NEW ARTICLE! A commentary on Dorje Shugdens kawang!

[vajrastorm]

This is truly great article. It has indeed de-mysified the powerful Protector practice of the Kawang, much to the benefit of us all.

In essence, the Kawang as a powerful purification practice is very necessary for all, and especially for serious practitioners embarked on clearing all obstacles to Dharma practice that will bring about ultimate and complete freedom of suffering for self and all.

The very subtle inner obstacles - the three poisons of Ignorance, Hatred and Desire, as well as all intertwined delusions,negative habituations and negative karma - are our most tenacious and most powerful enemies. They thwart us in every way and prevent us from progressing on our spiritual path,as determined as we are to train and transform and grow. It is only through the powerful purification practice of the Kawang that we can clear these obstacles.

Why so?

In the Kawang, it is the dakini who is a manifestation of Vajrayogini(the most compassionate Buddha of this age of lust and degeneration) who is actively engaged in aiding us in the process of our purification by transforming our gross negativities and delusions(represented by our gross and grotesque body and its parts) into sublime offerings. Meticulously and systematically, our body is cut up by the dakini and offered to Protector Dorje Shugden on our behalf.

Thus,in the visualization, the skin is removed first. to reveal all our grotesque inner parts. The offerings begin with the blood which is drained into a vessel and offered up. This is followed,step by step, with the chopping up and offering of the sense organs, the bones(which are burnt), then extraction of the body fat, and the fluids, like the bile and urine, the chopping up of the flesh which is mixed with barley flour and the removal of the thigh bones to form a trumpet. These respectively represent the offerings of water and sensory offerings like flower, incense, light , perfume ,food and music. All the grotesque body parts, fat and fluids are thus transformed into sublime offerings and offered to Dorje Shugden by Vajrayogini on our behalf. In this way all our accumulated load of negative karma that threaten to obstruct and derail our practice is purified. Corresponding to the amount of obstacles that need to be cleared, the actual visualization becomes particularly intense and graphic.

In this way, if performed with sincere motivation,the Kawang truly clears and purifies powerful negative karma and delusions, which in a way, 'blindfold' Dorje Shugden so that He cannot help and protect us effectively.


 

     


 

[vajrastorm]

I agree with what Vajratruth  has said about the efficacy of the Kawang as a purification practice.  Yes, it is efficacious because "each offering to Dorje Shugden represents a transformation of negative elements into positive ones....and indeed the transformation is of the highest inner level". Yes, through the Kawang, we are actually transforming our root delusions, like ignorance, hatred and desire, into positive qualities like the wisdom to know and accept the Law of Cause and Effect as universal and all-embracing, the wisdom to accept that impermanence governs all contaminated phenomena, the wisdom to let go, the qualities of equanimity,giving,love, patience and compassion. It cannot be an overnight transformation, but when we do our Kawang sincerely and persistently, we know that our Lama and Dorje Shugden are there to guide and protect us.      Indeed it is the Kawang that is perhaps the feature that  makes the Protector Practice so powerful.

[Midakpa]

Kawang is a powerful practice for clearing obstacles. It is especially beneficial to recite the kawang everyday and when there is a special need to clear major obstacles, one should recite it seven times or more. It is also good to engage in a Dorje Shugden retreat to clear major obstacles and during the retreat the kawang can be  recited many times according to the guru's instructions.

[Ensapa]

I feel that by doing kawang, one generates the positive energies to reverse negativity as we are offering our negativities in the form of a human being, enough to turn the obstacles around and that is how Kawang actually works. With the explanation here on the offering of the human body, it makes me understand why is it so effective, because for us, the most precious possession as a human being is really one's body and to offer that up would generate a lot of merits as the quantity of merits depend on how attached you are at the object you are offering.

[christine V]

I wish to thanks the admin.

By the explanation on Kawang, I manage to
1) Understand the beauty on the Kawang
2) Visualize the offering process
3) Understand that Kawang helps us in getting close to Dorje Shugden
4) The method to make the mind stabilized
5) The easiest method to purify our self-made negative karma.

Good article.

 

[Benny]

Thank you yet again to the team behind Dorje Shugden .com for this enlightening article that can benefit so many millions more who are in need of a protector to aid in their Dharma practice . This excellent article is accurate and concise , that everyone who wishes to share this practice with others can just simply refer them to this article . This site has been my one stop everything and anything to do with Dorje Shugden , keep up the good work and many thanks .

[Ensapa]

Thank you yet again to the team behind Dorje Shugden .com for this enlightening article that can benefit so many millions more who are in need of a protector to aid in their Dharma practice . This excellent article is accurate and concise , that everyone who wishes to share this practice with others can just simply refer them to this article . This site has been my one stop everything and anything to do with Dorje Shugden , keep up the good work and many thanks .

yes! this is a very strong reason on why we should all support this website because it provides valuable resources for Dorje Shugden practitioners around who actually need his assistance and support. This article is brilliant and the explanations to his practice is very enlightening indeed. i really would like to support this website more in producing quality articles such as these to help get everyone started on Dorje Shugden's holy practice. Looking forward to see more of these here in the site!

[WisdomBeing]

Thank you for this great article and the opinions of those who have responded to this thread. I hadn't realised the deep meaning behind the confessional prayer. Actually i was kind of averse to it, having rejected the catholic confessionals, thinking that what's the point. Thanks for giving this prayer a different perspective. I will think more about it. I very much appreciate the articles on this website for imparting much needed knowledge to the dharma loners like me who do not yet have a dharma centre i feel comfortable with so this virtual dharma space is important to me as my kind of virtual dharma centre. Much obliged!

