Gompa

This day marks Shakyamuni Buddha's birth, enlightenment and parinirvana (passing from this life). Saka Dawa is an especially auspicious day for spiritual practice — the karmic effects of all actions, positive and negative, are multiplied exponentially!

Our schedule at Kadampa Center will include:

5:15 - 7:00 am

Eight Mahayana Precepts, followed by a  group reading of  a sutra. The precepts begin before dawn and end at sunrise the following day. These precepts must be taken from a qualified master the first time; afterward the student may take them at home before their altar., or with other students at Kadampa Center. Geshe Sangpo will offer precepts if students request it. If you wish to take precepts for the first time, please register here by Thursday, June 13.

We will take precepts at the Center in any case.

3:00 - 4:00 pm

Animal blessing and liberation 

7:00 - 9:00 pm

Venerable Robina Courtin teaches on How to Discover Our True Nature  in the first night of her week-long visit to Kadampa Center.  

Sponsor Holy Day Activities $108

The two-week long Tibetan Great Prayer Festival, Monlam Chenmo, which began with the Tibetan New Year, culminates in the Day of Miracles, Chotrul Duchen, which falls this year on Tuesday, February 19.  As a Buddha Holy Day, the karmic effects of virtuous actions performed on this day are multiplied exponentially, according to Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Our Schedule:

•  12:00 pm  Group reading of the Sanghata Sutra

•   7:00 pm  Group reading of the Golden Light Sutra*

The FPMT spiritual director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, encourages students to take the Eight Mahayana Precepts on holy days. This is a set of vows that are taken for 24 hours, from just before dawn to sunrise the following day. Those who have taken precepts previously from a qualified teacher are encouraged to take them at home, at "first light".

*Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommends reciting the Golden Light Sutra everyday, and especially on Buddha holy days. The benefits from reciting, listening to, or even hearing the name of the sutra are immeasurable, extending from eliminating conflict, terrorism, torture and gamine, to achieving full enlightenment. The Sanghata Sutra is a direct teaching by the Buddha that promised to tranform all who read or recite it.

Sponsoring the sutra readings is a great way to create merit, and it's especially auspicious to do so during the Days of Miracles, when our merit is multiplied exponentially.

Sponsorship is a two-step process

Step One  is dedicating your sponsorship (click here).

Step Two  is making the donation (use the button below on this page),

Sponsors may wish to dedicate very simply - "For my mother, Rosemary" - or they might make more extensive spiritual wishes, such as "May these teachings be the cause to liberate all sentient beings," or wishes for the teacher's long life, to benefit a person who is ill - any heart-felt positive intention!  You also can dedicate for more than one intention.

Use our secure online community to donate by clicking your choice below. 

To try our new Text Giving, send KC108 to 73256 and select your level from the drop down menu.

Don't forget to dedicate your sponsorship!

Sponsor a Sutra Reading ~ $75

Losar is the Tibetan New Year, the most important festival in Tibetan culture, when families get together and celebrate hopes for a better coming year.

Spiritually, the first two weeks of the Tibetan year are particularly powerful. These weeks mark a time when Shakyamuni Buddha was challenged to a duel of mystical powers by a group of  teachers who did not believe in the Buddha's teachings. During each of the 15 Days of Miracles, the Buddha's actions led to many people attaining realizations, ripening karms for higher rebirths and being liberated from samsara.

Each day in this two-week period is an auspicious day for practice.

FPMT says:

Any actions done during that period of time, both auspicious and harmful, are multiplied in their power. Karmic results are multiplied by one hundred million, as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the Vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic. It is a very powerful time to practice and increase one’s commitment to both practice and study.

Our schedule of special events for this holy season:

"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 partly recited 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.

Sponsoring a puja is a great way to create merit, and it's especially auspicious to do so on a holy day for a puja dedicated to one of our teachers. Sponsorship of this puja is $75, and sponsors can include a dedication that we will read at the puja so everyone can join in the sponsor's intentions. 

Sponsor Here

• WHAT: Interfaith Prayer Gathering – HOPE: Pass It On
• WHEN: Sun Jan 6, 3:00 - 4:30 pm
• WHERE: Kadampa Center
• FORMAT: Presenters will share a brief prayer or thought from their fatih tradition. If you or someone you recommend would like to be on the program, please contact Nancy Hendershot on or before Dec 21.

Food: Social time and light refreshements will follow the service.

Here is a Recording of the Service.

The Speakers:

• Member of Kadampa Center, Tibetan Buddhist community: Geshe Gelek
• Member of Cary Baha’i Community, Baha’i Faith: Jack Thatcher
• Member of the Interfaith Minisitry: Christie Mabry
• Member of Temple Beth Or, Jewish community: Judye Jacobs
• Member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), Christian community: Troy Samuels
• Member of Muslim community: Enes Kurtay

This date is a tsog day when there will not be a puja at the Center. This listing is provided for those who wish to perform tsog at home.

Tara, a female buddha, represents enlightened activities that address a multitude of our spiritual and temporal needs. These are represented by the 21 Taras, each an aspect of her buddha nature and wisdom. In this practice, we deepen our connection to each of the 21 Taras by visualizing her present with us, contemplating the specific enlightened activity of each Tara, and engaging in the Seven Limbs of practice:  prostration, offering, purification, rejoicing, entreating Tara to remain, requesting Tara to teach, and dedication. We begin the practice with creating a beautiful and bountiful offering table, overflowing with offerings to each of the 21 Taras. Everyone is encouraged to come and participate in this aspect of the practice. You are also welcome to bring your own flower or food offerings (for this practice, please avoid foods containing egg, meat, onion or garlic).

