The Great Indiscriminate Amitabha Puja for Transferring Consciousness of the Drikung Kagyu Order of Tibetan Buddhism

His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche presiding over the Great Indiscriminate Amitabha Puja for Transferring Consciousness of the Drikung Kagyu Order of Tibetan Buddhism

In order to promote Buddhism, benefit sentient beings and liberate them from the suffering sea of reincarnation, His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche presides over the Great Indiscriminate Amitabha Puja for Transferring Consciousness of the Drikung Kagyu Order in Taiwan every year. His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche is the abbot-guru of the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in Taiwan, as well as the only ngakpa guru of Han lineage in the Drikung Kagyu Order who has attained fruition through a lifetime of genuine cultivation. In 1988, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche took refuge under His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang, and has been practicing Buddhism diligently under the guidance of His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang ever since. In 1997, His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang held a grand enthronement ceremony for Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche, certifying Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche as a vajra guru of the Drikung Kagyu Order. In the same year, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche founded the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center. In 2007, he was bestowed the Dharma name of “Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche” by His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang. “Rinchen” represents the essence of countless treasures; “Dorjee” stands for vajra; so “Rinchen Dorjee” means Treasure Vajra, referring to the mind for promoting of Buddhism and benefiting sentient beings being as solid as a vajra that would remain constant forever.

His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche has cultivated compassion and wisdom of emptiness, and his compassion goes to sentient beings that suffer or die from natural disasters, accidents, war, and diseases. With the grand aspiration, the guru has been presiding over the Great Indiscriminate Amitabha Puja for Transferring Consciousness of the Drikung Kagyu Order in Taiwan every year, liberating sentient beings from the suffering sea of reincarnation and praying for blessings for countless sentient beings and the land of Taiwan as well as the world.

Photos of the 10,000-People Great Indiscriminate Amitabha Puja for Transferring Consciousness of the Drikung Kagyu Order of Tibetan Buddhism presided over by His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche
A panoramic view of the Great Indiscriminate Amitabha Puja for Transferring Consciousness of the Drikung Kagyu Order of Tibetan Buddhism presided over by His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche at the Nangang Exhibition Hall

The Great Dharma of Amitabha for Transferring Consciousness performed by Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche is the auspicious Earth Terma Tantra of the Drikung Kagyu Order. The practitioner must have gone through rigorous cultivation stages in order to perform this Dharma. That is why it is particularly auspicious and powerful when the Dharma is being performed. The practitioner performing the Great Dharma of Amitabha for Transferring Consciousness must have the foundation of at least 10 years of practicing in Exoteric Buddhism before he could practice the Vajrayana. Before practicing the Vajrayana, he has to perfect the Four Preliminary Practices before he could receive the Amitabha Empowerment. With that achieved, he then must go into retreat under the guidance of his guru, chant in the retreat room the Amitabha Heart Mantra at least one million times, and have attuned to the yidam. Upon perfect completion of the retreat, he then would cultivate to master the Phowa, which liberates the deceased to the Pure Land. With such accomplishments, the practitioner then could perform the Great Dharma of Amitabha for Transferring Consciousness. Additionally, the presiding practitioner must also have attained the fruition of a Rinpoche, with compassion of emptiness and the mind that has no desire for fame and profit for himself but for benefiting all sentient beings, helping them attain happiness and liberating them from suffering. Only thus would he be helpful to sentient beings. This tantric Dharma was personally and individually transmitted to Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche by His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang through the Four -Tantra Empowerments. Consequently, we know that the Great Dharma of Amitabha for Transferring Consciousness is a grand Dharma that is extremely rare and precious. Because of the great accomplishments of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche through his continuous diligent cultivation and compassionate aspiration to promote Buddhism and benefit sentient beings, every year, this grand event not only is bestowed special permission by His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang, but also receives best wishes and blessings from many accomplished practitioners within the Drikung Kagyu Order.

Before the Great Puja for Transferring Consciousness, His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche would go into retreat for several days, while instructing all the disciples to practice the ritual of Dharma Protector Achi at the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center for several days, praying for blessings for a smooth and perfect Puja. On the other hand, His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang would also lead the lamas in India in performing the Dharma and praying for blessings for the Grand Puja. So the sentient beings with the affinity to attend this Grand Puja indeed have the causal conditions and blessed rewards that are difficult to obtain.

Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche once said: If a practitioner who presides over the Great Indiscriminate Amitabha Puja for Transferring Consciousness does not have grand compassion and capability, he would not be able to liberate the participating sentient beings of such a Puja. These sentient beings would follow the presiding practitioner, who, over time, will have physical condition that would prevent him from presiding over the Puja any longer. Over the past few years, however, has seen Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche perform the Dharma with great perfection, with more and more people attending the Great Puja for Transferring Consciousness, and each year the speed at which enrollment of the maximum number of participants is reached faster than the year preceding it. This shows that the Great Puja for Transferring Consciousness has been perfectly successful each and every year. Countless sentient beings who have come to be liberated have received help from Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche without hindrance.

