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Guru Puja with Tsog Online December 2021

7:00 pm Saturday, December 4, 2021

  

Where would we be without our teacher? Would we understand the tiniest point of the Dharma? Would we be able even to begin to conquer our minds and end our suffering?

The teacher, the guru, is the root of the path to liberation.  Without a teacher, we don’t know how to find our way.

In Guru Puja (Lama Chöpa), from the heart of our appreciation for our teachers, we make offerings and requests to all the Buddhas and holy beings, but especially the root guru.

 

  

 Lama Zopa Rinpoche 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.

This puja will be offered on Zoom. Please click here to register on Zoom.

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. During the pandemic, when we are doing the puja online, students can make these offerings at home.

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.

Supporting pujas benefits not just the Center and those who attend, but it also greatly benefits the donor, who collects the merit of giving the Dharma, and thus creates the causes to meet the Dharma again.

Sponsoring the puja is a two-step process

Step One  is dedicating your generosity (click here)

Step Two  is making the sponsorship donation (click here)

Dedications may be very simple - "For my mother, Rosemary" - or they might encompass 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.

Location at Kadampa Center: 
Gompa