Announcements | Amitabha Foundation

New Monks Welcomed in Nepal at Opak Kyilkhor Choling

April 29, 2021 by Becky

New monks having a meal in the dining hall —- Monk receiving a Covid vaccination

The Amitabha Mandala Retreat Center in Nepal recently welcomed a new group of 45 monks. They are presently getting adjusted, with 4 or 5 together in small rooms. The Retreat Center does not have proper monks’ quarters, but parents who are desperate keep asking for their children to be taken in. Ten more boys are awaiting for admission, but the limited accommodations are all full for now.

Hospital staff came to do RT-PCR tests on the new monks to check for Coronavirus, at a charge of Rs 1200 (USD $10.00) for each monk. This was expensive, but more feasible than taking all of them to the hospital, which is also dangerous at the present time.

In India, Rinpoche’s monastery is currently safe from the Coronavirus. However, the situation is deteriorating throughout India, and especially in Karnataka state, where the monastery is located. In addition, the monks have so many other health issues that until recently, they were constantly being taken to the hospital, which is growing more and more risky because of the overflow of Covid cases. Health care is one of the most expensive costs of supporting the monks, and one for which it is difficult to plan.

You can make a big difference by helping to support the medical costs of the monks under Rinpoche’s care in India and Nepal. Please click on these links to donate, or find more options here.

Filed Under: AF News, Announcements

Achi Choekyi Dolma 100,000 Offering Prayer Puja

March 16, 2021 by Becky

Wrathful Dharma Protector Achi Choekyi Drolma

The annual 100,000 Offering Prayer Accumulation Puja for the Dharma Protectors Achi Choekyi Dolma, Choechung Tsimar and Mahakala started March 14 and will continue through March 18 at Ayang Rinpoche’s monastery in Bylakuppe, India. The monks are accumulating 100,000 dharma protector offering prayers (Solka).


Protector Mahakala	Protector Choechung Tsimar

Rinpoche invites all sangha members to join 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 Protectors and the annual puja may send their donations to the Drikung Charitable Society account. 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. You may send names of loved ones, living or deceased, for dedication to info@amitabhafoundation.us. Any names received after the end of this puja will be sent for the next puja prayer list.

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.

Here are some photos of the ongoing 100,000 Dharma Protector Prayer Offering Puja in Bylakupe.

Filed Under: AF News, Announcements

Liberation of Dead Beings – 100 Deities Puja

February 22, 2021 by Becky

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 is now holding the annual Shitro (100 Peaceful and Wrathful Deities) Puja to celebrate the beginning of the lunar new year. The puja began on February 21st and will conclude on the Great Wheel Full Moon day, February 27th.

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 Jang Chog 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, the paper tablets of the deceased [names] are burnt away. The fire used in the burning symbolizes the wisdom of the hundred deities; the burning of the tablets symbolizes the cutting of the attachment of the deceased to a “self” which is the cause of his or her suffering. Through the prayer and the ritual performed, the consciousness of the deceased are merged and become inseparable from the wisdom of the hundred deities. Thus they 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 or pets who have passed, please make your offering and send in names of the deceased by Thursday, February 25 at 5 pm (Pacific time) to be included in the prayer list for the Liberation Ceremony.

To make offerings, use the link below or send a check made out to Amitabha Foundation to P.O. Box 2572, Aptos, California 95001. If you send a check, please email the names of the deceased for whom you are sponsoring to info@amitabhafoundation.us, or to your local Amitabha Foundation. Donations sent through the Amitabha Foundation US are tax deductible in the US.

Those interested can 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, 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 below (this will not be tax-deductible).

Account Number	17082200011214
Account Name	Drikung Charitable Society
Bank Name	Syndicate Bank, Bylakuppe -571104 Branch
Bank Address	Kagyudpa Monastic Institute, P.O.Bylakuppe 571104, Mysore District Karnataka State, India
Swift Code	SYNBINBB087

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.