SPIRITUAL: Special Event Puja

Please join us to say prayers of healing to support member Kim Lillig, who is sponsoring this puja for her late ex-husband, Bill Johnson. This is the 49th day after his passing, which is a very beneficial time to pray for him - according to Buddhism, it's the final day he may still be in the bardo about to take a rebirth.

Guru Puja is a practice consisting of making offerings to and requesting inspiration from the Spiritual Master. Spiritual vows and commitments which might have degenerated are also restored through the practice of tsog offering (feast offering). In this practice, we unite our minds with the holy mind of the Spiritual Master, who is considered the root and life-force of the spiritual path in order to receive blessings and generate realizations on the path to enlightenment.

We need merit, or positive energy, for our enlightened potential to grow and become perfect and one of the best ways to do that is to make beautiful offering and prayers to the Three Jewels and to our Spiritual Teachers. This is what happens in the Guru Puja. A special type of offering called tsog is made. Here we offer platefuls of fruits and biscuits, which are distributed afterwards to the participants. The tsog can be eaten by oneself or shared with friends who have faith in the Three Jewels, but should not be given to animals or thrown in a dirty place.

Written by Ven. Sangye Khadro

Check out the rest of Ven. Thubten Chodron's scheduled events at Kadampa Center.

There will be a special Medicine Buddha puja at 11 a.m., Tuesday, April 9th for the passing of the sister of one of our family members, who would like to remain anonymous. This puja is already sponsored. Please join us to empower our prayers for a quick and pleasant journey through the bardo and rebirth in the Pure Land.

There will be a special Medicine Buddha puja at the Kadampa Center sponsored for the passing of John Elliot's brother, Gary Elliot. Please  join us to support John through this difficult time and to help create the cause for Gary's peaceful and quick journey through the bardo and for his happy rebirth.

We will be setting up extensive offerings for Sunday's long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche. With Geshe Sangpo's help, we'll be lining the altar with water bowls, food offerings, incense, etc. No experience is necessary - this is a great opportunity to learn more about making offerings.

There will be a special Medicine Buddha puja at 1:30 p.m., Thursday, January 24 at the Kadampa Center for Theodore Meyer who passed away recently. This puja is sponsored by his parents. Please join us to empower our prayers for Theodore's quick and pleasant journey through the bardo and happy rebirth.

Our Spiritual Director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, is a precious jewel who guides all the centers in the FPMT and is a dear teacher to us. Geshe Gelek consulted with Khen Rinpoche Lobsang Delek (also the abbot of Sera Je) about the best offering for Lama Zopa Rinpoche's health and long life, and based on this advice we will be doing the pujas and mantras here at Kadampa Center. We raised the funds and had the first puja in October, and are pleased to have our second puja during Monlam Chenmo (Days of Miracles). 

The Geshes will be chanting a Chittamani Tara puja in Tibetan, while everyone else chants Namgyalma mantras. (That way everyone can attend and participate, even if they do not have a Chittamani Tara initiation.) We'll also have extensive offerings set up, thanks to the generosity of the many sponsors of these pujas.

If you can't be there on Sunday, you can still practice from home at the same time by saying the Namgyalma mantra:
OM BHRUM SVAHA / OM AMRITA AYUR DA DAI SOHA

This is a special Medicine Buddha puja for Michelle Ludy who recently passed away (sponsored by Johnny Hall). Anyone is welcome to attend to help support Michelle and her loved ones through these prayers.