His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s Puja Teachings – August 31, 2025

On the morning of August 31, at 9:15 a.m, His Eminence Vajra Guru Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche performed the Dharma in the Vajra (Secret) Hall of the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Monastery, and simultaneously instructed the monastics to lead the disciples in chanting the Great Six-Syllable Mantra in the Mahavira Hall, beginning at 9:30 a.m. At 11:10 a.m., after completing the Dharma in the Vajra (Secret) Hall without taking any rest, Rinpoche immediately proceeded to the Mahavira Hall to check on the disciples’ chanting. Respectfully led by the dhavja, patākā, monastics, Eight Offering Girls, jeweled sitātapatra, musical instruments, and incense, Rinpoche ascended the Dharma throne and chanted the Great Six-Syllable Mantra.

While Rinpoche chanted the Great Six-Syllable Mantra, the ground trembled, and the previously stagnant and murky air became fresh and pure. Rinpoche and the sacred statues on the mandala radiated great, bright light, and waves of rich and miraculous fragrance arose from the mandala. The Mahavira Hall was filled with unparalleled brightness. All attendees felt as if nectar was being poured upon the crown of their heads, cooling and refreshing them down to the heart. The compassionate Dharma voice settled the previously restless minds of all present.

Rinpoche then expounded, ‘Did you smell the fragrance?’ (Attendees replied: Yes.) You have been chanting for two hours, yet a foul odor has been smelled when entering. The fragrance only began to appear when I chanted over two hundred times. See how foul you are! You’ve chanted for two hours—how many times has each of you at least chanted? (Monastic disciple replied: Report to Rinpoche, I didn’t count.) You didn’t count? What kind of monastics are you? Rinpoche asked the attendees how many times each had chanted. (Disciples reported to Rinpoche: 6,000 times.) Each person chanted 6,000 times, together you chanted six million times—but it still smelled foul! Don’t think that you are practicing. Today, I am showing you what Rinpoche is and what disciples are.

Why is it that when I chant, there is fragrance, but when you chant, there isn’t? Everyone thinks that just sitting there and chanting is practice—what are you practicing? When I enter, I still smell foulness—the stench of sweat and humans. Today, I deliberately observed how you chant. As monastics, you don’t even count how many times you chant, and yet you still practice for yourself. Have you entered chanding (Puja Teachings Index 6)? Have you attained enlightenment? Have you seen Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara? You are talking nonsense, behaving no longer like a monastic.

Learning Buddhism is very simple; your mind has to be transformed. Yet you still hope to live a peaceful, happy, and ordinary life, and do not wish to repay your karmic debts in this lifetime, then you have nothing to do with the Buddha Dharma. You hope that by chanting more, you can attain enlightenment and be safe, just like that monastic disciple who thinks he has entered chanding(Puja Teachings Index 6), yet does not even know how many times he has chanted. If you do not determine firmly to correct yourself and continue to drift along, do not assume that taking refuge, following a vegetarian diet, or chanting, Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara will come and save you. Your mind is not right—you have not generated bodhicitta, nor made a firm determination to go to the Land of Amitabha. Day by day, time has passed, and when your life ends, Rinpoche will no longer be here— no one will save you.

No matter how many times each one of you chants 6000 or 5000, you didn’t give rise to a motivation of going to Amitabha’s place, only chanting for your own benefit, karmic creditors, and your ancestors of all generations. Always fails to change these bad habits, no matter what. The monastic chant for themselves, wishing to achieve enlightenment and attain the fruition level faster, has nothing to do with the bodhicitta of the Dharma. So you won’t attain any results even if you continue to practice. It is not because the air-conditioner was turned up stronger that the fragrance appears; the fragrance is coming ceaselessly from the mandala. Just notice how stinky you are. Those in the front still dare to call themselves ‘monastics.’If a mahasiddha shows no signs at all, then he is not truly a mahasiddha—there must be some manifestations that you can see. So, you men and women, who look down on the guru must change. If you have the ability to achieve what I have achieved, you may look down on me—but even then, you should not do so, because the sutras state very clearly that when practicing the Bodhisattva path, one must not give rise to arrogance. Even the slightest trace of arrogance will wipe out all merits.

You probably feel strange. Why come all the way from Taipei to chant the Great Six-Syllable Mantra here? I deliberately changed the environment to see how you can represent, the outcome is that you got the unchangingly old nature. When I finished my practice in the Vajra (Secret) Hall and rushed down here, after I had chanted the mantra for about 200 times, I already smelled the fragrance—even though it was originally unbearably foul. Didn’t you notice the smell just now? Didn’t you think it was bad? Or have you been used to it, since it’s the same kind—foul after foul.

