Things to Do with the Sanghata

Copying the Arya Sanghata Sutra

Copies of the Sanghata can be made by a photocopier, by one's printer, by a print shop or by hand. However ones does it, the act of producing copies of the sutra is a powerful activity whose karmic benefits are amply described in the sutra itself. Nevertheless, writing it out by hand is the most potent of these options. As Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained, "It takes more effort to write it out, so you create even more merit." Read more about the benefits of copying the sutra below.

Please note: Do NOT use the book edition for copying the Tibetan title of the text, as the printed edition that is being distributed through the FPMT website contains an error in the printing of the Tibetan on the cover page, title page and first page of the text. 

Download Traceable Edition of the Text

A student from  Australia, Alan Carter, wrote in with the wonderful suggestion of making a version of the sutra that can be traced over, using a handwriting font. Following the format he suggested, we have produced a traceable copy of the sutra to encourage copying by hand. Many thanks for this lovely idea to Alan, who was producing handwritten copies to place inside the stupa at Bendigo that his center was erecting.  

Download traceable version of the Sanghata here (pdf).

Alan has also prepared a list of guidelines for copying, including practical suggestions on paper, types of pen  To read Alan's highly useful suggestions, click here.

Tips for Copying

Whether copying by hand or by machine, one should begin with a clear, virtuous motivation. This can be done by adapting the motivation described in the guide for reciters. Since one will be handling holy scriptures, it is good also to wash one's hands beforehand.   

If one is planning on writing the Sanghata out by hand, it is good to do so in a clean place, uncluttered with worldly items. If writing on a table or desk, one can clear off other items first, creating a small sacred space devoted entirely to the Sanghata. This helps us bear in mind that we are engaging in a spiritual practice when copying, despite any worldly associations we may have with the activity of writing itself. It would also be very nice to set up some offerings to the text as one writes, such as incense, candles or flowers.  

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is writing out the Sanghata in pure gold on sheets of archive-quality, multi-colored paper, and in Tibet and China both there were traditions of writing out sutras by hand with ink mixed with precious substances, and even with holy relics. Assuming these options are not within reach, a good pen with gold ink on good-quality paper is also fine.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is pictured here copying the sutra by hand, in gold ink. This long and painstaking project was begun days after Rinpoche first read the Sanghata in 2002, at Deer Park Buddhist Center in Madison, WI. The cover page to this manuscript appears on the banner to this website.

Between writing sessions, the text should be stored carefully, just as one would any other holy object: on an altar, or in a high, clean place. Even before the copy is complete, even if only a four-lined verse is written, the Sanghata is already endowed with all the qualities of the word of the Buddha, and should be treated accordingly.

Once the copy has been written out completely, there is a consecration ritual that can be done. For those living near a Dharma center with resident monks or nuns, one can ask them to perform this short ritual. This ritual is not always performed for texts, but is good to do, if one can.

There is also a Tibetan tradition known as 'offering garments' to books. This involves 'clothing' the book by painting the edges of the pages with saffron water, as an offering to the text itself. To do this, one mixes a generous amount of saffron with a very little boiling water. Then, allow it to sit until the water has turned a deep golden color, and cooled off. The darker, the better for the purpose of making this offering of garments. When the water has cooled, onesets a powerful virtuous movitation. Then, while visualizing that one is making this offering directly to the  Sanghata itself, and to the Dharma in all its forms, one gently brushes the saffron water along the sides of the pages. One should use a new soft-bristled brush (or one that has only been used for Dharma purposes). As with other offering practices, this should be done with strong concentration, maintaining a clear positive motivation, and followed by dedication of merit. This offering of garments can also be done with red ink. Those who have seen many Tibetan texts will have noted that often there is red or golden edging to the pages. This is from the 'offering of garments.' 

To further beautify your new copy of the Sanghata, see below for more suggestions.

Finally, your completed copy of the Arya Sanghata Sutra can be kept on your altar, offered to others, or placed inside stupas, but in any case it should be treated with all the care and respect that is due to the Dharma in physical form.

