​Yoga Flaming Mouth Rite

Giving Nurtures a Compassionate Heart


The Flaming Mouth Food-Bestowal Rite is held chiefly to deliver beings in the hungry ghost realm. Beyond offering them food to relieve their hunger and suffering, the ceremony’s deeper purpose is to teach them the Dharma—guiding them to take refuge and receive the precepts so that they may swiftly leave behind the suffering of that realm. And in the process of benefiting these beings, participants cultivate their own practice as well, growing in blessings and wisdom.

Origins

The rite traces back to the story of “Ānanda’s Request for the Buddha’s Teaching.” Ānanda—one of the Buddha’s ten great disciples, in addition to being his cousin—was meditating in a forest one day, as recorded in the Dharani Sutra for Saving the Burning-Mouth Hungry Ghosts (Skt. Pretamukhāgnivālāyaśarakāra-dhāraṇī), when a hideous hungry ghost suddenly appeared before him. Named “Flaming Mouth,” the ghost had a withered face, disheveled hair, a throat as thin as a needle, a belly swollen like a mountain, and flames blazing from its mouth. Ānanda was startled by the sight.

The ghost told Ānanda it had come specifically to warn him: because of the karma of stinginess and greed from his past lives, Ānanda himself would fall into the hungry ghost realm in three days. Shaken and unsure what to do, Ānanda rushed to the Buddha for help. The Buddha then transmitted to him the dhāraṇī teaching he had received in a past life from the Tathāgata of Boundless Majestic Virtue and Sovereign Light—the Food Conversion Mantra. The Buddha instructed Ānanda to recite the dhāraṇī seven times over the food, transforming it into nectar that would fill the Dharma-realm, so that hungry ghosts as numerous as the sands of the Ganges could all eat their fill. Ānanda was to recite sūtras for them as well.

The Flaming Mouth ceremony is based on this Dharani Sutra for Saving the Burning-Mouth Hungry Ghosts. The Sanskrit word “yoga” means “resonance.” As explained by Master Deji of Baohua Mountain in the early Qing dynasty, it refers to monastics who form mudras with their hands, recite mantras with their mouths, and focus their minds in visualization—thereby causing body, speech, and mind to become unified and correspond with precepts, concentration, and wisdom. “Flaming Mouth” is the name of a king among the hungry ghosts: because his body was gaunt and his throat as narrow as a needle, he was called by this name. Having been excessively miserly in life, he suffered hunger, thirst, and flames issuing from his mouth after death. Through its ritual procedures, the Yoga Flaming Mouth ceremony offers food to beings in the hungry ghost realm and serves as a Buddhist rite to deliver the deceased.

The Ritual

The Flaming Mouth rite originates in esoteric Buddhist practice. During the ceremony, participants recite various mantras and dhāraṇīs to subdue demons—not only the “inner demons” of people and wandering spirits, but also the “five aggregate demons”, “affliction demons”, and “external demons” as well. The presiding monastics form a series of mudras, such as the mudra for dispelling demons, the mudra for subduing demons, the mudra for mentally offering food, the mudra for presenting food, and the mudra for breaking open hell—physical gestures meant to help focus the mind in visualization. The ritual also guides participants to concentrate their mind on a single offering plate, as if gathering the entire universe of Mount Sumeru back into each person’s inherent Buddha-nature—using the combined power of everyone’s focused intention to deliver the deceased.

Throughout the ceremony, participants chant mantras to subdue the inner demons of people and spirits and external demons, while the presiding monastic forms sacred mudras, leading everyone in single-minded, reverent recitation of the Heart Sūtra, the Great Compassion Mantra, and the ritual text, all while quietly visualizing. At the close, the monastic recites the Summoning Text, inviting hungry ghosts, those who died violent deaths, wandering spirits, kings, and filial descendants alike to partake of the food. Through listening to the sūtras and awakening to the Dharma, both the living and the spirits are guided to reflect on their own karmic offenses, plant wholesome roots, and perhaps experience a moment of insight that dissolves afflictions and attachment—drawing closer to the awakened state of the enlightened ones.

The ceremony is usually held from four in the afternoon until eleven at night. Before it begins, the Buddhas of the five directions and various wandering spirits are formally invited to the ritual space. After chanting praises to “Mianran Dashi” (The Flaming-Mouth King, a Bodhisattva manifestation), and under the protection of the Buddhas, food is offered to the hungry ghosts and spirits—candy, crackers, rice—as an act of deliverance for departed souls.

(Original text in Chinese compiled by Lin Qianrong 林蒨蓉)

Resource: Issue 240 of Humanity Magazine, Dharma Drum Publishing Corporation
Photo: 李東陽
Translation: 麗萍
Editing: Keith Brown, Patricia Yang