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Gompa

6:30 pm Monday, July 1, 2024

   

Guru Puja with Tsog - Celebrate our Teachers!

Guru Puja with Tsog is returning to Kadampa Center! 

In his recent visit to Kadampa Center, Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Delek advised us that it is most beneficial for our community to come together twice a month to do Guru Puja with Tsog practice – and especially for students who have taken Highest Yoga Tantra initiation. On July 1, 2024, at 6:30 pm, we will hold our first monthly Guru Puja with Tsog practice, led by Geshe Sangpo. One or both of our precious Geshes will attend these pujas. If there is sufficient interest and support, we may expand the practice to twice a month on the traditional Tsog days. 

With the return of this practice to our gompa, we are introducing some new elements:

  • Geshe Sangpo will lead the puja in Tibetan
  • Students are requested to participate fully in the practice by bringing food offerings,
    • coming at the posted time (6:30 pm) to help with setup, and
    • staying after the prayers to help with cleanup.

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.  As part of the puja, we perform a special practice called Tsog, in which we make extensive food offerings to the teacher, and share the food among ourselves as well.

Traditionally, students who attend also bring food offerings – fruit, cupcakes, candy – festive items that can easily be shared among all present.  This creates great merit for all of us bringing offerings!  When everyone participates in this way, our gompa is blessed with a bountiful offering to make to the guru. Because this is a community practice, all students who attend will participate in preparing for the puja – setting up the offerings in the gompa – as well as in returning the gompa to "default" setup following the prayer service. Students are requested to arrive at the posted time and remain to assist with cleanup. 

This puja also includes chanting music and playing instruments - cymbals and the drum. Geshe Sangpo has kindly offered, if students are interested, to teach us how to play these instruments so we can fully take part!  Please let your SPCs know if you are interested. 

Anyone is welcome to attend pujas, even if you are unfamiliar with the practice. This puja is chanted in Tibetan, and we will have the English translations of the whole puja available to follow along. We plan to occasionally read the lamrim verses in English so both English- and Tibetan-speaking students can hear these teachings. 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.

 

Location at Kadampa Center: 
Gompa
11:30 am Sunday, June 2, 2024

 

Meeting to Share Exciting Plans for Kadampa Center Renovations!

Sunday, June 2, around 11:30 (or so) at the end of the teachings.

Please plan to attend to hear about these exciting plans, ask questions, and learn more!

Join us in person, on Zoom, or YouTube.

Dear Friends of Kadampa Center,

Our building on Etta Burke Court has served us well, and we have used it HARD!  Kadampa Center's Board of Directors has decided that now is the time, after twenty years, to finally put some much needed TLC into our physical facility.  An enthusiastic group of volunteers has come up with plans that include, but are not limited to: 

  • needed and much-delayed maintenance and updating of electric, plumbing, and lighting systems (hot water on tap!);
  • much needed storage for spiritual programs (so we can stop renting off-site storage units);
  • better water access for our outdoor gardens and grounds needs;
  • a functional kitchen area that can accommodate large crowds during community events;
  • prep areas flowers, sangha care, and offerings for pujas and special events;
  • and much more!

The goal is to create a space that better serves our community as we move forward in this new post-COVID era - we've seen over the past months that large special events involving the whole community are going to be a major part of our future.

Please come to a special meeting to learn more and ask questions about these exciting plans!  The meeting will take place this Sunday, June 2, after the morning's teachings wrap up around 11:30 or so.

Look forward to seeing you,

Robbie Watkins
Kadampa Center Director

Location at Kadampa Center: 
Gompa
10:30 am Sunday, May 19, 2024

Sunday Morning Dharma Connections with Don Brown

Don Brown, founder of Kadampa Center and a Discovering Buddhism teacher, will offer a Dharma talk on

"Going from Joy to Joy: Benefits of Bodhicitta"

Sundays 10:30am - 12:00am

~ in person and online ~

HOW TO ATTEND SUNDAY DHARMA CONNECTIONS 

  1. Attend onsite, in person at Kadampa Center!

  2. Join on Zoom by registering HERE. The Zoom connection is the same as for any Sunday morning

  3. Watch via live stream on YouTube HERE.

 

    Location at Kadampa Center: 
    Gompa
    5:00 pm Saturday, May 18, 2024

    Come help with setting up offerings for the Guru Puja with Tsog!

     

    Location at Kadampa Center: 
    Gompa
    6:30 pm Saturday, May 18, 2024

     Guru puja with tsog with Khensur Rinpoche ~ Sat May 18, 6:30-7:30 PM

    During this holy month of Saka Dawa, and with the blessing of the presence of Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Delek, we will offer a Guru Puja with Tsog Saturday, May 18 at 6:30 pm. What a wonderful opportunity to deepen our connection to this teacher, who so kindly spoke of our community, and create skies of merit on his last day in Raleigh!

    As part of the puja, we will also make extensive, festive offerings of food - called Tsog. It's very beneficial and creates great merit for students to participate in providing these offerings, either by bringing them to the puja or by contributing financially to it (see puja sponsorship below).Appropriate food offerings include fruit, cake, muffins, individual bags of cookies, nuts or chips, or bottled or canned drinks. It's a party! We will be sharing the food during the puja.  Please note: If you bring offerings, please be sure to arrive before 6:10 pm so there is time to place them on the altar.

