Gompa

In Buddhism, we practice offering a mandala - a whole jeweled universe of the best of everything - to our teachers and to the Buddhas.

Geshe Sangpo reminds us that this is a wonderful practice for earning merit.

On this Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, we'll offer a special mandala, created from items our members donate to benefit Interact. We'll learn about the practice, and use our day to benefit others! 

Everyone is invited to bring their items in by November 25. We will take all the items into the gompa on this day, and offer them on behalf of all our members as part of the mandala, then take the collected items to InterAct.

Items to be collected in our lobby now until Nov 25:

• Bath Towels
• Feminine Hygiene Products
• Gas Cards
• Hair Shampoo/Conditioner (Full Size)
• Women’s Socks/Underwear

Sunday mornings typically begin with prayers and a brief meditation.

Sunday is a great time for a first visit to Kadampa Center – students at every level come, from newcomers to practitioners with 30+ years of experience, and it's a great opportunity to meet others and start making new friends.

Led by Christy Batts, coordinator of our Family Program

Just in time for Thanksgiving, we will explore gratitude, how it benefits us and how to think about it in a meaningful way. We'll learn a little about how science has shown that gratitude improves happiness, and think about our own role models for gratitude.
Led by Denise Flora

Sunday mornings typically begin with prayers and a brief meditation.

Sunday is a great time for a first visit to Kadampa Center – students at every level come, from newcomers to practitioners with 30+ years of experience, and it's a great opportunity to meet others and start making new friends.

We offer a full range of children's programs on Sundays. Children are invited to sit on the blue cushions at the front of the gompa, and then depart to their classes after opening prayers. Any child who wishes to is welcome to remain in the gompa for the teachings.

In our journey to reduce troubling thoughts, develop our positive qualities, and extend our compassion to all sentient beings, some of us may stumble with bringing kindness, acceptance, and a caring attitude towards ourselves.

This session will bring together insights from the increasing body of evidence about the many physical and emotional benefits of self-compassion and how self-compassion fits into Buddhist psychology.

We will explore misconceptions about self-compassion and experiment with some meditations and tools to strengthen our self-compassion.

This talk will be led by Karen Edwards, one of our senior students. She will draw from Thupten Jinpa’s A Fearless Heart (2015) and Kristin Neff’s, Self Compassion (2011) for this talk.

Geshe Gelek will teach on the 12 deeds of Shakyamuni Buddha. These are deeds that all buddhas perform. They are : descending from Tushita Heaven, entering his mother’s womb, birth, studying arts and handicrafts, enjoying life in the palace, renunciation, undertaking ascetic practices, going to Bodhgaya, defeating the negative forces (Mara), attaining enlightenment, turning the wheel of Dharma, entering parinirvana.

Following Geshe-la's teaching, we will have a group reading of the Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra - the Buddha's teaching on emptiness, given on Vulture Peak in northern India. It is one of the most well-known of the Buddha's teachings.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche says:  "(W)e are extremely fortunate, unbelievably fortunate even to be able to hear some teachings on emptiness, the Buddha’s teachings on the wisdom perfection. Even one stanza, not the complete teaching, but even a few lines from the Buddha’s teaching on the Perfection of Wisdom, even just to be able to hear it is unbelievably fortunate, leave aside having the opportunity to meditate, to reflect and to meditate, to study... For us, even if we are unable to practice; even those of us who are unable to practice in our daily life, at least we can leave a positive imprint on our mental continuum, to make preparation to realize emptiness in the near future. Even if we can’t meditate in everyday life, on lam-rim and on the teachings on the Perfection of Wisdom, at least we are able to leave an imprint by reading and by listening, even one time."

Come join in this amazing practice, and take a step toward realizing emptiness!

We will read the Vajra Cutter Sutra "monastery style" -- the pages will be divided evenly among all those present, and then we will all read our pages aloud, simultaneously.

This creates a joyful cacophony, as many voices join in together!  Even though we don't hear it all with our conscious mind, the imprint of the entire sutra enters our mindstreams.

Private event for group going on pilgrimage to India.

[posted on behalf of Outreach Coordinator, Elise Strevel]

Dear Kadampa Center Family,

Geshe-la is encouraging anyone who can provide hands-on help to victims of Hurricane Florence to do so. Our friends at the Mormon Community are well organized to respond to crises, and are happy to let us join forces with them. 

We have 2 types of opportunities to help but...
YOU MUST SIGN UP FOR SOLID COMMITMENT NO LATER THAN WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3. 

We have to know how many people we can count on!! 

1. ON-SITE CLEAN UP - GESHE-LA IS COMING!!!
   Where: (probably in Wilmington or Fayetteville, but will depend on victims’ requests)
   When: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13. (Time not yet determined)
   Who: Ages 16-adult. Ages 16-18 with parent only. This is potenial bio-hazard site. 
   Action: Email Elise Strevel with subject line: FLORENCE ON-SITE VOLUNTEER (Please provide your full name and phone number in your note.)

Typically, volunteers bring chain saws (only if you REALLY know how to use it!), gloves and boots while the other supplies are provided by the Mormon Church (we had 23 truckloads of food, personal hygiene, cleaning supplies and equipment delivered to Wilmington and Fayetteville this weekend, with more to come as needs are assessed) such as shovels, plastic gloves, roofing materials, tarps, etc.  

We will later get an email with a brief survey regarding the supplies we can bring with us and what we'll need to pick up from a command center or bring from our congregation. That will allow us to organize work crews better. If everyone wants to be in a single work crew, we could accommodate that. I'm trying to get a few other denominations to join us on the 13th and think it might be great to have people from multiple faith communities all working together in work crews. 

         2. CRISIS CLEANUP CALL CENTER

Takes calls from victims requesting service. This can be done from your home at any time after receiving a brief training, but SOMEONE MUST BE WILLING TO BE THE COORDINATOR FOR KADAMPA VOLUNTEERS!

         Action: Email Elise Strevel with subject line: FLORENCE CALL CENTER COORDINATOR (Please provide your full name and phone number in your note.)

The leaders at Crisis Cleanup are willing to train volunteers from the Kadampa Center. However, you'll need to first have a leader, emergency specialist or a designee whose job it will be to sign up the Kadampa Center through Crisis Cleanup and be their coordinator.  

All volunteers have to be vetted and associated with an approved organization. Crisis Cleanup will vet the organization and then send follow-up emails to each individual to register. Once registered, Crisis Cleanup will conduct the training. I have done this and the training takes about an hour. The sign up takes minutes by the designee. Once trained, volunteers can sign in and take calls from survivors to enter their work orders into a database that supplies work to local aid agencies. It's really rewarding and a great way to render service on your own time, from your own home.  

Together, we can make a difference for many of those in need.

love from,

Outreach

We offer this Medicine Buddha Puja to benefit J. Shields Harvey, stepfather of Kadampa Center member Linda Saah. Shields who passed away September 6.  The puja will be held at 4:30 pm, Wednesday, October 24. 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.

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.

When they became enlightened, they gained the ten powers of a Buddha, including 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.

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."

15 or so Meredith Students