Lamp Offerings

When concluding the story of the butter lamp offering from the beggar woman Nanda in the Sutra of the Wise and the Foolish, our precious Master advised us in all earnest: “Please do remember the importance of light offerings. The Three Brothers of Kadampa had in their possessions images of many enlightened beings, but in their shrine room they only displayed the image of Buddha Shakyamuni, a stupa, and the scripture; and they never ceased to offer water and butter lamps. The great Tibetan master Tsankyipa offered butter lamps to the Buddha all his life, and Thubten Choepel Rinpoche made light offerings his main offering to the Three Jewels….”

Rinpoche’s teaching struck a chord with me. In the Sutra of the Merits of Lamp Offering it says: “By the merit of offering bright lamps to the Buddhas, one will live a secure, abundant, and fearless life, possessing easily great wealth, power, exquisite jewels, and lovely gardens. By lighting lamps and offering them to the Buddhas, one will behold in person the Lord Buddha and instantly arouse deep faith and devotion. Making offerings to the Buddhas with immense joy, one forsakes his kingdom to become an ascetic monk. Buddha’s wisdom is unfathomable and limitless; with his incomparable qualities he leads beings to liberation. To the stupa one makes light offerings; one’s body will shine as brilliantly as a lamp. Lord Buddha’s eyes are as clear as the royal bull’s. He has offered excellent lamps to illuminate stupas and realized the untainted supreme Truth. His luminous body shines throughout the ten directions. He has realized the Four Noble Truths and attained Ten Powers; he has accomplished perfectly the supreme realization and becomes the Sugata with all-pervading eyes. All these accomplishments come from having made light offerings.” Therefore, by making light offerings to the Buddha, a boundless store of merit, both worldly and supreme, is amassed.

These are excellent examples set by Dharma luminaries of the past for us to follow. By making light offerings, in all our lives we will be able to dispel ignorance, illuminate beings’ minds darkened by bewilderment, remove the confusing mist on the path of liberation, and make apparent the vastness of the absolute space. Any other attempts to find a new path—such as trying to accumulate merit or purify defilement through the eight worldly ways—will not work.

I sincerely hope all of us in our lifetimes, as long as our means allow, will make light offerings with a pure heart every day, down to just one butter lamp or a lotus-shaped electric lamp. It will accrue vast merit. If this is really beyond our means, then we should at least offer one lamp on auspicious days such as the 15th or 30th of the lunar months, as a gesture of our faith and devotion to the Three Jewels.

May the light of wisdom be forever illuminating!

1st of September, Year of RenWu
October 7, 2002