Gem of Wisdom for Daily Reflection: 

Advice on How To Pray, Circumambulate And Make Offering In Honouring A Stupa

Monks and lay people circumambulate the stupa of the terton Mingyur Dorje at the Namdroling Monastery in India Nuns making light offerings at the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India Monks circumambulate around the sixteen stupas at the Namdroling Monastery in India

Incalculable amount of merits can be accumulated from the extraordinary virtues of building a stupa and from the activities of circumambulating, prostrating, praying and making offering in the honouring of a stupa.

Circumambulation (korra) is a most effective means to attain realisation as explained by Atisha:

“If you practise sitting meditation,
Only the mind is involved
Without any virtuous actions of the body or speech.
There is no greater merits than
The practice of circumambulation.”

Circumambulation should be performed with the body, speech and mind unified as one action.

Here are some essential procedure you should adopt in the practice of circumambulation that should be good in the beginning, middle and end as emphasised by Patrul Rinpoche in his teaching Thog Tha Bar Sum Du Ge Wai Tam.

- Extract from the fourth of a four-part teachings on the origin, construction, benefits and practises related to stupa by Lama Dondrup Dorje Rinpoche. The full text is available to read under the feature of Gateway to Tibetan Buddhism. Click here to see the full list of articles available.