Clear Obstacles for Wood Snake Year with 2025 Guru Dragpo Puja


Guru Dragpo Drubchoe ~ February 21 – 27

 

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 will be held February 21-27, 2025 at Thupten Shedrub Jangchub Ling, Ayang Rinpoche’s monastery in Bylakuppe, India. Tibetan New Year (Losar), is February 28th this year, the first day of the Wood Snake Year, according to the Tibetan calendar.

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

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.

Vajra Guru mantra

OM AH HUNG BENZRA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG//

Ayang Rinpoche always reminded 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 Guru Dragpo 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.

 

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 Wednesday, February 26th at 8 am 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, make offerings to Amitabha Foundation in your own country or click here for information on making offerings directly to the monastery’s account through the Drikung Charitable Society.

 

For more pictures of recent pujas in the new temple at Rinpoche’s monastery, please visit Facebook.

2020 Guru Dragpo Puja and Tsok Offering in Bylakuppe, India

 

 

Parinirvana of H.E. Choeje Ayang Rinpoche

 

View this announcement as a PDF in the following languages:

English     Chinese     Vietnamese     Russian     Tibetan

 

Following the completion of Thugdam, Rinpoche’s sacred remains (kudung) have been placed in the old temple in Bylakuppe for his disciples to offer their respects. Rinpoche’s 7th-day observances fall on Wednesdays, beginning December 11, 2024, during which the monastery’s rinpoches, khenpos, lamas and monks will perform the 100 Deities Peaceful and Wrathful Offering Prayer.

 

Please visit Facebook for photos and links to practices at the monastery: https://www.facebook.com/AyangRinpoche

 

Those who have received the Buddha Amitabha empowerment and oral transmission are welcome to join our online practice of the Concise Namcho Amitbha and the Long Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen on the following days at 7:00 pm (Eastern time):

December 25, January 1, January 8, January 15 and January 22, by Zoom at this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81572930999?pwd=9t5W8LzvstaE2zmcKSwW3nZKwnneo5.1  For more detailed information, contact info@amitabhafoundation.us.

 

Visiting the Monastery:

For those disciples wishing to visit H.E. Choeje Ayang Rinpoche’s monastery, Thupten Shedrub Jangchub Ling, in South India, the following information will be helpful. Download the PDF version Travel to Bylakuppe.

 

Monastery Contact Information:

Drikung Charitable Society
Kagyudpa Monastic Institute
T.D.L. Bylakuppe-571104
Karnataka, India

Phone: +91 99861 73718, +91 74110 59690
Email: drikungcharitablesociety@yahoo.com, amitabhafoundation@yahoo.co.in

 

Visa for India can be obtained online here: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html. The approval takes around 2 days. You will receive confirmation by email; print the confirmation and present it when checking in at the airport and upon arrival at Customs in India.

 

Protected Area Permit (PAP) is necessary to stay overnight at the monastery or in the Tibetan Settlement. This can take quite a while to get approved, so it is best to apply as soon as you know you intend to travel. Travel to BylakuppeApply online here: https://papvt.mha.gov.in/ or at the same time as applying online for your India visa. The Tibetan Settlement to enter is Dickyi Larsoe. Bring a copy of your application with you.

 

Flights to India: The closest international airport to the monastery is Bangalore (Bangaluru / BLR). Connections through Delhi can be difficult this time of the year due to frequent fog.

 

Ground Transportation: It is easy to take the FlyBus from Bangalore Airport to Mysore (Mysuru). It costs about USD$10 one way and takes about 3.5 hours. The bus terminal is located on the ground floor of the international terminal. You can book online here: https://www.ksrtc.in/.

 

If your flight lands before 11 pm, then there is a direct FlyBus at 1:00 am from the airport to Bylakuppe and Kushalnagar. If the flight lands after midnight then there is a FlyBus every hour from the airport to Mysore. From there, you will either have to hire a taxi (contact Truelha or the monastery in advance so that they can help book) or take the local bus from Mysore (see link above) to Bylakuppe (about 2-3 hours) or Kushalnagar.

 

Accommodations: Rooms at the monastery’s Guest House are very limited, and not available to Westerners without prior PAP approval.  Please call the monastery numbers above for suggested hotels in Bylakuppe and Kushalnagar.

 

Monsoon Flooding Damages Opak Kyilkhor Chöling in Nepal

From September 28-29, 2024, 10 inches of rain fell in the Kathmandu Valley. Kathmandu was cut off all weekend, as the three highways out of the city were blocked by landslides.

True Lhamo writes, “Unprecedented heavy rains in Nepal have triggered landslides, causing significant damage to the access roads leading to the Amitabha Retreat Center in Kathmandu.

“The landslides have resulted in blocked and cracked roads, along with additional damage within the retreat center’s premises.

“Our road going up to the retreat Center has cracked and settled down and some retaining wall needs to be built due to landslides.

 

“Any donations sent to the Amitabha Foundation Nepal account, or to your local Amitabha Foundation center, for road repairs and restoration of the affected areas would be greatly appreciated and immensely helpful.”

To make a tax-deductible donation in the US, please make out your check in USD to Amitabha Foundation, and mail it to PO Box 2572, Aptos, CA 95001, or donate online here.

 

Thank you for your generous support!

Wealth Deity Pujas September 24 – 28

The annual Dzambala offering Puja at Thupten Shedrub Jangchub Ling Monastery in Bylakuppe is being held  from September 24 to 28, 2024. Dzambhala means “precious golden deity who gathers or distributes spirituality or Dharma with material stability or accomplishment to our circumstances.” Dzambhala aids us through removing all catastrophes and hurdles, as well as boosting all good fortune and contentment.

 

Dzambhala is an emanation of Buddha Ratnasambhava, whose enlightened activity is increasing and whose essence is generosity. He is portrayed riding a snow lion and holding victory banner and a jewel-spitting mongoose. Some view the mongoose as triumphant over snakes or nagas, the keepers of wealth.

 

The offering puja is also referred to as a Yangdrup, meaning a ritual to generate “Yang”, the powerful magnetizing properties associated with fortune and luck. This in turn creates all opportunities to ensure accomplishment in spiritual practice, as well as an abundance of wealth, prosperity, success, good fortune, luck, long life and wisdom in a person’s personal, business and family life.

 

People who wish to dedicate prayers for their loved ones, including pets, living or passed, may donate towards tormas, butter lamps, tsog, tea, meals, offerings for monks and nuns, or other puja expenses, by sending in their contributions through Amitabha Foundation in their own country, directly to the monastery’s account, or by donating online here. Donations are tax-deductible in the US.

Dedications must be received by September 27th at 8:00 AM (Pacific Time) to be sent to the monastery in time to be included in the puja ceremony. Donations are welcome any time.