Gompa

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. Kadampa Center has a special relationship with Tara, according to Sera Jey Khensur Rinpoche Jetsun Lobsang Delek, our Geshes' teacher, who consecrated our Tara statues during a visit to Kadampa Center.  Here is an opportunity to deepen our connection to her!

In this one day mini-retreat, Geshe Gelek will  lead us in  Tara retreat as it is traditionally practiced - beginning before dawn and ending after sundown. 

This is a daytime rereat - we will not sleep over at the Center.

Kadampa Center will provide breakfast and lunch.

Anyone is welcome to attend any session, but we encourage all to try to attend the full retreat to get the maximum benefit.

Schedule:

Supporting the retreat

Supporting the retreat is an incredibly powerful and important act -- it is a practice of the highest form of generosity – giving the means to enlightenment. Kadampa Center has for many years operated within the ideal of offering spiritual programs without charging a fee, so that money is not an obstacle for anyone to participate in spiritual practice. (Occasionally we will request a registration fee for a retreat.) We rely on the generous hearts of those who are moved to support the spiritual offerings and keep them open to everyone regardless of ability to pay. Supporting teachings and practice benefits not just the Center and those who attend, but it also greatly benefits the donor, because it creates the causes to meet the teachings again in future lives, and deepens the connection with the teacher or retreat deity.

Kadampa Center offers two ways to support retreats:  Sponsorships and Donations

Sponsorships for the Tara mini-retreat are $125 to sponsor a single day and $250 to sponsor the full retreat.

Sponsors receive:

  The opportunity to write a personal dedication that we will post on the gompa door for all to share.  We must receive the dedication by two days before the retreat begins to assure we have time to print and post your dedication.

Donationsare any amount less than $125.

Donors of $50 or more receive:

  The opportunity to write a personal dedication that we will post on the gompa door for all to share. We must receive the dedication by two days before the retreat begins to assure we have time to print and post your dedication.

Supporting the retreat is a two-step process

Step One  is dedicating your generosity (click here).

Step Two  is making the donation or sponsorship (use the buttons below on this page)

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.

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 generosity!

Tara Mini-Retreat Sponsorship Opportunities

Sponsor breakfast or lunch ~ $75

Sponsor full retreat  ~ $250

Sponsor half day ~ $125

Tara Mini-Retreat Donation Opportunities

Heart Giving - $Your Choice

Thank You!!

We offer this Medicine Buddha Puja to benefit Mildred Gooch, who passed away in November. Mildred was the grandmother of a Kadampa Center member. The puja will be at 7 pm Monday, December 30. Medicine Buddha Puja is particularly beneficial for those who have passed away and are passing through the bardo. In this beautiful prayer service, we recollect the qualities of the seven Medicine Buddhas and pray for a beneficial rebirth.

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."

Mediation

In the countryside near Toulouse, France is a modern-day Buddhist monastery, our sister FPMT center Nalanda Monastery.

Nalanda is named for the great Indian monastery that produced highly acclaimed Buddhist scholars, including Lama Atisha, Chandrakirti, Nagarjuna and Shantarakshita, whose works we continue to study today.

Kadampa Center is happy to host an evening with Venerable Tendar, a resident of Nalanda in France, who will speak about the traditions at the monastery.

Besides Dharma studies, the current Nalanda monastery is also famous for its work in creating, and helping others create, holy images through their tsatsa workshop. Tsatsas are plaster statues, cast in molds. The Nalanda workshop creates molds for others to use - and in fact, our own Family Program used molds at this year's Family Dharma Camp, and we also used Nalanda molds to create tsatsa for filling our stupa with sacred objects. So Kadampa Center has a great connection to Nalanda!

Come learn more about this sister center in our FPMT family.

Come join us as we celebrate Lama Tsongkhapa,  the founder of our lineage, the Gelugpa tradition, in Tibetan Buddhism. This day marks the 600th anniversary of his passing. He was a renowned scholar, practitioner, meditator, teacher and author.  His studies and meditations in all the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism resulted in the founding of the Gelugpa lineage. Among his major accomplishments is writing the Lamrim, or the Great Treatise on the Path to Enlightenment, a step-by-step guide to the spiritual practices that lead to enlightenment. He also wrote several condensed versions of the Lamrim, including Foundation of All Good Qualities, the Three Principal Aspects of the Path, and Song of Experience.

  
Led by Geshe Gelek, we will celebrate Lama Tsongkhapa and his great contribution to the Dharma with a festival of prayer and practice.  To bring us closer to him, we will bring Lama Tsongkhapa and his disciples from the main altar onto a special altar in the center of the gompa, where we will make light offerings and circumambulate the altar while reciting mantras. Our celebration also includes review of his three major short works. Geshe-la encourages us all to come, even if we can't attend the entire festival. Students are welcome to drop in and drop out throughout the afternoon.

Program
Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga
  Circumambulate altar while chanting 21 Lama Tsongkhapa mantras 
  Return to seats for long mandala offerings.
Foundation of All Good Qualities – review & analytical meditation
  Circumambulate altar while chanting 21 Lama Tsongkhapa mantras 
  Return to seats for long mandala offerings.
Three Principal Aspects of the Path – review & analytical meditation
  Circumambulate altar while chanting 21 Lama Tsongkhapa mantras
  Return to seats for long mandala offerings.
Song of Experience – review & analytical meditation
  Circumambulate altar while chanting 21 Lama Tsongkhapa mantras 
  Return to seats for long mandala offerings.
In Praise of Dependent Origination – review & analytical meditation
  Circumambulate altar while chanting 21 Lama Tsongkhapa mantras
  Return to seats for long mandala offerings.
Recite Lama Tsongkhapa mantra 14 times
Lamrim dedication prayerr

Geshe Gelek encourages students who have previously taken Eight Mahayana Precepts to take them at home before sunrise, before their home altar.

Lama Tsongkhapa Day honors a very powerful practitioner so there is great power in the merit of supporting it financially. Supporting this holy day's spiritual practices – whether you are able to attend or not – is an opportunity to collect great merit. If you are sponsoring but not attending, you can offer prayers for those who are participating in the events.

Supporting the Holy Day event is a two-step process

Step One  is dedicating your generosity (click here).

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

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.

The festival begins with Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga puja and will include light offerings.

Sponsor Holy Day Puja ~ $125

Sponsor the light offerings ($50)

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.

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.

On this Sunday before Thanksgiving, we'll gather with our Kadampa Center family to share our gratitude - whatever we are thankful for!

Geshe Sangpo will teach about the value of gratitude in Buddhism, and then we will open up for each of us to talk about what we are thankful for and why.

During our discussion, we will also be creating our own prayer flag of gratitude. Come with some thoughts about what gives rise to thanks in your heart, and you can write or draw a picture of it on your own flag, part of our Kadampa Center prayer flag.

The children will also be creating prayer flags in their classes, and we will all gather to share them at the end.

This is also Geshe Sangpo's last Sunday before he heads to India to take teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. There will be an opportunity to offer katas and cards or other offerings of good wishes and safe travels.