His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s Puja Teachings – September 26, 2021

On September 26, 2021, His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche presided over the seventeenth auspicious Great Indiscriminate Amitabha Puja for Transferring Consciousness of the Drikung Kagyu Order of Tibetan Buddhism at the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in Taipei.

In 2021, the global pandemic of coronavirus has been continuously severe. Because of the prevailing government’s pandemic prevention policies, it was impossible to hold a large-scale puja for more than 10,000 people. Nonetheless, not wanting to forsake sentient beings, in compliance with the procedures of regulations in the pandemic prevention, Rinpoche still held a grand puja of transferring consciousness at the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in Taipei. The Grand Puja came to a pure and perfect completion, with merits vastly provided to countless sentient beings.

At 9:30 in the morning, led by a welcoming procession of incense, musical instruments, and a jeweled parasol, His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche walked over the white carpet of Eight Auspicious Symbols and stepped up to the mandala. After having made reverent prostrations to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Rinpoche presented a khata to the wish-granting jeweled Dharma throne of His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang, lit lamps as an offering to the Buddha, and then ascended the Dharma throne.

The pure and solemn mandala in the Grand Puja.

Leading by a welcoming procession of incense, musical instruments, and a jeweled parasol, His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche walked over the white carpet of Eight Auspicious Symbols and stepped up to the mandala.

Rinpoche then bestowed precious Dharma teachings.

“The puja to be performed today is the Amitabha Puja of Transferring Consciousness. Originally, it had always been held at the Nangang Exhibition Hall in Taipei. However, this year, because of government’s pandemic prevention regulations, it is not allowed to hold events there; even in some of governmental activities, there are decreases in the number of participants. As we cannot let many people attend this puja, we are getting it held at this Center. This is the reason on the surface; the real reason is that I have found sentient beings do not need this puja. In the yearly Grand Puja over the past seventeen years, I exhorted the believers who had come to the puja that they should eat vegetarian. However, many of them still have not listened. Some would only do so for a few days before the puja date; for the rest of the year, they would not do it. Their non-eating-vegetarian habit will be ‘accumulated’ for a whole year and then they will come again for such a puja. They want my help to cleanse such a behavior of theirs.

In fact, as soon as this puja’s Dharma text is opened, it is mentioned right there that meat is not allowed in all offering items for the Tsok ritual. Since you need the help of Amitabha and yet, contrarily, you still eat meat, how are you to be helped then? You absolutely will not get the help. It is not that Amitabha or the Trinity of the Western Paradise is not compassionate; rather, it is that you are against what has been mentioned in the Amitabha Sutra in that you have not practiced the Ten Meritorious Acts. Only those good men and women who possess good fortune, merits, causes, and conditions can be reborn in the Pure Land. The first rule of the Ten Meritorious Acts is to refrain from killing; if you eat meat, you have definitely been involved in acts of killing. Thus, since the Grand Puja of last year had been completed, I have always thought about not holding it again at the Nangang Exhibition Hall for more than 20,000 people. Even after my disciples had made donations to support this year’s Grand Puja, I returned all the money to them.

In addition, during a dozen years of holding the Grand Puja, some believers, after having attended the puja, came to seek an audience with me. Of course, this was a good thing that they came. However, among, say, ten, who had come, the first thing that many of them always said, once they opened their mouths, was that they had attended my Grand Puja. It was as if because they had participated in it, I owed them a favor – I was obliged to help them. At the beginning of every Grand Puja, I always said to the audience that holding the puja was to get sentient beings to form affinities with Amitabha. I do not seek fame or profit from the Grand Puja. I also told believers that they did not need to take refuge in me. Yet, no one understood what they had heard.

