Medicine Buddha Day:

The Great SUR Burnt Offering

On the 30th day of the sixth Tibetan lunar month, Dechen Choekhor Mahavihara will be performing The Great SUR (Tib. གསུར་ཆེན། SUR Chen) according to the sadhana The White Sur Offering That Permeates All Realms (Tib. དཀར་གསུར་ཞིང་ཁམས་ཀུན་ཁྱབ།) composed by Jigme Lingpa.

‘The Great Smoke Offering’ or ‘The Great Burnt Offering’ is a special Vajrayana ritual where the mixture of Tsampa (roasted barley flour), the three white (butter, milk, yogurt), the three sweet (honey, molasses, sugar), and various other food and substances, are burnt on coals or in a fire. This is a pure vegetarian offering performed in the late afternoon or evening.

Through the specific sadhana, the extensive smoke and odor generated by the burnt offering are blessed with the power to satisfy and benefit the wandering spirits, bardo beings, as well as those we are karmically indebted to, including the harmful influences, obstacle-makers, elemental spirits, etc., appeasing them to abandon savagery and vengeance. During puja, Dharma teaching is expounded to these guests of the feast to plant the cause for liberation in them.

Thus, SUR can be taken as a skillful means of generosity for merit accumulation and a practice to pacify adverse circumstances caused by negative influences and obstructing forces. 

All are welcome to participate in this auspicious and beneficial event.

Should you wish to know more about this puja, please write to us at: web@dechenchoekhor.org

Thank you!