Protection from Obstacles

Protection from Obstacles

Date Posted:
April 2008

Rinpoche gave the following advice to Dharma centers on what to do when your luck is down.

When your luck/controlling power is down, then obstacles come (you are blamed for things even if you haven't done them). To make life easy, it is very important to have pujas for protection performed. Otherwise, problems come one after another. You may receive a lot of complaints from people. This also depends on how much luck/controlling power the center’s leader/director has. For the center to receive help means that it needs the karma to receive help; a lot depends on the leader, too.

Buddhism is full of methods to protect from obstacles, so we can use those. If something is beyond people's intelligence, they can’t do anything; they can only do things if they know what to do.

It is good if centers can do things such as Medicine Buddha and Tara puja. I have been saying how Medicine Buddha puja is very powerful for success. Also, they must do regular protector prayers.

The most important thing for success is devotion and compassion—this is the cause for harmony. That is the best puja. Compassion for others cuts down on problems, and people will help you.

Devotion collects so much merit; good samaya leads to inner and outer prosperity; there is the wisdom to discriminate what is right, and everything goes well.

For example, in the USA, there are so many religions, but when problems occur, they don't use religion, they just use politics, not spirituality. We are a Dharma organization so there is so much that you can do. Some centers have a resident teacher who can do divinations and analysis and give spiritual support to the center through practices and pujas—at the beginning of each year, like in the monasteries, or every six months is best. If some problems are about to come which you can't predict, it is better to do pujas every six months (like Geshe Lama Konchog used to advise, and Kopan does). This will reduce problems and bring more peace.

Some things are very simple, like making a tea offering, but it can still help a lot.