Bön takes "sang" as a rite of purification of the most ancient root—ancestors offered juniper smoke to the sky-gods and purified the earth-spirits; later Tonpa Shenrab wove it into the teaching as the perfect means to purify body, speech, mind, and environment. A sang cloud rises, carried by wind across valleys, and lifts the heaviness and obscuration of a household too.

Bön's sang rests on Tonpa Shenrab's view of "purifying the three actions": smoke is not truly existent; giver, receiver, and gift are empty of inherent nature, yet compassion excludes no one. The priest intones the deity mantra, seeing the cloud transform into measureless pure nectar—upward to the founder and Three Roots, downward to all hungry ghosts and bardo beings. One dedication and even karmic creditors are cleansed.

• **Purifies environment.** Sang clears the turbid air and obscuration of dwelling, shrine, and body-mind, leaving one clear and bright.
• **Releases karmic knots.** Offering widely to all karmic creditors dissolves old enmity; the home's air grows clear too.
• **Relieves hungry ghosts.** Starving spirits may not hear "water" for eons; one wisp of food-smoke is a great cause of liberation.

The sang purification proceeds thus:

• **Prepare and burn.** The priest lawfully compounds aromatic herbs, juniper, and pure water, burning them into a cloud in a clean place.
• **Mantra and visualization.** Intoning the deity mantra and sang mantra, he sees the cloud become measureless pure nectar.
• **Threefold dedication.** Upward to the founder and Three Roots, downward to the six realms—especially dedicating to the dead and all karmic creditors.
• **Peaceful completion.** A complete dedication lets all recipients be free of suffering and the environment be pure.

You need not be present—only join that one thought of purity in your heart; the sang carries your vow to the ten directions.