His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche, the abbot of the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center, will preside over an auspicious Guru Puja on May 25, 2011 and an Acalanatha Fire Puja on May 28 at the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in Kyoto, Japan. The events will be attended by local Japanese believers and an estimated 150 Taiwanese disciples. In addition to commemorating the third anniversary of the inauguration of the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in Kyoto, the pujas will also be held to bless the earthquake victims in Northeastern Japan and to release them from purgatory, as well as to bring blessings to Japan and its people.

Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche constantly teaches his disciples that charity and offerings are the fundamental practices of learning Buddhism. They are also the easiest and most efficient means to accumulate merits. Since sentient beings of this age of degenerative dharma have few merits and heavy karma, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche performs the Guru Puja every year to express gratitude to the lineage gurus and to help everyone accumulate provisions of virtues and merits for their Buddhist practice as soon as possible.

The tantric rituals to be performed in the Fire Puja of Tibetan Buddhism are so extraordinary that only the practitioners who have attained the level of Rinpoche are capable of performing them. The fire puja that Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche will preside over this time is a Peace Activity; it is one of the four activities, Peace, Power, Increase, and Wrath. The puja is incredibly effective in terms of subduing ghosts and devils, eliminating disasters and hardships, and pursuing good fortune while avoiding disasters. Acalanatha is a Yidam that has a particularly profound karmic connection with Japan and is widely revered and worshiped around the country. In the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in Kyoto, there is also an especially revered statue of Acalanatha, which passed through many hands and eventually was bought by Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche in Yunnan years ago. This illustrates that Acalanatha has a very deep karmic connection with Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche and the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center.

On the May 2008 inauguration day of the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in Kyoto, His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang led Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche in performing the rituals of the Fire Puja. Since then, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche has presided over the Fire Puja annually not only to make offerings towards the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas but also to give alms to all sentient beings in the universe, bringing vast and unlimited benefits to sentient beings in the Six Realms.

Updated on May 2, 2011