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Sam van Schaik wrote:The text that is (perhaps) written in blood in IOL Tib J 308 is the Sutra of Aparimitayus, a very popular text in Tibet, on the visualisation and the mantra of a deity representing long life and rebirth in a pure land. In the 840s thousands of scrolls of this sutra were written at Dunhuang at the behest of the Tibetan emperor, to ensure his long life through the religious merit generated by copying the sutra. This manuscript is not one of those, and to judge from its archaic orthography and “square” style, may be even older than them. Still, the motivation for copying the sutra is probably the same. If it was written in blood, this act would have given a greater value to the act of copying of the sutra, and thus to the merit generated by doing so.
Of course if you have no interest in doing it, then you don't.
It could be a powerful way to accumulate merits and benefit others.
Sādhaka wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2018 10:31 am The following would be Pure Land practice, and moreover consecrated by one's own blood by taking a sewing needle or blood lancet and mixing a few drops of your own blood into (preferably natural) ink (like J. Herbin; although any ink ought to do) and copying the following section of this Sutra:
Make sure to have the intent of the Three Excellences or Three Noble Principles, and record it with your phone's video camera and post it to YouTube or any other social media to encourage others to do the same.
Sādhaka wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2018 8:26 pm
A pinprick is not for example going to cause the eighth downfall (because for one, you're not doing it out of contempt of one's aggregates).
Sam van Schaik wrote:The text that is (perhaps) written in blood in IOL Tib J 308 is the Sutra of Aparimitayus, a very popular text in Tibet, on the visualisation and the mantra of a deity representing long life and rebirth in a pure land. In the 840s thousands of scrolls of this sutra were written at Dunhuang at the behest of the Tibetan emperor, to ensure his long life through the religious merit generated by copying the sutra. This manuscript is not one of those, and to judge from its archaic orthography and “square” style, may be even older than them. Still, the motivation for copying the sutra is probably the same. If it was written in blood, this act would have given a greater value to the act of copying of the sutra, and thus to the merit generated by doing so.
Of course if you have no interest in doing it, then you don't.
It could be a powerful way to accumulate merits and benefit others.
Sādhaka wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2018 10:31 am The following would be Pure Land practice, and moreover consecrated by one's own blood by taking a sewing needle or blood lancet and mixing a few drops of your own blood into (preferably natural) ink (like J. Herbin; although any ink ought to do) and copying the following section of this Sutra:
Make sure to have the intent of the Three Excellences or Three Noble Principles, and record it with your phone's video camera and post it to YouTube or any other social media to encourage others to do the same.
The sutra itself says nothing about writing it in blood, unless I missed it. And the other quote says there is a single copy that maybe was written in blood, followed by a seemingly offhand hypothesis that maybe it was done to generate more merit.
However, I am not personally annoyed with this possibility. If it actually is a valid practice that is ok, but so far it doesn't look like it. The mere fact that it was done by a number of people in China, or Tibet (according to some of the other links posted earlier in this thread), does not make it correct.
Well Blood Writing is apparently also found in the Saddharmapundarika Sutra and the Avatamsaka Sutra themselves. The way it is presented there though, is obviously only for high level Bodhisattvas, or just totally symbolic.
The way I see it, our blood is a powerful substance, and a pinprick added to ink can only be beneficial as mentioned in the above Sam van Schaik article, if it's accompanied by right view, rather than being some form of contempt for the aggregates or self mortification.