In Tibet, it usually takes one entire day to complete the Great Dharma of Amitabha for Transferring Consciousness. Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche, out of sympathetic consideration for the suffering sentient beings, finishes performing this Great Dharma with incredible power of meditation in just a little more than three hours. Moreover, from 2010, upon perfect completion of the Dharma, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche would stand on an electric vehicle to go back and forth through the entire venue, purifying and blessing over 20,000 attendees with nectar water, cleansing their bodies, speech, and mind. During each purification process, the kusha-grass in Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s hand would become very heavy after it is soaked with nectar water. In spite of this, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche would keep spraying the purified nectar water to the attendees who have been looking forward to this moment. Such physically demanding motion is repeated for over 40 minutes. His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche completely disregards the fact that he is a man of over 70 years old, that he has cervical dislocation, lumbar scoliosis, and pain in elbow and wrist joints, and that he has no synovial sac in the right shoulder, in order to fulfill sentient beings’ earnest desire. This selflessness and devotion to benefiting sentient beings with his entire life shows that His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche is truly a meritorious grand practitioner.

His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche spraying the purified nectar water to the attendees who have been looking forward to this moment, cleansing their bodies, speech and mind.

In order to help more believers fulfill their wish to attend the Great Puja of Transferring Consciousness, in 2006, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche moved the venue of the Puja from the National Taiwan University Sports Center to Taipei Arena until 2010, when he moved it again from Taipei Arena to the Taipei World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall. The numbers of attendees have increased from 5,000 at the beginning to 10,000, and then to as many as 22,000 in 2011. Every year, no publicity of any form is made to promote the Great Puja of Transferring Consciousness. Nor is there any billboard or advertisement posted. Yet the Puja sees a full house every year just based solely on the word of mouth among the disciples of the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center, sharing with others about Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s great compassion and aspiration. Among the attendees are many on wheelchairs who have lost mobility or have been bedridden due to grave illness, as well as believers who come for the Puja from across the world, including Japan, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, France, India, New Zealand, the United States, Britain, Philippines, Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, mainland China and so on. In addition, there are also ngakpas, geshes, khenpos, lamas, and nuns from different Orders of Tibetan Buddhism, such as Drikung Kagyu, Drukpa Kagyu, Nyingma, and Gelug, as well as monks and nuns of Exoteric Buddhism who come to attend the Puja. Since 2005, the Great Puja of Transferring Consciousness has seen more than 220,000 attendees, and more than 1,000,000 names have been registered on the list for liberation. Though there are such a huge number of people attending the Puja every year, with the amazing all-embracing power of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche, the Puja is solemn and orderly.
With the all-embracing power of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche, the Puja is solemn and orderly.

His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche said: The word “Indiscriminate” in the Great Indiscriminate Puja for Transferring Consciousness refers to the fact that no special board is established in honor of “major donors” and merits of sentient beings are not measured based on money or status. All sentient beings who have the affinity to attend the Puja are able to receive blessings and protection from the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas on an equal footing. In this spirit, there are no specially designated people to make mandala offerings to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas as well as the presiding guru. Instead, all representatives, including 2,000 people who light up and offer the lamps to the Buddhas, are randomly selected from the attending believers by drawings lot at the venue. Ever since 2005, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche has presided over fifteen Great Pujas of Transferring Consciousness on an annual basis in Taiwan. No fees are charged for any such Puja, nor are commercial activities such as charity sales allowed in order to maintain the purity of the Puja. All costs required for the Puja are shared by the members of the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Culture Exchange Association under the supervision of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche. Neither public fundraising is conducted nor public donations are accepted. Furthermore, each year upon perfect completion of the Great Puja of Transferring Consciousness, His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche would donate all monetary offerings from all the attendees to the Ministry of Health and Welfare or to charity organizations as funds for charity and social welfare to help the socially disadvantaged and needy people, vastly connecting virtuous affinity on behalf of all sentient beings. In 2009, His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang also instructed Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche to make a donation of NT$2,000,000 on his behalf through the Great Puja of Transferring Consciousness to the Department of Social Affairs of the Ministry of the Interior, as reconstruction fund in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakok. Over the past several years, the total amount donated by His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche has reached more than NT$90 million. The Ministry of Health and Welfare sends a special letter of appreciation to His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche every year.

During the Great Indiscriminate Amitabha Puja for Transferring Consciousness, with his immense compassion, infinite merits and tremendous energy derived from his accomplishment in cultivation of Tantra, His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche helps the deceased that participants desire to have liberated and all sentient beings in the void be reborn into the virtuous realm and even Amitabha’s Pure Land so that they don’t fall into the evil realms. Attendees with faith and reverence also may increase their blessed rewards and merits. The number of sentient beings of the Six Realms who have been helped through the auspicious Tantra performance by His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s during the Great Puja of Transferring Consciousness is indeed immeasurable!

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Updated on November 4, 2019