Held daily, usually at 4.30pm. On Saturdays this is with food offering (Tsog)
Wishfulfilling Jewel is a heart practice for Kadampa practitioners. Generally we try to practise either this puja or its shorter version, Heart Jewel, every day. At least once a week we offer these chanted prayers with special tsog offerings at our Kadampa Centres. This is very auspicious because tsog offerings increase our merit and our connection with the holy beings and the enlightened world.
There are two key practices within this puja: reliance on Je Tsongkhapa as our Spiritual Guide and reliance on Dorje Shugden as our Dharma Protector. Both Je Tsongkhapa and Dorje Shugden have the same nature as Buddha Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom. They are both seen to be inseparable from our own Spiritual Guide.
As indicated by its name, Heart Jewel prayers are a heart practice for Kadampa practitioners. Generally every Kadampa tries to practise this sadhana every day. A sadhana is a method to accomplish spiritual attainments. We combine this practice with Lamrim meditations – the 21 meditations of the stages of the path to enlightenment found in ‘The New Meditation Handbook’.
By relying upon the blessings of Je Tsongkhapa as our Spiritual Guide, the protection of Dorje Shugden as our Dharma Protector, and our own training in the 21 Lamrim meditations, our compassion, wisdom and spiritual power shall naturally increase. This is how we enjoy pure and lasting happiness and become a source of peace and happiness for everyone.
Heart Jewel is a shortened version of Wishfulfilling Jewel, which is practiced daily in Kadampa centres throughout the world.
8th of each month
This special puja ‘Liberation from Sorrow’ includes the prayer of ‘Praises to the 21 Taras’ composed by Buddha himself. Tara is a female Buddha, a manifestation of the ultimate wisdom of all the Buddhas. Each of the 21 Taras is a manifestation of the principal Tara, Green Tara. Tara is also known as the ‘Mother of the Conquerors’. By engaging in these prayers we develop a deep feeling of closeness with Buddha Tara, through which we can receive her blessings and protection. Like a loving mother, Tara provides us with all the necessary conditions for our spiritual training, guiding and inspiring us with her blessings as we progress along the spiritual path.
If we recite the twenty-one verses of praise we shall receive inconceivable benefits. These praises are very powerful because they are Sutra, the actual words of Buddha. It is good to recite them as often as we can.
Most Saturdays
By learning to cherish others we can experience greater peace of mind and help to establish world peace in general. Through contemplating these prayers compiled by Geshe Kelsang from traditional sources, we learn to cherish others.
If everyone sincerely prays to be able to cherish others, then gradually through the power of this prayer, everyone will actually cherish each other. The world will then be permanently at peace, and pure and everlasting happiness will pervade the entire world.
10th and 25th of each month with food offering (Tsog)
The practice of relying upon a Spiritual Guide, or ‘Guru Yoga’, is the root of the spiritual path and the foundation of all spiritual attainments. In Kadampa Buddhism, Guru Yoga is practised in association with Je Tsongkhapa, an emanation of the Wisdom Buddha Manjushri.
The principal Guru Yoga of Je Tsongkhapa is Offering to the Spiritual Guide, which is an extensive practice that is usually performed twice a month at Kadampa centres.
Monthly
Powa Ceremony, also known as the practice of transference of consciousness, is performed each month at KMC Leeds on behalf of all those who have recently died, traditionally within forty-nine days of their death. Through doing Powa practice 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.
15th of each month
The practice of taking and keeping the eight Mahayana Precepts
The essence of the practice is to take eight precepts and to keep them purely for a period of twenty-four hours. By doing this practice again and again, we acquaint ourself with the practice of moral discipline and thereby make our human life meaningful.
We receive many great benefits from practicing moral discipline in this way. It helps us to solve the problems of this life by avoiding the causes of suffering; and it creates the cause for us to take fortunate rebirths in future lives and thereby protects us from the sufferings of lower rebirth.
We first need to receive these precepts from a qualified Preceptor, and then we can take them on our own as often as we wish. If we wish to take the essence of this precious human life we should strive to engage in this practice as often as we can.
In particular, because it is performed with bodhichitta motivation, this practice is very powerful for purifying negative karma. It accumulates a vast collection of merit and creates the cause for us to attain the unsurpassed happiness of enlightenment.
29th of each month, with food offering (Tsog)
Dorje Shugden is a Dharma Protector emanation of the Wisdom Buddha who averts obstacles to our spiritual practice and gathers necessary conditions for our attaining spiritual realizations.
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 gaining spiritual realizations, and to arrange all the necessary conditions for their practice.
Beings in this present time have a strong karmic link with Dorje Shugden and so he is the Dharma Protector who is most able to help us. Therefore it is said that, “now is the time to rely upon Dorje Shudgen.” 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 extensive sadhana is called Kangso in Tibetan, which means ‘Fulfilling and Restoring Ritual’.
Mid April
A special fasting and purification practice, called Nyungnay, is traditionally held at Kadampa Centres worldwide around Buddha’s Enlightenment day, which is celebrated on April 15.
For two days around this special day Kadampas engage in Nyungnay retreat, a very powerful purification practice. This practice uses the prayer booklets A Pure Life and Drop of Essential Nectar. It emphasizes the development of great compassion and relying with faith on the Buddha of compassion – Avalokiteshvara.
