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The '''eight auspicious substances''' (Tib. བཀྲ་ཤིས་རྫས་བརྒྱད་, ''tashi dzé gyé'', [[Wyl.]] ''bkra shis rdzas brgyad'') have great auspicious significance because each of them commemorates a specific occasion connected with the arising of [[Dharma]] in this world, its teaching, its increase, and the demonstration of its power and benefit.

There are variations in the lists of the eight auspicious substances and the order in which they appear in a list. This is one list which also has descriptions of the specific occasion that they commemorate.<ref>[[Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche]], ''Medicine Buddha Teachings'', pages 53-56, Snow Lion Publications, ISBN 1-55939-216-9.</ref>

:1. right-coiling conch shell (Tib. དུང་དཀར་དགྱས་འཁྱིལ་, Wyl. ''dung dkar gyas ‘khyil'')
:2. yogurt (Tib. ཞོ་, Wyl. ''zho'')
:3. durva grass (Tib. རྩ་དུར་བ་, Wyl. ''rtsa dur ba'')
:4. [[vermilion]] (Tib. ལི་ཁྲི་, Wyl. ''li khri'')
:5. bilva fruit (Tib. ཤིང་ཏོག་བིལ་བ་, Wyl. ''shing tog bil ba'')
:6. mirror (Tib. མེ་ལོང་, Wyl. ''me long'')
:7. givam (Tib. འགི་ཝང་, Wyl. ''‘gi wang'')
:8. white mustard seed (Tib. ཡུངས་དཀར་, Wyl. ''yungs dkar'')

==Explanation According to Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche==
The first of these is the '''conch shell'''. Immediately after the [[Buddha]]’s awakening he realized that, although he himself had seen perfectly and completely the nature of all things, the [[dharmata]]—which is profound and tranquil and beyond all elaboration—he felt that were he to try to explain this to anyone else, they would be unable to understand it. So he resolved to remain  in  [[samadhi]], alone  in  the  forest. After  he  had  remained in samadhi for forty-nine days, the god [[Indra]], who was an emanation of a [[bodhisattva]], appeared in front of the Buddha and offered him a white conch shell with its spiral going clockwise as an offering to encourage the Buddha to teach. It was in response to that first offering that the Buddha decided to turn the [[three turnings|dharmachakra]], or to teach the dharma.

The second auspicious substance is '''yogurt'''. This is connected with the Buddha’s teaching that in order to practice [[dharma]] properly we need to abandon or transcend [[two extremes]] in lifestyle or conduct. One of these extremes is hedonism, in which your goal and your endeavor is to seek as much pleasure as possible—including the acquisition of fine clothes, fine food, and so on. The problem with this extreme is that, if it becomes your goal or obsession, it leaves no time or energy for the practice of dharma. But we also need to abandon the other extreme, which is mortification of the body, because the attempt to attain something through tormenting or depriving your physical body of what it needs does not lead to awakening, and in fact can slow down your progress towards the development of profound wisdom. In order to show by example that it is necessary to abandon the extreme of hedonism, the Buddha left the palace of his father, who was a king, and lived for six years on the banks of the Naranjana River in conditions of utmost austerity. But in order to show that one must also abandon  the  extreme  of  mortification,  he  accepted  immediately  before  his awakening an offering of a mixture of yogurt and extremely condensed milk, which was given to him by a Brahmin woman named Lekshe. Immediately upon his consuming this offering of yogurt, all of the marks and signs of physical perfection which adorn the body of a buddha, which had become somewhat indistinct during his years of austerity, immediately became distinct and resplendent.

The third auspicious substance is '''durva grass''', which was offered to the Buddha by the grass-cutter and seller Tashi—meaning auspicious—shortly before his awakening, from which he made the mat-like seat on which he sat at the time of his awakening.

The fourth auspicious substance is '''[[vermilion]]'''. The origin of the auspiciousness  of  vermilion  is  this: When  the  Buddha  was  in  the  process  of attaining awakening or just about to attain it, [[Mara]] appeared and, exhibiting various sorts of unpleasant magical displays in order to obstruct the Buddha, finally challenged him, saying, “You cannot attain awakening; you cannot do this.” In response to which the Buddha said, “Yes, I can, because I have completed the two accumulations over three periods of innumerable eons.” In response, Mara said, “Well, who is your witness? Who can you bring to prove this?”—in response to which the Buddha extended his right hand down past his right knee and touched the earth. The goddess of the earth then appeared out of the earth and, offering the Buddha vermilion, said,  “I  serve  as  witness  that  he  has  completed  the  two  accumulations throughout these three periods of innumerable eons.”

