At 5PM of August 16, 2009, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche presided over an auspicious Chod puja of Drikung Kagyu Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism at the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center, Kyoto, Japan. The puja was attended by a total of 108 people, including local Japanese believers and disciples from Taiwan. The day was also the Daimonji Gozan Okuribi (Daimonji Bonfire), a famous traditional festival in Kyoto. Besides, although Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche had just practiced Phowa around noon for a disciple who had passed away in Japan that day, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche still presided over the auspicious Chod puja of Drikung Kagyu Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism as scheduled, demonstrating the extraordinarily vast merciful and compassionate vows of a Vajrayana Guru.

At the start of the puja, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche gave enlightenment to the attendees. “It was the second year for the Chod puja to be conducted here on August 16th. Many people in Japan go to the monasteries to make worship this day, and in August, according to their traditions, a lot of Chinese people visit the monasteries to make worship as well. Everyone’s purpose of worship is to worship their ancestors, and some people do it to pray for peace. In Buddhism, there is an underlying story behind the ceremonies held in August. In the time of Buddha, one of the main disciples of Buddha Sakyamuni, Maudgalyayana, who was the first in the attainment of supernatural power, once saw through his supernatural power that his mother had fallen into the Realm of Hungry Ghost after her death. The sentient beings in the Realm of Hungry Ghost are able to see the food, but unable to eat it. Even if they swallow the food, it will turn into flames while going through the throat and thus cause great suffering. As stated in the Buddhist sutras, the sentient beings in the Realm of Hungry Ghost would scramble to eat human feces, urine or even phlegm. What kind of people would fall into the Realm of Hungry Ghost after death then? Those who don’t practice charities in their lives, prevent others from practicing charities and offerings, or even regret their practice of charities will fall into the Realm of Hungry Ghost after they die. In the Buddhist sutras, the form of a hungry ghost is described to have a head larger than its body, a thin neck, a huge abdomen, and thin limbs. In fact, we sometimes see that it is how African children who suffer from hunger look like.

Maudgalyayana saw that his mother couldn’t have food to eat, so he had food sent to her by his supernatural powers. Upon going through his mother’s throat, the food turned into flames, so she couldn’t swallow it. Therefore, Maudgalyayana asked Buddha Sakyamuni how to save his mother. It happened to be summertime back then. In the time of Buddha Sakyamuni, all the disciples would accompany Buddha Sakyamuni to conduct a retreat during summertime, the so-called summer retreat. 3000 years ago, temperatures in the Indian summer were as high as the ones we have nowadays, and taking a long walk outside would be inadvisable. Besides, there are so many insects crawling on the ground in summer. If one doesn’t pay enough attention, he will step over these beings and kill them. So, the ordained people were advised not to walk outside. Buddha Sakyamuni told Maudgalyayana that the ordained were about to come out of their retreat and instructed Maudgalyayana to make offerings to those ordained people who would come out of their summer retreat as well as to dedicate the merits and virtues to his mother, thereby making her to obtain rebirth in the Realm of Heavens.

What we can learn from this story is firstly that the Buddhist teaching emphasizes filial piety. As long as our parents and ancestors are still suffering, we have to come to their rescue. Secondly, even though Maudgalyayana has great supernatural power, he still didn’t have enough merits to transfer the consciousnesses, and thus was unable to help his mother. Thirdly, it is important for the sentient beings to make offerings. As stated in the Buddhist sutras, one will accumulate vast merits and virtues when making offerings to Arhats, and will accumulate even greater merits and virtues when making offerings to practitioners who aspire to be Bodhisattvas. More merits and virtues will be accumulated through making offerings to Bodhisattvas in Vajrayana than to Bodhisattvas of Exoteric Buddhism. Therefore, if one makes offerings to a wrong person, he will not be able to help his ancestors.

