Description
Sacred Sky Press has just published Sacred Smoke: The Ritual Practice of Fumigation and Offering in the Yungdrung Bön Religious Tradition by Raven Cypress Wood. This book is an in-depth overview and a practice manual for the ritual called sang [Tibetan: bsang]. Performed as a daily practice and on special occasions, the sang ritual of fumigation and offering is pervasive throughout both the Yungdrung Bön and Buddhist traditions because of its essential relevance to ordinary people, lay practitioners, and monastics. The practice of sang is categorized within the Second Way of the Nine Ways of Bön and uses fragrant smoke to clear defilements from both the environment and its inhabitants.
The first part of Sacred Smoke introduces the reader to the sang ritual and provides a deeper understanding of the ritual’s source, meaning, and purpose. This includes descriptions of the kinds of defilements being purified, the offerings’ recipients, and the ritual’s benefits.
The second part of Sacred Smoke provides the liturgical texts needed for the ritual, including the original Tibetan with phonetics and the corresponding English translations. In addition to the sang ritual prayers according to the Menri tradition, Sacred Smoke includes texts for performing the sang ritual composed by the esteemed 23rd Menri Trizin, the sang ritual for the lu, and invocations to Blue Dzmbhala and Chammo Lamlha, the goddess of travel. Detailed instructions are given for performing the ritual in an extensive and more elaborate way or a condensed version.
