Bestowed by H.E. Sakya Dhungsey Avikrita Vajra Rinpoche
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Time: 10:00 am
Location: Shrine Room
Suggested contribution: Sponsors: $150; Public $55, Members $40 (All donations will be given to Sakya Monastery)
Prerequisite: Refuge
Rinpoche will bestow the special long-life empowerment from the “Butön Gongkhugma”, a terma (hidden treasure teaching) from Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) that is regarded as very powerful for life-enhancement. The practice first came to Padmasambhava from Buddha Amitabha but was not revealed until the great Terma Revealer called Guru Chöwang discovered the terma in the 13th century. A hundred years later, it became a specialty of the Sakya lineage in a second revelation that includes the blessings of five forms of Amitayus, the Buddha of Limitless Life and Wisdom. Although Rinpoche has given this special teaching several times overseas, this is the first time that he is granting the empowerment at Sakya Monastery. There will be no mantra or sadhana commitment (samaya) other than to maintain one’s precepts.
His Eminence Khondung Avikrita Vajra Rinpoche is the elder son of H.E. Khöndung Zaya Vajra Rinpoche and Dagmo Lhanze Youden. He was born into the illustrious Sakya Phuntsok Phodrang Family in Seattle in 1993. At the young age of six, he began his training in India in order follow in the footsteps of his noble Khön forebears. Since that time, he has received an uninterrupted stream of transmissions and teachings, including the Lamdre Tsogshay, from his grandfather, H.H. Jigdal Dagchen Sakya. He has also received many teachings from his paternal grand-uncle H.H. Sakya Trizin (including the Lamdre Lobshe), and many high Lamas of the Sakya tradition. Having mastered the intricate rituals of the Sakya lineage, completed meditation retreats and presided as Vajra Master of the 2009 Vajrakilaya ceremony in Darjeeling, he enrolled at Dzongsar Institute of Higher Buddhist Philosophy and Research in 2010. To gain proficiency in the classic treatises of the Sakya philosophical tradition, he is successfully building on his extensive learning of the Buddha Dharma with a program of study and dialectics.