Varja and Bell

Another Popular Ritual Items is the Varja and Bell, Varja Also known as Dorje, is a quintessential symbol of Varjayana Buddhism, the name Varja actually means “hard or mighty” in Sanskrit, it is equivalent in Tibetan, as it means “Indestructible” or something that cannot be cut or broken.

The Varja Symbolize immovable or indestructible state of Buddha hood. The 5 spokes Varja Resembles of the 3 wisdoms and the 9 spokes Varja Resembles the Buddha of the 5 Families and also the 4 mothers.

When a Varja is always paired with a Bell and Varja represents a method or compassion.

The Bell, also known as Dri bul, has many different heights, from 8 finger’s height to a 22 finger widths in height that comes with a round base. The Hollow of the bell symbolizes the wisdom of cognizing emptiness and the clapper represents the sound of emptiness.

When a Bell is paired with Varja, it represents wisdom, which means the wisdom for the method. As both of the Varja and Bell is always together and never separated.

Another saying is that the Varja Represents the Compassion of the Buddha and the Bell Represents the Wisdom. The Bell is always visualized as the Buddha’s Body and the Varja is the mind and the sound made by the bell represents the Buddha’s Speech in spreading the Dharma.

If you are interested in joining us for any Dharma work, go to http://www.tsondruegyatso.blogspot.com to check for out activites.

Butter Lamp

Silver Polished Butter Lamp is a simple and wonderful item to be placed on the Altar, Normally Butter Lamp has very attractive hand carved design. The best Quality of Butter Lamp that I have seen so far are from Nepal, The practice of using Butter Lamp starts from a long long time ago (cant get any information on that)

The name of a Butter Lamp came from the lamp itself, it is belief that it is normally filled with butter and was lighted and put on one's shrine as an offering to the Buddhas.

As the time passed and you wont want ants and bugs to swim in your Butter Lamp, people nowadays, replace butter with oil and some even with candles. Normally Butter Lamps are made out of Brass or Copper sometimes even Silver or Gold, but no matter what it is made out of, it is the offering that we offer to Buddha. There is also High Realized Lama that uses the Butter Lamp for Divination