Generally, the bell with her shape and sound is a metaphor for wisdom’s clear, space-like nature with sounds (phenomena) coming from silence and returning there soon.

The vajra shows the method which is great compassion beyond personal preoccupations, which brings forth indestructible awareness-energy.

During ceremonies the vajra invokes deities and dakinis, the bell welcomes them with heavenly music. Picking up vajra and bell one thinks:

“Out of great compassion I will liberate all beings from suffering by the power of the wisdom of Emptiness.”

Dakinis are attracted to these beautiful instruments, and many people keep them in a nice place with respect as a symbol of their aspiration to deepen their practice more and more.

“If you wish for sublime realization, offer hundreds of lights”
~ Root Institute quoting Lama Thubten Zopa

Shakyamuni Buddha mentioned the 10 benefits of light offerings in Tune of Brahma:

1. One becomes like the light of the world
2. One achieves clairvoyance of the pure eye as a human
3. One achieves the Deva’s eye
4. One receives the wisdom to discriminate virtue from non-virtue
5. One is able to eliminate the concept of inherent existence
6. One receives the illumination of wisdom
7. One is reborn as a human or deva
8. One receives great enjoyment wealth
9. One quickly becomes liberated
10. One quickly attains Enlightenment

Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche (d.1989) said that offerings are of three kinds in four levels:

Material ones such as butter lamps, imaginary ones that proceed from our minds, and things which are primordially extant. Light is certainly one of the latter; butter one of the first.

When you think that along with the flame you are offering your consciousness and/or your energy then the lamp stands for all three.

Chakras contain a piece of paper, adorned with saffron, which has diagrams, mantras and prayers written on it. These specifically invoke the body, speech and mind energies of the Buddhas.

The outer surface of the chakra is covered with traditional hand-woven Tibetan designs. Chakras are usually hand-made and consecrated by monks in a careful process that include pujas and mantras.

Small and lightweight, chakras offer us great blessings and protection and are easy to keep close at hand. As different chakras contain the mantras and essence of different Buddhas, each chakra will have different benefits and purposes.

VajraSecrets offers various chakras of different deities to cater to individual needs.
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Most Tibetans use Ghaus at home and during their travels. When at home, they keep it on their altar.

Ghaus are normally richly decorated in the front, and plain at the back. Normally, a tsa tsa or small statue is placed in the ghau along with other holy or blessed items.

With sincere intentions, one can offer jewellery on Buddha images, thereby creating the causes mentioned, a body beautiful to look at, and charisma to inspire others positively in future lives and in this life.

It is also a wish to achieve the Buddha body that is healthy and strong, and thrives on benefiting others. Last of all, making offerings towards a particular Buddha creates connection of blessings and protection with a specific Buddha.

During tantric rituals, one offers one’s hatred and greed and transforms them by ‘cooking’ them in the skull cup which transforms them into nectar with the help of the meditational deities who add their blessings.

This nectar in turn is offered to all sentient beings as all the food, medicine and worldly and spiritual help they need.

In Buddhist practice, there are various specific methods to accumulate merits, which is the fuel for the actual inner practice of spiritual transformation.

The five great preliminary practices are well-known to do just that. They are water offerings, prostrations, Vajrasattva practice, Guru Yoga and mandala offerings.

Mandala offering is a complete meditation of visualising a universe in the form of a mandala that is purified and offered up to the Buddha or one’s lama who is inseparable from the Buddha.

The complete mandala offering requires one to have a mandala set along with precious jewels or grains of any sort to represent it. There are specific ritual verses and meditations to go along upon making the offering. When not in use, it should be covered in silk or any piece of clean cloth and stowed away respectfully.

Mandala offerings generate a lot of merit for the practitioner to gain spiritual insight and understanding into the teachings and also to gain the ability to see Buddhas directly.

Lama Tsongkhapa is renowned to have performed 1.8 million mandala offerings in a closed retreat to gain a clearer understanding of the most profound Buddhist teachings of Madhyamika and Guhyasamaja. Upon completion of his retreat, he gained the insight and a vision of Maitreya.

It benefits the person wearing it and also plants seeds of enlightenment in anyone who sees the sacred image.

Buddha pendants can be made from precious materials such as gold, white gold or silver, and decorated with precious stones and gems, as they are all offerings to the Buddhas.

Rinpoche himself also designs Buddha pendants which are iconographically correct according to traditional scriptural sources with the motivation that they bestow the Buddhas blessings to all who see it.

VajraSecrets offers a wide variety of holy Buddha pendants designed by H.E. Tsem Rinpoche

Padmasambhava or “Guru Rinpoche” as he is so often called, says that using a prayer wheel brings great blessings, and creates enormous and powerful karma.

Many lamas, monks and lay practitioners use the prayer wheel daily as an adjunct to using a mala. The reason is simply because the thousands of prayers written inside the prayer wheel exponentially increase the blessings.

Hand-held prayer wheels are spun clockwise with one hand using a hula-hoop motion with the wrist and forearm. Generally, they are constructed of a cylindrical body of metal (sometimes of wood), penetrated along its axis by a metal axle mounted in a wooden or metal handle.

Inside all prayer wheels are hand-written scrolls of all the complete mantras. The cylinder, along with the mantra roll it contains, can be kept turning with a slight rotation of the wrist, thanks to a weighted cord or chain.

The cord and chain are a key element, adding enough weight to make the rotation smooth and easy. When turning the wheel clockwise you are activating the prayer and generating positive karma.

Therefore, the Dharma Protectors we propitiate are emanations of enlightened Buddhas and not samsaric gods. They assume lowly wrathful and horrific forms in order to have a stronger connection to aid us quicker in times of distress.

Most of us normal people have little karma to receive help quickly from the Buddhas directly. Contrary to what you may think, it is not that they are beyond reach. It is our karma, spiritual and mental disposition that prevents us from receiving help from the Buddhas. Thus, out of compassion they assume the forms of Dharma Protectors to come to our aid.

Protector practice is widespread in ancient Buddhist India and has been passed to Tibet. Protector practice includes the offering of “golden drink” that requires the Serkym set.

The offering is usually tea, milk or even alcohol. These are poured gradually during the offering puja onto the taller cup till it overflows to the lower bowl below.

Offering of piping hot black tea is a strong signal to the Dharma Protector to come to our aid fast, according to Tsawa Phultok Rinpoche in Nepal.