Rabné

Rabné (wyl. rab gnas) - The practice of consecrating representations of enlightened body, speech and mind.

What is Rabné?

Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche says:

"Since the buddhas are embodiments of boundless compassion, if we make an image of a buddha and prostrate before it or make offerings to it, the result, the purification of our obscurations and accumulation of merit and wisdom, will manifest based on the power of the buddhas’ compassion. The buddhas generate the vast mind of bodhichitta and vow to work exclusively for others’ benefit, and, as a result of this, they gain this quality, which means that whoever makes a representation of their form and makes offerings to it or pays homage to it, will accumulate merit and wisdom. Yet it is entirely up to us to make use of this quality, because the buddhas themselves are completely beyond these concepts. It is a little bit like electricity: there might be electricity in a certain place, but unless we turn on the switch, we cannot make use of it.

If we don’t understand this point, then making offerings to the statues and images of the buddhas might not be so meaningful.

When we make an image of a buddha, whether peaceful or wrathful, as a support for our samaya, and then invoke the wisdom deities themselves through visualization and mantra so that they enter into it and transmit their blessings, it becomes an incredibly powerful basis for the accumulation of merit. This process is what we call rabné, or consecration."

Further Reading

• Yael Bentor, Consecration Of Images And Stupas In Indo-Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, brill, 1996

External Links

• A Brief Ritual for Consecrating Representations of Enlightened Body, Speech and Mind by Dodrupchen Jikmé Tenpé Nyima