Lunchtime Guided Meditation
2025-12-30 12:30 - 13:00, 2026-01-06 12:30 - 13:00, 2026-01-13 12:30 - 13:00, 2026-01-20 12:30 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Mahakankala Kadampa Buddhist Center, 1825 State Street Suite 202, Santa Barbara, CA, 93101, United States
Simply breathe. Relieve stress. Find peace.

Our Lunchtime Meditations are great for beginners and experienced meditators. Drop in any Tuesday at 12:30 for 30 minutes of peaceful meditation.
Cost per class: $5

Heart Jewel Prayers
2025-12-30 17:00 - 18:00, 2026-01-06 17:00 - 18:00, 2026-01-13 17:00 - 18:00, 2026-01-20 17:00 - 18:00
Join us In Person
If you enjoy meditating with others, chanted meditations are a great opportunity to engage in group meditation. These chanted meditations are also known in Sanskrit as pujas, meaning offering; and the prayers we recite are sadhanas, meaning methods for receiving attainments.
Our prayers are in English. We request the blessings, protection and guidance of the holy beings. We can make requests for ourselves or for others who need help or protection. These spiritual practices create a strong connection with the Buddhas, and help us purify our negativity and fill our mind with positive, healing energy.
Heart Jewel puja includes a period of silence for meditation. 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 to Enlightenment and attain a very special Dharma wisdom.
All chanted prayers are free.

Amitayus Day-Retreat
2026-01-03 15:00 - 2026-01-04 17:00
This annual weekend retreat is an opportunity to focus on the meditation practice of Amitayus, the Buddha of Immeasurable Life, which is a special method for increasing our lifespan, wisdom and merit. The greatest obstacles to the fulfillment of our wish to experience pure happiness are death and ignorance. Death destroys our opportunity to take the essence of our precious human life, and ignorance destroys our opportunity to develop a pure experience of Dharma. To overcome these obstacles, we need to increase our lifespan and our wisdom, and the principal method for doing this is the yoga of Buddha Amitayus, which is also a special method for increasing the positive power of our mind, or merit.
Prayers for this practice can be purchased in our bookstore or in a downloadable format HERE.
Saturday Retreat Schedule
Introduction to the Retreat: 3-4:15pm with Christian Gauthier
Session 1: 4:45-6pm
Sunday Retreat Schedule:
Session 2: 9-10:15 am (guided session)
Session 3: 11 am-12 pm Sunday Meditation Class with Christian Gauthier
Session 4: 1:45-3 pm (guided session)
Session 5: 3:45-5 pm (guided session)
Member benefits apply.

Sunday Morning Meditation Class
2026-01-04 11:00 - 12:00, 2026-01-11 11:00 - 12:00, 2026-01-18 11:00 - 12:00
January Series: Finding Opportunity in Adversity
In this series we will learn how to transform adversity into the path can help reduce anxiety and lead to inner protection through spiritual experience. By gaining familiarity with this practice, we can eventually become fearless like bodhisattvas, whose main concern is for the welfare of others.
Each Sunday morning class begins with a guided breathing meditation and Dharma talk, and culminates with a second meditation based upon the morning’s topic. Perfect for beginners or those with meditation experience. Open to everyone.
Please arrive a few minutes early to settle.
Topics in January
January 4th Distinguishing Inner and Outer Problems
September 3
January 11th Adversity Encourages us to Purifying Negative Karma
January 18th Adversity Encourages us to Seek Liberation
January 25th Aversity Encourages us to Develop Compassion

Heart Jewel Prayers
2026-01-05 17:00 - 18:00, 2026-01-12 17:00 - 18:00, 2026-01-19 17:00 - 18:00
Join us In Person
If you enjoy meditating with others, chanted meditations are a great opportunity to engage in group meditation. These chanted meditations are also known in Sanskrit as pujas, meaning offering; and the prayers we recite are sadhanas, meaning methods for receiving attainments.
Our prayers are in English. We request the blessings, protection and guidance of the holy beings. We can make requests for ourselves or for others who need help or protection. These spiritual practices create a strong connection with the Buddhas, and help us purify our negativity and fill our mind with positive, healing energy.
Heart Jewel puja includes a period of silence for meditation. 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 to Enlightenment and attain a very special Dharma wisdom.
All chanted prayers are free.

Guided Lamrim Meditation
2026-01-05 18:30 - 19:30, 2026-01-12 18:30 - 19:30, 2026-01-19 18:30 - 19:30
Learn the most essential teachings of Mahayana Buddhism as we meditate together on most Monday evenings. Please check our web calendar to confirm class meetings.
Each class begins with a guided breathing meditation, preparatory prayers, and culminates with a second meditation based upon the topic of the evening. Drop in to any or all classes in this course. Perfect for beginners or those with meditation experience.
About the Class
Lamrim is a special presentation of Buddhist teachings that modern people can practice in their daily lives. Lamrim originated with the Indian Buddhist Master Atisha, and was later clarified by Tibetan Master and scholar Je Tsongkhapa.
Our Founder, Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche, makes Lamrim even more accessible for modern people in his books, which appear in many languages. These are the texts we use in the class for our Lamrim meditations.

