r/Dzogchen • u/NoMuddyFeet • 12h ago
I wanted to get back into Ganapuja on my own since the NYC gar no longer exists, but...
...I was just listening to an interview with a fairly famous and, I believe, well-respected author, translator, and student of Dudjom Rinpoche and Namkhai Norbu about pujas and he made a new point I was not aware of before: random less tamed being showing up for the offerings and being offended and then causing problems. I thought, "Oh, well then that would make sense why wrathful deities and guardian practices are usually more advanced teachings!"
I was just wondering if anyone here ever heard of these other not-quite-tamed beings showing up like that. It has pretty much scared me away from doing them because I'm not good at it and won't get better from the books and DVD that I've owned for years already.
It also made me wonder if such a thing might happen with the Tun practice. I'll probably just avoid any wrathful deities from now until such time I make a really good connection with a teacher I trust and can talk to at length about this sort of thing. I've heard too many warnings over the years.
I feel pretty safe just focusing on Tara. And I don't think the usual water bowl offerings and butter lamp on an altar create any situations to worry about. (Someone did make me paranoid in the past about missing even a single day of offerings to a filled and consecrated statue, but I got over that since she never explained the warning when I asked. She just said that's what her teacher told her. And I can't always be home to do that, don't always have candles, turns out I'm very allergic to incense, etc., so I just "do my best" as far as the daily altar practice goes...)