Gompa

Come celebrate His Holiness' 84th birthday! Kadampa Center will host a wide array of activities to honor His Holiness for his birthday. The celebration extends over several days, beginning Saturday, July 6 and ending Saturday, July 13. Animal liberation, 10:30 a.m. Saturday, July 6 Music at the Stupa, 5-7 pm, Saturday July 6 Gompa celebration with cake, prayers and stories, 10:30 am Sunday, July 7 Blood drive (our third!), 2-6:30 pm, Saturday, July 13      Register for the blood drive

                                              Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.     ~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Raise arms to save lives! Every Drop Counts... Be a wish-fulfilling jewel and offer a pint of blood, a gift of life to others! Join our third annual blood drive to celebrate His Holiness' birthday.

Sign up online! Register here.

To celebrate His Holiness’ birthday, Kadampa Center will hold a blood drive on Saturday, July 13, from 2 to 6:30 p.m.

We will send His Holiness a card signed by all our donors and support volunteers, so the more bountiful the number of donations, the better!

Your offering of blood can be the difference between life and death for another, benefiting not only the recipients but everyone in their lives.  Many of us have personal experience with blood transfusions, either for ourselves or for someone we love – our brother,  our mother, our BFF.

We’re working with the pros in blood drives, the American Red Cross, and we have a big goal – 50 pints!  Last year, our members and friends donated 28 units of blood and 11 units of "power red" blood, and more than 50 people participated, as donors or support volunteers. Please invite your family, friends, neighbors and co-workers to join in our blood drive and keep hearts beating throughout our community.

Here’s what you need to know to help create our gift of compassion to others, to offer to His Holiness:

Sign up online! Register here. When you get to the link, click on the red circle with the white arrow, then choose your time and type of donation.

If you can’t donate blood for any reason but want to help create this gift to His Holiness,  you can volunteer here.

Read here about how one precious life was saved by other's kindness. You can make the same difference for someone!

And don’t forget to dedicate your merit, for the benefit of all sentient beings, and for the long, happy, healthy life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama!

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.

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 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.

Sponsorship of a Guru puja is $70 - 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.

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 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.

Sponsorship of a Guru puja is $70 - click here to sponsor this puja.

Discussion of the Four Point Analysis is cancelled for June and July.

Wednesday lamrim class will resume Wednesday, July 24, after Geshe Gelek's return on Sunday, July 21.

Enjoy your summer break!

Meditation is a foundational tool of the Buddhist practitioner. We use different types of meditation in our practice to clear and calm the mind, review and deepen our understanding of teachings, develop concentration, and so on.

Our First Saturday Meditation practice will include three common modes of meditation:  breathing, concentration and analytical, with discussions in between.

Each Saturday will begin with a brief overview of meditation, based on notes taken from Geshe Gelek. 

Geshe Gelek says that practicing in a group enhances and increases the power of our meditation, with all of us benefitting from the shared energy and experience of others in the room.

These sessions are led by senior students.

On this Father's Day Sunday, Venerable Khando will speak on the Noble Eightfold Path. 

The Noble Eightfold Path comprises eight components of the path to cessation of suffering taught by the Buddha. They are: correct speech, correct action, correct livelihood, correct effort, correct mindfulness, correct concentration, correct understanding and correct view.

Join our Center Director, Robbie Watkins, for a discussion of Dharma and how it relates to our daily lives.

Robbie is a long-time student of Buddhism and an experienced Discovering Buddhism teacher, with a skill for articulating the teachings clearly!