How interesting.. I didn’t know about the Ritual bath and consecration called trusol and rabne. Thank you, Big Uncle. I was intrigued because this ritual, while Buddhist, sounds a bit like the baptismal in Christianity where the subject is bathed in order to clear his or her sins, which can be equated in Buddhism as clearing our negative karma.
I’d just like to talk a bit further on this point. Can this ritual really clear our negative karma? I thought that our negative karma needs to be purified in order to be cleared. Can a ritual really clear it and how much can it clear in one ritual? How does it work? I mean I have heard that pujas can clear our negative karma though in that aspect, I have also wondered how much does it clear when we have truckloads of negative karma. I know that in the Christian baptism, it supposedly clears all the sins. Is it the same in Buddhism?
This is an interesting question but quite straightforward, I think. I'll try to answer it.
Whether or not a ritual can clear our karma will of course depend very much on how heavy our karma is in the first place. Karma is very complex - two people suffering the same "problem" each carry vastly different karmas and the same ritual performed for both of them can have very different results for each of them.
It is not as straightforward as a ritual being to clear all our negative karma. If that was the case, all our problems would be solved, we would all be purified and enlightened! There would be enormous queues of people signing up for rituals! The effects are certainly positive and beneficial, but we must also consider how much karma we have to overcome, across thousands and millions of lifetimes. The problems and difficulties will not disappear after just one ritual.
A ritual or puja can serve on many different levels to help us - in some cases, the outwards "problems" may seem to become worse. This is because the effect of the ritual is purification, causing the exacerbation of difficulties (like a spiritual detox, I suppose). In some cases, it could be that the ritual helps you to collect a great deal of merit that will allow you be able to solve the problem yourself, in the most beneficial way. It could even be that the pujas help to create very positive karma for you to find the right situations, people, resources to help you overcome whatever particular problem you have. It could even be for an individual to connect to the right teacher, so that they can help them at the highest level, with Dharma.
However the rituals work though, they most definitely have benefit for the sponsor or beneficiary of the ritual. First of all, merits are dedicated towards the well-being of the person. This can open immediately or at a later time, for that person to connect to the Dharma and help themselves towards Enlightenment. If the person has physically sponsored the ritual - through monetary means or otherwise - they also collect merit, for this is likened to making an offering towards the three jewels.
I hope this helps