Before the Grand Puja was held this year, I had said that if believers wanted to write the names of the deceased on the to-be-liberated list, there was a condition which was that these believers must be vegetarians for the rest of their lives. As a result, for today’s puja, not counting the number of disciples of more than 1,000, the number of believers who had signed up to attend this puja decreased, all of sudden, from more than 20,000 originally to 1,847. This is why, in the Amitabha Sutra,Shakyamuni Buddha said, ‘In this evil time of the Five Turbidities, speaking of such a Dharma that is hard to believe….’ The Buddha did not say this wrongly; it is really very difficult for you to believe. It is not that the Dharma is hard to believe in. Rather, it is truly very difficult for you to believe because sentient beings’ karmic hindrances have been heavy; everyone thinks that after participating in pujas and getting oneself cleansed on his or her karma, one will be a true man or a true woman again.

You have gained kindness and benevolence from Buddhas and Bodhisattvas; then again, you have not listened to what they taught. You still willfully indulge yourself in creating negative karma. These are really bad acts! I used this gimmick (the vegetarian requirement) this year for the Grand Puja. Usually, for this kind of grand pujas with more than 10,000 attendees, I will need to conduct a two-day retreat before the puja date. Now, there are only over 3,000 names on the to-be-liberated list; getting these people liberated is easy – a piece of cake; it will be very simple, and immediately the burden of the task has been lessened for me quite a lot. I will only need to do chanting for more than 10,000 times and then those deceased on the name list can be liberated. Many people think that coming to the Grand Puja is ‘saving my face’ (showing me respect). It is not so, nor is it to show respect to the Buddha and Bodhisattvas. Every year at the Grand Puja, I have always said that this puja only exists because of you; actually, you are the ones who need the Dharma. If you do not cherish it, of course the Dharma will gradually be in decline.

Many people have come to the Great Amitabha Puja of Transferring Consciousness once a year, treating it as an event to worship some gods or deities. Although there are blessings and protection, these benefits will certainly not be gained in this life though. Instead, only when your causal conditions are manifest, will you have opportunities to learn the Dharma methods about the Pure Land or Amitabha. Nowadays, in whole Taiwan, there is no one else performing this kind of Dharma because the Amitabha Dharma for Transferring Consciousness is not a Dharma generally in Exoteric Buddhism. In the Dharma text for this puja, it is mentioned that ‘in this wonderful Dharma for transferring consciousness, there is a secret essence in it with extremely profound and wonderous meanings.’ It means that this is Tantra, and is not a Dharma that can be practiced, and mastered, by normally reciting sutras in Exoteric Buddhism.

Both Exoteric Buddhism and Tantra are the Dharma, but their levels of depth in principles and practices are different; such differences are like those between students of elementary schools and candidates for doctorate degrees. Tell me this: Can elementary school students do what Ph.D. students are able to do from their high level of knowledge? Definitely not. Some people have said that it is all right for them to just participate in pujas in this life; they think that they are unable to learn the Dharma to attain achievements. Those people who have said these show that they still do not believe in the Dharma. Let me talk about a monastic; older people in Taiwan know about him. He was the old monk Guang Qin. Why had he achieved accomplishments? It was exactly because he believed in what he had learned. Venerable Milarepa, one of our lineage gurus in our Drikung Kagyu Order, could not read or write either. Why had he attained achievements, too? It was precisely because he believed in the Dharma. He believed that his karmic hindrances were profoundly heavy, and if he did not do his practices in his life, there would be no chances for him to do them in his next life.

Do not think that coming to the puja once or twice is to show me respect. This is certainly not so, but is doing me harm. Why is that? It is like the situation that last year I had held a Grand Puja for you, helping you to cleanse a little of your karma. Then it turned out that, during the time from last year’s Grand Puja being ended to this year’s being held, you had still been eating meat. This means that, again, I need to give you some ‘cleaning’. First of all, let’s not speak of being a vegetarian. If you have not believed in the Dharma, and still don’t after one year, I will need to help handle your things all over again. Isn’t this doing me harm?

