Information on the best vow/Baare to do for a child's health and safety

Question

I am a Sri Lankan Buddhist looking for help ..

Our child is very sick and doctors have said any help is difficult to be given at this time for her or operated on.

I would like to ask for information on the best vow/Baare to do for a child's future health and safety and to cure any problems, which deities would be best to ask for protection or some ritual that is undertaken to be continued for her safety and things like that? (at the Temple of the Tooth relic preferably as we will be visiting this month)..

Any help is gratefully accepted.

Answer 1

Try doing a Bodhipuja at Sri Nagavihara temple, Kotte. It seems to help some people. I'm sure there are many other places that work too. Ruwanveli Saya, Sri Maha Bodhiya, Dalada Maligawa are obviously the best places you can try.

As a Buddhist you should make the vow to the Buddha, with virtuous gods(all who supports the Sasana) as witnesses. A good vow would be "if the child lives, we will offer him to the Sasana"

If your child can speak the language, teach him/her the "iti pi so bhagava araham..." verses with meanings and tell to chant regularly in his mind while contemplating the meanings.

Also, if you have money, free some animals in slaughter houses and wish for your child's health.

Answer 2

Powerful kind of citta are called javana citta. “javana” means an arrow in flight, could be very potent and can lead to both good and bad consequences. You can create such a citta, if you recite a stanza in front of the Bodhi Tree from sunrise to sunset, as a family with your child. There is a special kind of rays that is emitted from the great Bodhi-tree of the Buddha. From wherever in the world we can attract this force, but it is most powerful while in the presence of the Tree.

Just the other day Ven. Walasmulle Abaya Thero was telling us as to how a deformity that no doctor could cure was put right, just by spending the day under the JayaSiri Maha Bodhi Tree, and contemplating on this stanza.

ජයෝ මුනින්දස්ස සුබෝධි මූ‍ලේ
අහෝසි මාරස්ස පරාජයෝ හි
උග්ඝෝසයුං දේවගණා පසන්නා
ඒතේන සච්චේන ජයස්සු මය්හං ///

ජය වේවා! බුදු රජාණන් වහන්සේගේ සම්බෝධි මූලයේ දී මාරයාට පරාජය අත් විය.
පැහැදුණු දේව සමූහයා සතුටින් ‍ඝෝෂා කළහ. මේ සත්‍ය බලයෙන් මට ජය වේවා!

Jayo munindassa subodhi mule
ahosi mārassa parājayohi
ugghosayuṃ deva gaṇā pasannā
etena saccena jayassu tuyhaṃ

“Victory of the Lord of seers at the root of the wonderful Bodhi (tree)
It was Māra's (the evil one’s) defeat”
Exclaimed the groups of devas delighted
By the power of this truth, may you be victorious too

The following Kammattana too will help you in this difficult time, to help keep a proper perspective of things.

සියලු ලෝක, සියලු සත්ත්වයින්ම, මේ සංසර ගමනේදී ඇස, කන, දිව, නාසය, ශරීරය, මන, අස්සදයෙන් පිනවා ගන්න කියල සංඛාර වෘත හයක් කරනවා. වෘත කියන්නේ වැඩපිළිවෙලක්. අප සංඛාර වෘත හයක් කරනවා. එහෙත් මේ සංඛාර වෘත හයම තමන්ගේ කැමැත්ත ඉෂ්ට නොකරනවා. ඒ නිසා ..... අනිච්චා වත සංඛාරා. ඒ සංඛාර වෘත හයම අපගේ කැමැත්ත ඉෂ්ට කරන්නේ නැහැ....

අනිච්චා වත සංඛාරා... උප්පාද වය ධම්මිනෝ... අභිසන්ඛාරයන්ගෙන් උප්පාද වන්නාවූ සියලු අස්සාදයෝ වැය වෙලා යනවා. මේ අස්සාදයන් අපේ තියෙන සියළුම සුද්ධ ගුණ වැය කරලා දානවා. මේ අස්සාදයන් නමැති මර උගුලට හසු වෙච්ච සියලු ලෝක, සියලු සත්වයන්ගේ තියෙන සියලුම සුද්ධ ගුණ වැය වෙනවා. උප්පාද වය ධම්මිනෝ... ඒ උත්පාද කරපු සියලු අස්සාද අපේ සියලුම සුද්ධ ගුණ සියල්ල වැය කරනවා.