The reason I let you come here today is not to make you spend money, but to show you that even in the purest place, if your mind is not pure, it is still useless. Do not think that just because the monastery is very pure, coming here to chant will automatically make your mind sattled or purer. It’s like that monastic who even asked, ‘Am I the one leading the mantra chanting today?’ He is a monastic—if he doesn’t lead the chant, then who will? Is it even necessary to ask? Is he afraid of being scolded? I noticed that he is really just drifting and regressing further and further away.

Next, when performing the Dharma Protector Achi liturgy practice and dedication prayer. During the dedication prayer, some volunteers got up and went outside the  Mahavira Hall to get the offering boxes, and when they came back in, they did not close the door. Rinpoche instructed that the door be closed, and anyone still outside was not allowed to enter.
 
After the dedication prayer was complete, Rinpoche taught: Every time the puja is not even finished yet, a large number of people run out, supposedly to get the offering boxes. Is it really that important? Can you think of a way to wait until the assembly is over before taking them out? If everyone is in such a rush to leave, then don’t come at all. Whose idea was it to put the offering boxes outside? People coming in also take their time. When the door is open, the air conditioning just keeps leaking out. Do you know that every minute costs money? Next time, if anyone leaves before I finish the dedication, they should never come again. I don’t want to hear your foolish or strange ideas. After bringing the offering boxes back, holding them in your hands, doesn’t the red paper stain your clothes? I wonder if any of you have even gone to school or worked in society, even such trivial matters need me to worry about. If it can’t be handled properly, then don’t bother offering anything. In one Saturday alone, I can return many offerings. Have any of you ever offered this much at once? Act like you are truly volunteering. Everyone volunteering is just showing the surface of learning Buddhism; not a single person thinks of a way to handle things.

Earlier, I saw these dozen or so people taking nearly five minutes to go out and come back, while everyone watched you running back and forth. If I were in such dire need of money, the offerings could have been collected before the puja, and everyone wouldn’t have had to be so toilsome. Why can’t you figure out a way to make offerings before the puja? Does this mean if I don’t practice any Dharma, you won’t make any offerings? (The assembly replies: No. ) I think this is clearly what you think. You’re my refuge disciples, why can’t you make offerings first? One thousand of you yet no one uses their brains. 

Therefore, why did I smell the stench earlier when I walked in? Because every one of you practices for yourselves, and you have no heart of compassion. You do it not for the guru, not for the Buddhist center, and not for the monastery, nor for the lineage; you do it all for yourselves, and you think that you are volunteers holding offering boxes, and you must gain some merit from it. Next time this happens again, I will never accept offerings again. I will stop taking offerings again. You are truly ridiculous. This is such a simple matter, and yet you need me to deal with it. What are these board members and monastics doing? I don’t know. The monastics take my money and live well; they get to see the Chinese doctor for free. Even if I do not listen to your opinion, you could still raise your opinion. Are you practicing for yourselves now? And yet you say that you are practicing Mahayana Buddhism.
 
Why did I not allow the believers to come today? It is because I have a chance to give you a good scolding. The people who went out to collect the offering boxes took their time, and they did not even realize that the air conditioning was leaking from this room. The Buddhist monastery has to spend a few extra ten dollars on electricity. Yet, nobody thinks about a way to make the process of making offerings smoother, and you follow the same old rules every time. If you cannot think of a way to accept the offerings during the next puja, you do not need to make offerings to me. Nor do you need to make offerings to the monastery, but I would still allow you to come to the puja. When I recite the mantras, I do not distinguish whether or not you are wealthy, and whether or not you have made offerings. I am someone who practices Dharma with an equal heart. Whether you are right or wrong, I treat you as the Bodhisattvas when I practice the Dharma. You only recited for 6,000 times in two hours, and you dare speak of it? How will you retreat then?
 
Do not learn the Buddha Dharma of the human world. There is no such thing!  We must practice the supramundane Buddha Dharma that enables us to transcend life and death. If you want to learn mundane or worldly Buddha Dharma, go somewhere else. How ridiculous of you, and you are just getting worse. There are 40 of you who went out to collect the offering boxes. Is that because things are easier with more of you, and this way you can finish work earlier? Do you think that if there were more offering boxes, it would be more convenient for those who wanted to place offerings within them? If that’s the case, then don’t make offerings! Today, you are forbidden from making offerings; it is too troublesome, and you think you’re extraordinary! 

Today I have given you a special lesson to let you see what you have recited. The Monastics did not even count, and recited themselves. They are also a member of the sentient beings! And yet you think that you could reach enlightenment by reciting the Six Syllable Mantra this way, but Avalokiteshvara benefits the sentient beings, and yet you only benefit yourselves. Could you reach enlightenment? Even if you recited for another ten lifetimes, you would still not be able to achieve enlightenment.

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Updated on September 3, 2025