WELCOME TO THE GARCHEN BUDDHIST INSTITUTE
A Sanctuary of Peace
The Garchen Buddhist Institute was founded by His Eminence Garchen Rinpoche in Chino Valley, Arizona. It is rooted in the Drikung Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Garchen Rinpoche created the Institute to establish the Buddha Dharma in the West, and to offer practitioners of all levels the opportunity to receive teachings, and participate in short or extended meditation practices.
TEMPORARILY CLOSED
Dear Worldwide Community,
We find ourselves in unprecedented times, with much uncertainty of how and when we can all safely resume traveling and gathering together. As a result, the Institute is closed now. We hope to open again later in 2021 and will send out an announcement when the time comes. This decision is rooted in the utmost concern for everyone’s safety, protection and well-being. We are never truly separate, and have a very full online events schedule of precious Dharma to keep us connected in prayer, practice and love.
Sending heartfelt prayers and love for everyone’s well being.
ONLINE OFFERINGS:
Events, Practices, Classes & Services
UPCOMING EVENTS
May 2021
The Path to Awakening
NEW SERIES by Venerable Khenpo Tenzin
February 16 to June 1
Next Class / May 11 at 10-12pm PDT (UTC-7)
White Tara Practice
for H.E. Garchen Rinpoche’s Long Life
Every Thursday at 8am PDT (UTC-7)
Next Practice / May 20
SUNDAY PRACTICE
10am & 2 – 3:00 pm
Garchen Buddhist Institute’s Sunday practices, dharma talks, and classes have been our offering for many years — a way for the local community of practitioners and seekers to come together in love and learning, and a way for the world-wide sangha to feel connected to Garchen Rinpoche, the Lamas and the Institute via livestream.
We are happy to be able to contiune these offerings online, during this time of diffiuclity.
- White Tara Practice with H.E.Garchen Rinpoche and Garchen Institute Lamas: 10am – 12pm
- Dharma Talks OR Meditation with Venerable Khenpo Tenzin 2pm – 3pm
Each Sunday, along with the White Tara sadhana, we will do a different additional practice on a rotating basis. That rotation will look like this:
- Jangchok for the Living
- Jangchok for the Dead
- Dharmapalas (Dharma protectors)
- Jangchock for the Living and so forth.
Click the Texts for Sunday Practice, below, to view or download all the texts you will need.
To submit names for the Jangchok for the Living or the Dead, please email your list of names to: dedications@garchen.net
- Please group your names by Living or Dead, clearly stated.
- Please do not give your names as a numbered list.
Thank you so much. May all beings benefit, and be relieved of suffering and its causes!
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Join Us Online
To participate via livestream,
CLICK HERE
For links to translations in Chinese, Vietnamese & Russian
CLICK HERE
All Texts For Sunday Practice
Each Sunday we will use the texts in the following order:
- Yellow Prayer Book – opening prayers
- White Tara Sadhana,
- with Praise of 21 Taras insert (replacing pages 24 – 39 of the sadhana)
- with Benefits of 21 Praises of Tara
- Weekly Additional Practice –
here we will practice one of the texts marked with an * - Summoning Good Fortune
- Blue Prayer Book – dedication prayer
- Yellow Prayer Book – long life prayers
Yellow Prayer Book:
View
Download
White Tara Sadhana:
View
Download
Praise of the 21 Taras
View
Download
Benefits of Praises to 21 Taras
View
Download
* Dharma Protectors (Dharmapalas):
View
Dzambala – Summoning Good Fortune
(page 63 of this text):
View
Download
* Burning Away Afflictions (Jangchok for the Living and/or the Dead):
View
Download
PUJA SERVICES
The Garchen Buddhist Institute is pleased to introduce a new program of Sponsored Puja Services. Pujas are prayer rituals which involve visualization, mantra recitation and offerings to enlightened beings (Buddhas & Bodhisattvas). They are performed to receive the blessings of these enlightened beings, to accumulate merit, and to dispel obstacles and negative circumstances for oneself and others. Pujas can be sponsored to benefit oneself or another, for the living or for the dead.
