- This event has passed.
Introduction to Guru Yoga Mandala Offering Retreat
September 15, 2023 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Every year, Kadampa centers around the world arrange preliminary retreats in which people engage in practices that help prepare the mind for deeper meditation. Generally these retreats are four sessions a day over seven days, and you can participate in as many or few sessions as you wish. Our Resident Teacher, Kadam Keli Vaughan will give a brief introduction to this practice ahead of a mini 1-day Guru Yoga Mandala Offering Retreat on Saturday, Sept 16. This retreat unites the two practices of Guru Yoga and Mandala Offering.
We will use Heart Jewel Prayers as our preparatory practice for this evening’s talk.
The blessings arising from the practice of Guru yoga are like rain that nurtures and sustains the seeds of our meditation. Guru Yoga is a special and powerful method that enables us to receive the blessings of all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and holy beings. Receiving this inspiration into our mind bestows inner peace and gives rise to realizations of renunciation, universal compassion, and wisdom realizing emptiness.
Meditation plants the seeds of realizations within our mind but if our mind is devoid of good karma we will be planting seeds in barren ground. Accumulating merit creates a rich and fertile mental environment within which our meditations will swiftly ripen and transform into realizations. The practice of Mandala Offering creates vast good fortune and is a method to attain the Pure Land of a Buddha. Mandala means ‘universe’. We create a completely pure universe with our imagination and offer it to the Enlightened Buddhas.
After the Introductory talk, Kadam Keli will show new practitioners how to make 7-point mandala offerings using the small mandala kits available during the retreat.
Saturday’s retreat schedule:
Each retreat session is 90 minutes long including prayers.
Session 1 9:00-10:30am
Session 2 11:00am-12:30pm
Session 3 2:00-3:30pm
Session 4 4:00-5:30pm