Chanted meditation prayers, or pujas, are an important component of training in a spiritual life. They help us to still our mind, connect with enlightened beings, and receive blessings.
All pujas are free of charge and open to the public. No previous experience needed and you do not need to be a Buddhist to attend. Everyone is welcome!
Wishfulfilling Jewel puja is our weekly offering to the Buddhas. We make prayers and requests to the wisdom Buddha Je Tsongkhapa along with a tsog offering (food) to the protector Buddha Dorje Shugden. If you wish, you can bring a vegetarian food offering.
Time: 1 hour
Tsog Offering
While a tsog offering has deep meaning, in general this means you can bring a small food offering. After the puja we’ll all gather to enjoy.
At Kadampa Centers worldwide, the eighth of the month is Tara Day. Tara is a female Buddha, whose name means “Rescuer.” She is the embodiment of swift compassion. If we rely upon Tara sincerely and with strong faith, she will protect us from all obstacles and fulfill all our wishes. Everyone is welcome and invited to join us for Tara’s chanted prayer practice, Liberation from Sorrow
Time: 1 hour
Through practicing transference of consciousness, known as ‘powa’ with faith, compassion and concentration we can transfer the consciousness of those recently deceased to a higher rebirth or to the Pure Land of a Buddha. The Powa Ceremony can be done either by a group of practitioners or individually on behalf of one or more deceased persons, or countless deceased beings. By engaging in this practice we also create a great collection of virtue, which will also lead us into the pathway to a Buddha’s Pure Land.
Time: 45 mins.
Medicine Buddha is a Buddha Doctor whose function is to release living beings from outer and inner sickness by bestowing blessings upon them. By relying on Medicine Buddha sincerely, we can be cured of heavy physical and mental disease, find release from the internal pain of the three poisons—attachment, anger, and ignorance—and receive protection from many other dangers and obstacles.
Time: 1 hour
Vajrayogini is a female enlightened Deity of Highest Yoga Tantra who is a manifestation of all the Buddha's wisdom. By engaging in the Tantric practice of Vajrayogini under the guidance of a qualified Spiritual Guide, sincere practitioners can completely purify their body, speech and mind and attain a state of full enlightenment – the ultimate goal of human life. The practice of Vajrayogini comes from Buddha himself and has been preserved over the centuries by an unbroken lineage of realized practitioners.
Time: 2 hours
Offering to the Spiritual Guide (OSG) is a special Guru yoga of Je Tsongkhapa in conjunction with Highest Yoga Tantra. The main practice is relying upon the Spiritual Guide, but it also includes all the essential practices of the stages of the path (Lamrim) and training the mind (Lojong), as well as both the generation and completion stages of Highest Yoga Tantra. This practice includes a tsog offering.
OSG is offered on the 10th and 25th of each month.
Time: 2 hours
If you like...
Bring Mandala kit
Bring a food offering
Offer to help
This monthly practice consists principally of extensive prayers to our Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugden. A Dharma Protector is an emanation of a Buddha or Bodhisattva whose main functions are to avert the inner and outer obstacles that prevent practitioners from attaining spiritual realizations and to arrange all the necessary conditions for their practice. Dorje Shugden always helps, guides, and protects pure and faithful practitioners by granting blessings, increasing their wisdom, fulfilling their wishes and bestowing success on all their virtuous activities. This practice includes a tsog offering.
This puja is typically held on the 29th of each month.
Time: 3.5 hours
A powerful practice that focuses on the Thirty-five Confession Buddhas to purify our mind of even the heaviest negativities. Because of the negative actions that we have created in the past under the influence of deluded minds we now experience suffering and problems, as well as difficulties in developing faith and conviction in spiritual practice and in making progress on the path to enlightenment. But no matter how negative our mind is we have the opportunity to purify it completely by engaging in purification, the root of future happiness and spiritual realizations. One of the most powerful purification practices is the Mahayana Sutra of the Three Superior Heaps, also known as The Bodhisattva’s Confession of Moral Downfalls. In this practice, we visualize the Thirty-five Confession Buddhas and practice purification in their presence. Through the power of their blessings and prayers, we can swiftly purify even the heaviest negative actions simply by faithfully reciting their names.
Time: 1 hour
Heart Jewel is a short chanted prayer consisting of two practices revealed by the Wisdom Buddha Manjushri and includes time for meditation. By engaging in the special Guru yoga practiced in conjunction with Je Tsongkhapa we can purify negativity, accumulate merit, and receive blessings, and attain a very special wisdom. By engaging in the special method for relying on the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden, we can overcome obstacles to our practice and create favorable conditions.
Time: 1 hour
Meditation
This practice includes silent time for meditation on Lamrim—the stages of the path to enlightenment
“In general, prayers made by an assembly of many practitioners are very powerful and cannot be compared to the prayers of one or two people. The scriptures give the analogy of a broom. If we try to clean a floor with a few bristles we shall make little progress, but if we gather many bristles to make a broom we shall be successful.”
VENERABLE GESHE KELSANG GYATSO
231 E Memory Ln
Santa Ana, CA 92705
info@meditationinorangecounty.org
(949) 350-3312
© 2023 Vajrayogini Kadampa Buddhist Center. Click here to make a DONATION to our center!
