Mountains of merits

I went to ABC (Amitabha Buddhist Centre) today for the Guru Puja with 100,000 tsog offerings. It was supposed to last the entire day, broken into 2 sessions - morning and afternoon. I did not register beforehand as it was an unplanned visit. I felt like going in the last minute, so I turned up for the afternoon session at 1.30pm which lasted till almost 6pm. There were many people who were there since morning, the 2nd floor where the main hall was, were full, so was the 3rd floor. The ground floor was opened to accommodate more people who turned up like me. I managed to sneak into the 3rd floor eventually.

The special feature of this group practise is that all participants have the exciting opportunity to contribute to the accumulation of 100,000 tsog offerings. We were supposed to recite a condensed tsog offering prayer hundreds of times. They say, if there are 200 in a group, each person will recite the verses 500 times. The compounded feat that you will complete as a group is the accumulation of 100,000 tsog offerings. And since it is a merit multiplying day, we could dedicate heaps of merits to our family, friends and to our own karmic account. I am sure there were more than 200 people today, hence the number of offerings should be much more than 100,000.

Khen Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup presided over the puja. The altar was laden with heaps of offerings. Although at first, I was not familiar with the verses but repeating them, they became music to the ears and it was rather rhythmic after that. I recalled that, even though we do not remember our past lives, but in this life if we were to meet the Buddha/Dharma, somehow we know that the seed of this connection was already planted since many eons of lifetimes ago.

On the right was part of the Tsog offerings verses which we recited, and I quote this ......

"Sky-goers and Dharma protectors, six types of beings who have been our mother,

And guests of the higher and lower assemblies.

By taking this, please let fall a great rain of inexhaustible blessings, attainments and holy Dharma,

And accomplish all activities.

May the hallucinated appearance of the suffering guests of compassion be purified......."

I was not surprised that in the midst of prayers, we were indeed bestowed with showers of blessings of light rain. The Buddhas must be pleased with offerings. I'm glad I went today on this auspicious day and came away accummulating mountains of merits.