does ga-gön, he should throw the mustard seed that was blessed by the Hayagriva group at Sera Je Monastery (blessed by all those high lamas) onto your son’s body.

Also, Geshe-la should recite a few malas of Hayagriva mantra, and after each mala blow over the black incense, then burn it in front of him to make the spirit leave. That came out as very beneficial, according to my divinations. The black incense is called Gulnag.

Geshe-la should also recite the Sutra Stopping Pain. It is not only for the pain—it makes the spirits go away. This sutra is called in Tibetan: Yang pey dong khay du gug jug pai zung. It should be read four times in front of your son. If your son gets better, but then the symptoms come back again, ask Geshe-la to recite the sutra again.

Also, it would be good to perform the controlling fire puja. Please ask Geshe-la to perform the Hayagriva controlling fire puja for your son. Also, Geshe-la should teach your son to chant the Black Manjushri mantra.

Your son should wear the protection mantras that I am sending you:

  • the ten wrathful deities protection
  • other protection from spirit harm (protection with numbers)
  • White Umbrella Deity

Your son should wear these all the time. There is protection from spirit harm with numbers and other protection from spirits. There are two types of protection he can wear. One is square and one is not square, it is like three rectangles connected.

He should wear the protection all the time. He can wear it in the shower if it has a plastic cover on it. Then, the shower is not a problem. The worst thing is if one wears a buddha or a picture of His Holiness the Dalai Lama around the neck and then when you go to sleep it goes down under your arm or your body. For that reason, I don't like to give people buddhas to wear, because the person creates negative karma. Also, people often wear a buddha image on their chest. If you wear it for a short time, in public, to go shopping or something, for people to see and to plant the seed of enlightenment, then that is OK. But if you are wearing it when you lie down, then that is creating negative karma, and it also becomes dirty. If you are wearing it to go to the market or in public, it is OK.

If you lie down and you don't pay attention to the image, then you create negative karma. Also, if you are doing prostrations, you can try to push the blessed object back behind your neck. When I prostrate I try to push back the blessed pill around my neck behind my neck.

Your son can wear it with the thought to liberate others from oceans of suffering and its causes, delusion and karma, and to bring them to enlightenment, by planting the seed of enlightenment. With that kind of motivation, he can wear it in public, and then take it off when he lies down at home or whenever doing activities which are disrespectful to Buddha, including lying down or having the buddha under his body. If he doesn't pay attention this can happen.

Similarly, if you wear a ring with OM MANI PADME HUM on it, you shouldn’t use that hand when you go to the bathroom, as that can become disrespectful.

You can recite the following verse for him:

Extremely Pacifying All the Hatred

I prostrate to the three rare sublime ones,
I prostrate to the destroyer, qualified, gone beyond,
the one gone as it is,
the one who destroyed enemy,
perfectly completed,
completely purified completed one,
to the Buddha always looking one.

TADYATHA DIRI TISHTA TASKARA BADUSI* MACHALA MACHALA SVAHA

(NB: *higher soft voice - sounds like peydose.)

Recite this seven times. This is the exalted mantra, which is from Buddha’s teaching in the Kangyur, the hundreds of volumes translated from the Indian language Sanskrit, from the collection of texts called Zung-du, containing mantras (zung). The title is Extremely Pacifying All the Hatred. 1 

If you make a request to Arya Manjushri, everybody will have loving kindness for you. The actual meaning of the mantra is “unforgettable wisdom engaging in virtue and abandoning non-virtue.”

If you can, please recite three malas a day of the mantra and the name of the Buddha (the beginning of the practice reciting the name of the Buddha—“I prostrate to the three rare sublime ones...”.)

For two weeks, recite three malas of the Mantra for Pacifying Anger, then you can recite less, but still more than one mala.

There is a protection for you both to wear. This mantra is for success. It is not only for the problems with your son but for your own activities. You can wear it all the time except at nighttime (see instructions above for how and when to wear the mantra). You can especially wear it when you go to speak to someone, requesting something, at any important time for success. Of course, just wearing the mantra without meditating doesn’t mean you will achieve extensive realizations and enlightenment—that doesn’t happen. So, from your side, you need to have good karma. Good karma for success is like a big fund. Merit and good karma are like the seed for the crops and this mantra is like the water and soil. The mantra helps the good karma, if it is there, to ripen quickly.

Notes 

1  See also The Mantra Called Sublime One Extremely Pacifying All Hatred, in the Mantras Recitations section of Rinpoche's Online Advice Book. [Return to text].

 

Pages