Nay Dren Ceremony for those who have died

The annual Shitro Ngakso (100 Peaceful & Wrathful Deities) Retreat, June 28-30, 2019, at Pema Osel Ling will include a Nay-Dren ceremony each day, culminating with burning the names of loved ones who have died on the final day. To find out more or submit names and make offerings, visit the Vajrayana Foundation website. You can read an explanation of the meaning of the Nay-Dren ceremony by Lama Tharchin Rinpoche here. About the Nay-Dren, Rinpoche said:

By doing these special ceremonies called nay-dren, we cultivate merit and wisdom for ourselves as well as benefiting the one who has died and all beings wandering in the bardo, the intermediate state between this life and the next. These ceremonies are methods for us to purify our obscurations and negative karma, and they are beneficial for us. This is true even if at this particular point in time the one who has died has no need for such a ceremony if they are already liberated from samsara. So while we do this ceremony thinking of the dead person, we also do these prayers for all beings who find themselves at this present time in between one lifetime and the next, and for all sentient beings without any exception including ourselves since we all face death at some point.

Rinpoche's teaching was given during a Vajrasattva Nay-Dren, but Rinpoche explains:

Many different types of nay-dren exist according to many different traditions. However, the essence is always the same because all wisdom deities are of the exact same essential nature. They are simply wisdom display. Wisdom manifests in innumerable forms according to sentient beings’ capacity and karma. The form may be different, the name or the tradition may appear different, but the essence is exactly the same. It is exactly the same as our own essential nature.

You can find more of Rinpoche's advice and teachings on practices for the time of death here.

Tsen Jang (name plaque) image painted by Kumar Lama under the direction of Lama Tharchin Rinpoche. You can find the image here for your use in ceremonies.

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