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Request a Puja
To request/sponsor a puja,
CLICK HERE
Taking Vows Online
H.E. Garchen Rinpoche has said that it is extremely beneficial to take vows online, as it really shows you have a strong aspiration to receive them! He has also said that the reason you are truly able to receive vows online, is because of the ultimate nature of the Three Jewels — the Buddha, the Dharma (teachings), and the Sangha (spiritual community). This ultimate nature is actually love, which is all-pervasive like space. So if you have the heart and intention of love, you receive the vows whether or not you are physically present for the ceremony.
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Take Vows
To take your Refuge, Bodhisattva, or other vows online,
CLICK HERE
MESSAGES AND TEACHINGS
FROM H.E. GARCHEN RINPOCHE
NEW TEACHING VIDEOS
NEW TEACHING VIDEOS by H.E. Garchen Rinpoche.
Made available by the Garchen Dharma Institute in Taiwan
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Explore Videos
Click item to begin watching:
The Guru Endowed with Three Kayas and Five Wisdoms
Usage of the Meditation Belt Designed by Garchen Rinpoche
Encourage Students to Engage in Practices
A Bodhisattva’s Response to the Coronavirus
How Tara Saved My Life Eight Times
Garchen Rinpoche’s advice on the Coronavirus
HUNG Symbol & Liberation Upon Sight
Garchen Rinpoche’s History of Giving Refuge
How to visualize Amitabha at the time of death
The Yamantaka Hat
Garchen Rinpoche gives Dharmakaya Phowa transmission
The Samadhi Empowerment
The Six Syllables in the Vajrakilaya and the Inscription for the Deceased Practices
The Benefits of Alms Bowl
Encouraging the Disciples to Continue with the Main Drubchen & Practices
Six Mantras and Six Mudras
Fire Flame Meditation
The Benefits of Spinning A Prayer Wheel
NEW! IMPORTANT MESSAGE
October 10, 2020
The Gargon Committee recently wrote an important letter to all of the noble sangha and dharma centers in H.E. Garchen Rinpoche’s worldwide mandala. It’s a request for those of us who are disciples of H.E. Garchen Rinpoche, to organize and participate in long life ceremonies and practices for H.E. Garchen Rinpoche. Next year will be a year of astrological challenges for His Eminence Garchen Rinpoche, so it is of utmost importance that we practice with pure intent and great devotion for his long life. Submit your White Tara accumulations here at Drikung Rinchen Choling. Please note that H.E. Garchen Rinpoche’s current health is very good.
This is a video message from H.E. Garchen Rinpoche on October 10,2020
“Tashi Delek dear Dharma friends, disciples around the world!
An announcement was sent out by the Gargon Committee mentioning “a year of astrological challenges”. Don’t worry, there is nothing wrong with me, I do not have a single sickness, I am extremely well. If there is one general practice that is important for us all to be concerned with, it is the recitation of the World Peace Prayer. The way the world is becoming corresponds very closely to the words in the World Peace Prayer. Therefore, I am asking everyone to recite the World Peace Prayer and to cultivate love and compassion. You should be concerned with the World Peace Prayer, rather than worrying about me because I am doing very well. So please don’t worry about me, worry about the whole world. Many Tashi Deleks!” ~ H.E. Garchen Rinpoche
Translation of video message by Ina Bieler
NEW! IMPORTANT MESSAGE
September 20, 2020
It is important to recite the World Peace Prayer many times, because it says that all the difficulties we experience in the world are created by people – within the people. [These difficulties] are actually created by the minds of the people.
The World Peace Prayer says that evil thoughts are rampant in these times. These are times when beings are overcome by thoughts of hatred, anger and jealousy. And [these thoughts] are what really cause all the harm in the world. This is how we try to destroy one another and harm one another.
Therefore, it is most important to change this state of mind and cultivate a mind of love and compassion for one another, just like it is said in this World Peace Prayer. All these negativities, all the difficulties we now experience in the world are really overcome if we cultivate a mind of love and compassion.
So therefore, it is important to engage in this practice, to recite this prayer many times.
Many Tashi Dalek! Everybody sangha, all the sangha… we are actually very close. And actually, we are always together.
Chino Valley, AZ, USA on September 20, 2020.
Translated by Ina Bieler
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Excellent Time to Practice, May 3 2020
This is an excellent opportunity to practice the Dharma. In your homes, practice your own yidam deities, such as Vajrakilaya, Yamantaka, Chenrezig, or Tara. Use this time to pray for things to get better again. And I am not only talking about Buddhist prayers. All prayers of all religions will be very beneficial. If you wish to recite a Buddhist prayer, I have requested disciples to recite four lines from Shantideva’s dedication:
“May every being ailing with disease
be freed at once from every malady.
