Chanted Prayers
in St. James
All of our prayers and meditation practices are recited in English with CD accompaniment. These chanted prayer practices are open to all and free of charge. They are suitable for beginners as well as more advanced practitioners.
Medicine Buddha
The practice of Medicine Buddha has the power to heal disease. Even if we are suffering from severe injury or chronic illness, this practice gives us the inner strength to deal positively with these challenges. Ultimately this practice destroys the three inner poisons of uncontrolled desire, anger and ignorance – the source of all physical and mental illness, and the source of all suffering in our world.
Monday, March 2, 6:15pm
Offering to the Spiritual Guide
This puja is an opportunity to make many offerings from our heart and request inspiration and insight from our Spiritual Guide so that we can attain realizations of all the stages of the path, the six perfections, and generation and completion stage Tantra. It expresses our wish to become a Buddha ourselves so we can help everyone attain the state of freedom and happiness.
Tuesday, March 10, 2:30pm
Powa Practice for the Deceased
Powa Ceremony is a beautiful and powerful ritual practice drawn from the Buddhist tantras which enables us to benefit the deceased by coming together as a group and making prayers and offerings on their behalf. Then, through the power of our compassionate intention, strong prayers, and concentration on the practice, we transfer the consciousness of the deceased to the Pure Land of the Buddha of Compassion so that they will experience a pure and lasting peace and finally be freed from the painful cycle of suffering and its causes.
Powa Practice for the Deceased
Monday, March 16 at 6:15
Tara Prayers, Liberation from Sorrow
Green 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.
Sunday, March 8th at 12:45pm
Wishfulfilling Jewel
This practice is the heart essence of Kadampa Buddhism. In the first part we visualize our Spiritual Guide as Je Tsongkhapa and make prayers and requests to purify negativity, accumulate merit, and receive blessings. This prepares our mind for meditation. After the meditation we make prayers to our 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 pure Dharma realizations.
Sunday, March 29 at 9:45am
Quick Path to Great Bliss
The extensive self-generation practice of Vajrayogini, the female Buddha who is the manifestation of the wisdom of all Buddhas. This practice is open to all those with Highest Yoga Tantra Empowerments. Bring your sadhanas and implements.
TUESDAYS 2:30-4:30pm
March 3, 10, 17, 24 at 2:30-4:40pm (HYT practitioners only)
Heart Jewel
The daily puja at Kadampa Buddhist Centers is Heart Jewel, which is a Guru yoga of Je Tsongkhapa combined with the condensed sadhana of his Dharma Protector and a short meditation on Lamrim, the stages of the path to enlightenment.
March 6, 13, 20, 27 at 11am-12pm