Kurukulla Center

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Date: 

Sun, May 03, 2020

Time: 

HOME PRACTICE 

Event: 

Lama Chopa (Guru Puja)

 

 

COVID-19 Note: Geshe-la has given us advice that for this Guru Puja we all do individually:


  • If possible, recite the whole Guru Puja practice as usual, especially the English Lamrim part, and meditate on its meaning as you recite it. Also, during Thursday's Virtual Community Meeting Venerable Ani Yeshe suggested that students could use the opportunity to read the Guru Puja in English to gain a deeper understanding of its meaning.

  • For the puja altar, if students don't know how to do the setup or don't have the materials to set up the full altar, that's okay. Good motivation and a simple offering of water, flower, incense, and/or candle are sufficient.

  • Students who have Tsog commitment should do, as usual.


If you need a copy of the Lama Chöpa (Guru Puja) text, you can download a PDF copy of the 2013 edition from the FPMT store (by suggested donation). There are other editions available, too.

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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. The word puja means "to please" and has the connotation to please through offerings and practice. We chant the first 2/3rds of this puja in Tibetan and the last 1/3 we recite in English.

We always recommend bringing offerings of some sort, food, unscented tea lights, flowers, etc, as a way of earning merit. By making donations at, or sponsoring, a specific puja, you are strengthening and empowering the merit you receive in relationship to that puja, in this case the merit we receive by celebrating our gurus and the immeasurable benefit they have offered all sentient beings through their teachings. Generosity is the first of the six perfected qualities of a bodhisattva, planting the seeds to ensure that we will have all the material things necessary in future lives to continue our study of Dharma and working for the benefit of all beings, and this puja is a wonderful opportunity to practice generosity. This does not necessarily mean making more offerings, but rather making offerings that are of high value to you, that you find delightful and want to offer your gurus and all buddhas, quantity and quality being factors but not defining marks for an offering. Offerings are not an obligation but an opportunity, so we encourage you to make the most of it.

Donation: 

$0.00