May all the sickness that afflicts the living
be instantly and permanently healed.”
When you recite this prayer, the buddhas of the three times pray together with you. All Buddhists in the world join within the words of this prayer, and thereby our minds will merge. In this way, we accumulate great merit together, which will help move the world into a better direction. Of course, if you don’t pray, there won’t be any merit. It is very important to pray at this time. So, aside from meeting in our minds, we will also continue to meet on live-stream. I will join the White Tara practice every Sunday and it will be live-streamed. During the week I will be in retreat and I will be praying and meditating day and night. If you pray and meditate too, we will always be together.
Chino Valley, AZ, USA on May 3, 2020.
Translated by Ina Bieler
Birthday Message, April 15 2020
Many disciples around the world expressed their wish to hold prayer services for my birthday. But what’s more important than praying on my birthday is to think about the great difficulties everyone is experiencing in the world due to the pandemic. This is something that we should all pray for.
So all the Buddhists in the world should recite one particular prayer together. Four lines from Shantideva’s Way of a Bodhisattva. They are very easy to recite. It’s a prayer wishing for all those who are sick to fully recover. So please on my birthday, it’s my wish for you to accumulate this 4 line prayer as much as you can, ideally 100 million times. That will help with the healing of this illness in this world and will also benefit my health and my long life. It’s also a great accumulation of merit.
As a gift to you on my birthday, I’m offering to you the Bodhisattva vows. Actually we always have to retake the Bodhisattva vows, throughout the 3 periods of the day and 3 periods of the night. But because many people want to receive the vow, I’m offering it on my birthday.
Regarding my own lineage of the Bodhisattva Vow, it is very precious and I have received it from several of the elder Lamas in Tibet but most importantly I received it twice from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
I have just completed a month long retreat and actually this is what I’ve been accumulating in my retreat, these 4 lines. They are very powerful and easy to recite and accumulate. So everyone please recite these 4 lines, many times, as much as you can. And of course we will hold other practices on the birthday but these 4 lines are most important. So on an ongoing basis, in your day to day life, continue to accumulate these 4 lines like a mantra. It would be ideal if you can submit your numbers, via email to the center.
H.E. Garchen Rinpoche, April 15, 2020, Chino Valley, AZ, USA.
Translated by Ina Bieler
4 LINE PRAYER TO RECITE – (in the blue prayer book, page 64, verse 21)
May every being ailing with disease
Be freed at once from every malady.
May all the sickness that afflicts the living
Be instantly and permanently healed.
Message Prior to Retreat, March 16 2020
Even though I will be in retreat for a month, people can still listen to my teachings. Since I will be meditating in retreat, my mind merges into one with anyone else who is meditating too. The meditative state is the state of all the buddhas’ mind—they are always resting in the natural condition of the mind. When you meditate, you become one with my mind and the mind of all the buddhas—you become one with the space-like nature of mind that transcends birth and death. So don’t think that because I’m in retreat that I’m gone. Whenever you meditate we are together.
Whatever virtue you practice, there are many dedication prayers to dedicate these virtues. Often people request lamas to preform dedication prayers on their behalf. Actually, there is no need to ask for this because you should recite these dedication prayers yourself.
At the end of the Sūtra of the Three Heaps there is a dedication prayer that is concise yet complete in meaning; it can easily be recited by anyone. I encourage you to recite this as a dedication prayer whenever you engage in practice:
Just as the previous Bhagavan buddhas
have perfectly dedicated, just as the
future Bhagavan buddhas will perfectly
dedicate, and just as the present
Bhagavan buddhas perfectly dedicate,
like that I too dedicate perfectly.
I confess each and every wrong-
doing and rejoice in all merit. I urge and
supplicate to all the buddhas: May I attain
the highest, most sublime primordial
wisdom! With my palms joined together I
wholeheartedly take refuge in all those
who possess qualities as vast as an
infinite ocean: to the buddhas, the best of
humans, who are living in the present,
those who have lived in the past, and
likewise, those who will come.
This is the supreme dedication and it also includes refuge. It is endowed with great blessings as it was spoken by the Buddha himself.