The practice of Buddha-Dharma could be classified into: 1. Hinayana, of which the doctrines are based on the Four Noble Truths and the Twelve Nidanas, and the stage of its path to enlightenment is the position of Arhat. The most representative sect in Japan is Agon Shu in Kyoto, and its practice is in accordance with Agama Sutra that depicts the ways of practice of Arhat. 2. Mahayana, of which the doctrines are based on the practice of the Six Paramitas, and the stages of its path to enlightenment are from the position of bodhisattva ground (first ground) to the position of ten Bhumis. The representative sects in Japan are Zen school, Pure Land Buddhism, Huayang school、and Lotus Sutra Zong. 3. Vajrayana, or known sect of secret true words, and the practices could be classified into four stages, namely Kriya tantra, charya tantra, yoga tantra, highest yoga tantra, and the stages of its path to enlightenment are from the position of bodhisattva ground (first ground) to the attainment of Buddhahood. The representative sect in Japan is the Eastern Tantric sect that was transmitted from Tang Tantra in Tang Dynasty in China. In the Eastern Tantric sect, the tantra to be attained accomplishment is Kriya tantra and charya tantra only, and therefore its main practice is Mandala. The so-called Japanese Tiantai school was transmitted from Tiantai Zong, mainly focus on the process of change of mind, from Zen’s view. In China, there are no people who practice Tiantai Zong since its practice is too minute and complicated.

The Dharma to be performed today is the practice of Tibetan tantra. Tibetan tantric practices has all four stages of trantra. This Dharma is called “Chod” in Tibetan, by the definition to cut off, a way to cut off the suffering of birth and death. The Dharma performed today is of the stage of highest yoga tantra.

There are Eight Sadhana practices of Tibetan Buddhism, and Chod is one of them. One who has the best capacity and practice this dharma could be enlightened and attain Buddhahood. One who has the middle capacity and practice this dharma could attain Buddhahood soon after he dies. One who has the lowest capacity and practices this dharma could attain Buddhahood in his next life.

In Tibetan Buddhism, there are four major Tibetan Buddhist Schools, namely Nyngmapa, Kagyupa, Sakyapa, and Gelukpa. The practices of Nyngma and Kagyu are mainly esoteric practices, while Sakya and Geluk mainly focus on exoteric sutras.

Chod is of great help for the sentient beings who have fallen into the realm of Hell and Ghost, and it is extraordinarily auspicious to transfer the consciousness of those who die an unnatural death (of being drowned, in a car accident, being killed) by the Chod Dharma. It is also very helpful to cure the diseases caused from the harm by ghosts and deities. People nowadays especially are likely to offend ghosts and deities, making them angry by killing, fishing by a river, hunting animals in a forest, hacking trees, contaminating water source, barbecuing by the river in mountains, blasting through the mountain with bombs, and etc. All the above actions will offend ghosts and deities, such as mountain gods, water gods, and tree gods. By doing those, in mild cases, they would acquire incurable diseases. Although the medical science is developing rapidly now, there are even more incurable diseases newly developed. Many cases of dying in a natural disaster are caused by offending ghosts and deities. Performing this dharma could pacify the anger of ghosts and deities. There is still another special benefit of performing this dharma. It could pacify the rage of ghost king that not only controls the spirits of some people after their death but also make them in suffering and sorrow.

The practitioner of Chod needs to possess great mercy, compassion, merits and virtues, profound meditation and keep precepts very well. While performing Chod, the practitioner offers with his own body towards ghosts and deities, as well as makes an offering towards Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Therefore, the practitioner does not wear or take any Buddhist photo or protection object with him. You can not learn it now, since one has to accomplish many practices to achieve the attainment of transforming one’s body into the nectar. Nectar is a kind of food like water. The sentient beings could obtain merits and virtues by eating nectar. You can not perform the dharma as Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche does, since your flesh is smelly and ghosts do not want to eat it.

So today Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche, on behalf of all Japanese believers, makes offerings to all the ancestors, ghosts, and gods and hopes that this will help your careers, health, families, this area, and the peace of the whole nation.” The above remarks spoken by Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche represent the motivation of attending this puja. Then, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche removed the protective object wearing in the body and enlightened the attendees that we could think our parents, ancestors, and elders being on our right-hand side, our younger generation, our same generation being on our left-hand side, the sentient beings in the six realms of reincarnation (Heaven, Asura, Human, Animal, Hungry Ghost, Hell) being behind us, and the karmic creditors who have grudges with us being in front of us. Thinking that for a moment was enough. Following that, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche started to conduct the auspicious Chod dharma.