[Ensapa]

Thank you for this great article and the opinions of those who have responded to this thread. I hadn't realised the deep meaning behind the confessional prayer. Actually i was kind of averse to it, having rejected the catholic confessionals, thinking that what's the point. Thanks for giving this prayer a different perspective. I will think more about it. I very much appreciate the articles on this website for imparting much needed knowledge to the dharma loners like me who do not yet have a dharma centre i feel comfortable with so this virtual dharma space is important to me as my kind of virtual dharma centre. Much obliged!

There's actually a lot more to Buddhist confessional prayers as opposed to the ones found in christianity. For one, it is not about feeling good or just to get rid of guilt, or to whitewash all the bad stuff that we have done in the past. Confessions is about acknowledging your wrongdoings, and that you have done them before and you now regret that you have did and would like to make ammends. This is what sets Buddhist confessions apart from the more worldly ways and this is why they are so powerful to do.

[Rinchen]

Kawang is definitely a great prayer to do. I will always do it when I feel troubled or bothered by something. After doing the prayer, it is like a relieve to me. It also helps me to calm myself and think of great ways to solve whatever that was bothering me before. It is definitely protector helping and guiding me to the path that I should follow.

Not only that Kawang helps you to clear obstacles that you face including mental blockage, but it also teaches us to not be attached to our bodies. Reminding us that when we pass away, we would not have this body to move on with us. Hence we offer ourselves to protector clearing our negativity at the same time.

[Ensapa]

Kawang is definitely a great prayer to do. I will always do it when I feel troubled or bothered by something. After doing the prayer, it is like a relieve to me. It also helps me to calm myself and think of great ways to solve whatever that was bothering me before. It is definitely protector helping and guiding me to the path that I should follow.

Not only that Kawang helps you to clear obstacles that you face including mental blockage, but it also teaches us to not be attached to our bodies. Reminding us that when we pass away, we would not have this body to move on with us. Hence we offer ourselves to protector clearing our negativity at the same time.

I do Kawang whenever I have a personal crisis and it does help to solve it pretty quickly and fast. Well, quicker than me trying to find a way out of it myself, at least. I find it very effective in providing a solution, or rather that the solution to the problem either manifests physically like meeting the right people, or that my perspective suddenly changes and i get to see a new dimension to the problem which allows me to solve it. It is quite interesting in how the whole thing works! Everyone should do Kawang at least once!

[samayakeeper]

This article is so well explained and so very useful, thank you.

Indeed kawang, as vividly explained, is very efficacious and greatly assisted me in ridding my physical health illness as well as my mental health. I did and completed 100,000 recitation last year and those self created obstacles I faced then were reduced tremendously, I would say by 95%. I am still working to get rid of the remaining 5% and concurrently doing my best refraining from other negative thoughts and actions that will add on to the fuel.

[yontenjamyang]

Thanks to the DS team for putting up this article. I chance upon it only just now. I had doing the daily sadhana with just reciting one time the kawang/kanshag but recently, on the advise of a fellow practitioner I started doing minimum 7 times. Sometimes, while driving or on a flight I recite kawang also and it seem I am hook on this. Haha. The reason I do this is because I somehow find the kawang text, powerful. My original visualization does not include a dakini but involve our 3 poisons and all beings in human form slaughtered and offered up to the Protector.
I feel, we rid ourselves of our attachment to our form and at the same time the other aggregates of feeling, perception, formation and consciousness. Also, it increase our clarity/wisdom and rid oneselves of selfishness. The text immediately has this effect. Speaking from experience, all worldly and spiritual obstacles take a back seat seems to be overcome almost effortlessly.

What a wonderful practice.

[maricisun]

I have not done Dorje Shugden Kawang as I am still quite new but I have friends who swear by DS Kawang. It
is such a powerful practise and with the correct motivation It will help to alleviate all obstacles.

[psylotripitaka]

Excellent, thank you.

By offering the harshest parts of life, because the Protector experiences them as the nature of the union of bliss and emptiness, by recognizing this we are creating the cause to transform the harshest realities into a profound experience of bliss and emptiness. I believe that while it is important to empower this practice with the 4 opponent powers, the true power of this practice comes from the union of our mind and the Protector. At the conclusion, having generated he power of promise/determination, it is essential to believe we have purified the negative karma completely, and not only dwell in a confidence that we've achieved complete purity, but to rest our intellectual thoughts in the actual union of our mind and the Protector.

For example, in the fire pujas we say at the end of the substance offerings Shanting Kuruye Soha, meaning 'everything becomes purified in emptiness'. In fire puja we realize that the real fire puja is the actual experience of emptiness. Likewise, in practices such as Samayavajra we conclude the purification with not just conviction we have accomplished complete purity, but we experience union with the three doors of Guru Samayavajra.

So here, we can understand that by saying "In the unobservable emptiness of the three spheres" we are meant to rest in the actual experience of this emptiness, not just recite or think it. Also, that this emptiness is not separate from the Guru's nature.

Hence, just as Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen in his commentary shows that all our practices point to the union of our mind and the Guru in the nature of the dharmakaya, this practice here is reminding us to rest in this union, for it is the ultimate purification.

Thanks again Admin, excellent work as usual!