Toh 647The Bali Ritual to Relieve the Female Preta Flaming Mouth

Summary

This short text narrates Ānanda’s nocturnal encounter in
the Banyan Grove in Kapilavastu with a gruesome female
preta, or “hungry ghost,” with a burning mouth. The ghost
tells Ānanda that he will die imminently and be reborn in
the realm of the pretas unless he satisfies innumerable
pretas with offerings of food the following morning.
Terrified, Ānanda goes quickly to the Buddha and asks for
advice. The Buddha then teaches Ānanda a dhāraṇī and an
associated food offering ritual that together will satisfy
innumerable ghosts and will cause offerings to the Three
Jewels to multiply. The Buddha then instructs Ānanda to
memorize and widely propagate this practice.

Acknowledgements

Translated by the Alexander Csoma de Kőrös Translation
Group: Krisztina Teleki in collaboration with Karma Dorje
(Rabjampa), and assistance from Beáta Kakas (Sanskrit) and
William Dewey (English). Edited and introduced by George
FitzHerbert, and finalized by members of the 84000 editorial
team.

The translation was completed under the patronage and
supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the
Buddha.

Introduction

The Bali Ritual to Relieve
the Female Preta Flaming Mouth is one of
two closely related texts found together in the Degé
Kangyur in which the Buddha
teaches a dhāraṇī and associated food offering
ritual to relieve pretas of their sufferings. The other text is The
Dhāraṇī of Refuge for the Preta Flaming
Mouth (Toh
646/1080).
These texts have had a significant
legacy for the ritual traditions of Buddhist Asia,
serving as foundations for the traditions of giving
compassionate food offerings to alleviate the
suffering of spirits and ghosts. The present text is
the shorter of the two, corresponding (though not
precisely matching) Śikṣānanda’s Chinese translation
in the Chinese Buddhist canon (Taishō 1314).

The sūtra narrates Ānanda’s
nocturnal encounter with a gruesome female preta, or “hungry ghost,”
known by the epithet Flaming Mouth (Tib. kha
’bar ma), who
threatens him with imminent death unless he
satisfies innumerable pretas and brahmin ascetics
with food offerings. Ānanda seeks the Buddha’s
advice, whereupon the Buddha gives him a dhāraṇī and
brief instructions for how to use it to consecrate
bali (Tib.
gtor ma) offerings that will
magically satisfy innumerable pretas, relieve them
of their suffering, and cause them to be reborn as
gods. The Buddha further states that the ritual will
be of great benefit to whoever performs it and will
prevent them from being bothered by nonhuman spirits
and hostile forces. He instructs Ānanda to propagate
the practice widely.

The Tibetan text has no colophon, so little is
known for certainty about its translation history or
possible Indian origins. However, it is listed in
the Denkarma imperial catalog, indicating
that the Tibetan translation was made no later than
the early ninth century ce. A version of the parallel text (Toh
646/1080) also exists among the manuscripts
discovered in the cave library at Dunhuang (IOL Tib
J 349). No extant Sanskrit version of either text
has been identified, and its Sanskrit title is
unknown.

This text was translated into Chinese by
Śikṣānanda between 700 and 704 ce
(Foshuo
jiu mianran egui tuoluoni shenzhou jing
說救面燃餓鬼陀羅尼神咒經, Taishō
1314). Some decades later,
between 757 and 770,
a slightly longer
version, corresponding to Toh 646, was translated
into Chinese by Amoghavajra (Taishō 1313). Both Chinese texts have been
translated into English by Lye (2003). The Chinese
and Tibetan texts mirror each other in their
respective length and content (Toh 647 with Taishō
1314, and Toh 646 with Taishō 1313), so it is
possible that the Tibetan translations were made
from the Chinese. However, in some significant
details they diverge. For example, in the Tibetan of
the present text (Toh 647) the main preta
protagonist is explicitly female (Tib. yi dags
mo), something that is not found in either
Chinese text. This observation led Lye (2003) to
tentatively conclude that the Tibetan versions were
probably made directly from two variant iterations
of the narration that circulated in Sanskrit. The
two Tibetan texts, while clearly presenting the same
narrative, differ in their wording.

Fire and flames are a common—if secondary—feature of descriptions of pretas in
the canonical literature both Chinese and Tibetan, and in some Tibetan sources, the preta known by the
epithet “flaming mouth” is presented as a “queen of
pretas” (Tib. yi dwags kyi rgyal mo), though she is
not explicitly described as such in this text. The
torma (Tib. gtor
ma, Skt. bali)
offering ritual for the preta Flaming Mouth has a
long history in Tibet. The Blue
Annals, for example, mentions the
eleventh–twelfth-century master Dzeng Dharmabodhi
requesting instruction on the “Great Torma Offering
of Flaming Mouth.” The ritual is also
mentioned in the writings of Sakya Paṇḍita
(1182–1251) in the thirteenth century, who
identified it as a rite that was inaccurately performed
in Tibet. In the eighteenth
century the actual dhāraṇī was included in the compendium of
dhāraṇī in four scripts (Tibetan, Manchurian,
Chinese, and Mongolian) compiled under Chankya Rolpé
Dorjé and the Qianlong emperor.

