Gaining deep experience of Dharma depends not just upon meditation but also upon creating certain inner conditions such as purifying negativity, accumulating merit, and receiving blessings. In this retreat we will focus on the preliminary practices of accumulating merit by making mandala offerings and receiving blessings through Guru yoga practice. *
The practice of mandala offerings is a beautiful, imaginative practice whereby we create then causes for a completely pure world to appear. Remembering that everything starts in the imagination, we envision peaceful, beautiful environments and offer them to the holy beings. To offer mandalas we can construct traditional rice mandalas or we can simply visualize a pure world.
We receive blessings by engaging in Guru yoga practice. This special practice enables us to strengthen our connection with our Spiritual Guide and feel very close to him or her. We make many requests by reciting the special Migtsema prayer, and then receive our Spiritual Guide’s transformative blessings.
We will engage in this retreat in conjunction with the prayers Hundreds of Deities of the Joyful Land According to Highest Yoga Tantra. There will be silent periods to concentrate and meditate on offering mandalas and recite the Migtsema prayer.
Offering the mandala is offering a Pure Land generated through the power of correct imagination. There is no difference between offering a Pure Land generated through the power of correct imagination and offering an actual Pure Land – both are mere appearance to the mind.
Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso — from Oral Instructions of Mahamudra
*To learn more about these important preliminary practices for meditation be sure to attend our morning course with Josh Baker called Keys to Successful Meditation on October 19th.
Retreat Schedule
Friday 11th
7:00 – 8:15pm Introduction
Saturday 12th
9:00 – 10:15am
11:00 – 12:15pm
4:30 – 5:45pm
7:00 – 8:30pm
Sunday 13th
9:00 – 10:15am
11:00 – 12:30pm
Event Cost
Non-members
Whole retreat: $35
Friday evening: $15
Sat and Sun retreat sessions: $5 per session
Members free, included in your membership
Please pay at the door
About the Teacher
Gen Kelsang Delek, the Resident Teacher of KMC Vancouver, is teaching these classes in May. She is a senior Teacher in the New Kadampa Tradition – International Kadampa Buddhist Union (NKT-IKBU). She has been a Kadampa Buddhist nun and Teacher under the guidance of her Spiritual Guide, Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche, for almost 30 years and has been the Resident Teacher at Kadampa Centres in Canada, Japan and the UK.