Benefits of Copying

- Excerpt adapted from a letter Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote to a student who had been reciting the Sanghata together with a pet dog:

"It is very good if you can read a little of this sutra every day, even just a few pages. Or you could write a little of it every day. When writing this sutra, with every single word you write, you collect extensive merit, even more merit than by reading it. By creating more merits our life becomes easier, more wish-fulfilling, without difficulties, an easier life, better health, longer life, more harmony in your life, in the world and everywhere.
 
"You receive all the happiness from good karma. If you do not have good karma, then you are unhappy. This is most important for good rebirth, for your next life, to meet the Dharma, practice the path and achieve liberation from samsara, ultimate happiness and, most importantly, full, peerless happiness. Then you are able to benefit numberless sentient beings, each and every sentient being. By creating more merit, you become closer to actualizing the realizations. You become closer to enlightenment, and in this way closer to enlightening all sentient beings. You become closer to freeing all sentient beings from sufferings and the causes of suffering, and closer to bringing all beings quickly to enlightenment.
 
"So you are able to liberate all beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to happiness for their future lives, happiness for this life, and ultimate happiness - full enlightenment. Everything comes along the way, and all of this starts by creating more merit by reading and copying this sutra."

More Practical Tips

Instructions and tips for sutra writing

 The following were prepared by Alan Carter for use by those writing out sutras to place inside the stupa being built at Bendigo, in Australia. Alan writes:
These are some instructions and tips from my own limited experience in sutra writing:

1. Use 120 gm white, flat, plain A 4 paper. Any thinner paper than this tends to show through to the other side.
2. Be careful to add all markings such as accents, full stops, quotation marks
3. Print allocated pages as advised Double-sided, portrait, with writing up the right way on both sides, as in a normal book
4. Trace over the handwriting print font so that no or little grey shows.
5. Keep completed/part completed text in clear A4 sleeve to protect and keep in high place and careful not to put anything on top of text.
6. Purchase a high quality gold gel pen made in Japan such as Pentel, Uni-ball etc not a cheap one made in china. 0.7/0.8mm tip size will suffice. A broader one will not be defined enough. The uni-ball Signo 0.8mm Um-100(08) Gold I have found to be very good
7. I have found it is good to get an angle-poise light to shine on work as you are doing so that hand does not cast shadow. If you have eyes like me a magnifying glass may assist.
8. Before writing good to wear clean clothes and to have washed beforehand. Motivate before writing with a bodhichitta motivation and thinking of the great benefit of performing the virtuous activity. You could recite aloud whilst writing to maximise benefit.
9. Use a clean piece of ordinary A4 to rest your hand on as writing. When writing on the second side of paper ensure a blank sheet underneath as sometimes some gold can come off and mark sheet that has yet to be written in gold.
10. Be careful not to smudge. You may need to wait a few minutes to dry before turning over and continuing. If you are doing outside careful with the wind, as it can easily smudge as paper is bent over.
11. At the end make a dedication to one’s enlightenment for all sentient beings.

More Copying Activities

Producing Beautiful Editions

With the Sanskrit manuscripts of the Sanghata that were found in the stupa at Gilgit were also the very first examples of decorated books we have in Indian history. One of these earliest Sanskrit manuscripts was discovered nestled between painted wooden book covers. A number of beautiful editions of the Sanghata have been printed already, including 500 copies printed in gold ink in Singapore, and one hundred copies of the Tibetan text on rainbow-colored paper, which Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered to all the FPMT centers in 2004. But the early example in India of creating book covers to protect and beautify the Sanghata remains to be followed. For ideas as to how that might be done, click here to read about the use of book covers in Tibet, or click here to view book covers made for other texts in Tibet. Another practice of interest is the illumination of manuscripts. For some samples, and a good overview of this way of beautifying books, click here. 

Organizing a Festival of Merit

The Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore organized a festival at which visitors were provided with gold pens, tracing paper, and invited to copy out a few lines of the Sanghata by hand. Six thousand people had the chance to connect in this way with the glorious Arya Sanghata Sutra. Read about the festival of merit. 

top