• For Little Houses with a designated recipient, the recipient field on the right of the Little House should be filled in prior to recitation.For Little Houses reserved for future use, this field can be left blank; it can be filled in right before burning the Little House.
• The left side of the Little House, under “Offered By:”, is strictly to be filled in with the name of the reciter(s) by the reciter(s) personally prior to recitation.
• Do not put the date on the left-hand field of the Little House until the recitation is fully complete (use either the date of completion or the date of burning).Generally, for Little Houses reserved for future use, the date can be left blank A Guide to Reciting the Combination of Buddhist Scriptures – Little Houses
24
until the day of burning (alternatively, you may fill in the date of completion).Dates can be written in either Arabic numbers or in letters, arranged horizontally (refer to Figure 11).
• Generally, do not fill in the “Offer To:” and “Offered By:” fields of the Little Houses in large quantities beforehand.Only fill in these fields for the specific number of Little Houses that you are likely to recite for the day.
1.Helping the karmic creditors of a living person ascend to a higher spiritual realm
• Under “Offer To:”, write “Karmic Creditor of “XXX””, XXX being the full name of the living person (it can be yourself or others).The reciter must write their name under “Offered By:” (refer to Figure 12).
2.Helping the deceased ascend to a higher spiritual realm
• On the right-hand side of the Little House, under “Offer To:”, write the full name of the deceased.You may also write the relationship between yourself and the deceased e.g.”Grandfather XXX”, “Aunt XXX”.Again, the reciter must write their name under “Offered By:” (refer to Figure 13).
• If the full name of the deceased is unknown, you may specify the relationship between the deceased and the living person, e.g.”Grandfather of YYY”, “Father of YYY”, YYY being the full name of the living person (refer to Figure 14).
3.Helping miscarried or aborted children ascend to a higher spiritual realm
• On the right-hand side of the Little House, under “Offer To:”, write “Child of XXX”, XXX usually being the full name of the mother.Under special circumstances, it can also be the name of the father.However, do not write the names of both parents.Words such as “miscarried” or “aborted” should not be written on the Little House, otherwise it will be deemed invalid (refer to Figure 15).
4.Helping the karmic creditor of the house ascend to a higher spiritual realm
• When there is a foreign spirit in the house, address the Little House to the “Karmic Creditor of the house of XXX”, XXX being the owner of the property or the name of any of its occupants (refer to Figure 16).
5.Resolving karmic conflicts
• When the effects of reciting the Mantra to Untie Karmic Knots are not obvious in resolving your serious interpersonal conflicts, you may utilise Little Houses to resolve these conflicts. The recited Little House is to be addressed to “XXX resolves karmic conflicts”, XXX usually being your full name. Do not write the name of the other party. If you are not directly involved in the karmic conflicts, such as in the case of your parents’ negative karmic ties, XXX can be the name of either parent, but do not write the names of both parents on the Little House (refer to Figure 17).
6.Little Houses reserved for future use
• Before recitation, please fill in the name of reciter under the “Offered By:” field.Only fill in the “Offer To:” field and date on the day of burning.Such Little Houses can be dated as either the date of burning or the date of completion (refer to Figure 18).
7.Dotting the Little House
• Prior to putting a dot in the circles with a red pen, the reciter field of the Little House must be filled in. The recipient field should also be filled in, except in the case of Little Houses reserved for future use. If you fail to do so, the power from reciting sutras and mantras can be easily lost.
• Each time you finish reciting a sutra or mantra, use a red marker to fill the corresponding circle. Alternatively, you can put the dots after reciting a series or an entire section of sutras and mantras.
• Only red pens or markers of suitable thickness are to be used for the dots.
• The circles on the Little Houses must not be ticked, dots must not go outside the circle or fill the circle completely. You are only allowed to fill red dots. The red dots cannot be too small, otherwise the effectiveness of the Little Houses will be reduced. The red dots should take up 50%-80% of the space within each circle (refer to Figure 19).
• The sutras and mantras must be recited before the red dots are added; dots must not be added before the recitations are completed.If you accidentally dot a small number of circles for which you have not completed recitations, you should complete the corresponding number of recitations for these immediately.
• The number of sutras and mantras recited can exceed the number of circles on the Little Houses but must not fall short of the required number.
• When putting the red dots, it is best to start from the bottom, moving towards the top of the Little House.You can put dots for each individual section of sutras and mantras from the bottom to the top or you can put dots for all four sutras and mantras from the bottom to the top (refer to Figure 20).
To prevent scriptures from being stolen by wandering spirits, it is strongly recommended to dot the Little House on a piece of red fabric (or red paper, or any other red material) no smaller than 60cm x 60cm (or 2ft x 2ft).The red fabric or paper must be in one piece, instead of being in loose pieces.You may use glue or red coloured thread to stitch small pieces of material together to form the required size of cloth or paper.
If space is a constraint in laying the entire cloth flat for dotting the Little House, the cloth can be folded into a size no smaller than A4.If the texture of the material interferes with your writing or dotting, you may put a piece of red cardboard on it.Do not use glass on the red fabric as it will reduce its effectiveness.
The paper used can be red on one or both sides.
Instead of red fabric, you may use a brand new red table, no smaller than the specified dimensions.
The cloth may have faint patterns without great contrasts in colour.It must be purely red in colour and should not contain images of animals or humans.
Bright red or scarlet are the best shades of red for the cloth. Rose, orange or shades of red with a strong tinge of other colours are not suitable.
• The red fabric can be washed.(refer to Figure 20-1)
• Generally, red dots should be added before 10pm.Even if the energy field is relatively good, and you have a red mat underneath for protection, it is still best to avoid adding red dots after 12am.If you cannot manage to add the dots on the day that you recite, you can add them the following day. Little Houses should not be left undotted for too long, generally not longer than seven days.
• Red dots should not be added during thunderstorms.
