Event : Rinchen Terzod Empowerments
Start date: December 1, 2010
End Date: February 18, 2011
Registration : http://www.orgyendorjeden.org/rtzd/RTZD_Reg.html
Venue : Orgyen Dorje Den 2244 Santa Clara Ave Alameda, CA 94501
Website :http://www.orgyendorjeden.org/rtzd/RTZD_Overview.html
The Rinchen Terzod (the Precious Treasury of Terma) is one of the most sacred and important sets of transmissions of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. In the Nyingma, or Early Translation School, great masters such as Guru Rinpoche, Vimalamitra, and Vairotsana, among others, gave teachings which were concealed during their own time and later discovered by eminent masters who came between the 11th and 19th centuries.
In the late 19th century, in an effort to save these precious works from permanent obscurity, they were collected into the Rinchen Terzod, comprised of 64 volumes of Tibetan text. This collection was described by the 15th Gyalwang Karmapa as "the quintessence of the ocean-like teachings of the [Awakened Ones], the profound [collection of the Awareness Holders] of the Early Translation School." The empowerment rituals of the Rinchen Terzod are rarely performed, as they take 3-6 months to complete; this cycle of empowerments has only been given once before in the Western world, by Kyabje Penor Rinpoche in 1988.