Guru Dragpo Puja

From the Kopan Monastery website:

As Buddhists, Tibetans believe that if you want good circumstances, you yourself need to establish good conditions.  Losar rituals are concerned with inspiring a creative attitude, to establish a basis for a good new year.  On these first days of the year Tibetans engage in specific virtuous actions, and acts that are considered auspicious.

Moreover, in the days that precede Losar, the last days of the old year, everyone in the community is concerned with pacifying and removing left-over negativity.

During this time, Tibetan monasteries and temples undertake specific rites to expel negative habits from the old year, so these will not be carried into the New Year.  The lamas and monks will do a week of rituals, some of which culminate in the well-known lama dances. Moreover, in their homes, families prepare for the New Year by cleaning, and making new clothes.

From the Amitabha Foundation’s newsletter:

The annual Guru Dragpo puja at Ayang Rinpoche’s monastery in Bylakuppe, India, begins February 8 and continues through February 14, 2018.  Guru Dragpo is practiced at the end of the Tibetan lunar year to dispel obstacles and purify any remaining negativities in order to usher in happiness and prosperity for the New Year (Losar), which is February 16th this year.

We invite you to make an offering to help support the puja.

Ayang Rinpoche has said that anyone sponsoring Dharma activities gains the same merit as the practitioners.

Make a donation online here, or send a check made out to Amitabha Foundation.

You may include a dedication for your offering in the name of a loved one, living or deceased, including pets.  All names must be submitted to the Amitabha Foundation by February 12 at 5 PM Pacific Standard Time.

Your donation of any amount will be appreciated and will be like a drop of water mixed in an ocean of merit!

Becky Loy

for H. E. Chöje Ayang Rinpoche and the Amitabha Foundation

An auspicious day

Today is an auspicious day that not many people may know about.  It is the parinirvana date of the great scholar, master and vidhyadhara Longchen Rabjam (1308–1364).  Longchenpa was a major teacher within the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.

He is well known for compiling the essence of Buddhism within his works known as the Seven Treasures.  Most know that our late Holiness Penor Rinpoche was a manifestation of Vimalamitra.  He was also considered to be an emanation of Longchenpa too.

Longchen Rabjampa was born in Central Tibet.  Longchenpa’s parinirvana occurred on the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month of the Water-Female-Hare year.  This year it happens to fall on January 30th.  In the eastern culture it is common to go by the lunar calender, so every year it will be different.

The Kalachakra Tantra of Holding the Qualities of the Lama teaches:

The merit accumulated by making offerings on the anniversary of one’s lama will dispel negative karma and obscurations accrued for countless eons, like the rays of the sun dispelling darkness.

Making offerings or preparing a tsok feast is one of the most meritorous actions one can do on this special occasion.

New Year:

At the end of each year the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism hold a Drupchen to accumulate merit and purify the karmas of the passing year.  Ayang Rinpoche is a Drikung Kagyu lama who holds both Nyingma and Drikung lineage.  I received an email stating that their monastery will be performing a special Drupchen as follows:

Bylakuppe Monastery
Annual Guru Drakpo (Wrathful Guru Rinpoche) Drupchen
February 2-8, 2013

At the monastery, the wrathful practice of Guru Dragpo is performed on the final days of the year.  All the negative activities, bad fortune, and undesirable circumstances of the old year are burned and cleansed, and illness and obstacles are pacified.

Through this practice, all positive circumstances increase and Dharma activities can be accomplished in the new year.

You can sponsor 1 day/full 7 days for the benefit of ourselves and the world:

Meals for 280 monks – $30/$210
Offering materials – $10/$70
108 Butterlamps – $5/$35
Tsok – $15/$105
Offerings to monks, khenpos, Loppon, Chant master – $35/$245
Full Drupchen – $95/$665

Click here to access the Amitabha Foundation to donate.

Many Blessings,
Neo