Eight Auspicious Materials in Buddhism

1. The 8 Auspicious Symbols

2. Tashi zeygye • The White Conch Shell (དུང་དཀར་གཡས་འཁྱིལ་) • The Nutritious Yogurt (བཅུད་ལྡན་ཞོ་དཀར་) • The Durva Grass (རྩ་མཆོག་དུར་བ་) • The Bilva Fruit (ཤིང་ཏོག་བིལ་བ་) • The Vermillion Powder (ཚོན་མཆོག་ལི་ཁྲི་) • The Clear Mirror (གསལ་བའི་མེ་ལོང་) • The Giwang Medicine (སྨན་མཆོག་གིཝང་) • The Mustard Seed (ཡུངས་འབྲུ་དཀར་པོ་)

3. Tashi Dzegyé(བཀྲ་ཤིས་རྫས་བརྒྱད་) • Aṣṭamaṅgaladravya in Skt is a set of eight auspicious items • Each was offered to the Buddha during his life • Like the eight auspicious signs, the eight substances also have pre-Buddhist origins but in the Buddhist context, they are sometimes construed as symbols of the Noble Eightfold Path. • In Vajrayāna, the set is personified into eight offering goddesses. • The eight substances are offered to generate auspiciousness during important events.

4. Tashi Dzegyé(བཀྲ་ཤིས་རྫས་བརྒྱད་) • The White Conch Shell (དུང་དཀར་གཡས་འཁྱིལ་) • After the Buddha experienced enlightenment he remained a recluse in the forest for seven weeks. • The King of Gods, Indra, offered the Buddha a white conch shell with a clockwise spiral and requested him to share his experience by teaching the dharma. The Buddha blessed the conch shell as a symbol of the resounding words of dharma. • The Nutritious Yogurt (བཅུད་ལྡན་ཞོ་དཀར་) • After the Buddha concluded six years of strenuous meditation, the cowherd girl Sujata offered him condensed yoghurt, a meal that revived the Buddha’s physical health and rigour. • Buddha blessed yoghurt as a sacred nutritive substance. He used it to offset the extreme physical mortification, just as he avoided over-indulgence by renouncing a life in the palace.

5. Tashi Dzegyé(བཀྲ་ཤིས་རྫས་བརྒྱད་) • Durva Grass (རྩ་མཆོག་དུར་བ་) • A rough plant considered significant in Indian culture. • When Buddha approached the Bodhi tree, the grass cutter Maṅgala offered him durva grass. • The Buddha accepted and sat upon it as he practised meditation until he reached enlightenment. The durva grass symbolizes the adamantine seat and stability. • Subsequently, kusha grass has been used as a mattress in some tantric rituals. • Bilva Fruit (ཤིང་ཏོག་བིལ་བ་) • The bilva or bael fruit occupies a sacred place in pre-Buddhist Vedic mythology and was prized for its medicinal value. • Lord Brahmaoffered this fruit to the Buddha. • In some accounts, a tree goddess offered this fruit to the Buddha in his youth while he was meditating under a tree.

6. Tashi Dzegyé(བཀྲ་ཤིས་རྫས་བརྒྱད་) • Vermillion Powder (ཚོན་མཆོག་ལི་ཁྲི་) • Made from cinnabar mineral as  sindhura powder • Used in ancient Indian culture. • Represents love and passion, and substance for magnetizing activities. • A Brahmin named Jyotisharajaoffered the vermillion to the Buddha, who blessed it as a sacred substance. • Clear Mirror (གསལ་བའི་མེ་ལོང་) • Apure object that reflects all things equally, the mirror represents the open, luminous and empty nature of the mind in which all empirical experiences are reflected naturally without distortion. • Goddess Prabhavati offered a mirror to the Buddha, who blessed it as a sacred symbol of the enlightened mind.

7. Tashi Dzegyé(བཀྲ་ཤིས་རྫས་བརྒྱད་) • The Giwang Medicine (སྨན་མཆོག་གིཝང་) • A bezoar found in the digestive tract of animals. And considered to have high medicinal value • An elephant is considered most efficacious, and the elephant Sasrung (also known as Norkyong) is said to have offered bezoar to the Buddha who blessed it as a sacred substance with a power to heal and stimulate supramundane powers. • The Mustard Seed (ཡུངས་འབྲུ་དཀར་པོ་) • Mustard seeds are renowned for their perceived power to alleviate problems and annihilate evil forces. • Vajrapani is said to have offered mustard seeds to the Buddha, who blessed them as a sacred substance to get rid of negative energies and exorcize evil forces. • Widely used in tantric rituals of exorcism and subjugation.