උප්පජ්ජිත්වා නිරුජ්ඣන්ති..... ඒ මෙතෙක් උත්පාද කල සියලු අස්සාදයෝ නිරුද්ධ වෙලා, උදා නොවී ගෙවිල ගිහිල්ල, විපරිණාමයට පත්වෙලා…. තෙසං... මේ සං වීම.... වූප සම කල විට - වූප සම යනු ඉවත් කල විට - එනම් මේ බැඳීමෙන් නිදහස් වූ විට, සම සුඛයට හෙවත් නිවන් සුඛයට යනවා, කිසිම විෂමතාවයක් නැති.

All beings of all worlds, are forever trying to entertain the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. In this desire to satisfy our six senses we do six types of volitional formations in this endless sansaric journey. Yet we can never fully satisfy these six. They are fruitless, conceited, unproductive acts, that are done in vain. We do not realize that no matter what we do, it is not possible to maintain anything to our satisfaction in the long run. Thus… Anicca vata sankhara — "Alas, we can never maintain to our satisfaction, all such formations!”

Aniccä vatha sankhärä; Uppäda vaya dhamminö… all mind-made pleasures that arise from our ‘abhisankhara’ can never be maintained to our satisfaction, and thus come to pass, eroding our sublime qualities. All pleasures of the mind lead us right into Mara's death trap, eroding the sublime qualities of our hearts…. Uppäda vaya dhamminö… All things that arise, suffer change, and pass away. This is their nature.

Uuppajjitvä nirujjhanti; Te san vüpa samö sukhö…. whatever arises is bound to fade away and thus lead to sorrow. When this “San” or “piling up” is removed or “vüpa sama” or gotten rid of, we can reach the ultimate happiness or “Nibbana”, the Deathless.

අනිච්චා වත සංඛාරා; උප්පාද වය ධම්මිනෝ
උප්පජ්ජිත්වා නිරුජ්ඣන්ති; තෙසං වුපසමො සුඛො

Aniccä vatha sankhärä; Uppäda vaya dhamminö
Uuppajjitvä nirujjhanti; Te san vüpa samö sukhö

'ඒතං සන්තං ඒතං පණීතං - යදිදං සබ්බ සංඛාර සමථෝ සබ්බුපධි පටිනිස්සග්ගෝ - තණ්හක්ඛයෝ විරාගෝ නිරෝධෝ නිබ්බානන්ති.'

එයම ශාන්තය එයම ප්‍රණීතය. සියලු සංඛාරයන්ගේ සමථයක් ඇත්ද, සියලු උපධීන්ගේ පිළිනොගැනීමක් ඇත්ද, තණ්හාවන්ට අක්ඛය වීමක් ඇත්ද, විරාග වීමක් ඇත්ද, සසර පැවැත්ම උදා නොකිරීමක් ඇත්ද, සසර බැම්මෙන් නිදහස් වීමක් ඇත්ද, එයම ශාන්තය, එයම ප්‍රණීතය.

Etan santan etan paneetan, yadidan sabba sankhara samato, sabbupati patinissaggo, tanhakkhayo virago, nirodho Nibbananti

[“It is the only peace, the only happiness: prevent sankhara from arising by eliminating tanha and excess greed, and thus stopping the arising of defilements, which is Nibbana“.]

Answer 3

A story from the Dhammapada that might give inspiration and support, Upasika Sherilli:

The Story of Ayuvaddhanakumara

While residing in a village monastery near Dighalanghika, the Buddha uttered Verse (109) of this book, with reference to Ayuvaddhanakumara.