The fifth auspicious substance is '''bilva fruit'''. The origin of the auspiciousness of this fruit is that when the Buddha, while living in the palace compound of his father, the king of the Shakyas, first observed the [[Four Noble Truths|sufferings]] of birth, aging, sickness, and death and resolved to attain freedom from them, he initially went to the root of a tree and practiced meditation there. During that time he developed a perfect state of [[shamatha]], in acknowledgment of which the goddess or spirit of the tree offered him a bilva fruit.

The sixth auspicious substance is a '''mirror.''' The origin of the auspiciousness of the mirror is that when the Buddha had received and consumed the yogurt which he was offered by the Brahmin woman Lekshe, his physical form,  which  had  become  emaciated  from  his  six  years  of  austerity,  was restored  to  its  full  vigor  and  majesty,  causing  the  thirty-two  marks  and eighty signs of physical perfection to be vivid and apparent, in response to which the goddess of form—which in this instance appears to be a goddess of the desire realm gods—appeared in front of the Buddha and offered him a mirror so that he could witness his own physical majesty and splendor.

The seventh auspicious substance is called '''givam''', a medicinal substance that is derived from some part of the body of the elephant—possibly from the elephant’s gall bladder. It is auspicious because it commemorates an occasion  long  after  the  Buddha’s  awakening  when  the  Buddha’s  cousin, [[Devadatta]]—who was always attempting to kill or otherwise harm the Buddha and had been doing so for many lives because he was afflicted with great jealousy of the Buddha—finally attempted to assassinate the Buddha by sending a mad elephant running out into the path where the Buddha was walking. The Buddha emanated ten lions from his ten fingers, which slowed the elephant down. The elephant then bowed to the Buddha and offered himself, including his body, to the Buddha. Since ''givam'', which is an effective medicine, comes from the body of an elephant, it commemorates that occasion in which the Buddha conquered the aggression of the mad elephant.

The eighth auspicious substance is '''white mustard seed''', which was offered to the Buddha by [[Vajrapani]] on one of the fifteen days during the Buddha’s period of exhibition of miracles. At one time during the Buddha’s lifetime there were six prominent non-Buddhist religious teachers in India. At one point they gathered together and, in order to attempt to discredit the Buddha, they challenged him to a competition of miracles. The Buddha accepted and the competition occurred at the beginning of what is now  the  first  month  of  the Tibetan  and  Asian  calendars. The  Buddha’s exhibition of miracles occurred from the first to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. For the first eight days, the six other religious teachers competing  were  still  present,  but  on  the  eighth  day  the  Buddha  scared them off in the following way: From the Buddha’s throne the bodhisattva Vajrapani, accompanied by five fearsome [[rakshasa]]s, emerged. Seeing that, the six [[tirthika]] teachers ran off as fast as they could and did not come back. For the remaining week the Buddha exhibited miracles alone without any competition. When Vajrapani emerged from the Buddha’s throne, he offered the Buddha white mustard seed, which therefore commemorates this occasion.<ref>[[Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche]], ''Medicine Buddha Teachings'', pages 53-56, Snow Lion Publications, ISBN 1-55939-216-9.</ref>

==Alternative Lists==
The '''eight auspicious substances''' (Sky. ''aṣṭamaṅgaladravya''; [[Wyl.]] ''bkra shis rdzas brgyad'') —
#the mirror (Skt. ''ādarśa''; Wyl. ''me long'')
#''ghiwang'' medicine (Skt. ''gorocāna''; Wyl. ''ghi wang'')
#yoghurt (Skt. ''dadhi''; Wyl. ''zho'')
#''durva'' grass (Skt. ''dūrvā''; Wyl. ''rtsva dur ba'')
#''bilva'' fruit (Skt. ''bilva''; Wyl. ''shin tog bil ba'')
#a conch-shell that spirals to the right (Skt. ''dakṣiṇavartaśaṅkha''; Wyl. ''dung g.yas dkyil'')
#[[cinnabar]] (Skt. ''sindūra''; Wyl. ''li khri'')
#mustard seeds (Skt. ''sarṣapa''; Wyl. ''yungs kar'')


#.
#Bezoar medicine
#curd
#.
#.
#.
#vermilion
#.

==References==
<small><references/></small>

==Further Reading==
*[[Dagyab Rinpoche]], ''Buddhist Symbols in Tibetan Culture'' (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995), '2. The Eight Bringers of Good Fortune'.
*Robert Beer, ''The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols'' (Boston: Shambhala, 2003), pages 16-26.

[[Category:Shrine and Ritual]]
[[Category:Symbols]]
[[Category:Enumerations]]
[[Category:08-Eight]]