Note on Water Torma Offerings

A Brief Note on Elaborate Water Torma Offerings[1]

by Jigme Lingpa

What follows concerns the meaning of "repayment"[2] in the context of karmic debts. In general, since impurities and the two obscurations are to be purified for oneself, the terms "cleanse" and "purify" apply. By contrast, repaying the kindness of parents and karmic debts involves responding to others, and therefore the term "circling" or "repayment" is used. This means there can be no karmic debt whose "circle" is left unclosed—that is, there is no gap or break in the process. Even in common parlance, we speak of "repaying" parental kindness.

The scriptural sources for the water torma practices are found in the Kangyur: The Dhāraṇī "Surūpa",[3] The Dhāraṇī of the Tathāgata Jñānolka,[4] The Bali Ritual to Relieve the Female Preta Flaming Mouth,[5] The Dhāraṇī of Refuge for the Preta Flaming Mouth,[6] and The Dhāraṇī for the Constricted-Neck Pretas."[7] Among these, The Flaming Mouth Dhāraṇī teaches the names of four [tathāgatas].[8] While some claim you should visualize these four tathāgatas at the crown and elsewhere, the Kangyur itself merely explains the blessings and benefits of reciting their names; it does not teach their visualisations or objects of meditation. Likewise, the term "four guests" is nowhere to be found in these sources. The many divergent traditions of offering tormas found here in Tibet are based solely on individual predilections!

These clarifications should refute the foolish assertion that the term "repayment" is inappropriate for karmic debts.

| Translated by Matthias Staber and edited by Han Kop, for the Longchen Nyingtik Project, 2026. With gratitude to Lama Jigme Namgyal for his clarifications.

Bibliography

Tibetan Edition

kun mkhyen 'jigs med gling pa. "chab gtor rgyas pa'i skabs." In: gsung 'bum 'jigs med gling pa (a 'dzom par ma/ 'brug spa gro la bskyar par brgyab pa/).14 Vols. BDRC MW7477_7056F5. A 'dzom chos sgar par khang, 1990–1999. Vol. 12: 653–654.

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