Fire Pujas: Smoke Offering, Smell Offering, & Fire Offering Adapted from oral teachings by H.E. The 12th Tai Situ Rinpoche
Three kinds of fire pujas There are three major different fire-related pujas. One is called SANG, another is called SUR, and another one is JINSEK. Inside of each there are many different kinds.
The major principle of fire pujas is offering. You put the food and whatever ingredients in the fire. As the fire burns it, it is totally consumed and in this way it is offered.
In the Sang you are offering the smoke, while in the Sur you are offering the smell. And in the Jinsek, you are just offering fire itself, flame itself, and burning itself.
If one is making the sang and sur offerings, consistency is important as the guests for whom the offerings are made come to anticipate the ceremony. However, the inability to carry out the practice daily or even weekly should not dissuade one from making the offering as often as one is able.
Offering to the Four Guests
All of the fire pujas involve four guests, to whom you are making the offering:
• First, to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout the ten directions (ordinate and cardinal directions plus above and below) and the three times (past, present and future) as well as to the yidam deities of all the mandalas.
• Secondly, you are offering to the protectors of the Dharma, dakinis, and very high spiritual gods who protect the Dharma.
• The third class of guests includes all sentient beings, particularly local deities and elemental spirits.
• Finally, you are offering to hungry ghosts and to beings with whom you are karmically indebted.
SANG: Smoke offering
Who exactly is the offering for?
Sang is mainly dedicated to what are referred to as “elemental spirits”– the gods of the mountain, the gods of the sky, the gods of the river, and the gods of all aspects– and “local deities.” Though only seen through expansive and refined sense perceptions, we can experience these classes of beings through observing signs in the natural world including animals, features of the land, and weather patterns. In addition to these particular guests we also offer to the aforementioned “four guests”.
Where and when is Sang best offered?
Sang is generally practiced in the daylight hours (usually before noon) and offered near one’s dwelling or on the top of a mountain. It can be offered anywhere that one wishes to renew and repair the connection with the elemental constituents of the area. The offering and intention create the causes and conditions for harmony internally among the beings that inhabit the place, as well as externally in the environment itself. In this way, it can be an important step in the process of purifying gross and subtle levels of environmental pollution. The offering can also effect change in the experience of the beings that inhabit the place, for example, healing discord in one’s family or pacifying animals and pests.
What is offered?
It is very important for the sang offering to be clean. The offering of the short morning fire puja can be quite small, a few teaspoons of the “sangdze” (dze Tib. for offering substance) is sufficient, though elaborate versions can consist of 10 or more large trays of heaped offerings along with beer and wine. We then infinitely expand the offerings by visualizing them as billowing clouds that fill the extent of space.
Traditionally the sangdze or offering substance, consists of a mixture of “the three whites” and “the three sweets” (flour, butter, yogurt, sugar, molasses, and honey) as well as incense, 5 colored cloth, medicine, alcohol, and precious stones or jewels. The main criteria is that whatever is offered into the sang fire contains no onion, garlic, meat, or eggs. It is also important that the materials used to create the fire were not used for cleaning and that the sang and sur fires be laid in separate locations given their different purposes.
SUR: Smell offering
Who exactly is the offering for?
Sur is also for all four guests but is particularly dedicated to hungry ghosts, spirits, and the beings with whom you have karmic debts.
Where and when is SUR best offered?
Sur can be offered in locations similar to those of sang, though sur is typically offered in the afternoon or evening. Through the generosity of the practice, beings that would have to kill or harm other beings are satiated and pacified, thereby sparing them and their victims from the causes of present and future suffering. In addition, those beings that have recently died and are in the intermediate state between life and death are eased of their experience of confusion and fear when offerings and prayers are given on their behalf. It is a common practice among Tibetan Buddhists to make personal offerings for their deceased loved ones throughout the entire 49 days that they may exist in the intermediate state, to relieve their loved ones from attachment to their previous existence and facilitate an auspicious rebirth.
What is offered?
It is a practice of generosity and ideally consists of all kinds of food and drink that beings desire, including meat and alcohol. In this way one can practice generosity by offering edibles to which one is attached or that are of fine quality. The types of offerings are not as limited as in the sang although there is no tradition of including incense in the surdze. In the extended practice of sur fire puja there are two separate sur fires, only one of which contains meat.
As with any practice, the merit generated is multiplied by the number of people who participate in the chanting or donation of offerings. Everyone is welcome to assist in the preparations of the fire and offerings. This can include procuring the wood as well as purchasing the food.
For sang and vegetarian sur:
• flours and grains, etc. rice, pasta, (spaghetti makes a nice flourish on top)
• sugar, molasses, honey
• butter and yogurt.
• Candy
• Crackers
• One whole coconut
• Colorful breakfast cereal
• Nuts, beans
• Vitamins, medicine, incense, jewels
for Meat Sur:
• Meat/fish
• Chips, crackers & dips containing onions and garlic
For all fire offerings: liquor, beer, or wine are usually poured around the fire rather than into it.
In carrying out the actual practice, you may be asked to assist with placing the offerings into the fires. If you are uncomfortable with the task please communicate this, it is not obligatory and is merely in the interest that all can be involved to whatever extent possible. When making offerings, be mindful for the cues (which can be difficult to give and receive in the midst of the instruments and chanting) and especially take care that offerings are made safely, maintaining awareness of one’s own and others’ bodies in proximity to the hearth as well as the direction of the wind.
There will be portions of the liturgy for which translations and/or transliterations are available and you are encouraged to follow along with the chanting.
You can use the entire practice as a meditative and prayerful space. Hold in mind the recipients of the offerings and have conviction that they are received and the beings are completely satiated and freed from suffering. Expand this awareness with the wish that all beings may be happy, joyous, free from suffering, and always rest in a state of peace. To assist in this meditation you can visualize the extent of space filled by billowing clouds of offerings– each grain a sky full of grains, for example. In addition, it is extremely beneficial to continually recite the mantra of Chenrezig: OM MANI PADME HUNG, maintaining the conviction that you yourself are the Great Compassionate One. One can also recite OM AH HUNG BENDZA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG, the mantra of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) while maintaining awareness of him actually present in the sky before you. Please ask the Lamas for further instruction if you are unfamiliar with either of these mantras or visualizations.
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