THE DRAGON PRACTICE

The following is an image documentary of how to create and practice the Dragon Vase offering.

You will begin by gathering materials. This summer I had the opportunity to shop at the local markets to gather my offering materials. You will first need to find clay pots which have tight, fitting lids. If you are offering to water dragons you will need silver or metal vases also with firm fitting lids.

The offering materials vary according to what you can find. I use semi-precious stones, and coins of all kinds. I offer rice which I color yellow by adding turmeric spice and a small amount of oil to distribute the yellow spice over the grains of rice. I also use offerings of beans, lentils, chickpeas, beautiful shells, spices, local herbs, dried mushrooms, herbal medicines to heal the dragons, and grains of all kinds. All offerings are dry materials. You might also like to offer gold leaf and small fetishes of fish, turtle, birds, or natural animals which would be pleasing to the dragons.

I found some beautiful mirrored mandalas from India which I added to my dragon vases and also some very small golden lotuses for my Java Dragon Vases.

Once you have gathered all your material it is now time to begin your process. Now is a good time to take a shower or a bath before you begin. It is good to be clean in both body and mind. You can begin with a small inner prayer in your own words to center your mind.

I begin by slowly creating layers of the offerings in each vase

In the above picture I am offering mung beans.

This part of the process will need to be done on a

computer or by hand if you would like.

I make paper scrolls of the Dragon Mantra.

The Dragon Mantra for this vase project is

Namo Sam-man- doh - moo toh nam wah-ri -la-me

I create a very small print of the mantra on the computer and I repeat the mantra by copying it for 108 times in narrow long rows. I print out the mantra and then cut the long rows and paste the strips of paper to make one long scroll. I then roll the scroll into a neat like package and paste the end of the scroll so that it does not come apart. You should have 108 mantras on each scroll. If you are doing larger Dragon Vases you can do more mantras such as 10 times 108.

In this image you see the glueing process of the scroll.

Then I place the scroll in the center of the vase.

This vase had an offering of a beautiful silver ring.

The scroll was placed in the center of the ring

Now once you have created all the levels of the different grains and medicine in your vase it is now time to seal the offering. I do this with red wax. You can melt down a red candle. Usually I use an old coffee can for this part of the process. But in Java we used a bowl which was placed in a pan of water to melt down the wax.

This is just another image of the mantra scroll before it was placed in the vase.

Now we slowly and carefully seal each jar with the red wax to preserve the offerings.

This dragon vase was made of bone. We sealed and placed a golden lotus

in the middle of the hot wax.

The last part of the process: I glue on the lid. This will ensure the

dragon vase to be preserved over time. Remember these vases are buried underground

and will release the blessings and prayers over decades of time.

This is the mudra of the Dragon Vase Practice. If you look closely it

appears like a head of a dragon. Sometimes when I am holding

this mudra and singing the mantra I move my hands skywards,

still holding the mudra. You can feel the energies of the dragon

running though your body. So be prepared for the experience.

This is the beginning of the mudra before you criss-cross your fingers

to create the dragon head.


The Dragon Vase Practice

You begin by calling the Five Dhyani Buddhas

I call forth the Presence of the Five Dhyani Buddhas

Amitabha, Amoghasiddhi, Akshobhya,

Ratnasambhava

Vairochana

Now it is time to make the refuge prayer:

I take refuge in the Five Dhyani Buddhas

I take refuge in the Dharma

I take refuge in the Sangha

Then you make the four Immeasureable Vows:

I vow to have limitless kindness towards all beings

I vow to have limitless compassion towards those who are suffering.

I vow to have limitless joy over the salvation of others from suffering.

I vow to have limitless equanimity towards friend and foe.

Now you call the Dragon King and I also include his retinue.

I give the Dragon King to the Five Dhyani Buddhas.

I call forth the Dragon King and his retinue.
I give you to the Five Dhyani Buddhas

For your own enlightenment and also healing.

May you have long life, wealth, good fortune and happiness.

You now perform the Dragon Mudra and begin the Mantra which is

Namo Sam-man-doh mo-toh nam wah-ri-la-me

The mantra is performed at the least 108 times but usually

I will do about 5oo mantras or more.

You will visualize the vase turning into the Dragon King as you repeat the mantra.

When you are finished performing the mantra you sit in Silence

and begin to visualize the five Buddhas over the vase.

Each Buddha is represented in one of the five dharma colors red, yellow, green, white, and blue.

You see the Dragon King rise up and merge with the five Buddhas.

The Dragon King dissolves into the five Buddhas.

Then the five Buddhas dissolve into the radiant light of the five colors.

Then the colors dissolve into the vases below.

You have now completed the first day of the practice.

Repeat this practice for seven days without missing a day over the vases.

The seventh day you have finished the dragon vase practice and it is now time to

store the vases until they are ready to be offered to the Dragons in Nature.

When I offer these vases to the Dragons I usually recite the refuge prayer and then

offer the mantra and mudra as I bury the vase.