After the perfect completion of the dharma, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche enlightened, “the Japanese followers must be very curious about what is performing during the conduction of the dharma. This dharma text covers the dharma texts from both Exoteric Buddhism and Esoteric Buddhism. Some of them can be translated to let all of you know. During the conduction of the dharma, it is necessary to use Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s mighty strengths to gather all the gods in the world (including all heavenly gods, area gods), the devils who make us sick, all karmic creditors who have grudges with us, all Gandhabba (the god who offers incense to Buddha and Bodhisattvas), Yama, the dragons, Yaksha, the goddesses, Rasetsu (the ghost specialized in eating human beings), powerful devils, Brahma, the sun, the moon, the stars, all dragon gods, land gods, many different ghosts, the accomplished devils, very ferocious monsters, the little devils, the sick devils, the devils who let us die young or shorten our life span, the devils who let us get plagues, ghosts of mountains and rivers, and the harridan; they are all gathered here to receive the blood and flesh given from Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche. Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche did this on behalf of you to eliminate the past animosities between those sentient beings mentioned above and you. So it is very hard to conduct this dharma. If you are careful, you will notice that the voice of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche before conducting the dharma is much more sonorous than the voice now, since Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche needed to spend a lot of virtues to conduct the dharma. This demonstrates the merciful and compassionate heart of a Vajrayana practitioner.”

After that, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche led all attendees to practice the dharma protector ritual to thank the dharma protector for protecting the puja to be completed perfectly, and also thank the dharma protector for letting all successfully come to attend puja. If there is no dharma protector’s help, there would be many difficulties.

In addition, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche noticed that there is a Pure Land Buddhist temple known as the millions of times in Kyoto. We do not know how this millions of times are practiced, but it is not easy for a practitioner of Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism to practice and reach millions of times. One first needs to practice for ten years to understand the meanings of the Buddhist sutras. Then a Vajra guru transmits the dharmas of practice to the practitioner. He has to make one hundred thousand times of full prostration (the lead disciple demonstrated the flow of the full prostration), to recite a mantra of one hundred words for one hundred thousand times, to practice one hundred thousand times of mandala offering to Buddha, Bodhisattvas, and the guru, then to practice one hundred thousand times of Guru Yoga. Afterwards, the guru will bestow empowerments and transmit mantras. Reciting mantras has two parts including contemplation. The one hundred thousand times recitation of mantra needs to be performed during a retreat. During the retreat, one is not allowed to speak to anyone, not allowed to leave the retreat room, to be a vegetarian, not allowed to cut one’s hair, not allowed to cut one’s finger nails, not allowed to shave one’s beard, not allowed to speak on the phone. Only after reciting one hundred thousand times of mantras in such a way, one’s practice then can be effective and then can begin to attain accomplishment. If a guru only transmitted the method of reciting a mantra but did not teach how to contemplate or to perform a retreat, a practitioner cannot attain any accomplishment regardless how many times the mantra has been recited.

After all the attendees recited the dedication prayer, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche enlightened: “There are three stages in the rites. The first is the preliminary practice, i.e. why we do it today. In Vajrayana, everything we do is solely to benefit the beings. The second stage is the main practice, i.e. performing the ritual and reciting mantras. The third stage is dedication. Finally, reciting the prayer “Aspiration Prayer for Rebirth in Amitabha’s Pure Land” is to wish that we could obtain rebirth in the Amitabha’s Pure Land after the end of this life. Buddha’s pure lands are far more auspicious than heaven. Therefore, we recite this prayer every time after the completion of the dharma practice.”

All the gurus of the Vajrayana have the wish to transmit what they have learnt in this life. Establishing a Buddhist center in Japan, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche has a vow to disseminate the dharma in Japan thoroughly. But the propagation of Buddha Dharma needs the dependant origination. Though Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and gurus have the vow to help the beings, it is needed someone to plead for dharma so as the teachings can be transmitted. In other words, if you would like to learn something, you have to ask people. So does the dharma. If no one pleads with Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche to give the teachings, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche would only perform rituals but not transmit teachings because of no dependent conditions. However, the guru is quite patient, and will give teachings only if one plead for. The guru could tell the genuineness or fake of the pleading, since there can be nothing that Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche don’t know.

Last year, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche told the architect and the designer that this year it would have huge rainfall beyond the historical records; and it seems what Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche told is happening. Last year, the architect and the designer both were reluctant to believe it, because they thought Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche is not Japanese and how would have known the weather in Japan? Therefore, it’d better to believe the guru’s words.

Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche especially treated all the attendees dinner, and they also enjoyed Daimonji Bonfire festival in the yard of Buddhist center around eight o’clock. They didn’t need to go to the downtown which was crowded downtown and might be unable to see the bonfire either. The last owner of the house did not open this yard, but Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche opened it for the guests. Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche continued to enlighten on the attendees that “we should thank for those people who have made pretty much efforts to carry on many things to burn the bonfire for us. Thanks people for their devotion.”

Updated on August 20, 2009