Heruka Body Mandala Burning Offering

The full text in English of the Heruka Body Mandala Burning Offering text. This is recited at a fire puja ceremony after completing a Heruka close retreat, and is a powerful method to purify downfalls, mistaken actions and inauspiciousness, especially mistakes made during the retreat.

Completing a close retreat and the fire puja gives us the opportunity to engage in Heruka self-initiation practices to renew Tantric vows and commitments.

During the fire puja we offer twelve substances, regarding them as the nature of wisdom, and thinking that our own and others’ ordinary appearances and conceptions are being consumed in the fire of wisdom. In this way, our fire puja becomes a genuine burning offering practice. As Venerable Geshe-la says in The New Guide to Dakini Land,