Dharma Protector Achi Choekyi Drolma

Offering Pujas for all Dharma Protectors, including Achi Choekyi Dolma, Choechung Tsimar, Mahakala and all wisdom and worldly dharma protectors will take place July 18-22 at Ayang Rinpoche’s monastery in Bylakuppe, India.

Protector Mahakala	Protector Choechung Tsimar

You are welcome to join the Dharma Protector Offerings by reciting Achi Choekyi Dolma mantras during this time:

OM SARVA BUDDHA DAKINI HRI MAMA TSAK TRA SOHA

Those who would like to make an auspicious connection with the Dharma Protector puja may send a check to the Amitabha Foundation, P.O. Box 2572, Aptos, California 95001, or donate online below. To have your name and the names of your loved ones included in the puja prayer list, please make your offering and submit names before July 21 at 8 am (Pacific time).

Here is an edited excerpt of a short biography of Achi Chokyi Dolma, given by Ayang Rinpoche in Sydney, Australia in 2004:

Achi Chokyi Drolma is an emanation of Vajra Yogini and Tara. She was born in the central area of Tibet. Beginning at a young age she was very special. She had great compassion and always practiced Tara, and she taught the Tara prayer for everyone in the village. When she grew older she prophesized that in the future there would be a new Buddhadharma lineage, and that she would be that lineage’s Dharma protector, whereupon she wrote protector offering prayers. Several generations later, her great grandson Jigten Sumgon started the Drikung lineage and she did become the main lineage Dharma protector.

She moved to Eastern Tibet, married and had 4 sons. Her most holy practice place is in East Tibet. At her death she attained the Great Rainbow Body. Her entire body become rainbows and light, leaving only her hair and nails. Like this, with no need to change this physical body, she went to the Pure Land.

On the relative level Achi was like the Dharma protector. But on the ultimate level, Achi had already attained the 10^th Bhumi of a Bodhisattva. In this way, Achi was already enlightened. Achi’s activity in Tibet is very famous. All the Tibetan people, especially the older generation people, know very well about her great activity, how it is so helpful because it is very fast. In Tibet, some great masters say that Achi is exactly the same as the Buddha, and if we pray to Achi, then by our Achi practice we will achieve enlightenment, or we will attain the Pure Land at our death moment.

100 Peaceful and Wrathful Deities Mandala 2021

100 Peaceful and Wrathful Deities (Shitro) Puja 2021 100 Peaceful and Wrathful Deities Shrine 2021

Ayang Rinpoche’s monastery in Bylakuppe, South India will be holding its annual Shitro (100 Peaceful and Wrathful Deities) Puja to celebrate the beginning of the lunar new year. The puja will begin on March 10 and will conclude on the Great Wheel Full Moon day, March 18th. On that day, they will also hold the Ceremony to Liberate Dead Beings.

The hundred deities are the attributes and activities of the five Buddhas and their female counterparts. They are the manifestations from the pure nature of our minds, and remain within us in the form of five faculties, five elements and twelve sources of perception, and so on. By relying on the practice of the hundred deities, or even by just hearing the mantra and seeing the mandala and picture of the hundred deities, one may either instantly or gradually realize that the nature of one’s mind is inseparable from the perfect wisdom of the hundred deities.

During the performance of the puja, the hundred deities are invoked and the various types of offerings are made to them. The merits accumulated from these offerings are dedicated to the deceased to help them in their purification and liberation. The prayer itself is also an offering of assistance to those in the intermediate or Bardo state to show them the path to liberation.

At the end of puja, paper tablets of the deceased’s names are burnt away. The fire used in the burning symbolizes the wisdom of the hundred deities; the burning of the names symbolizes the cutting of the attachment of the deceased to a “self”, which is the cause of their suffering. Through the prayer and the ritual performed, the consciousnesses of the deceased are merged and become inseparable from the wisdom of the hundred deities, and thus are liberated.

Ayang Rinpoche says the Ceremony to Liberate Dead Beings is the best time to dedicate prayers for the departed beings. Anyone who would like to make offerings and dedicate prayers to family members, friends, loved ones, pets or anyone who has passed, please make your offering and send in names of the deceased by Thursday, March 16th at noon (Pacific time) to be included in the prayer list for the Liberation Ceremony.

Those interested, may offer at one of the suggested levels below, or $350 for a day’s meals for all the monks, or $1,050 per day for an offering to the monks and lamas, or as much as you can for a shrine offering or tea sponsorship.

You may also send your donation directly to the monastery’s bank account using the information here.

Click here to see a list of all the annual pujas at Ayang Rinpoche’s monastery, with the lunar calendar dates. The Western calendar dates will be posted as soon as they are announced.

Shitro Puja 2021

Shitro Mandala 2021

Shitro Main Deity Tormas 2021

Shitro Shrine 2021

Peaceful and Wrathful Deities Tormas 2021

Shitro Mandala 2021

Guru Dragpo Puja and Gutor Ceremony

February 23 – March 1, 2022

At the end of each lunar year, it is a Tibetan Buddhist tradition to make offerings and perform wrathful pujas, such as Guru Dragpo, a wrathful form of Guru Rinpoche. This clears away negativity and obstacles on both physical and spiritual levels, to prepare for a New Year of opportunity, abundance and good fortune.

The annual Guru Dragpo puja at Ayang Rinpoche’s monastery in Bylakuppe, India, begins February 23 and continues through March 1, 2022. Tibetan New Year (Losar), is March 3rd this year, the first day of the Water Tiger Year, according to the Tibetan calendar.

You may participate at home by reciting the Guru Dragpo short mantra:

OM AH HUNG ARTSIK NIRTSIK NAMO BHAGAWATE HUNG HUNG AH HUNG HUNG PHAT//

You may also participate by reciting the Guru Rinpoche mantra (see below) or the Seven-Line Prayer to Guru Rinpoche. Read Rinpoche’s teaching on the Seven Line Prayer, and the prayer in Tibetan and English.

OM AH HUNG BENZRA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG//

Ayang Rinpoche reminds us of Milarepa’s saying that anyone sponsoring Dharma activities gains the same merit as the practitioners. If you would like to make a US tax-deductible contribution to the Guru Dragpo puja using PayPal or your credit card, please select the amount of your donation below. The full cost of the puja for 280 monks, nuns, khenpos and lamas is $21,650. The cost of one day of meals is $412 and monks offering is $927, not including extras for Rinpoches, Khenpos, Disciplinarian, Chanting Master and Shrine Master.

Here are some suggested donation amounts, but your offering of any amount will be appreciated and will be like a drop of water mixed in an ocean of merit. You may include a dedication for your offering in the name of a loved one, including pets. The deadline to submit names of loved ones for the prayer list is Sunday, February 27th at 5 pm PST, but donations to help cover the cost of the puja will bring merit and benefit any time.

You may also send a check in USD made out to Amitabha Foundation to: P.O. Box 2572, Aptos, California 95001. Mail the names for your dedication to info@amitabhafoundation.us.

For donors outside the United States, here is the link to make offerings directly to the monastery’s account through the Drikung Charitable Society.

2020 Guru Dragpo Puja and Tsok Offering in Bylakuppe, India