Practices for Baby's Health

Practices for Baby's Health

Date of Advice:
January 2018
Date Posted:
July 2019

A student wrote that she was six months pregnant, however, at a recent checkup her baby was found to have a rare developmental abnormality. There are only fifty cases of this condition worldwide. The student asked Rinpoche if any prayers could be done to help the unborn baby.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London, 2014. Photo: Robin Bath.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
For children who have problems, there is a text/puja that comes out. It is called the Dharani for Pacifying the Fifteen Great Spirits that Possess Children (Tib: byis pa'i gdon chen bco lnga zhi bar byed pa'i gzungs).1  This needs to be read thirty-five times.

White Umbrella Deity prayer: to be recited one thousand times. The people at the center can gather together and recite this. Also, you can ask Ganden Shartse Monastery  to recite the White Umbrella Deity prayer. That is a quick way to complete [the recitations] and also center people can recite it.

The nuns from Tsum can recite the Vajrasattva long mantra 1,300 times. Send them your name and advise the baby’s situation, what you told me. In order to purify the baby’s negative karma, they should strongly think and visualize Vajrasattva above the crown and in the heart,  a lotus and moon disc, and all sentient beings and in particular the mother and baby. Nectar comes from Vajrasattva and purifies all sentient beings and in particular the mother and baby, so all the negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths and all the problems for a healthy body and healthy mind are totally purified, and they have a meaningful life by generating bodhicitta.

All the people at the center should do the same thing: reciting the Vajrasattva long mantra 1,300 times and also doing Vajrasattva tsog.

Geshe-la can recite the Prajnaparamita mantra one thousand times. It might be found in zungdu [Collection of Dharani, a text in the Kangyur]. There is the mantra of the twelve volume collection, the mantra of the three volume collection and the mantra of [one volume.]2 This is for the baby to not have physical and mental health problems and to have a meaningful life by generating bodhicitta.

When parents pray for their child it is very powerful because of the blood lineage and also when children pray for their parents it is very powerful because of the blood lineage. When the guru prays for the students it is very powerful and when students pray for the guru it is very powerful. Also, when those sharing the same house and material connection pray for each other it is more powerful. This is mentioned in the text.

Therefore, you (the mother) can pray for your baby to not have physical and mental health problems and to be healthy; to have a meaningful life by generating bodhicitta; to be free from samsara and to achieve buddhahood as quickly as possible. Pray like that.


Notes

1 A copy of the Tibetan text can be accessed as a PDF here. [Return to text]

2 The three Prajnaparamita texts are: the Prajnaparamita of 100,000 verses (Tib: bum; Wyl: 'bum), collected in twelve volumes; the Prajnaparamita in 25,000 verses (Tib: nyitri; Wyl: nyi khri), collected in three volumes, and the Prajnaparamita in 8,000 verses (Tib: gyetongpa; Wyl: brgyad stong pa), in one volume.  Each of these three collections has a different mantra, according to the Collection of Dharani (Tib: zungdu; Wyl: gzungs bsdus). Click on the following links to access these three mantras in English and in Tibetan. [Return to text]