    Khensur Rinpoche spoke about Guru Puja in his teachings Sunday, noting that the puja contains the lamrim and thought transformation prayers - the very essence of liberation.

    Join us in person or online!

    • in person at Kadampa Center ~ the very best way to participate!
    • via Zoom, register HERE
    • via livestream on YouTube HERE

    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.

    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.

     It is a practice recommended by FPMT's Spiritual Director Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who said:

    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.

    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. The whole puja is translated into English, right below the Tibetan, in the book we use, so anyone can follow along. 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 making the sponsorship donation - Full Sponsorship of a Guru puja is $75 (CLICK HERE to sponsor this puja or to donate in any amount)

    Step Two is dedicating your generosity (CLICK HERE to submit your dedication)

    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.

    Location at Kadampa Center: 
    Gompa
    12:00 pm Thursday, May 23, 2024

     

    On Saka Dawa Düchen, Geshe Gelek will lead us in lamrim meditation and Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga ("Hundred Deities of Tushita" / Ganden Lha Gyama).

    The holy month of Saka Dawa (May 9-June 6, 2024) marks Shakyamuni Buddha's birth, enlightenment and parinirvana (passing away from this life). 

    In person and online via Zoom (registration required) and YouTube.

    Location at Kadampa Center: 
    Gompa
    5:45 am Thursday, May 23, 2024

     

    On this Saka Dawa holy day - a merit-mutiplying day - Geshe Gelek will offer the Eight Mahayana Precepts at the Center, if there are new students who have never taken precepts before.

    We do have students who have registered, so Geshe Gelek will come. You are welcome to come and take precepts even if you have not registered.

    Students who have taken them previously are welcome to come. If no new students register, the Center will not open for precepts, and all are encouraged to take them at home in front of your altar. 

     

     

    5:45 am  The Eight Mahayana Precepts,  a set of eight vows taken for a period of 24 hours, from sunrise on one day to sunrise the following day. The vows include no killing, stealing, sexual activity, lying, and more (see below).

    The first time you take these precepts, it must be from a qualified master. After that, you can take them from your altar. 

    Sorry, registration is closed, but we do have students who have registered, so Geshe Gelek will come. You are welcome to come and take precepts even if you have not registered. Students who have taken them previously are welcome to come. If no new students register, the Center will not open for precepts, and all are encouraged to take them at home in front of your altar.

    Please register here to attend on Zoom.

                If you wish to take the Precepts online with a teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has kindly made this option available here: 

    Eight Mahayana Precepts online with Lama Zopa Rinpoche

    The Eight Mahayana Precepts are a set of vows that are taken for 24 hours, from first light before dawn to sunrise of the following day. The only prerequisite is that the first time one takes precepts it should be from a qualified teacher who has received the oral transmission of the practice. Thereafter you can perform the ceremony at first light yourself, reciting the prayers before an image of your teacher or the Buddha, imagining you are taking the vows from Buddha himself.

     It is good to take them on full and new moon days, and especially beneficial on Buddha Holy Days, when Karmic results are multiplied exponentionally, according to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, citing the Vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.

    These Mahayana Precepts enable you to live in the essence of pure moral conduct, and since you take them with the strong motivation of cherishing and wishing to benefit all others, their value is immeasurable. Taking these precepts is a powerful and effective way for you to build, maintain and increase deep propensities for spiritual practice and attainment and thus is a profound method for giving meaning to this precious human life. 

    The essence of this practice is to recall the Mahayana motivation; to take these precepts in order to become enlightened in order to lead all sentient beings to enlightenment.

    The eight precepts are:

    1. Not to kill, even insects.
    2. Not to steal (Not to take what is not offered).
    3. Not to engage in sexual contact.
    4. Not to lie.
    5. Not use intoxicants: alcohol, tobacco and drugs (except for medicinal purposes).
    6. Not to eat at wrong times.*
    7. Not to sit on high, expensive beds or seats with pride. Avoid sitting on animal skins.
    8. Not to wear jewelry, perfume, or makeup; and not to sing, dance, or play music with attachment.

    *It is alright to eat a light breakfast before or after the precepts. Avoid eating black foods: meat, eggs, onions, garlic, and radishes. The main meal of the day is to be finished by midday. After that one can take light drinks, but not undiluted whole milk or fruit juice with pulp, nor any food until sunrise of the following day.

    Learn more about the Eight Mahayana Precepts HERE.

    Location at Kadampa Center: 
    Gompa
    1:30 pm Sunday, May 19, 2024
    Location at Kadampa Center: 
    Gompa
    6:30 pm Friday, July 12, 2024

    2024 Dharma Movie Series: As part of our Spiritual Program, Elise Strevel, Outreach Coordinator and Buddhism in a Nutshell instructor, is hosting dharma-related movies introducing Buddhist teachers and their work to our Kadampa community of students. She will be providing a brief intro to each showing and lead an educational discussion afterward.

    Location at Kadampa Center: 
    Gompa
    6:30 pm Friday, June 7, 2024

     

    2024 Dharma Movie Series: As part of our Spiritual Program, Elise Strevel, Outreach Coordinator and Buddhism in a Nutshell instructor, is hosting dharma-related movies introducing Buddhist teachers and their work to our Kadampa community of students. She will be providing a brief intro to each showing and lead an educational discussion afterward.

    Location at Kadampa Center: 
    Gompa

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