About the Magic Mantra Machine

Usernames & (new) passwords

If you have joined Dupseng Rinpoche’s Mani Project 2015 and used our “Magic Mani Machine” you can continue with the same email address you used back then. Please use the password reset service to have a password mailed to you, unless..

If you have been a dharma-elearning.net member at the end of last week, you should be able to log in with the same credentials you are using there.

If you have used a different email address here and on dharma-elearning.net, it would be quite helpful if you could now use the same username as on dharma-elearning.net, as we are planning to merge the two platforms in the near future and not having to match different usernames on top of everything else would make things a lot easier.

Of course if you used a fictional email address to count during the Mani Project, this won’t work, in that case simply create a new account and contact us to let us know the old and the new so we can prepare to connect the dots during that later stage.

What to count

The accumulations from the Mani Project have been (temporarily) moved to mp15.dharma.online, where you can still review all the results of the project. Only the counts entered significantly after the end of the project have been kept here (for now) and are recorded as Chenrezig counts.

Which brings me to the next, and possibly biggest, thing about the Magic Mantra Machine: You can now count and accumulate as many different practices as you are actually doing.

Centers & groups

You can also change your center and create new centers (if yours isn’t listed), so we hope to get things much more lively in terms of distribution over different centers around the world.

If you are recording accumulations for a whole group, you can indicate that in the profile now, and your counts will show in a separate list from those who count individually.

Dedications of merit

Rinpoche and his monks will include all practices counted here in a new grand dedication ceremony on February 8/9 as part of the Mahakala group retreat and Losar ceremonies in Jangchub Choeling, so we’ve fixed the end of the next stretch to February 8.

If tough deadlines motivate you, go for that. If not, be assured that there will be other dedication ceremonies throughout the year, so of course you can do things at your own speed.

Targets for more oomph and more merit

Like before the system calculates how many mantras you still need to do on a given day as well as from the next day until the end of the project in order to reach your target, if you have set a target. The difference now is that you need to set a separate target for each practice you accumulate. The app will add it all up and let you know how much you still need to do overall.

We highly recommend setting those targets. Next to seeing the numbers growing around you, having others see how you are doing against your target and the “left today” and “remaining daily” figures have the greatest motivating effect. Accountability is the buzzword out there in samsara for this kind of thing. And something with social, I think. Anyway, targets are great.

Quality of your practice

Having said all this, of course quality is of first and foremost importance. Targets can be a great help for many of us, as can be the feeling of competition growing the accumulations side-by-side with others or other centers. As Rinpoche points out, however, the most important thing is the quality of your practice. So while we’d like to encourage you to accumulate, please take good care of the quality of your practice.

Visibility

Your total counts and the sum of your targets (like in the Mani Project) will be visible in the lists, however, which practices you do, and the separate counts and targets for each will only be visible for you, so you won’t have to worry about samaya of secrecy.

Beginningless: What to do with what you’ve accumulated before today

You can also record a starting value for each practice, called “accumulated so far” that will show up in the totals and of course be dedicated as well. So if you’re doing ngondro, share how much you’ve already done right there and set a good target for each of the practices you are doing, and on Losar all your merit for all of it will be dedicated.

Endless: we’ll be counting well into the next Kalpa…or at least past the next dedication ceremony

The other big difference with the Mani Project is that it’s not a singular event. The Magic Mantra Machine is now here to stay and support you in your ongoing practice. Forever is a long time but at least as long as conditions will be sufficient. So while the numbers may not grow as spectacularly as they did in November and December, the effect for each of us can still be just as incredible.

We’re working on the next manifestation already, which will see even more powerful features to help us keep our practice moving. Keep practicing and keep counting on the Magic Mantra Machine!

Bring your friends and their friends and their friends…

And, as these social things go, it’ll work the better the more people join and log their practices. We haven’t (yet) integrated an “invite” and “challenge” function, so please reach out to your dharma brothers and sisters in any way you can and bring them into the mix.

The more the merrier, or, more to the point here, the more the merit.

Speaking of which. We would like to invite you to join us in rejoicing and gratitude for the merit of generosity and aspiration of our beloved benefactors and sponsors, and of course encourage you to become one, too.

Click here to make a direct offering, visit the Dana pages on Dharma-eLearning.net, or contact rinpoche@dupseng.org for more.