Amitayus Empowerment: Blessings of Long Life, Merit, and Wisdom

“We all need a long life.” - The Yoga of Buddha Amitayus

If we lose this life, we shall lose our opportunity to enjoy a human life, to practise Dharma, and to attain liberation and enlightenment. This is why Je Tsongkhapa said that for those who wish to experience pure happiness, the greatest obstacles to the fulfillment of their wishes are death and ignorance. Death destroys our opportunity to take the essence of our precious human life, and ignorance destroys our opportunity to develop a pure experience of Dharma.

To overcome these obstacles, we need to increase our lifespan and our wisdom, and the principal method for doing this is the yoga of Buddha Amitayus. This yoga is also a special method for increasing our merit.

An empowerment is a very special blessing ceremony that functions to heal our mental continuum and awaken our Buddha nature. Each empowerment introduces us to a particular enlightened Deity, their meditations and mantras. The particular enlightened Deity to which we will be introduced in this empowerment is Buddha Amitayus.

Gen Kelsang Norbu first received Buddha Amitayus empowerment in 2010. Since then, Gen Norbu has completed many meditational retreats on Amitayus and other deities. Gen Norbu was ordained as a monk in the New Kadampa Tradition of modern Buddhism in 2006 by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. He earned the title ‘Gen’ in 2012, indicating that he is a senior ordained teacher in this tradition.