This Week at Kurukulla Center
September 13, 2010 - September 19, 2010
|
From the Director
|
Quick Links About Us Programs Calendar Audio Teachings Stupa Project Contact Us eNews Archive We need your support! With over $8,000 of monthly expenses, we need your continued support. Please consider making a one-time donation, becoming a member, or increasing your membership. Thank you for all you do to support our center and the Dharma! Kurukulla Center is affiliated with the FPMT. If you would like to receive the FPMT's monthly newsletter, please subscribe here. In affiliation with the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. Follow us on Facebook! Visit us on our Blog! |
Dear Kurukulla Community, Thank you for your interest in and support of Kurukulla Center. Lama Zopa Rinpoche's visit Rinpoche and Geshe-la blessed the stupa and then Rinpoche spoke briefly about the incredible benefits of building stupas. Afterwards everybody got to go up and offer Rinpoche a khatag and perhaps have a few words. It was a brief but blissful visit and we invited Rinpoche to come back again soon for a longer period to give more teachings. Check out the photos below, and click any of the above links to see pictures of that event.
Work now continues on the Tara palace and pond and we hope this work will be completed in a couple of weeks' time. It's been a wonderful summer, with the stupa being completed and the visits of Choden Rinpoche and Lama Zopa Rinpoche and we now move back into our more regular schedule, which itself is pretty amazing. Geshe Tsulga teaching Sundays, Geshe Tenley Wednesdays, Tsunma-la and Ani Yeshe running their regular programs, and Wendy teaching yoga and meditations Tuesday nights. And then there are our four regular monthly pujas. These are great offerings. And we will be adding one more...Kurukulla South (see below). However, although we offer all our classes completely free of charge, we do have $8,000 a month regular expenses, and we depend on you for this through your memberships, regular donations and special gifts. Every summer our income dries up a little and this year's was no exception and we had to dig deep into our reserves. Please contribute generously over the next month or two to keep the Center going and to help us build our reserves back up. Thank you so much. Kurukulla South As I have mentioned, several people have asked about classes south of Boston, for people who live in southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. We're happy to announce that our co-Spiritual Program Director, Tsultrim Davis, will be starting to teach introductory classes on Tuesday nights starting September 28 at Dancing Crow Studio. Please click here to download a flier with more details. We encourage you to share this flier around to promote an auspicious turnout as we launch a satellite center. And I'm off to Asheville, North Carolina, for a two-week retreat with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and will see you when I get back. Sean Gonzalez will be acting director while I'm away. Thank you again for your wonderful support.
Nick Ribush Director |
Calendar of Events
|
Monday, September 13 Introduction to Buddhism with Ven. Ani Yeshe (Helen Lee) Tuesday, September 14 6:30 am to 7:00 am Start your day on the right foot by calming your mind, setting your day's purpose to be a meaningful one and remembering to just breathe! Resident nun Tsunma-la leads basic meditations that help stabilize the mind by learning to focus on the breath. By using these simple techniques, you can bring a sense of tranquility to your day. If you plan to join Tsunma-la in the meditation hall (gompa) at Kurukulla Center please arrive a few minutes early. We will start promptly at 6:30 am. Feel free to listen live online.
There is no Yoga & Meditation with Wendy Cook this week, it will return September 21.
Wednesday, September 08 Thirty-seven Practices of a Bodhisattva with Geshe Tenley 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Geshe-la continues his explanation of The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattvaby Togme Sangpo (1245-1369.) Come and learn what a bodhisattva does. All are welcome. A copy of the text will be distributed in class and contemporary commentaries are available for purchase in our bookstore. Tara Puja 8:00 pm to 9:300 pm
Tara is a female Buddha and represents the enlightened activity of the Buddhas. Once a month, we pay homage to her by doing practices for this specially loved Buddha. Practices to Tara are said to remove obstacles to both our spiritual and worldly success. Since most of the recitation is done in English, the Tara puja is easily accessible to those unfamiliar with this type of chanting ceremony practice.It is customary when attending a puja to bring offerings such as flowers, unscented tea lights, fruit or cookies, or to make monetary offerings to the ordained sangha or to Kurukulla Center itself. Although we encourage you to do so, it is not required. Thursday, September 16 Discovering Buddhism - Presenting the Path with Tsunma-la (Sue Macy) 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm Tonight is the second class in Presenting the Path, one of the modules from our Discovering Buddhism program. In this series, resident nun Tsunma-la gives an overview of Buddhist practice from start to finish. Think of this course as helping you to understand how to GoogleMap your mind--to figure out the directions to get from where you are now to your eventual destination, complete enlightenment. Feel free to listen live online. Friday, September 17 Morning Meditation with Tsunma-la (Sue Macy) 6:30 am to 7:00 am Start your day on the right foot by calming your mind, setting your day's purpose to be a meaningful one and remembering to just breathe! Resident nun Tsunma-la leads basic meditations that help stabilize the mind by learning to focus on the breath. By using these simple techniques, you can bring a sense of tranquility to your day. If you plan to join Tsunma-la in the meditation hall (gompa) at Kurukulla Center please arrive a few minutes early. We will start promptly at 6:30 am. Feel free to listen live online. Guru Puja (Lama Chopa)
7:00 pm to 8:45 pm
The word puja means "to please" and has the connotation to please through offerings and practice. The Guru Puja lays the whole path to enlightenment on our mindstream, connects us more strongly to our teachers, allows us to accumulate skies of merit and purifies eons of negative karma. We perform this practice on the 10th and 25th of the lunar Tibetan calendar, a time that is special for making the "tsok" offering, a particular ritual inserted into the Guru Puja. We chant the first 2/3rds of this puja in Tibetan and the last 1/3 we recite in English.
All are welcome. Sunday, September 19 Wisdom Chapter from Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life with Venerable Geshe Tsulga 10:00 am to 12:00 pm The ninth chapter of Guide to a Bodhisattva's Way of Life, composed by the great bodhisattva Shantideva, addresses the Madhyamika view of reality by setting it against other philosophical systems, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist. Reputed to be highly challenging, we are fortunate such an eminently qualified teacher as Geshe Tsulga will guide us through this section. Copies of Guide to a Bodhisattva's Way of Life and a commentary on this chapter by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Transcendent Wisdom, are available for purchase in our bookstore. We will also distribute a copy of Chapter 9 to all class participants. Feel free to listen live online.
This course is from the Basic Program, a multi-year program offering a comprehensive and in-depth exploration of core Buddhist texts. Prior participation in the Basic Program or a background in Buddhist philosophy are recommended. |
Kurukulla Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies 68 Magoun Avenue Medford, MA 02155 617.624.0177 http://www.kurukulla.org |
May all sentient beings have happiness and its causes! |