Gompa

Special guest teacher Geshe Kelsang Wangmo will be leading this evening's class about how to develop a successful daily practice. She brings a very unique perspective as the first female Geshe (comparable to a PhD in the monastic system) as well as being a Westerner (originally from Germany). We are honored to be part of her first teaching tour, and students will not want to miss this incredible opportunity to hear her teach!

Originally from Germany and fluent in many languages, special guest teacher Geshe Kelsang Wangmo is the first female Geshe (comparable to a PhD in the Buddhist monastic system), recently earning this prestigious degree granted by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Ministry for Religion and Culture. She will be talking about her experiences studying Buddhist philosophy at the Institute for Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala, India, with classmates from the great Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. We are honored to be part of her first teaching tour since earning her degree and hearing her unique perspective!

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

There is no children's program at the 9:00am program, but the nursery is available for parents who would like space for young children. The teachings will be broadcast into the nursery so parents can still hear the teachings while supervising their children.

For the 10:45am program, the same topic will be taught again; our full range of children's programs will be available during this session. 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.

The visiting monks from Sera Je Monastery will perform a Medicine Buddha puja from 2:00-3:00pm. This healing practice can benefit anyone who is ill or dying, and help bring peace of mind and body. It will be chanted in Tibetan, and students and visitors are welcome to come and go at anytime during the ritual. 

There will be a Medicine Buddha sand mandala on display during the puja. At 3:00pm, there will be a closing ceremony where, with a remembrance of impermanence, the sand mandala will be deconstructed and taken to a body of water to be dispersed. Some of the blessed "sand" will be available to attendees with instructions how it can be used in Buddhist practice.

The Sera Je monks are touring to raise funds to benefit the Sera Je Secondary School. In addition to accepting donations, they will have available for purchase a variety of gifts and Tibetan imports for sale.

A 100-Offerings Hayagriva puja will be performed by visiting monks from Sera Je Monastery for the health and long life of our Precious Teacher and Spiritual Director Lama Zopa Rinpoche, as well as for the success of Kadampa Center. Hayagriva, while wrathful in appearance, is actually a deity of great compassion and one of the aspects of Avalokiteshrava. It's an important practice performed for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and for bringing world peace. The puja also has many added benefits, such as removing obstacles for projects, and helping people who suffer from illness (particularly strokes) and spirit harm. The puja will last several hours and be chanted in Tibetan. Visitors and students are welcome to come and go at anytime during the ritual, as well as during the day to see the ritual preparations.

The Sera Je monks are touring to raise funds to benefit the Sera Je Secondary School. In addition to accepting donations, they will have available for purchase a variety of gifts and Tibetan imports for sale.

You won't want to miss this documentary film!!!!

If you have wondered about:

• how to be fully alive and not just living into your later years
• the fear of getting old
• how to create a sense of community

If you love Rock 'n Roll:

• Hear songs from Coldplay, The Clash, James Brown and more like you've never heard it before - and will never listen to the same way again!

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/young-at-heart/

Compassion is the basis for all of the Six Perfections, and of all our practices - from daily prayers to tantra. Our goal is to develop the wish to become enlightened in order to free all sentient beings, otherwise known as bodhichitta. While teachings such as the lamrim give us a starting point, it really requires meditation to bring that knowledge from the head to the heart, which makes it a "realization." Please join special guest Venerable Tenzin Legtsok as he explains several methods how to meditate on compassion. No prior classes are required.

Ven. Legtsok is currently studying in the Geshe program at Sera Je Monastery (which is Geshe Gelek's monastery), and has a close connection to Kadampa Center. Ven. Legtsok grew up in Virginia, and was ordained in 2001. He has been leading classes at Choe Khor Sum Ling Tibetan Buddhist Meditation and Study Center in Bangalor, India, since 2004.

Our gompa space will be unavailable with the statue filling and blessing activities (which are quite messy and take up the whole room). We apologize for the inconvenience, and the schedule returns to normal on Monday.

Instead of the weekly 9:00am teaching, we will be having a special prayers ceremony to consecrate statues and holy objects. Statues had to be registered in advance and prepared on Saturday, however anyone may bring other altar items for blessing such as thangkas, prayer flags, and malas (please label all items with your name - many look similar and we want them to get back to their correct homes). A table will be set up in the gompa for these items (starting August 18th) which must be brought in before the ceremony starts. Please pick up your blessed object as soon as possible after the ceremony ends. The prayers will be chanted in Tibetan, and everyone is invited to come listen and meditate during the ceremony. It's recommended you attend if possible if you have a holy object being blessed.

Private teachings for students who requested instruction on Lama Tsong Khapa Guru Yoga

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

The center will not be holding a puja, but according to the Tibetan calendar it is the day for performing tsog offering (and is a commitment for anyone with a Highest Yoga Tantra Initiation according to Lama Zopa Rinpoche).