Gompa

Guru puja (Lama Chöpa)  is a practice of making offerings and requests to all the Buddhas and holy beings, but especially the root guru, who, according to the teachings, is the root of the path to liberation. It is a practice recommended by FPMT's Spiritual Director Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who says: This practice of Guru Puja is very profound, with many extra benefits, and is very quick to bring enlightenment. The lam-rim prayer, the prayer of the steps of the path to enlightenment, in Guru Puja has lam-rim and also lo-jong, or thought transformation. Generally, the whole of the lam-rim, from guru devotion up to enlightenment, is thought transformation. If your mind is not transformed into the path, how can you have realizations of the path? There’s no way, without transforming your mind.

As part of the puja, we perform a special practice called tsog which has extensive offerings. According to the Liberation Prison Project Tibetan calendar, on the 10th and 25th of every Tibetan (lunar) month, Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, “Those who have received an initiation into Highest Yoga Tantra have a commitment to perform tsog” on these days. Kadampa Center holds pujas with tsog on these dates (when they don't conflict with other programs).

Anyone is welcome to attend pujas, even if you are unfamiliar with the practice. This puja is recited partly in English and partly chanted in Tibetan. (It is possible to read the English translations of the whole puja, and there is optional sheet music available to help learn the Tibetan tunes.) Traditionally the offerings for the sangha and puja are sponsored by Dharma students, especially if they want to dedicate the puja to their spiritual teachers or loved ones in need of support and prayers.

Sponsorship of a Guru puja is $70 - click here to sponsor this puja.

Discussion of the Four Point Analysis is cancelled for June and July.

Wednesday lamrim class will resume Wednesday, July 24, after Geshe Gelek's return on Sunday, July 21.

Enjoy your summer break!

Meditation is a foundational tool of the Buddhist practitioner. We use different types of meditation in our practice to clear and calm the mind, review and deepen our understanding of teachings, develop concentration, and so on.

Our First Saturday Meditation practice will include three common modes of meditation:  breathing, concentration and analytical, with discussions in between.

Each Saturday will begin with a brief overview of meditation, based on notes taken from Geshe Gelek. 

Geshe Gelek says that practicing in a group enhances and increases the power of our meditation, with all of us benefitting from the shared energy and experience of others in the room.

These sessions are led by senior students.

On this Father's Day Sunday, Venerable Khando will speak on the Noble Eightfold Path. 

The Noble Eightfold Path comprises eight components of the path to cessation of suffering taught by the Buddha. They are: correct speech, correct action, correct livelihood, correct effort, correct mindfulness, correct concentration, correct understanding and correct view.

Join our Center Director, Robbie Watkins, for a discussion of Dharma and how it relates to our daily lives.

Robbie is a long-time student of Buddhism and an experienced Discovering Buddhism teacher, with a skill for articulating the teachings clearly!

Come join in celebrating His Holiness' 84th birthday!

You are invited to join Kadampa Center and the Triangle Area Tibetan community to celebrate His Holiness’ 84th birthday. We will begin with a procession to enthrone an image of His Holiness. Geshe Sangpoand the Tibetan community will offer prayers for his long life, and continued success in all of his extensive activities as the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, and as a world-wide spokesman for basic human values  of compassion and universal responsibility.

We also will offer prayers for His Holiness' long life.

Our celebration is family-friendly as we enjoy a birthday cake together. We will end the celebration with an opportunity to mark the day by offering katas to His Holiness.

“Love and Compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive”  ~ The Dalai Lama

In this auspicious holy month of Saka Dawa, Geshe Sangpo will offer Refuge, and the Five Lay Vows. It is especially wonderful to be able to take these vows during a Buddha holy month. Taking refuge vows is making a commitment to Buddhism as one's spiritual path. It also creates a karmic bond with the teacher who offers the vows. When you take refuge in the Three Jewels, the refuge master conferring the vows will also give you a refuge name in Tibetan. The Five Lay Vows are a set of basic ethical principals, vows not to kill, take what has not been offered, lie, take intoxicants or commit sexual misconduct (that is, have sex with someone else's partner). The Five Lay Vows are lifetime vows, so only need to be taken once, and should be taken with the confidence you will keep them.

In order to participate, you must register ahead of time.  Sorry, registration is closed.

Students who have already taken refuge are welcome to attend and renew their vows, but should not register.

Geshe Gelek recommends anyone interested in taking refuge should read the refuge section in the book Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand (available in our bookstore). He also taught a class on refuge in 2013 for students interested in the ceremony - you can listen to it in the recordings section of our website.

The ceremony will likely be in Tibetan, but it is first explained in English what you are saying. Please plan to be there by 10 am so we can review what you will be doing. At the end of the ceremony, it is traditional to offer two katas (white offering scarfs, available in the bookstore) - one to the Buddha statue on the altar, and one to the teacher giving the vows, who returns it by placing it over your head as a blessing. While we often have spare ones to lend, it is best to buy them so you are actually making an offering of your own. It is also auspicious to give the teacher a gift, typically money (any amount) in an envelope, in appreciation for the incredible gift he has just given you with this opportunity. The center will also be giving you a copy of the FPMT booklet on refuge and how to practice it daily.

Sponsor Refuge Ceremony

"It is our custom to say that someone is "lucky" or "unlucky" if they meet with fortunate or unfortunate circumstances, respectively.  It is however, too simplistic to think in terms of random "luck."  Even from a scientific point of view, this is not a sufficient explanation.  Should something unfortunate happen, we immediately think, "Oh, how unlucky!"  And yet this is not sufficient to explain what happened- there must be a cause.  We seem to call "luck" that factor which overrides external conditions to bring about a positive situation.  But that too is a cause; it is an inner cause, which we call "merit."-- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, from "Answers:  Discussions with Western Buddhists", published by Snow Lion Publications.

Creating merit is an essential part of Buddhist practice.  When we build up our stores of merit, it removes obstacles in our spiritual lives. This makes it easier to understand the teachings and apply the Dharma in our everyday lives. Making merit is also great purification!

On Thursday practice nights, we will do group practices of doing prostrations and offering mandalas.  In these sessions, Geshe Sangpo will briefly explain the purpose and benefits of the practices and teach us how to do them, and then we will all do the practice together.  This is of benefit to everyone who participates, and because we are doing practice as a group in our gompa, it will benefit Kadampa Center as well.

Prostration nights will be easy-going; we will , then recite purification practices "Prostrations to the 35 Confession Buddhas" and the Vajrasattva mantra, then do prostrations together.

The sessions will take place every two weeks beginning  with prostrations on Thursday, April 12, and will run from 7 to 8pm.  The next session in the schedule will be mandala offerings on Thursday, April 26, and so on every two weeks.

On this night, we will do mandala offerings.

No need to have a mandala set on mandala offering nights, but if you have a set, please bring it!  Geshe Sangpo will teach the hand mudra for mandala offerings for those who don't have a set.