If I were in my sixties now, it doesn’t matter to me if I am harmed by you. It is already September, the eighth month in the Chinese lunar calendar, and in four more months I will be 75 years old. There is limited time remaining for me in this life; I still have many things that I need to do, for sentient beings, for our Order and for the Dharma. For those of you who don’t believe in the Dharma, I am not saying that I will forsake you; do not misunderstand. Rather, it means that I will adapt to rising conditions – your rising conditions – to help you. I have never taken initiatives to ask anyone coming to participate in pujas unless that person has provided some help to this Center. Then I will ask him or her to come. Why? Because I will not owe that person anything. I have been repaying my ‘debts’ with the Dharma; this is to avoid my coming back to this world in my next life to make the pay-back. Do not think that the reason of my asking you to come attending the Grand Puja today is that I have a special regard for you. If you think that, you are wrong. I am repaying my debts, and once they are paid off, I don’t owe you things; you will then not be able to find me in the future.

Now, I have made it clear so that you will not become proud, thinking that you are very special as you are one of only a few (believers) who had been asked to come. You are indeed special in that I do not owe you anymore; I am repaying you with the Dharma. However, my disciples are different from you. As long as they are always loyal, devoted to their guru, and as my vows made are to help all sentient beings attain Buddhahood, I will take care of these disciples through lifetimes after lifetimes before they have attained Buddhahood. Of course, this does not mean that I will be back as a human again to take care of you. Do not worry, or think, about it – I will not come to this world again.

Thus, for those of you who had been asked to attend this puja, it is possible that I am repaying my debts to you, and once they have been paid off, I might not ask you to come again. I will be paying back enough because you are not here to learn Buddhism; instead, you have come to worship some gods or deities, seeking blessings and protection. It is enough already to let you have them once, twice, or three times. If imploring for blessings and protection is effective, then I will be the first one to implore for them. Is there a need to wait for your turn seeking them? Each one of you feels that you don’t want to be managed by me. I am now 74 years old; am I not qualified to manage people? No matter how much knowledge you have or how high your work position is, as long as you are not a practitioner for any single day, you definitely cannot help yourself get liberated from birth and death. When you face your death, you will feel so much fear.

What I have taught today are all digression, and they are not directly relevant to the Great Amitabha Puja of Transferring Consciousness. I am just telling you this: I do not need to hold this puja; I have done things by just adapting to the rising conditions of sentient beings. They don’t have such an affinity for learning the Dharma. For example, the number of people, who are willing to eat vegetarian for the rest of their lives, immediately decreased to more than 1,000. Because of that, I can let you know in advance, like a preview for a new movie, that there will be no Grand Puja to be held next year. It is because if this kind of situations (attendees being not willing to follow guidance) continues, it is not meaningful for me to hold such pujas.

Many people wonder why sentient beings should eat vegetarian. There is no such a requirement in many Buddhist temples. Well, that is their business. Anyone who comes here, seeking for my help or learning the Dharma, at the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center will need to be a vegetarian. This is because if you do not practice the Ten Meritorious Acts at all, not even the simplest one of refraining from killing, what reason will Amitabha and Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara base on to bless and protect you? It is like the situation that one of my disciples was infected with Covid-19. Why did he get the infection? He is a caregiver; he bought non-vegetarian food for his patients, and he did it because he had worried that if he did not, he might lose his job and then, his salary. Many of my disciples also work as caregivers. They will tell the patients in advance that they are to eat vegetarian; otherwise, the disciples will not take on the job. I also have many disciples who are physicians and nurses; there are many disciples working in medical treatments industry. Only this particular disciple got infected; all those disciples working in hospitals have been fine. You never thought of it, right? There will always be issues occurring if you help others buy non-vegetarian food. You think that it is all right and no problems will happen. Then, on those non-vegetarian food you have eaten in this life, what do you repay it with? With your body or your health!

Many people think that they do not need to repay their debts. However, have you seen anyone being in a comfortable state before his or her death? Have you ever heard of it or seen it? Even if this kind of situations – of being in an uncomfortable state – doesn’t occur before you die, there will be many other issues appearing, like property disputes among family members or quarrels, et cetera. These happenings are from fleshes of sentient beings, in various forms of meat that you have eaten through accumulated past lifetimes, ‘coming’ to get even with you when you are dying. You will say that such occurrences do not matter to you. Nevertheless, people still have emotions. If there are happenings all day long, naturally your mind cannot concentrate; then you will do things wrong. Not to mention learning Buddhism, you will make mistakes in conducting yourself and handling things. This means that your enemies, who have felt resentful towards you, have appeared.