Students at all levels will enjoy this practice, which we do in English.

This practice was written by Panchen Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen at Tashi Lunpo Monastery in Tibet.  Geshe Gelek's  teacher, the former Abbot of Sera Je Monastery, Khensur Rinpoche Jetsun Lobsang Delek,  said when he visited in 2011 that we have a special connection to Tara, so doing her practice is incredibly beneficial for our community, harmony working together, and the success of Kadampa Center.

The Tara practice consists of reciting sadhanas and mantras for each of the 21 emanations of Tara.  Sadhanas are tantric meditations through which a practitioner aims to achieve union or identity with a divine being such as Mother Tara through visualizations and prayers.

Traditionally the offerings for the sangha and altar are sponsored by Dharma students, especially if they want to dedicate the merit to their loved ones in need of support and prayers. Sponsorship of Tara practice is $125.

Please click here to sponsor Tara practice.

If you'd like to know more about sponsoring a puja, please contact pujas@kadampa-center.org for instructions about making the donation and sending your personal dedication.

Medicine Buddha puja is a beautiful prayer service that includes lyrical praises to the seven Medicine Buddhas, requests for their help and aspirations for our own spiritual attainments. It is beneficial for mental and physical healing and world peace, and is especially beneficial for those who are experiencing physical or mental illness or those who have recently passed away. This service is very welcoming to newcomers and beginners. Typically we do Medicine Buddha Puja in English. Anyone is welcome to sponsor a puja and offer a dedication to benefit themselves or loved ones. Sponsor this puja here.

More about the benefits of Medicine Buddha puja

From the Service Manual for Spiritual Program Coordinators, FPMT:

Many eons ago, seven bodhisattvas strongly prayed for the temporal and ultimate happiness of all sentient beings, that their names become wish-fulfilling in order to heal both the mental and physical sicknesses and diseases of sentient beings. They vowed that their prayers will be actualized during these degenerate times when the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha are in decline. When they became enlightened, one of the ten powers of a Buddha is the power of prayer - that means that all the prayers that have been made get fulfilled. As the Buddha's holy speech is irrevocable, you can wholly trust in their power to quickly grant blessings to help all sentient beings in these degenerate times. They are called the Seven Medicine Buddhas, the main one is `Lapis Buddha of Medicine, King of Light'. Buddha Shakyamuni taught the teachings on the Medicine Buddha, and according to one tradition, is also considered as one of the Medicine Buddhas, and hence the Eight Medicine Buddhas.

The seven Medicine Buddhas manifested in order to pacify the obstacles to the achievement of temporary happiness, liberation and the ultimate happiness of full enlightenment. They are powerful in healing diseases as well as for purification. The Medicine Buddha practice can be used to help purify those who have already died and liberate them from suffering. It is also very powerful in bringing about success, both temporary and ultimate.

The reason why the Medicine Buddha practice brings success is that in the past when the seven Medicine Buddhas were bodhisattvas practicing the path to enlightenment, they promised and made extensive prayers to actualize all the prayers of living beings of the degenerate time when the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha are in decline. They generated a very strong intention to become enlightened for this reason; this was their motivation for meditating on and actualizing the path.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, "It is very important that the elaborate Medicine Buddha puja with extensive offerings be done regularly. The offerings should be as extensive and as beautiful as possible, and done in order to benefit all sentient beings."

Medicine Buddha puja is a beautiful prayer service that includes lyrical praises to the seven Medicine Buddhas, requests for their help and aspirations for our own spiritual attainments. It is beneficial for mental and physical healing and world peace, and is especially beneficial for those who are experiencing physical or mental illness or those who have recently passed away. This service is very welcoming to newcomers and beginners. Typically we do Medicine Buddha Puja in English. Anyone is welcome to sponsor a scheduled puja and offer a dedication to benefit themselves or loved ones. Sponsor this puja here.

More about the benefits of Medicine Buddha puja

From the Service Manual for Spiritual Program Coordinators, FPMT:

Many eons ago, seven bodhisattvas strongly prayed for the temporal and ultimate happiness of all sentient beings, that their names become wish-fulfilling in order to heal both the mental and physical sicknesses and diseases of sentient beings. They vowed that their prayers will be actualized during these degenerate times when the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha are in decline. When they became enlightened, one of the ten powers of a Buddha is the power of prayer - that means that all the prayers that have been made get fulfilled. As the Buddha's holy speech is irrevocable, you can wholly trust in their power to quickly grant blessings to help all sentient beings in these degenerate times. They are called the Seven Medicine Buddhas, the main one is `Lapis Buddha of Medicine, King of Light'. Buddha Shakyamuni taught the teachings on the Medicine Buddha, and according to one tradition, is also considered as one of the Medicine Buddhas, and hence the Eight Medicine Buddhas.

The seven Medicine Buddhas manifested in order to pacify the obstacles to the achievement of temporary happiness, liberation and the ultimate happiness of full enlightenment. They are powerful in healing diseases as well as for purification. The Medicine Buddha practice can be used to help purify those who have already died and liberate them from suffering. It is also very powerful in bringing about success, both temporary and ultimate.

The reason why the Medicine Buddha practice brings success is that in the past when the seven Medicine Buddhas were bodhisattvas practicing the path to enlightenment, they promised and made extensive prayers to actualize all the prayers of living beings of the degenerate time when the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha are in decline. They generated a very strong intention to become enlightened for this reason; this was their motivation for meditating on and actualizing the path.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, "It is very important that the elaborate Medicine Buddha puja with extensive offerings be done regularly. The offerings should be as extensive and as beautiful as possible, and done in order to benefit all sentient beings."