His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s Puja Teachings – November 21, 2021

His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche presided over the auspicious Chod Puja, and bestowed precious Dharma teachings at the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in Taipei.

“The Chod is a specific Dharma method in the Dharma of Tibetan Buddhism. There is no such a Dharma method in China and Japan. This Dharma was written by a lay yogini. It was in accordance with the spirit of the Great Prajna Sutra, and additionally, it had the Tantra groups of Action, Performance and Yoga as foundation; moreover, the method of the Phowa was also added. It is recorded in biographies that right before Dharma Protector Achi left the earth, the last Dharma she had performed was the Chod. The cave where Achi performed this ritual at that time is in Qinghai, China.

The Chod is one of the Eight Sadhana Teachings. If one practices this Dharma exclusively in this life, one can break away from reincarnation. Those with good root-capacity will be able to instantly attain Buddhahood in this life. The characteristic of this Dharma is that it does not need the help of others. As long as a practitioner has a hand-held drum, a big drum, a Dharma instrument of a human leg bone and a vajra-bell, he or she can perform this ritual. (In Chinese, ‘Chod’ is translated as ‘Body-Offering Dharma.’) As the name suggests, the Chod means that the practitioner who performs this Dharma gives alms to make offerings to sentient beings with the practitioner’s own body. This is why there is no method of Vanquishing in the Chod; all the practitioner has will be renounced and be given away. As such, there is no need to drive away those enemies who have resentments towards others.

The most important point in performing the Chod is for us to cultivate Six Paramitas and true compassion. Only when compassion is arisen, can all the Dharmas begin to be actuated and developed. Do not think chanting mantras or reciting Buddha’s name every day is doing practices. It is impossible to practice without cultivating compassion. Without original essence being seen, it is also impossible to attain Anuttara-Samyak-Sambodhi (Supreme Enlightenment). Last week, the sutra about Immovable Buddha was expounded, and there was such a saying in it: only if the ‘True Suchness of original essence’ is utilized in one’s practices, can one attain supreme bodhicitta. In other words, without original essence being seen, it is impossible to master supreme bodhicitta. If you do not have this type of root capacity and good affinities, you really need to listen to your guru.”

« Previous - Puja Teachings - Next »

Updated on April 26, 2022