Come and experience a different side of VLBC! Join us for our scheduled pujas.
Pujas (chanted prayers) are an important component of training in a spiritual life. They help us to still our mind, connect with the Buddhas and receive blessings. Below is the list of the pujas we practice together at the Center. Please check the online calendar for scheduled pujas. All pujas are free of charge.
All of our prayers and meditation practices are recited in English with CD accompaniment. These chanted prayer practices are suitable for beginners as well as more advanced practitioners.
Offering to the Spiritual Guide
Wishfulfilling Jewel
Melodious Drum
Offering to the Spiritual Guide
The practice of relying upon a Spiritual Guide, or ‘Guru Yoga’, is the root of the spiritual path and the foundation of all spiritual attainments.
In Kadampa Buddhism, Guru Yoga is practiced in association with Je Tsongkhapa, an emanation of the Wisdom Buddha Manjushri.
The principal Guru Yoga of Je Tsongkhapa is Offering to the Spiritual Guide, which is an extensive practice that is usually performed twice a month, on the 10th and 25th days, at Kadampa Buddhist Centers. It was compiled by the first Panchen Lama, as a preliminary practice for Vajrayana Mahamudra.
Although the main practice is reliance upon the Spiritual Guide, 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. Guru yoga is a special method for receiving the blessings of our Spiritual Guide. Here, the term ‘Guru’ does not imply that our Spiritual Guide should be Indian. Our Spiritual Guide is any spiritual Teacher who sincerely leads us into spiritual paths by giving correct instructions. Thus our Spiritual Guide can be oriental or western, lay or ordained, male or female. These days, for example, it is quite possible to meet a Spiritual Guide who is a western lay female. The term ‘yoga’ in this context indicates a special way of viewing our Spiritual Guide.
Wishfulfilling Jewel
Wishfulfilling Jewel is a Guru Yoga of Je Tsongkhapa combined with the sadhana of his Dharma Protector. This includes 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. By relying upon this practice, we can purify negativity, accumulate merit, and receive blessings. In this way, we shall naturally accomplish all the realizations of the stages of the path of Sutra and Tantra, and in particular we shall attain a very special Dharma wisdom.
The second practice is a method for relying upon the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden. Through this, we can overcome obstacles to our practice and create favorable conditions so that we can nurture and increase our Dharma realizations. If we rely upon the Dharma Protector Dorje Shuden sincerely, our faith in Je Tsongkhapa will naturally increase and we shall 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 practice them regularly and sincerely, we shall reap a rich harvest of pure Dharma realizations, and eventually come to experience the supreme joy of full enlightenment.
Melodious Drum
The extensive fulfilling and restoring ritual of the Dharma Protector
This practice consists of five parts: Praise to Manjushri, the Guru Yoga of Je Tsongkhapa, Self-generation as Heruka, the Fulfilling and Restoring Ritual of the General Protectors, and the Fulfilling and Restoring Ritual of the great King Dorje Shugdan. Of these, the last is the principal practice.
A Dharma Protector is an emanation of Buddha or a Bodhisattva whose main functions are to avert the inner and outer obstacles that prevent practitioners from gaining spiritual realizations, and to arrange all the necessary conditions for their practice. Beings in this present time have a strong karmic link with Dorje Shugdan, and so he is the Dharma Protector who is most able to help them. Therefore it is said that, “Now is the time to rely upon Dorje Shugdan.” Dorje Shugdan 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.
There are many brief and middling-length sadhanas of Dorje Shugdan, such as Heart Jewel and Wishfulfilling Jewel. This extensive sadhana is called “Kangso” in Tibetan, which means “Fulfilling and Restoring Ritual”, and it is usually performed once a month in Dharma Centers. During this puja we make extensive offerings and perform other practices (1) to fulfill our heart commitment to rely upon the Protector sincerely, regarding him as inseparable from the Guru and Yidam, and to practice the pure Dharma of Lamrim, Lojong, and Mahamudra; and (2) to restore any degenerate or broken commitments we have incurred.
We begin the practice with Praise to Manjushri to remember that the Guru and Protector are in reality emanations of the Wisdom Buddha. We then perform the Guru yoga of Je Tsongkhapa and, after dissolving the Guru into our heart, perform self-generation as Heruka. We then invite the general Dharma Protectors such as Mahakala, Kalarupa, and Kalindewi, before beginning the actual sadhana of Dorje Shugdan. The fulfilling and restoring ritual of the general Protectors is interwoven with the sadhana of Dorje Shugdan.
Further information on the Guru yoga of Je Tsongkhapa and on the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugdan can be found in the book Heart Jewel, and further information on self-generation as Heruka can be found in the book Essence of Vajrayana.