Once, there were two hermits who fixed together practising religious austerities (tapacaranam) for forty eight years. Later, one of the two left the hermit life and got married. After a son was born, the family visited the old hermit and paid obeisance to him. To the parents the hermit said, "May you live long," but he said nothing to the child. The parents were puzzled and asked the hermit the reason for his silence. The hermit told them that the child would live only seven more days and that he did not know how to prevent his death, but Gotama Buddha might know how to do it.

So the parents took the child to the Buddha; when they paid obeisance to the Buddha, he also said, "May you live long" to the parents only and not to the child. The Buddha also predicted the impending death of the child. To prevent his death, the parents were told to build a pavilion at the entrance to the house, and put the child on a couch in the pavilion. Then some bhikkhus were sent there to recite the parittas [3] for seven days. On the seventh day the Buddha himself came to that pavilion; the devas from all over the universe also came. At that time the ogre Avaruddhaka was at the entrance, waiting for a chance to take the child away. But as more powerful devas arrived the ogre had to step back and make room for them so that he had to stay at a place two yojanas away from the child. That whole night, recitation of parittas continued, thus protecting the child. The next day, the child was taken up from the couch and made to pay obeisance to the Buddha. This time, the Buddha said, "May you live long" to the child. When asked how long the child would live, the Buddha replied that he would live up to one hundred and twenty years. So the child was named Ayuvaddhana.

When the child grew up, he went about the country with a company of five hundred fellow devotees. One day, they came to the Jetavana monastery, and the bhikkhus, recognizing him, asked the Buddha, "For beings, is there any means of gaining longevity?" To this question the Buddha answered, "By respecting and honouring the elders and those who are wise and virtuous, one would gain not only longevity, but also beauty, happiness and strength."

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:

Verse 109: For one who always respects and honours those who are older and more virtuous, four benefits, viz., longevity, beauty, happiness and strength, will increase.

At the end of the discourse, Ayuvaddhana and his five hundred companions attained Sotapatti Fruition.

It's important to understand, that chants are a kind of protection, only (1) if understood, and (2) if one has the conditions or sets the right deed. It makes no sense to seek after a healer in the Sangha, because they are for the most cheaters, but also use the holy life as means for wrong livelihood. So, much better than to seek for the popular ones is the seek for those really worthy for respect and to pay homage to them, try to encourage your child as well. In that far conditions are laid; and the part that can be treated physically should be made by good doctors.

At least do not forget, beings are the owner of their action. So my person will at the end tell a little story: Once dwelled in the near of a small village, there was a wealth-devoted lay woman, who eagerly learned the Dhamma in the good monastery nearby. As the strange foreign Tudong monk spent his time in this monastery she, knowing the Dhamma and Vinaya, was very eager to catch up my person to make high merits, and she used all means to be able to do that. One day, in the morning, my person tried to leave the Village road, having enough: she caught my person in the banana plantation behind her house and begged my person to come and "bless" her son by way of receiving alms, because he was very sick. My person agreed silently to go to the house. As entering the land, the family had prepared the son, about 25 years old, to sit outside and give alms food. After receiving, my person turned to leave, but she was waiting on clearence or something like a blessing.

My person told her, knowing, that it is important to look after one self and to care about to do not grasp hold anything in this world, because all conditioned Dhammas are subject to decay. As she had laid the conditions she gained right there the path. In the evening the monks of the monastery had been invited to chant for the sick. In the early morning funeral was perceivable, and a monk reported later that the son of the devoted laywoman had died. She herself was absolutely free of burden, and even weeks and the whole Vassa she would have told everybody about her luck and how it happens. The possibilities in measures of world (e.g. the body, rupa) are more limited as in measures of beyond. Beings are bound to their past actions but have possibilities in the present to form their future world or even the gate to release.

This is the place Upasika aside of generous support of other being should focus most, becoming and decay, and seek for those who can provide and be a real field for merits since not much is gained by putting one's investments into the flood of Samsara.

What ever is born, is subject to decay, what ever has come into being, will end.

(Note: This is a gift of Dhamma, not meant for commercial use or any other gain in the world.)