Saturday 17th – Thursday 22nd December
Guru Yoga and Mandala Offering
We all wish for spiritual realisations, but these depend upon creating certain inner conditions such as purifying negativity, accumulating merit, and receiving blessings.
In this annual retreat we focus on the preliminary practices of accumulating merit and receiving blessings. Making mandala offerings is the gateway to accumulating the collection of merit and attaining an enlightened pure land and Guru yoga is the gateway to receiving powerful blessings of all the Buddhas of the ten directions through our Spiritual Guide.
The word “guru” is Sanskrit for “spiritual guide” or “spiritual teacher.” These days, it is possible to have a spiritual guide who is male or female, lay or ordained, Eastern or Western. During this retreat, we will visualize our personal spiritual guide appearing in the aspect of Je Tsongkhapa, an emanation of the wisdom Buddha Manjushri.
The word “mandala,” in this context, means “universe.” In a traditional rice mandala offering, we use a rice mandala kit to create an offering that represents a completely pure universe. We then use the mandala kit to make offerings to Je Tsongkhapa, imagining we are offering countless purified universes, along with the imagined purified objects of our own attachment. In this way we accumulate vast merit and receive powerful blessings.
Everybody is welcome to this retreat.
Retreat details
There are three to four sessions per day. Each session lasts for one and a half hours and consists of chanted prayers in English and mandala offerings. During retreat everyone is asked to maintain silence from after the last session at night until after the second session the next morning. You are welcome to drop in for any or all of the retreat sessions. As this retreat is not guided there is no charge but donations welcome. Please arrive at least 15 minutes early if you wish to receive instructions on how to make a mandala offering.
Venue
Kalpa Bhadra Buddhist Centre, 24 Rugby St, Merivale, Christchurch
Cost
Introduction $10. Retreat sessions free – donations welcome
Session Times
Friday 16th December
Introduction with Kelsang Luma 8.00 – 9.00pm
Saturday 17th – Thursday 22nd December
Ses 1: 7.30 – 9.00am
Ses 2: 10.30 – 12.00pm
Ses 3: 4.00 – 5.30pm
Ses 4: 7.30 – 9.00pm
Sunday 18th Dec – session 2 begins 11.00am – 12.30pm
Tuesday 20th December – no 4th session.
Please note that session times vary. Please check our calendar on our homepage for updated session times.