Gompa

Geshe Gelek will offer a teaching every Sunday morning

          con traducción simultánea al español.

Join our community for online teachings tailored to help us greet the challenges of daily life with happy, peaceful minds. 

Each week Geshe Gelek skillfully draws on his vast knowledge of the Dharma, often searching his mental library of memorized texts for just the right wisdom to apply to the circumstance at hand. When he does so, his speech moves seamlessly between English and Tibetan - so if you don't understand a sentence here and there, he may be citing a text in Tibetan.

We are offering this teaching via both Zoom and online YouTube streaming!

Watch the teaching on YouTube online streaming.

To attend by Zoom, please register in advance.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Geshe Gelek ofrece una enseñanza todos los domingos por la mañana.

Únase a nuestra comunidad para recibir enseñanzas en línea diseñadas para ayudarnos a enfrentar los desafíos de la vida diaria con mentes felices y tranquilas.

¡Ofrecemos esta enseñanza a través de Zoom con traducción simultánea al español!

Para asistir por Zoom, apriete el enlace para registrarse con anticipación.

Después de registrarse, recibirá un correo electrónico de confirmación con información sobre cómo unirse a la reunión.

Meditation 101 is an introductory course on basic Buddhist meditation techniques for complete beginners, and includes Buddhist meditations that can be used by anyone to create more peace and happiness in daily life. Presented in five sessions. Students are encouraged to come for the whole class, but drop-ins are welcome. The basic Buddhist meditation techniques covered include:

• Defining meditation 
• Breathing meditations
• Mindfulness meditations
• Visualization meditations

This class is offered via Zoom.  Registration required to access the class. Click here to register.

This class is led by David Machles.

In keeping with our long-standing tradition, Kadampa Center does not charge a fee for any Dharma course. These teachings are too precious to allow money to be an obstacle for anyone to hear them!  We do, of course, have expenses to offer the course, so we happily welcome any heart-felt donations. 

Protector, remover of obstacles, model of enlightened activity, inspiration to Lama Atisha - Tara is all of these. Doing Tara practice clears obstacles in our spiritual lives and helps us attain our positive goals, both spiritual and mundane. Tara is a female Buddha whose qualities include enlightened action and swiftly removing obstacles (Tara's 21 aspects are represented in statues on our altar).

Geshe Gelek translated this special practice, The Practice of Tara that Fulfills All Wishes, and assures us that this will greatly benefit not just our center and community, but have the best benefit of helping all sentient beings.

Geshe Gelek's teacher, (the former Abbot of Sera Je Monastery) Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Delek, also 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.

We will do this practice via Zoom, which will allow us to display the text for all to participate.  There will be no YouTube streaming.

Registration is required to join the Zoom session. This helps protect the session from "trolls" and helps protect participants' security.  

Register here in advance for this practice.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

The practice will be led by Venerable Lhamo.

Important Note: The time for this class has moved to 9:30 am. Existing Zoom registrations will remain effective with the time change. Join Geshe Gelek as he guides us to selected points in the road to enlightenment. Current and upcoming topics:  Geshe-la  is currently teaching calm abiding.

   These teachings can be accessed via Zoom or on YouTube.

   Registration is required to attend the teachings via Zoom. Please click here to register.

In his great compassion, Shakyamuni Buddhia opened the gates to this road to enlightenment through his teachings.

Many years later, Lama Atisha organized all of the Buddha's teachings into a step-by-step guide -- a road map to the territory of practice --  in a short text called "Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment."

Lama Tsongkhapa (the founder of our Gelugpa lineage) wrote a detailed explanation of Lama Atisha's text to help students understand and practice the instructions, called The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Lamrim Chenmo). This lamrim foundation is the basis of all practice in our lineage, including tantra.

These incredible teachings by Geshe Gelek on this text are a rare and precious opportunity to gain insights into how to practice.

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.

The puja will be offered on Zoom and streamed on YouTube. Please click here to register on Zoom. 

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."

Sponsoring the puja is a two-step process

Step One  is dedicating your generosity (click here).

Step Two  is making the sponsorship donation

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.

Sponsorship of a Medicine Buddha puja is $60 - click here to sponsor this puja.

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.

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.

Sponsoring the puja is a two-step process

Step One  is dedicating your generosity (click here).

Step Two  is making the sponsorship donation

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.

Sponsorship of a Guru puja is $75 - click here to sponsor this puja.

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.

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.

Sponsoring the puja is a two-step process

Step One  is dedicating your generosity (click here).

Step Two  is making the sponsorship donation

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.

Sponsorship of a Guru puja is $75 - click here to sponsor this puja.

Kadampa Center is happy to host Venerable Thubten Chöying online as she shares images, impressions and insights from her new life as a nun at Kopan Nunnery outside Kathmandu, Nepal.  Venerable Chöying (formerly Sarah Brooks, Spiritual Program Coordinator at Kadampa Center in Raleigh, NC, USA and at Mahamudra Centre in Colville, NZ) ordained in January this year with Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Spiritual Director of our mother organization, FPMT. Come for an evening of hearing the joys and trials of immersion into the ordained life.

Kopan Nunnery has two Geshes from the first class of female Tibetan Geshes who were permitted by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to earn the Geshe degree in 2016. Now that the gender barrier has been removed, there is much more motivation for the young nuns to study seriously because they have role models showing how they can return to the Nunnery and benefit future generations of nuns by becoming qualified teachers. This also means that over time there will be more female Geshes who can teach abroad, which is important for representing the Buddha's view that everyone is equally qualified to become enlightened.

The evening will be offered on Zoom and livestreamed on YouTube.  Registration is required to participate via Zoom. Access to the YouTube livestream is available on Kadampa Center's website. There will be opportunities to ask questions.

Generosity is the first perfection of a bodhisattva! Anyone joyfully inspired by the lives of these dedicated women can help support Venerable Chöying and all the nuns at Kopan by making a donation directly to the nunnery. The most urgent need is for food, but all donations will be used well to support the thriving community in the nunnery.

In keeping with our tradition, Kadampa Center offers this program with no fee to participants. 

Of course, we welcome offerings to help support our programs!