Gompa

12:00 pm Sunday, August 13, 2017

The Light of the Path Retreat and Lama Zopa Rinpoche's visit are nearly here!

At noon, we will begin cleaning cushions for the retreat in the classroom building.

 

Location at Kadampa Center: 
Gompa
10:00 am Saturday, August 12, 2017

Come meet us at the Ample Storage facility on Gorman Street just off Hillsborough Street (behind the Applebees) in Raleigh.  Our unit is in the back row, with parking spaces across from the storage doors.

We will load the items from the storage unit into a truck and take it to Kadampa Center.

Additional  trucks or cars with cargo space especially welcome!

Location at Kadampa Center: 
Gompa
10:00 am Tuesday, August 8, 2017

 Come learn how to string a mala while supporting the Light of the Path Retreat.

We are providing malas for Rinpoche to offer as gifts at the retreat, so your work at this mala work party is an offering directly to Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

This beading party is led by Kim Lillig and Patti Pandya.

 

Location at Kadampa Center: 
Gompa
7:00 pm Friday, August 11, 2017

We offer this Medicine Buddha Puja to benefit Jaimin Pandya, who passed away July 15.

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.

Geshe Gelek encourages us to attend pujas that are offered for a member or a member's loved one, as a way of supporting each other in our community.

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."

Location at Kadampa Center: 
Gompa
Repeats every week until Sun Aug 06 2017.
10:30 am Sunday, July 16, 2017

 

In his teachings, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama offers wisdom and guidance to see us through any difficulty in life.

With a clarity and depth of understanding, he offers advice on how to develop compassion and the benefits of doing so, how to conquer our egos, and the true secret of a happy life.

On these Sundays while Geshe Gelek is away, we will explore His Holiness' wisdom through video clips of teachings followed by discussion of how his advice applies to our own experience.

These discussions are led by senior students.

 

 

 

Location at Kadampa Center: 
Gompa
Repeats every week 5 times.
7:00 pm Tuesday, September 26, 2017

An introductory course on basic Buddhist meditation techniques for complete beginners. Includes Buddhist meditations that can be used by anyone to create more peace and happiness in daily life. Presented in five sessions and covers basic Buddhist meditation techniques. Students are encouraged to come for the whole class, but drop-ins are welcome. In keeping with our tradition, the class is offered on a donation basis and no pre-registration is needed.

The basic Buddhist meditation techniques covered include:

what is meditation?

breathing meditations

mindfulness meditations

visualization meditations

In keeping with Kadampa Center traditiion, we do not request a fee to attend this class -- the Dharma is too precious to let money be an obstacle to hearing teachings. We do welcome any heartfelt donations to help cover the cost of offering Meditation 101.

This class is led by David Machles

Location at Kadampa Center: 
Gompa
Wednesday, August 2, (All day) to Thursday, August 10, (All day) 2017

Ven. Lhamo out of town.

Location at Kadampa Center: 
Gompa
7:00 pm Thursday, July 27, 2017

Shakyamuni Buddha Puja is a source of good collections: a rite of homage, worship (making offerings) and prayers to the teacher, the King of Sages, remembering his previous lives and biography.

The main point of the puja is to develop one's faith in the Buddha and collect vast merits by thinking about the wonderful things he has done - both in his countless previous lives as a bodhisattva and in his life as Shakyamuni, feeling joyful about them and making offerings, both real and visualized. The framework of the central part of the puja is the seven limbs. These are preceded by various preliminaries aimed at getting the participants into the right frame of mind and at setting up the visualization of the field of merit, to whom the seven limbs are addressed. One also purifies one's negative karmas by confessing them with regret and creates further merits by auspicious wishes and prayers for the flourishing of the Buddha's doctrine. These are followed by prayers which comprise the extensive limb of dedication and then saying goodbye to the beings in the field of merit.

(Extracted from A Service Manual for Spiritual Program Coordinators, FPMT and Shakyamuni Puja - Worshipping the Buddha, Wisdom Publications, London.)

From Lama Zopa Rinpoche:

I want to introduce the Guru Shakyamuni Puja, which I found very beneficial for the mind and especially, I thought for developing bodhicitta and entering into the Bodhisattva deeds - the extensive, hard Bodhisattva deeds. It gives great inspiration to sacrifice oneself for sentient beings equaling the sky.

Location at Kadampa Center: 
Gompa
11:00 am Thursday, July 27, 2017

A Special Animal Liberation/Blessing

According to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, it’s incredibly important to do practices to benefit animals and lead them to liberation: “It’s not enough that you look after animals and they give you comfort. You must do something of practical benefit for them. This is what you can do every day:​ Circumambulate with them around holy objects, chanting mantras. Recite prayers in their ears to plant the seed of all the realizations of the path to enlightenment. This makes a huge difference. It has incredible results, enabling them to have a good rebirth in their next life, to be born as a human being, and meet the Dharma.”

 

Join us for a special afternoon of animal liberation! It begins with a pet blessing. Bring your critters to the center (see below for important details) to have your pet circumambulate the stupa and receive a special blessing and mantras by the Kadampa Center nuns.

After the blessing, we’ll continue with an animal release of earthworms, who would otherwise have been used as bait, into the woods and soil around the center. You are also welcome to purchase and bring earthworms ​to release.

This special event is partially sponsored by the Saah family, but we welcome other sponsors—if you’d like to make a special donation towards this incredible merit opportunity and the purchase of the beings that will be freed, please contact Donna​ at program.donna@kadampa-center.org

 

Important Details for the Pet Blessing

Dogs must be on leashes, all other animals must be in cages. In order to keep all the dogs and cats happy, please keep your pet under your control and be ready to follow our instructions at the site. We will have water available to keep the pets from getting thirsty​. ​If the weather is bad, animals will be invited inside the building for the blessing and circumambulation of a special altar.

 

Location at Kadampa Center: 
Gompa
Repeats every week 2 times.
7:00 pm Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Geshe Gelek has concluded his teachings on Songs of Spiritual Experience, a lamrim text by Lama Tsongkhapa that distills the lamrim into 45 stanzas.

In these Wednesday night sessions, our Kadampa Center nuns will lead us in review meditation and discussion of the text.

Location at Kadampa Center: 
Gompa

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