Having said that, attending this kind of pujas is definitely not for seeking blessings and protection. Rather, it is to let your enemies, with resentful feelings towards you, as well as those sentient beings you have harmed forgive you, and also to let you seize upon the time and opportunities in this life to practice; only when you have done that will you be able to get liberated from birth and death in this life. Do not have an aleatory mindset, thinking that when you die, I might still be around to help you. That situation is possible. However, if you think you can remember me when you are dying, that will be impossible. How can it be? You are not my disciples; you will not remember me at the moment of your death. Even while I am alive and have told you to listen, you never do; how is it possible that you will listen right before you pass away? You absolutely will not.

You should believe me. I have been liberating sentient beings all the time; I know their thoughts better than anyone else. Every year I have performed this puja and it is to help many suffering sentient beings leave the Three Evil Realms and the sea of suffering so as to be reborn in the Land of Amitabha. Many people think that being reborn in that land is very easy. In the Ratnakuta Sutra,on what I have expounded this year, Shakyamuni Buddha talked about, and taught us, what types of people are able to ‘go’ to the Land of Amitabha. From the sorts of people He mentioned, all of you have failed to meet the requirements. This is from what Shakyamuni Buddha said, and it was not said by me.

If those of you, who have not taken refuge in me, have read what I expounded on the sutra on behalf of Shakyamuni Buddha, you can see whether or not you are of these three types of people, who can be reborn in the Pure Land. If you are not of these types, what do you base on that you can ‘go’ to that land just by attending this puja? It is not possible. It is equal to the situation that when we want to do something, we need to continuously learn about it or doing practices on it; we can then get this thing done very well. To be reborn in the Pure Land means the same thing. If you usually do not practice the methods, and only do the practicing once a year, thinking that by just doing that, you can ‘go’ to the Land of Amitabha, then I can guarantee you that you will not be reborn there. This is based on what are mentioned in sutras.

Do not consider that, at your death, recitation assistance by some people will be good enough, and you think that you can invite some monastics (in advance) for such an assistance. That will not get you to the Pure Land either. Or, you might think that, after your death, your family members will follow Buddhist rituals, and use vegetarian food in burial ceremonies so that you can ‘go’ to that land. The only good thing about this vegetarian-food usage is that you will not fall into the eighteen layers of hells, and yet, you will not be reborn in the Pure Land. Also, do not think that if a tablet, showing the words ‘to be reborn in the World of Utmost Bliss’, has been hung in the ceremony room, the deceased being referred to will ‘go’ to the Pure Land. If it were so, I would have told His Holiness long time ago that I do not want to practice. Shakyamuni Buddha would have said this long time ago too: in the future, only a tablet is needed with these words on, ‘to be reborn in the World of Utmost Bliss’, and is to be hung as a memorial tablet; then, the deceased represented by the tablet will be able to get to the Pure Land. However, Shakyamuni Buddha did not say this; He even taught us how to practice in order to be reborn in that land.

Thus, you should all be careful! Do not treat the Dharma as a superstition, a religion, or a buy-and-sell transaction. You are the ones to determine that you will follow the teachings and do the practices. Your decisions are irrelevant to me, and are not related to the Buddha and Bodhisattvas either. Do not think that I need disciples. It is just that seeing you being like this, I am feeling a few things. First of all, I pity you; secondly, I feel regretful for you that you are unfortunate. What is my regret, or your being unfortunate, about? You have gotten a human body in this life, and with that you are able to practice Dharma methods and learn Buddhism, but you don’t do them; you think that you can solve your major issues in this life just because you understand some knowledge. Thirdly, I feel sorrowful for you because there are good things right before you but you are not aware of them!

