Lama Achuk Rinpoche

Amnyi Trulchung Rinpoche has recently heard of the passing of his root teacher His Holiness Achuk Rinpoche. During his teenage years, Rinpoche studied with Lama Achuk and completed a three year meditation retreat under his guidance. Rinpoche always speaks with the highest love and respect for Lama Achuk who he regards as no less than the Buddha himself.

HH Lama Achuk Rinpoche's birth in Trom, Eastern Tibet was foretold by Guru Rinpoche. He learned to read and write at an early age without being taught and fervently wished to become ordained. One day in a cave he saw a great number of texts written in dakini script. He entered Trom Dokho Monastery and was ordained at age 15, serving teachers of the Sakya, Nyingma and Gelugpa lineages.

At age 18 he began to serve Tulku Arik Rinpoche and relied continuously upon him as he brought the experiences and realizations of the Great Perfection to completion. During the Cultural Revolution in China Lama Achuk was forced to separate from Tulku Arik Rinpoche and underwent beatings, torture and starvation.

Through training the mind to accept pleasant and unpleasant circumstances these experiences fuelled his meditations. Once restrictions on the practice of Buddhism were eased he turned the wheel of dharma widely, instructing vast numbers of monastic and lay people.

HH Lama Achuk Rinpoche, an emanation of Guru Rinpoche, was one of the greatest living exponents of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection teaching. After spending 40 years in retreat with Arik Rinpoche, he established Yachen Gar, an encampment of thousands of monks, nuns and lay practitioners, in an isolated valley near Kandze in Sichuan.

The purpose of the Gar is to revive the sacred landscape of Tibet and to provide students with an opportunity to receive a comprehensive Buddhist education. Many have instantaneously actualized the primordial wisdom of the path through seeing, hearing or being touched by HH Lama Achuk Rinpoche, or even through thinking of him. There is no doubt that he has ripened, liberated and placed an inestimable number of sentient beings on the profound path.

It is through the vast kindness of Lama Achuk that we students of Amnyi Trulchung Rinpoche have the great benefit of the authentic teachings available to us. The best way to repay the kindness of our teachers is to study, contemplate and practise the teachings they give us. Rinpoche requests all his students to undertake the following practices for at least the next 45 days and if possible for the next year.

• Complete 100,000 recitations of the 6 syllable Vajrasattva mantra “Om Vajra Sattva Hum.”
• Recite Samantabhadra’s Prayer of Great Aspiration at the end of every group meditation session or meeting of Sangha members.
• Eat only vegetarian food for at least 45 days.

Copies of Samantabhadra’s prayer and the Rigdzin daily prayer book can be downloaded from the teachings materials page.