Metaphysics Q&A 158 – Prayers for reciting Little Houses
Q158: Master Lu, when we recite Little Houses, do we say the same prayers as we do for our Daily Recitation? In the past, I was not aware of this and I have been saying the same prayers. Recently, I was told that this is not encouraged. What should I do?
A158:
Daily Recitation is different to recitations for Little Houses. Daily Recitation is similar to our daily expenditure, whereas Little Houses are similar to mortgage or loan payments. We need to separate the prayers and the number of recitations that we perform for each of them. Please do not mix them up. We pray for ourselves when we perform our Daily Recitation e.g. for good health, gaining wisdom, etc. Little Houses are offered to Karmic Creditors or deceased people. We do not pray for ourselves as recitations for Little Houses are for the purpose of repaying karmic debts.
In the case where we have a strong intention to pray for ourselves while we recite Little Houses, and we do not promptly fill in the red dots in the circles on the Little Houses after we finish reciting, then the recitations performed are very likely to become part of our Daily Recitation instead. In other words, when we fill in the circles at a later stage, the energy or merits from the recitation would already have been used, which would void the Little House. This could be one of the reasons why some Buddhist followers still do not experience significant effects even after they have offered a large number of Little Houses. Please ensure that we do not fill in the Little Houses with the recitations that we perform for our Daily Recitation, or include prayers for ourselves when we are reciting Little Houses.
For Little Houses that are reserved for future use, we do not include any specific prayers, or mention anyone’s name. The energy or merits from the recitation is automatically stored in the Little House when we fill in the circles. At a later stage when we fill in the “Offer To” field, the Little Houses will be received by that merit receiver, which could be our Karmic Creditor, deceased people, etc.
We do not include prayers for ourselves when we recite Little Houses.
If we already know the name of the merit receiver, then it is best to fill in the merit receiver on the Little Houses before we start the recitation. We can say the following prayer, “May the Great Merciful and Great Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva help me, <full name> to offer these Little Houses to <merit receiver>”. The merit receiver can be someone’s Karmic Creditor, a deceased person, a child that was aborted or miscarried, or the Karmic Creditor of someone’s house.
For Little Houses that are reserved for future use, we can say the following prayer, “May the Great Merciful and Great Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva witness the <name of the sutra or mantra> that I, <full name>, recite for the Little Houses.” The name of the sutra or mantra can be the Great Compassion Mantra (Ta Pei Chou), Heart Sutra (Hsin Ching), Amitabha Pure Land Rebirth Mantra (Wang Sheng Chou), or Sapta Atitabuddha Karasaniya Dharani (Chi Fo Mieh Tsui Chen Yan). It is best not to say anything extra.
It is best to fill in the name of reciter before we start the recitation for Little Houses, regardless of whether the Little Houses are reserved for future use or not. This helps to ensure that the energy or merits are properly stored in the Little Houses. Sometimes when we fill in the circles before we fill in the name of the reciter, other spirits may take the energy or merits from the recitation.
