Chanted Meditation

During term time we also offer chanted meditation (Heart Jewel, Wishfulfilling Jewel, 35 Confession Buddhas and Offering to the Spiritual Guide) at Compassion Centre, South Gosforth. This is an opportunity to engage with others in a traditional Tibetan Buddhist practise. All sessions are free of charge. See this week’s chanted prayers at Compassion KBC.

The Guru yoga of Je Tsongkhapa combined with the sadhana of his Dharma Protector

Heart Jewel (condensed version) and Wishfulfilling Jewel both include two practices revealed by the Wisdom Buddha Manjushri. The first is a special Guru yoga in which we visualize our Spiritual Guide as Je Tsongkhapa, who himself is a manifestation of Manjushri. By relying upon this practice, we can purify negativity, accumulate merit, and receive blessings. In this way, we will naturally accomplish all the realizations of the stages of the path of Sutra and Tantra, and in particular we will attain a very special Dharma wisdom.

The second practice is a method for relying upon the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugdän. Through this, we can overcome obstacles to our practice and create favourable conditions so that we can nurture and increase our Dharma realizations. If we rely upon the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugdän sincerely, our faith in Je Tsongkhapa will naturally increase and we will easily gain experience of the pure Buddhadharma transmitted directly to Je Tsongkhapa by the Wisdom Buddha Manjushri.

These two practices are the very essence of the New Kadampa Tradition of Mahayana Buddhism. If we practise them regularly and sincerely, we will reap a rich harvest of pure Dharma realizations, and eventually come to experience the supreme joy of full enlightenment.

An extensive explanation of this sadhana can be found in the book Heart Jewel, by Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso.

Offering to the Spiritual Guide.

10th and 25th of each month – Times may vary for this puja.

Offering to the Spiritual Guide is a special Guru yoga of Je Tsongkhapa in conjunction with Highest Yoga Tantra. It was compiled by the first Panchen Lama, Losang Chökyi Gyaltsän, as a preliminary practice for Vajrayana Mahamudra. 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 stage and completion stage of Highest Yoga Tantra.

The essence of Guru yoga is to develop a strong conviction that our Spiritual Guide is a Buddha, to make prostrations, offerings, and sincere requests to him or her, and then to receive his or her profound blessings. According to the Guru yoga of Offering to the Spiritual Guide, we develop conviction that our Spiritual Guide is the same nature as Je Tsongkhapa, who is an emanation of the Wisdom Buddha Manjushri.

By relying upon Je Tsongkhapa, our compassion, wisdom, and spiritual power naturally increase. In particular, because Je Tsongkhapa is an emanation of the Wisdom Buddha Manjushri, his faithful followers never experience difficulty in increasing their wisdom. There are many other benefits from practising Offering to the Spiritual Guide. These are explained in the book Great Treasury of Merit, which contains a complete commentary to the practice.

35 Confession Buddhas – The Mahayana Sutra of the Three Superior Heaps

Monday to Thursday 5:30 – 5:45pm and Saturday 8:30 – 8:45

The purification practice of the Mahayana Sutra of the Three Superior Heaps

In our previous lives, while under the influence of deluded minds, we created a great deal of negative karma, and we also transgressed our commitments and incurred root and secondary downfalls. As a result we now experience difficulties in developing faith and conviction in Dharma, and in making progress on the stages of the path to enlightenment. Moreover, if we do not purify all this negativity while we have the chance we shall have to experience great suffering in the future.

Any living being, even a worm or an insect, can commit negative actions, but only humans have the fortune to be able to purify them. We have been accumulating non-virtuous actions and experiencing their suffering results since beginningless time, but we now have the opportunity to purify them completely. We should make use of this precious opportunity to purify our negative karma, not to create more! Since purification is the root of future happiness and spiritual realisations we should strive to cleanse our mind of delusions and negative karma.

One of the best methods for purifying negativities and downfalls is the Mahayana Sutra of the Three Superior Heaps, otherwise known as The Bodhisattva’s Confession of Moral Downfalls, or the Bodhisattva Mahayana Confession Sutra.

This sadhana contains the root text of the Sutra and a short explanation of the practice.

A more detailed explanation of this practice can be found in the book, The Bodhisattva Vow.

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Mon	Tues	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun
May 14, '12 Term Break All day-11:59 pm  Date: May 14, 2012 Term Break Term break starts Friday 18th May and all classes will recommence on Monday 28th May. PLEASE NOTE: During this term break from 14th to 17th of May evening South Gosforth classes will be held as usual. Time: All day - 11:59 pm Lead by: NA Location: , Download as iCal	May 15, '12 Term Break All day-11:59 pm  Date: May 15, 2012 Term Break Term break starts Friday 18th May and all classes will recommence on Monday 28th May. PLEASE NOTE: During this term break from 14th to 17th of May evening South Gosforth classes will be held as usual. Time: All day - 11:59 pm Lead by: NA Location: , Download as iCal	May 16, '12 Term Break All day-11:59 pm  Date: May 16, 2012 Term Break Term break starts Friday 18th May and all classes will recommence on Monday 28th May. PLEASE NOTE: During this term break from 14th to 17th of May evening South Gosforth classes will be held as usual. Time: All day - 11:59 pm Lead by: NA Location: , Download as iCal	May 17, '12 Term Break All day-11:59 pm  Date: May 17, 2012 Term Break Term break starts Friday 18th May and all classes will recommence on Monday 28th May. PLEASE NOTE: During this term break from 14th to 17th of May evening South Gosforth classes will be held as usual. Time: All day - 11:59 pm Lead by: NA Location: , Download as iCal	May 18, '12 Term Break All day-11:59 pm  Date: May 18, 2012 Term Break Term break starts Friday 18th May and all classes will recommence on Monday 28th May. PLEASE NOTE: During this term break from 14th to 17th of May evening South Gosforth classes will be held as usual. Time: All day - 11:59 pm Lead by: NA Location: , Download as iCal	May 19, '12 Term Break All day-11:59 pm  Date: May 19, 2012 Term Break Term break starts Friday 18th May and all classes will recommence on Monday 28th May. PLEASE NOTE: During this term break from 14th to 17th of May evening South Gosforth classes will be held as usual. Time: All day - 11:59 pm Lead by: NA Location: , Download as iCal	May 20, '12 Term Break All day-11:59 pm  Date: May 20, 2012 Term Break Term break starts Friday 18th May and all classes will recommence on Monday 28th May. PLEASE NOTE: During this term break from 14th to 17th of May evening South Gosforth classes will be held as usual. Time: All day - 11:59 pm Lead by: NA Location: , Download as iCal

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