Vajra Yogini and Mandala

The annual Vajrayogini (Dorje Phagmo) Drupchö (extensive prayer ceremony) began today, September 5, and runs through September 9th at Thupten Shedrub Jangchub Ling Monastic Institute, Ayang Rinpoche’s monastery in Bylakuppe.

Ayang Rinpoche said about Vajrayogini: “Among all the wisdom dakinis, Vajrayogini is the highest. She represents the True Nature of Mind, Prajnaparamita, the mother of all the Buddhas of the three times and ten directions.” (Sydney, March 2018)

You may send offerings to support the cost of the Vajrayogini Drupchö and make dedications in the name of a loved one. You are welcome to send donations to the Amitabha Foundation in your own country. For a tax deductible donation in the U.S., please send your check to the Amitabha Foundation, P.O. Box 2572, Aptos, California 95001, or donate online below. Dedications submitted by September 8th at 5 pm Pacific time will be included on the prayer list at the monastery.

4-Arm Chenrezig, Buddha of Compassion

The Thungdrub (Mani Recitation Accumulation Retreat) at Dechen Choeku Ling Monastery began on the auspicious full moon of April 12, 2025, and will continue until the new moon on April 27, 2025. This special practice period is dedicated to the collective recitation of 1 billion Mani mantras (Om Mani Padme Hum), invoking the compassionate blessings of Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara).

Open to all, this spiritual initiative welcomes participation from around the world. Monks, nuns, and lay practitioners are uniting in a global effort to accumulate vast merit, purify negativities, and generate boundless compassion for the benefit of all sentient beings.

You can join this sacred activity from wherever you are. Recite the Mani mantra as much as you can, and submit your accumulated count through the Amitabha Foundation in your respective country, who will forward the numbers to the monastery. In the US you may send your mantra count to info@amitabhafoundation.us before noon on April 25th.

This worldwide effort reflects the deep interconnectedness of the Dharma community and the shared aspiration to bring about peace, healing, and enlightenment across the globe.

If you would like, you may make an offering to support the monks at Ayang Rinpoche’s monastery who are reciting the Mani mantras. Donate online here.

H.E. Ayang Rinpoche Performing the Neydren Ceremony to Liberate Dead Beings in 2017

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 8 and will conclude on the Great Wheel day, Chotrul Duchen, on March 14th. 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 has said that the Ceremony to Liberate Dead Beings is the best time to dedicate prayers for 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 Wednesday, March 12th 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 according to your circumstances for a shrine offering or tea sponsorship.

Shitro Shrine