Long-life Empowerment and a Long-life offering to the Dalai Lama concluded

By Tenzin Menkyi Choglamsar, Jul 17, 2014
Choglamsar :

The final day, 13th July, of the Kalachakra initiation began at 7am. The day saw one of largest crowd of devotees flocked to the venue as early as around 3am. The Vajra Master sat on the lion throne to give Long-life Empowerment. In a mean time, while His Holiness the Dalai Lama prepare for the preliminary rituals, His Holiness asked devotees if they could recite the six syllable mantra: Om Ma Ne Padme Hum. He explained, “There are thousands of people gathered here, if each of you could recite the same mantra a thousand times, it would become millions”. He added," In the past, Tibetan masters praised the recitation of mantras because while you chant or recite the mantra, you don’t think about longevity, wealth and so forth; one only think of helping other sentience beings. Of course there are sayings that if one recites the mantra, it would stop a person to reborn into the lower realms of existence. But there are more significant understanding of the mantra. Also the letter ‘Om ‘is considered a sacred word in Buddhism and Hinduism as well”. He elucidates in detail about the meaning of each word and said if one knows the meaning of each syllable and chants it accordingly, it would be more meaningful"
His Holiness also spoke on preserving one’s culture and religion and said: "If looked back at the history of Tibet, Tibet has a very special connection with Avalokiteshvara, an embodiment of compassion of all the Buddha and a patron deity of Tibet.  For the last 60 years or so, as the whole world knows that Tibetans are undergoing a difficult times. In worst case, we can say that Tibetan nation, which has a history of its own,  is at a very critical juncture of becoming extinct. Therefore what we can empirically see and also by using our human intelligence, we need to put every effort to preserve our culture, spirituality, religion and so forth. We are practicing and following a non-violent path, seeking truth, we are doing things which pleases all the Buddhas, including Avalokiteshvara without being attached to one's own side and hating others, but with the attitude that every human being is same. Therefore, think about mutual  benefits and with the power of truth, if we invoke the three jewels, we will be able to create condition to achieve the goal. So, if we recite the mantra all together with a unanimous goal of the good of all, then we could actually contribute to our goal".


The Longevity initiation for attaining long life began soon after. "There are three main deities of longevity. But, the Arayatara, the wheel of Wish fulfilment Tara, is purified state of the wind energy. Thus, usually in certain tantric practices we visualize her at the crown as the movement that happens in our mind is because of the wind energy, so Arayatara has a special quality of helping sentence beings and to eliminate the obstacle to one's life. Therefore, we will begin a longevity initiation of Arayatara" said the Vajra master.


He describes Arayatara and her qualities. There were much visualization to be done and vows to be taken which devotees followed. Disciple makes fervent prayer to the Guru Arayatara. A true practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism wants to become enlightened like the Shakyamuni Buddha for the sake of all living beings. Tibetan Buddhism is a part of the Mahayana tradition and according to this tradition there are six practices to be cultivated in order to be able to reach enlightenment. These practices are known as the six (transcendent) perfections, or the six paramitas. Some Buddhist teachings mention ten perfections instead of six. The six perfections are: 1. Generosity, 2. Ethical discipline, 3. Patience, 4. Enthusiastic effort, 5. Concentration, 6. Wisdom. The six perfections must be cultivated in order to become enlightened. All six of them were explained in details.
After the conclusion of the Long-life Empowerment and the distribution of blessed substance among the crowd, the Long-life offering to His Holiness the Dalai Lama was made. The ceremony was presided over by Ganden Tri Rinpoche, Rizong Rinpoche. The occasion began with the chanting of a lineage prayer, which included past masters of India and Tibet as well as the Fourteen Dalai Lamas.


During the course of the ritual, the oracle of Tsering Che-nga or the Five Long-life Sisters was invoked. She assembled Ganden Tri Rinpoche, Sharpa Chojey, Drikung Kyabgon, Sakya Dungsey, Samdhong Rinpoche and the Sikyong Lobsang Sangye in a circle around His Holiness. The State Oracle, Nechung, was also invoked in the old Phodrang, approaching the teaching pavilion through the enthralled crowd. He came before His Holiness with a powerful and convincing display of respect. Simultaneously, nine more cases of spontaneous possession took place among members of the audience. These energetically animated individuals were assisted in coming before His Holiness, where they paid their respects, after which the possessions ceased.

Ganden Tri Rinpoche began his formal laudatory speech of request to His Holiness to live long with a verse from the 7th Dalai Lama’s praise to Avalokiteshvara.


The procession of long-life offering to His Holiness began with the Jonangpa tradition presenting a huge mandala offering followed by the rest. The Folk songs by Murup Namgyal and Dorje Stakmo; folk dances of Ladakh: Spao Dance, Chabsgyan and Shondol were presented as the ceremony came to an end.


 A number of concluding speeches followed the ceremony. Geshe Konchok Namgyal, the President of LGA, co-Chairperson of the Kalachakra Organizing Committee (KOC) gave a tentative financial report with the assurance that a final account will be presented to the office of the Dalai Lama in due course.


 In the briefings done by Dr Tondup, President of LBA, he spoke of the Committee’s great joy and celebration at the successful conclusion of the event attended by an estimated 150,000 people including: 86,000 local and Tibetan devotees, 9,000 monastics, 12,000 from the Transhimalayan Region, 6,100 foreigners from 73 countries, more than 25,000 unregistered children below the age of 15 and 10,000 volunteers and staffs.


Thupstan Chhewang, Local MP;  Rigzin Spalbar, CEC LAHDC and Nawang Rigzin Jora, Minister for Urban Development all spoke with the pleasure of the successful conclusion of the largest religious congregation, which has seen no accidents or unfortunate incidents.

Omar Abdullah, Chief Minister J&K first acknowledged His Holiness and other dignitaries present. He spoke of the greatest incident of disaster with local people when flash flood occurs in 2010. Now in 2014 he was happy to share in their greatest success with the holding of the 33rd Kalachakra Empowerment in Ladakh, whose blessings he said would go a long way towards restoring peace and confidence in the population. He mentioned his own great respect and affection for His Holiness, saying that it was a matter of great personal satisfaction to him that he had met him on the occasion of the first Kalachakra in Ladakh in 1976 when his grandfather was Chief Minister, during the region’s second Kalachakra in Zanskar in 1988 when his father was CM and now on the third occasion when he was himself Chief Minister. He offered thanks to His Holiness for his presence personally and on behalf of the State of Jammu & Kashmir.
The occasion ended with the short speech by the His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso.