On the Long Life Sutra, Ratna Lingpa’s Amitayus Terma and Lud Ritual
by Khenpo Tashi
The Long Life Sutra (Tibetan: Tse do) is the Sutra about Buddha Amitayus. Sutras are the words of the Buddha Shakyamuni, right? So, in this Sutra, here was Buddha Shakyamuni introducing Buddha Amitayus, for the benefit of sentient beings living in this world. He introduced the pure realm, the dharani, the benefits etc, related to Buddha Amitayus there.
In that Sutra, Manjushri is the one who gave the discourse, in the presence of Buddha, to Buddha’s thousands of monks and the Bodhisattvas following him.
The focus of this Sutra is to remove obstacles and harms to one’s life. To extend and clear one’s life.
What is the single most important thing for us? – Life. We can have everything, but without a life, all of these are nothing. So, life is very valuable. Even for us, Buddhists, how can we practice if our life has small and big obstacles and harms? So, a clear and stable life is essential.
In that Sutra, the main focus is its dharani (Tibetan: zung). This dharani is introduced there, and offering to it, writing it, chanting it, copying it, printing it, bowing to it, and so on and so forth, we derive all kinds of benefits. All these benefits are mainly to purify this life from unnecessary obstacles and blockages, to extend it, to make this life stainless.
In that Sutra, it will talk about a benefit of the dharani, and then it will write the dharani. Then, it talks about another benefit, and then write the dharani again. So, it goes like that, the one then the other.
Also, it says that 990 million Buddhas will teach this dharani at a certain time in the future, together in one voice. Then, another group of 840 million of buddhas will also teach this dharani. Then another great number of Buddhas, then another. So the benefits are really uncountable. Really vast.
It even says there that by writing or copying this Sutra one time, the merit gained equals to writing all of the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha. Very vast.
Terton Ratna Lingpa’s Long Life Terma (Tse Drub)
The text-liturgy that our monks recite at appropriate times during each year is the Tse Drub Sangdu, the short name for the Long Life Terma of Terton Ratna Lingpa.
Ratna Lingpa is known to reveal four main Termas under Sangwa Dupa – one of them is Tse Drub Sangwa Dupa. So, as we said before, any Terma revealed comes from the precious Guru – Guru Rinpoche. Who is Guru Rinpoche? We know that he is the supreme Dharma practitioner of the three vehicles, Sutras and Tantras.
And why would Guru Rinpoche give us Termas? For our benefit. Tse Drub Sangdu is no different. Guru Rinpoche had a direct vision of and connection with Amitayus Buddha, and Tse Drub Sangdu is the product of this connection, for us.
We also said before that all Termas are never outside the Dharma of Buddha Shakyamuni. So, we can say that Tse Drub Sangdu is a Terma which is an extension of the Long Life Sutra of Buddha Shakyamuni.
Lud Ritual
Lud means “ransom” in Tibetan language. Ransom means to release something from a trap. In many cases, Lud ritual is enjoined with the prayer of Amitayus, the Longevity Buddha.
Almost all of our actions in our entire lives are about ransoming our life, longevity and health. We eat good food, drive good quality cars, and live in sturdy houses and so on, because we want to protect and extend this life.
Because we have lived for countless past lives, we have done countless actions before. Also, we have created endless lists of relationships, both good and bad. In the Sutras, the Buddha said that there are uncountable species of beings around us. Due to our thoughts and actions, both conscious and unconscious, we affect or harm them. Doing Lud ritual balances these Karmic debts.
Finally, we give our fingernails, cut hair, or worn clothing in Lud ritual. Due to negative connections with harmful beings and spirits across our past lives, to avenge themselves, they seek what we prize the most – our body and our life. Therefore, the next best things that we can give them are a part of us that we do not need – the cut fingernails and so on.
After the Lud ritual, these beings are asked to chase after these items to satisfy them. Thus, our negative connections with them are cleared and the Karmic potential to harm us are reduced or cleared.
This is the concept of Lud ritual.