TLC Transitional Life Care
A Vajrayana Buddhist education and support program offering spiritual resources for the end of life transition.
Offerings of Light
The Benefits and Power of Offering Light
In Vajrayana Buddhist tradition, we offer light with the heartfelt wish to clear away ignorance, obstacles, obscurations, and suffering, to create virtue and positive circumstances, and to increase wisdom and compassion in the world. Offering butter lamps, candlelight, and other types of illumination with this motivation is particularly beneficial for those who are ill, dying, or have died, and for beings trapped in the bardos. Our pure intention and prayers increase the potency of this offering, a simple yet powerful way to help others. There are many prayers that support this offering within the lineages of Buddhist tradition; you will find a few below. One always dedicates the merit of offerings and prayers to the benefit of all sentient beings.
Scroll down to find more information and links to dharma centers where you can sponsor light offerings.
“Of all the methods for accumulating merit through generosity, offering butter lamps is second only to the practice of tsok.” ~ Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche
A Lamp Offering Prayer
from the tradition of Tulku Urgyen~
This illuminating light,
Of original pure awareness,
I offer to the mandala deities of vidyadhara Padmakara.
May all my motherly sentient beings,
wherever awareness pervades,
attain the Dharmakaya level of aware emptiness.
༄༅། །མར་མེའི་སྨོན་ལམ་བཞུགས་སོ།།
Light Offering Prayer by Mipham Rinpoche
རིག་པ་ཀ་དག་སྣང་གསལ་མར་མེ་འདི། །
rigpa kadak nangsal marmé di
This brightly shining lamp of primordial pure awareness,
རིག་འཛིན་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་པད་འབྱུང་ལྷ་ལ་འབུལ། །
rigdzin kyilkhor pejung lha la bul
We offer to the Lotus-Born and deities of the vidyādhara maṇḍala.
རིག་པས་གར་ཁྱབ་མ་གྱུར་འགྲོ་བ་རྣམས། །
rigpé gar khyab magyur drowa nam
May all beings, our own mothers, as far as awareness pervades,
རིག་སྟོང་ཆོས་སྐུའི་གོ་འཕང་ཐོབ་པར་ཤོག །
riktong chökü gopang tobpar shok
Reach the state of the dharmakāya—aware emptiness!
མི་ཕམ་པས་སོ། །
Written by Mipham.
Samye Translations, 2018.
LAMP OFFERING PRAYER
RIG TSAL GAG MED NANG WAY MAR ME DI
Unceasing dynamic energy of awareness, these illuminating lamp(s)
RIG DZIN CHEN PO PAD MA JUNG NE CHOD
are offered to great Vidhydhara Padmasambhava
RIG PAY GAR KHYAB SEM CHAN MA LU PA
Awareness nature pervades all sentient beings without exception.
RIG TONG CHO KU ‘I YING SU DROL WAR SHOG
May liberation occur within the space of awareness-emptiness dharmakaya.
NAM KHAI THAR THUG ZHING KHAM RAB JAM NA
Till the limits of space, in countless pure realms,
KON CHOG RIN CHEN NAM SUM TEN DANG CHE
the wondrous Triple Gems and all refuges
SOD NAM SAG PAY ZHING CHOG ZHUG SU TSHAL
excellent fields of all accumulated merits
MA LU DE DAG KUN GYI CHAN LAM DU
actually appearing in front of your wisdom eyes without exception
NANG SAL MAR MAY CHOD PA DI BUL WAY
respectfully offering these clear radiant lamp(s)
DAG DANG THA YE SEM CHAN THAM CHAD KYI
I and sentient beings limitless as sky,
MA RIG TI MUG MUN PA KUN SAL NAY
may the darkness of our ignorance and confusion be completely dispelled.
KUN KHYEN YE SHE NANG WA THONG WAR SHOG
May the display of omniscient primordial wisdom be seen.
Optionally you can recite this mantra many times to offer the lamps:
OM SARWA TATHAGATA SAPARIWARA ALOKE PRATITSA PUDZA MEGHA SAMUDRA SAPARANA SAMAYE AH HUNG
༄༅། །གློག་སྒྲོན་སྨོན་ཚིག་བཞུགས།
Aspiration for Electric Lamps
by Gungtang Tenpé Wangchuk
ཉི་ཟླའི་འོད་ལྟར་གསལ་ལ་མུན་སེལ་ཞིང་། །
nyidé ö tar sal la münsel zhing
Bright like the light of the sun and the moon,
ཚིགས་པའི་དྲི་དང་དུ་བས་བསྣོགས་པ་མེད། །
tsikpé dri dang duwé nokpa mé
Dispelling darkness without burning smells or smoke,
གཙང་ཞིང་ཡིད་འོང་གློག་གི་སྒྲོན་མེ་འདི། །
tsang zhing yi ong lok gi drönmé di
This electric lamp, so clean and charming,
རྒྱལ་བ་སྲས་དང་བཅས་ལ་གུས་པས་འབུལ། །
gyalwa sé dangché la güpé bul
I offer with respect to the buddhas and their heirs.
སྟོང་གསལ་ཆོས་དབྱིངས་མཁའ་ལས་བྱུང་པ་ཡི། །
tong sal chöying kha lé jungpa yi
Within the expanse of dharmadhātu, empty and clear,
དྭངས་གསལ་མ་འདྲེས་ཡེ་ཤེས་འོད་འབར་བ། །
dang sal ma dré yeshe ö bar wa
The light of wisdom blazes forth, undiluted and pure.
ཏིང་འཛིན་འཕྲུལ་གྱིས་བཀུག་པའི་གློག་འོད་འདིས། །
tingdzin trul gyi kukpé lok ö di
May this electric light, conjured by the mystery of samādhi,
མ་རིག་འཁོར་བའི་རྩ་བ་གཞོམ་གྱུར་ཅིག །
marik khorwé tsawa zhom gyur chik
Vanquish all ignorance, the root of cyclic existence.
ཅེས་གློག་བཟོའི་སྒྲོན་མེ་འབུལ་བྱེད་སྨོན་ཚིག་ཏུ། ༧གུང་ཐང་བསྟན་པའི་དབང་ཕྱུག་ཏུ་འབོད་པའི་བྲིས་པ་དགེ།
These words of aspiration for offering electronic lights was composed by the one called Gungtang Tenpe Wangchuk. Virtue!
Translated by Lowell Cook, 2019
For more information about the benefits of making "light offerings" and how to sponsor them, go to: