Gompa

In honor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's 78th birthday, we'll be celebrating together with a special Sunday morning program and participate in FPMT International's Compassion Day. At the beginning of the program, we'll have a procession inviting His Holiness to join us, symbolized by his image being brought into the gompa and placed on a special throne - Geshe Sangpo says it is important to visualize His Holiness is actually with us for the program. Students are encouraged to bring katas (traditional white offering scarves, also available in the bookstore) to make an offering to His Holiness. In addition to saying long life prayers and meditation on loving kindess, we'll be enouraging students to commit a random act of kindness and dedicate it to His Holiness's health and long life.

If you are unsure when to visit the center for the first time, Sundays are a great time to start.

Our full range of children's programs will be available. Children are invited to sit on the blue cushions at the front of the gompa, and then are dismissed to their classes after opening prayers. They will do an activity this Sunday tied to Compassion Day.

Join Geshe Gelek and other center members as we all plant the seeds to become bodhisattvas! There is huge benefit from reading entire Dharma texts (including many times!) and having that imprint on your mind, so this retreat is an opportunity to read and meditate on Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life cover to cover. It's even more amazing that we would come together as a group, and all be thinking about the practices of a bodhisattva for the entire day. It can be difficult to set aside the time to read and focus on Dharma books in our busy lives, so here are the ideal conditions to accomplish this goal!

Please bring your own copy of the book - texts are not provided. Copies of several translations are available in Kadampa Center's bookstore.

Lunch will be provided as part of the retreat: costs and registration information will be provided closer to the date.

As part of the statue blessing ceremony, the statues must be carefully filled with rolled mantras, incense, and juniper. We'll meet at 9:00am and will be filling statues all day - there are so many we expect to be there until dinnertime. The day will be spent with Geshe Gelek and Geshe Sangpo preparing the statues. Anyone is welcome to attend and help, but it's particularly recommended for those who are having a statue blessed so they develop a strong connection to it as a holy object. All the statues had to be registered, and need to be cleaned and delivered ahead of time - please email program@kadampa-center.org if you have questions about this process.

In five short classes, we introduce you to the major terms and concepts of Buddhism - a fast tour of the basics to enable you to take the next steps if you want more. Topics covered include the Four Noble Truths, different kinds of Buddhism (Theravada, Mahayana, etc.), Buddha's teachings in a gradual form for the practice of one individual, and a brief introduction to meditation. We'll let you know of additional reading you can do if you're interested, but there are no specific requirements. The course is based on the teachings found in Buddhism in a Nutshell by Ven. Amy Miller, an excellent supplement to the classes.

In keeping with our tradition, these classes are offered on a donation basis. No pre-registration is needed - drop in for any class or come to the whole series. Led by Sandy Carlson.

The Golden Light Sutra is one of the practices that was requested to benefit our spiritual director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. If you cannot attend, reading it at home is also encouraged. The text is available online for free download at http://www.fpmt.org/education/teachings/sutras/golden-light-sutra/download.html. We will be reporting practices done for Rinpoche to FPMT every month, so please email program@kadampa-center.org when you complete recitations.

Meditation 101 is an introductory course on Buddhist meditation techniques for complete beginners. It teaches basic Buddhist meditations that can be used by anyone to create more peace and happiness in daily life. Jill Marie will be leading this session. In keeping with our tradition, the class is offered on a donation basis. No pre-registration is needed - drop-ins are welcome anytime during the course. This session will be led by Jill Marie.

The basic Buddhist meditation techniques covered include:

• What is meditation?
• Breathing meditations
• Mindfulness meditations
• Visualization meditations

This class will be rescheduled - Geshe Gelek is ill and not able to lead class this evening.

This is the final class in a series Geshe Gelek has been teaching on the Bodhisattva and Tantric vows. In this class, he will cover what to do if you have broken the vows, and how to purify that karma. 

In order to ensure students have the proper background and experience for the material, the class is restricted to students who have actually taken the vows. The second hour of the class will be only for those with Highest Yoga Tantra vows (so students who have not taken a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation will leave after the first hour).

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.