སྟང་ཆན་མ་རབ་ཏ་འཇམས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་མད 47

47

One should even consider food mixed with the five kinds of impure food as being unmixed with the five kinds of impure food. One should also consider all compounded phenomena as impermanent, impermanence as suffering, and suffering as selfless. Where are the five kinds of impure food? Who has the five kinds of impure food? Who eats the five kinds of impure food? No sentient being is perceived.

“If alms are adulterated with the five kinds of impure foods, one should protect oneself on the eighth, fourteenth, and fifteenth lunar days. On those days, a girl of royal caste, who has been well cleansed, well adorned, and who has fasted for a day and taken the five precepts, should wind four red strings into a cord. Then, while the incantation is being recollected by a holder of the secret mantra, a knot should be tied in the cord. Next the cord should be cut with a new knife and burned. Then, the cord should be laid in a jewel or metal vessel filled with water, covered with flowers, and scented with various fragrances. This incantation should then be recited until the cord surfaces inside the vessel. The cord should then be tied to the wrist and the following should be recited:

“ ‘Deceived by his priests,
Śrīgupta made an offering³⁷
Of poisonous alms
To the protector, the Lion of the Śākyas.

“ ‘Accepting it from him,
The teacher removed the poison and ate the alms.
Through these words of truth,
May food be transformed into ambrosia!

“ ‘May Brahmā and Indra—
Lord of the gods and sovereign over the realm of the Thirty-Three—
The four guardians of the world,
Māṇibhadra, Maheśvara,
The rākṣasī Mahākālī,
And likewise Caṇḍa Caṇḍālinī—

“ ‘All with fierce devotion
For Vipaśyin in his divinity,
Śikhin, Viśvabhū,
Krakucchanda,
Powerful in his divinity,
Kanakamuni, Kāśyapa,
And the Lion of the Śākyas—

“ ‘Accept these flowers, fragrances,
And burnt offerings!

“ ‘Thus satiated and revered,