On May 25th, 2013 His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche, abbot and guru of the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center, will be presiding over the auspicious “Acalanatha Fire Puja” at the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in Kyoto, Japan. Participants will include distinguished Japanese guests and disciples as well as 180 disciples and believers from the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in Taiwan. This puja will be held not only to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the inauguration of the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in Kyoto, but also to pray for blessings for, and to increase the good fortune of, the Japanese nation and its people.

The “Fire Offering” is a very auspicious tantric Dharma within Tibetan Buddhism that can only be performed by a practitioner whose fruition level is as high as that of a Rinpoche. This time Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche will be performing the “Acalanatha Fire Offering,” with Acalanatha as the main yidam to whom the “Fire Offering” will be made. The “Fire Offering” is part of the Pacification method, one of the four Dharma methods that include “pacifying to cease calamities, increasing benefits, empowering with reverence and kindness, and subduing wrath.” The “Fire Offering” is incredibly effective in the appeasement of ghosts and demons, the prevention of disaster, and in bringing about good fortune. Furthermore, it can help subdue the demons of death, illness, heaven, and affliction, as well as eliminate hindrances to learning Buddhism. Acalanatha has a particularly profound affinity with Japan, where the yidam is widely revered through offerings and worship. At the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in Kyoto, a special shrine has been set up to house the statue of Acalanatha that Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche respectfully brought from Yunnan to Japan many years ago. This shows the profound affinity that exists between Acalanatha and Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche as well as the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in Japan. On May 25th of last year (2012), during His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s performance of the Fire Offering, the arrival of the yidam was heralded by an auspicious emanation: in the flames, Acalanatha could clearly be seen standing in the same posture as that of the statue inside the Kyoto Buddhist Center, and so could an image of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche sitting in a stately manner performing the Dharma. This was a manifestation of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s awe-inspiring, benevolent power and attunement with the yidam while performing the Dharma.

Since the inauguration of the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in Kyoto, Japan on May 29th, 2008, when His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang led him to hold the ritual for the first time, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche has performed the “Fire Offering” in Japan every year. The purposes are to pass on the Dharma lineage of the Drikung Kagyu Order, to continue the teachings of His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang, to make respectful offerings to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and to give charity to all sentient beings in the void.

This year, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche will preside over the rare and auspicious “Acalanatha Fire Puja” and bestow upon all sentient beings a Dharma rain of compassion and wisdom, thus allowing them to gain limitless merits and benefits.

Updated on May 6, 2013