All the disciples—we are always together. Buddha is like a big tree. The tree knows that its branches and leaves belong to him. Some branches break and some dry out; these are the many sentient beings who experience suffering. Some branches know that they belong to one single tree; these are those beings who understand Buddha. These branches will not dry out. For as long as you believe, “I am a separate individual,” you will be controlled by karma and afflictive emotions and thus you become like dry or broken tree branch. Some of the branches of a tree dry out, while other branches blossom with flowers and leaves. When you realize the view of Mahāmudrā, you know, “We are all branches of the same Buddha tree. The basis of our mind is one and the same.” Saṃsāra and nirvāṇa have a single basis, which is like the trunk of a tree. This knowledge is referred to as “meditating in the state of Mahāmudrā.” Meditation means to look at the nature of your mind, and cultivating love and compassion, untainted by self-grasping, is the cause of becoming a Buddha. The Buddha said: “All sentient beings are actually buddhas.” When you understand this, you have understood the view of Mahāmudrā. Then you will understand that, as it is said in the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, “the way things appear is one’s own mind.”
Many Tashi Delek to everyone!
Garchen Rinpoche, March 16, 2020, Chino Valley, USA
Translated by Ina Bieler.
COVID-19 Messages & Instructions
CLICK HERE to go to our Coronavirus resource page. All of Rinpoche’s instructions and messages of hope regarding the pandemic are available here as video or written transcripts. This page also gathers, in one place, all the prayers and practices recommended by Garchen Rinpoche to help us through this trying time.
Rinpoche's Retirement in Arizona
To read about H.E. Garchen Rinpoche’s retirement in Arizona, USA, please CLICK HERE
BLESSING BALM & PILLS
For protection during this Coronavirus pandemic, H.E. Garchen Rinpoche has kindly instructed us to apply blessing balm, take blessing pills, and wear the Libertion on Sight bracelets. To receive these items and learn how to use them, Click Here.
PRAYERS AND PRACTICES
H.E. Garchen Rinpoche’s Instructions
H.E. Garchen Rinpoche’s birthday wish is for everyone to accumulate two very important prayers.
Shantideva’s Four Lines for the relief of disease and sickness, especially during the pandemic.
For those who have received Bodhisattva vows, you must recite the Homage to Bodhicitta three times in the morning and three times in the evening.
Text of Shantideva's Four Lines
Homage to Bodhicitta
Dispelling existences in the lower realms,
Showing the path to the higher realms,
Leading to the cessation of aging and death,
I pay homage to the precious Bodhicitta.
NYUNGNE ONLINE
Translation Highlights
From the text – “To take the 8 Mahayana Precepts, Imagine all mother sentient beings, limitless as the sky, are gathered here.
Think I am taking the 8 Mahayana precepts for the sake of all mother sentient beings, boundless as the sky.
Then take the 8 vows.
If you take just one of the vows for one day or for however long you can take it, it has great benefit.
The Moon Lamp Sutra says – In this age of degeneration, if you just keep one vow for one day or night – this is more merit than offering to thousands of Buddhas in the past when the dharma widely flourished.
In this life, the benefits are immense. Mother sentient beings are liberated from the lower realms. It purifies greed, disease, and karmic results of all negativities. Finally it will liberate you from samsara.
As Guru Rinpoche said “ These precepts are for purifying non virtues and to increase virtues.”
The Mantra of Pure Discipline is the essence of the six perfections and when you recite this mantra, you will receive the same benefit of the Buddhas of the three times. It will purify all your broken vows and samayas and will help you to keep your vows purely in the future.
Buddha Maitreya recited the Dharani mantra three times in the day and three times in the night, accumulating merit equal to many eons.
H.E. Garchen Rinpoche: “ You should dedicate the merit because it’s possible anger and other afflictive emotions can arise that could destroy your merit.”
“Recite Gelongma Palmo’s praise, because it has such great benefit. Gelongma Palmo had leprosy and recited the praise and was cured of leprosy.”
The Garchen Teaching Archive
A treasure trove of profound teachings by H.E. Garchen Rinpoche. These beautiful teachings have been newly formatted in an easeful, unique manner which makes the viewing experience immediate, accessible, and deeply personal.
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Begin Watching Now
Love is the only cause of happiness.
It’s nature is all pervasive like space.
Love is the sunlight
of the mind.