Please arrive five minutes early to settle, either in person or on zoom.
(Zoom access is available with a monthly membership.)
Membership: Class included with Online, GP, FP and Benefactor Memberships. Contact us to join.

24 Hour Tara Chanting
2026-01-07 08:00 - 2026-01-08 17:00
Join us in this special method of Tara chanting to wrap the entire world in requests to Living Buddha Tara. We will gather together at the end of this year to ask her to please take away the obstacles in this world and help everyone find the happy, meaningful life they long for. Whether you engage in all six sessions or just one, please join in. This will be so powerful in bringing about immediate practical benefit!
“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
Prayers: Liberation from Sorrow (ebook available here).
Wednesday, January 7th
6:00pm Session 1
10:00pm Session 2
Thursday, January 8th
2:00am Session 3
6:00am Session 4
10:00am Session 5
2:00pm Session 6

Wishfulfilling Jewel Prayers w/ Meditation
2026-01-09 17:30 - 18:45
f you enjoy meditating with others, chanted meditations are a great opportunity to engage in group meditation. These chanted meditations are also known in Sanskrit as puja, meaning offering, or as sadhana, which means method for receiving attainments.
Using prayers in English, we receive the blessings, protection and guidance of the holy beings. We can make requests for ourselves or for others who need help or protection. These spiritual practices create a strong connection with the Buddhas, and help us purify our negativity and fill our mind with positive, healing energy.
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 to Enlightenment and attain a very special Dharma wisdom.
This practice includes pauses for meditation.
All chanted prayers are free.

Offering to the Spiritual Guide Prayers
2026-01-10 13:00 - 15:00
Everyone is welcome to join us for this beautiful prayer practice.
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.
This puja (prayer practice) normally takes place on or near the 10th & 25th of the month.

All chanted prayers are free.

Prayers for World Peace
2026-01-11 10:30 - 11:00, 2026-01-18 10:30 - 11:00
Cultivating inner peace by learning to cherish others is the best method for establishing world peace. Thirty minutes of meaningful contemplation using prayers in English, turning our minds towards the happiness and freedom of every living being.
Stay after for a guided meditation class.

Powa Prayers
2026-01-11 12:30 - 13:15
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.
All chanted prayers are free.

Wishfulfilling Jewel Prayers w/ Tsog
2026-01-16 17:30 - 18:30, 2026-01-23 17:30 - 18:30
If you enjoy meditating with others, chanted meditations are a great opportunity to engage in group meditation. These chanted meditations are also known in Sanskrit as puja, meaning offering, or as sadhana, which means method for receiving attainments.
Using prayers in English, we receive the blessings, protection and guidance of the holy beings. We can make requests for ourselves or for others who need help or protection. These spiritual practices create a strong connection with the Buddhas, and help us purify our negativity and fill our mind with positive, healing energy.
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 to Enlightenment and attain a very special Dharma wisdom.
This practice includes a tsog offering.
All chanted prayers are free.

Clarity of Mind Retreat
2026-01-17 10:00 - 16:00
The real source of happiness is inner peace. If our mind is peaceful, we will be happy all the time, regardless of external conditions, but if it is disturbed or troubled in any way, we will never be happy, no matter how good our external conditions may be.
In this short retreat we will take time to discover the inner peace that we naturally posess. With regular practice, meditation helps us to experience mental clarity and inner peace by meditating on our mind itself. Through training in concentration observing our mind we can overcome distractions and come to experience for ourself the inner peace arising from the clarity of the mind.
RETREAT SCHEDULE
10-11am: Session 1
11:30-12:30: Session 2
1:30-2:30pm: Session 3
3-4pm: Session 4

Learn to Meditate Workshop
2026-01-18 13:30 - 16:30
If our mind is peaceful, we will be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we will experience true happiness; but if our mind is not peaceful, we will find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living in the very best conditions.
If we train in meditation, our mind will gradually become more and more peaceful, and we will experience a purer and purer form of happiness. Eventually, we will be able to stay happy all the time, even in the most difficult circumstances. In this workshop we will learn how to meditate and develop a regular meditation practice. Everyone Welcome!
Schedule
1:30-2:45pm: Session One
3:15-4:30pm: Session Two
Cost: $25 (membership discounts apply)

Uncommon Yoga of Inconceivability Retreat
2026-01-24 10:00 - 17:30
During this retreat, we will engage in the profound transference of consciousness practice called the Uncommon Yoga of Inconceivability. This practice is unique to Vajrayogini Tantra and reveals a priceless instruction through which we can accomplish Keajra Pure Land in this life without abandoning our human body.
**This retreat is open to those who have received the empowerments of Highest Yoga Tantra or have a strong wish to do so at the next available opportunity.
*UPDATED* SELF-GUIDED RETREAT SCHEDULE
10-11am: Session 1
11:30-12:30pm: Session 2
2-3pm: Session 3
3:30-4:30pm: Session 4
