Daily | Weekly
Meditations
Chanted Prayers
Chanted Prayers, or pujas, are an important component of training in a spiritual life and are held at KMC Indianapolis throughout the week. They help us to still our mind, connect with enlightened beings, and receive blessings.
Prayer booklets in paperback and ebook form are available through Tharpa.com.
All pujas are free of charge and open to the public. Join in person, or livestream via Zoom.
No previous experience needed and you do not need to be a Buddhist to attend. Everyone is welcome!
All pujas use Zoom ID 830 3501 7155 | Passcode 108
Heart Jewel
Heart Jewel is a short chanted prayer consisting of two practices revealed by the Wisdom Buddha Manjushri and includes a meditation on Lamrim. By engaging in the special Guru yoga practiced in conjunction with Je Tsongkhapa we can purify negativity, accumulate merit, and receive blessings, and attain a very special wisdom. By engaging in the special method for relying on the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden, we can overcome obstacles to our practice and create favorable conditions.
Meditation
This practice includes silent time for meditation on Lamrim—the stages of the path to enlightenment
Wishfulfilling Jewel
Sundays from 2:00-3:15PM
Wishfulfilling Jewel puja is our weekly offering to the Buddhas. We make prayers and requests to the wisdom Buddha Je Tsongkhapa along with a tsog offering (food) to the protector Buddha Dorje Shugden. If you wish, you can bring a vegetarian food offering.
Tsog Offering
While a tsog offering has deep meaning, in general this means you can bring a small food offering. After the puja we’ll all gather to enjoy.
Offering to the Spiritual Guide
Offering to the Spiritual Guide is a special Guru yoga of Je Tsongkhapa in conjunction with Highest Yoga Tantra. 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 and completion stages of Highest Yoga Tantra. This practice includes a tsog offering.
If you like...
Bring a Mandala kit
Bring a food offering
Offer to help
Melodious Drum (Long Protector)
This monthly practice consists principally of extensive prayers to our Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugden. A Dharma Protector is an emanation of a Buddha or Bodhisattva whose main functions are to avert the inner and outer obstacles that prevent practitioners from attaining spiritual realizations and to arrange all the necessary conditions for their practice. Dorje Shugden always helps, guides, and protects pure and faithful practitioners by granting blessings, increasing their wisdom, fulfilling their wishes and bestowing success on all their virtuous activities. This practice includes a tsog offering.
Liberation from Sorrow (Green Tara)
At Kadampa Centers worldwide, the eighth of the month is Tara Day. Tara is a female Buddha, whose name means “Rescuer.” She is the embodiment of swift compassion. If we rely upon Tara sincerely and with strong faith, she will protect us from all obstacles and fulfill all our wishes. Everyone is welcome and invited to join us for Tara’s chanted prayer practice, Liberation from Sorrow.
Medicine Buddha Prayers
Medicine Buddha is a Buddha Doctor whose function is to release living beings from outer and inner sickness by bestowing blessings upon them. By relying on Medicine Buddha sincerely, we can be cured of heavy physical and mental disease, find release from the internal pain of the three poisons—attachment, anger, and ignorance—and receive protection from many other dangers and obstacles.
Bodhisattva’s Confession of Moral Downfalls
A powerful practice that focuses on the Thirty-five Confession Buddhas to purify our mind of even the heaviest negativities. Because of the negative actions that we have created in the past under the influence of deluded minds we now experience suffering and problems, as well as difficulties in developing faith and conviction in spiritual practice and in making progress on the path to enlightenment. But no matter how negative our mind is we have the opportunity to purify it completely by engaging in purification, the root of future happiness and spiritual realizations. One of the most powerful purification practices is the Mahayana Sutra of the Three Superior Heaps, also known as The Bodhisattva’s Confession of Moral Downfalls. In this practice, we visualize the Thirty-five Confession Buddhas and practice purification in their presence. Through the power of their blessings and prayers, we can swiftly purify even the heaviest negative actions simply by faithfully reciting their names.
Vajrasattva Purification Prayers
The Buddha of Purification, the manifestation of the minds of all the Buddhas, appearing in the aspect of a white-colored Deity specifically to purify the negativities of living beings. The practice of meditation and recitation of Buddha Vajrasattva is a powerful method for purifying our impure mind and actions. Vajrasattva is the Buddha of purification. Vajrasattva practice is specifically designed to remove the obstacles preventing us from unlocking our own inner peace and enjoyment of life. While reciting the mantra, we concentrate on removing the negative karma in our mind by applying the Four Powers of Reliance, Regret, Opponent Force and Promise.
Powa Prayers for the Recently Deceased
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.