7th Arya Kshema
Day One 6 March 2023
དེ་རིང་ནི་༧སྐྱབས་རྗེ་ཡོངས་འཛིན་མཁན་ཆེན་ཁྲ་འགུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་གདན་ས། འཕགས་ཡུལ་གནས་མཆོག་ཝ་རཱ་ཎ་སི། བཛྲ་བིདྱ་གཙུག་ལག་སློབ་གཉེར་ཁང་དུ། འཕགས་མ་བདེ་བྱེད་མའི་དཔྱིད་ཆོས་ཐེངས་བདུན་པའི་ཉིན་དང་པོ། སྐྱབས་རྗེ་སྒྲུབ་དཔོན་བདེ་ཆེན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་དབུ་བཞུགས་མཛད་དེ། རྒྱ་བལ་འབྲུག་གསུམ་ནས་ད་ལན་ཆེད་དུ་འདུས་པའི་བཙུན་མ་རྣམས་ནས་བསྟན་པ་རྒྱས་ཆོག་གསུང་འདོན་མཛད་བཞིན་པ་དགེའོ། ། ༢༠༢༣/༠༣/༠༦
After breakfast, the nuns and their teachers gathered in the main shrine hall of Vajra Vidhya Institute for the inaugural session. A portrait of His Holiness the 17th Karmapa was brought in procession and placed on the throne.
The main event of the morning was A Ritual for Women’s and Especially Nuns’ Dharma to Flourish, Based on the Inseparability of Noble Chenrezig and Noble Ananda. This three-hour-long ritual was composed by His Holiness the 17th Karmapa and was first used at the conclusion of the first Arya Kshema. It has since become a key event at every Arya Kshema.
It includes supplications to Avalokiteshvara and his attendant Ananda who are seen as inseparable in this ritual. The latter is particularly important for nuns because he interceded after the Buddha initially refused Mahajaprati’s request for women to become ordained as nuns, and it was because of his persistence that the Buddha finally gave permission for women to be ordained. The thangka hanging above the shrine portrays two-armed Avalokiteshvara standing with a lotus in his left hand and Ananda emanating from his right.