As a proper name, “Flaming Mouth,” kha ’bar ma in Tibetan,
corresponding in at least some attested sources to the Sanskrit
Jvālāmukhī (female) or Jvālāmukha (male),
is also found in a range of tantras referring to various minor
deities. Of more specific relevance, in the Guhyagarbhatantra
and other tantras of the Nyingma tradition the masculine form is the name of the
nirmāṇakāya sage (Muni) who manifests in the realm of the pretas, one of six such
Munis corresponding to the six realms and numbered among the one hundred
peaceful and wrathful deities of the maṇḍala.

The category of such practices in which the offering consists of water alone
(Tib. chu gtor) may derive from the additional
way of making offerings mentioned in the present text
(see

)—but
not in the other version, Toh 646/ 1080, even though the latter, with its greater detail
in other respects, may represent a later and more
elaborated form.

The Translation

The Bali Ritual to Relieve the

Female Preta Flaming Mouth

Homage to the Three
Jewels.

Once, the Blessed One was staying at Banyan
Grove in Kapilavastu with a great congregation of
monks, a great assembly of bodhisattvas, and a great
assembly of other beings, teaching them the Dharma.
In the meantime, Ānanda was in seclusion, meditating
and realizing the Dharma through single-pointed
contemplation.

Ānanda asked, “What reliable method is there to
avoid this?”

The female preta replied, “Ānanda, if in the
morning you offer food and drink in the amount of
seven large Magadhan bushels to each and every preta
as numerous as the billions of grains of sand of the
river Ganges, and satisfy one hundred thousand
brahmin ascetics, and make an offering in my name to
the Three Jewels, then your life will be extended,
and I will transmigrate from the realm of the pretas
and be reborn in the upper realms.”

Then Ānanda saw that female preta Flaming Mouth.
She was wasted and ugly, with an emaciated body,
tongues of flame coming from her mouth, and her
belly and mouth shriveled up. Her hair was matted
and in disarray, and she had long nails and body
hair. Hearing her jarring and unpleasant words, he
was so afraid that the hairs all over his body
stood on end.
He rose from his seat, and went hurriedly, very quickly, to where the
Blessed One was.

On arriving, he prostrated to the Blessed One
and, trembling, he begged, “Blessed One, please
protect me! Well-Gone One, please protect me! I
will be killed the day after tomorrow. Blessed One,
I saw the female preta Flaming Mouth and she told
me, ‘You will die the day after tomorrow.’ I asked
her, ‘What method is there to avoid it?’ She
replied, ‘If you satisfy pretas as numerous as the
billions of grains of sand of the river Ganges, as
well as one hundred thousand brahmin ascetics, then
your life will be extended.’ Blessed One, please
tell me how I can do this.”

Then the
Blessed One, the Thus-Gone One Śākyamuni, said to
venerable Ānanda, “Ānanda, do not be afraid! There
is a method to satisfy the pretas and the brahmin
ascetics. Ānanda, there is a dhāraṇī called
the great powerful light that illumines
everything.
Just making an offering with this will satisfy
pretas as numerous as the billions of grains of sand
of the river Ganges, so that each and every preta
and brahmin ascetic will be given seven Magadhan
bushels of food and drink. Long ago, when I was a
brahmin, I received this dhāraṇī from the
bodhisattva mahāsattva Lokeśvara and the Thus-Gone
One Lokeśvaraprabha. With this dhāraṇī I
satisfied numerous, countless pretas and brahmin
ascetics with food and drink, and all of them
transmigrated from the realm of the pretas and were reborn in
the realm of the gods. Ānanda, remember and accept
it:

“Ānanda, recite this spell seven times over the
bali for the preta. Then, extending your arm, offer
it in front of the door, snap your fingers, and
clap. Immediately after you offer it in
this way, all the pretas of the four directions, as
numerous as the billions of grains of sand of the
river Ganges, will be satisfied, and each preta will
be given seven Magadhan bushels. Merely by consuming
it, they will transmigrate from the realm of the
pretas and be reborn among the gods.

“To satisfy brahmin ascetics, fill a container
with the clean water to be offered, recite the
dhāraṇī seven times, and make the offering at any
place where water is swiftly flowing. When this
is done accordingly, brahmin ascetics as numerous as the billions
of grains of sand of the river Ganges will be
satisfied with divine food and drink. Those brahmin
ascetics will be thoroughly sated, and they will
cry, “ Oṃ! May all be well!” In this way, the
intentions of those beings will be completely
purified, and
they will have the charisma of brahmins. They will
always live the religious life, they will obtain the
roots of virtue of thus-gone ones as numerous as the
billions of grains of sand of the river Ganges, and
all their enemies will always be
destroyed.

“Recite the dhāraṇī twenty-one times over
flowers, incense, perfume, or food and drink, and
then offer them to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the
Saṅgha. If that is done accordingly, noble sons and
noble daughters, monks and nuns, and male and female
lay devotees will revere, honor, and worship the
Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha of the buddhafields
of all the thus-gone ones in the ten directions with
divine offerings and the supreme offerings of the
thus-gone ones. They will be in the intentions and
prophecies of all the thus-gone ones, and will be
protected by all the gods.

Notes

Bibliography

Tibetan

Chinese and Mongolian

Western Languages

ma ga dha’i bre bo
མ་ག་དྷའི་བྲེ་བོ།

billions

blessed one

well-gone one

brahmin
ascetics

brahmarṣis

brahmin

buddhafield

piśāca

bhūta

rākṣasa

yakṣa

monk

nun

bali

offering
ritual

Three Jewels