“This year, there have been many disasters in the world, wildfires, floods, tornados, earthquakes, and epidemics, these occurrences result from our past karma.  It is taught that there are two types of karma, the shared karma of appearances and the particular karma of experience.  These bad karmic results occur because of all sentient beings’ bad karma, and they may also happen due to the bad actions individuals have accumulated.  What we need to do to help is to accumulate the two accumulations of merit and wisdom.  Of these two, the accumulation of merit includes offering to the three jewels and giving to the unfortunate.  Doing this has great benefits.  One type of offering we can make is to light lamps.  If we do so with an altruistic attitude without any attachment, as a method to awaken all sentient beings from the sleep of ignorance and with the intention of protecting sentient beings from suffering, then we have a good heart and the offering is good.  Offering lamps in this way will bring its own particular great benefit.  So if we offer lamps as a way to accumulate merit, it will dispel the darkness of ignorance. 

These days, due to our bad karma, we feel a lot of greed and hatred.  We experience a lot of ignorance.  Because of ignorance, we create a lot of suffering, such as the suffering of war and weapons.  As a way to prevent this, we offer lamps and pray to dispel the darkness of ignorance and make prayers.  We can offer 100,000 or 10,000 lamps.  Even if we can’t do that many, if many people gather and offer hundreds or thousands of lamps, it is a great merit.  For ourselves individually, it will help prevent obstacles, adversity, illness, and suffering, and it will also help others.  It will bring happiness and pleasure to the whole world.  Thus, it is truly excellent to offer lamps and gather the accumulation of merit.  It will bring great benefits.”

―  Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, November 2020