You should think a little whether you have these three conditions or not for being three types of people who can be reborn in the Pure Land. If a practitioner wishes to perform this Dharma for transferring consciousness, the person must be at the level of being a Rinpoche so as to be capable of doing it. In general, monastics and khenpos, if they have observed precepts, will not perform this Dharma. It is not that they don’t understand its Dharma text, but it is because they know that they do not have the skills, power or merits needed to help the deceased be reborn in virtuous realms or the Pure Land. If there are no such merits to help the deceased but with an insistence to perform this Dharma, the practitioner will be harmed, and the deceased will be angry as well. This Dharma, then, is a great Dharma, and it is not like some rituals requiring just a normal recitation of sutras. This is why the first few words of this Dharma text mention that ‘in this wonderful Dharma for transferring consciousness, there is a secret essence in it with extremely profound and wonderous meanings.’

Today, before performing this Dharma, I have given you an exhortation talk first. It is to let you understand that the reason you are attending this puja is because you have practiced through your accumulated past lifetimes. That is why you have such causes, conditions and good fortune participating in this puja. However, it is indicated in sutras that there is ‘obfuscation between lives’ in humans, which makes them forget, after one lifetime, what they had done before. If you had not cultivated in past lifetimes, you definitely will not have good fortune to enjoy a peaceful and happy life of the Human and Heaven Realms in this life. This means that you had practiced in your past lives but it is just that you forgot about that when you came to the world for this lifetime. You now live for fame and profit, forgetting why you have such a good fortune in this life, and thinking that you have strived for it through your own efforts, studies or connections.

No matter how you have earned a good life – by studying hard, making efforts or relying on connections – the ways that you have utilized are all related to the good fortune gained from your practices through your accumulated past lifetimes. Originally, such a good fortune will make you produce achievements, fame, profit and wealth in this life; these are by-products. Nevertheless, you have used your good fortune in the wrong ways. If you have put it in use in your practices, maybe you will get them in rapid progresses in this life. Then again, some of you think that you cannot keep up with me on the Dharma practices. How can you? I had practiced for so many lifetimes before and only in this one that I have attained achievements. What do you base on that you can keep up with me?

You have said that you do not understand what I have taught. Of course, you don’t. It is like that I do not understand the profession that you are in, because I have not done such a job before. However, although you do not understand my teachings it does not mean that you cannot learn Buddhism. Why do these people have such a thought? The first reason is that they are having inferiority complex; the second reason is that they are arrogant, thinking that on whatever matters they handle, they must do those things more successfully than other people. I have said before that since the first day I started learning Buddhism, I have never thought that one day I would ascend the Dharma throne as a Rinpoche, be able to teach the Dharma, or admonish people with the Dharma. I have never thought about all these things, and have only considered learning the Dharma being a good thing, which I should go ahead to do. It is such a simple concept. After this Dharma has been performed, go home and contemplate what you have heard today from my teachings. You have not come here today to worship some gods or deities. Okay?”

Rinpoche performing the ritual of the Great Indiscriminate Amitabha Puja for Transferring Consciousness of the Drikung Kagyu Order of Tibetan Buddhism.

His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche started to perform the Dharma, with various rituals of offering in progress. The Tsok Ritual was performed. Every person present received a share of offering items that had been blessed by His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche, as well as the rare and auspicious causal condition to dine with the Buddha and Bodhisattvas during the puja.

His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche instructed the attendees to stand, and the lead monastic paid obeisance to the Buddha and Bodhisattvas on behalf of the attendees’ ancestors and sentient beings they had harmed. His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche performed the Dharma with compassion and auspicious blessings, and prayed very earnestly for all sentient beings. The attendees felt a profound sense of the guru’s boundless benevolence and capacity to propagate the Dharma to benefit sentient beings. Filled with incomparable repentance and reverence in their hearts, the attendees were in tears incessantly.

Upon the perfect completion of the ritual of transferring consciousness, His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche led the disciples in the Dharma Protector Achi ritual and dedication prayer.

Upon the pure and perfect completion of the Grand Puja, the attendees placing their palms together to show their gratitude and paying reverent homage as Rinpoche leaving the venue.

« Previous - Puja Teachings - Next »

Updated on January 18, 2022