New York Weekly Courses, September – December 2012
TIBETAN BUDDHISM WITH GELEK RIMPOCHE
SUNDAY MORNING VIDEO WEBCASTS
10:00 to 11:00 AM
We are pleased to announce that Gelek Rimpoche will give weekly Sunday morning talks from 10 – 11am beginning Sunday, January 1. Speaking from Ann Arbor and New York and other locations, these talks will also be a live video webcast.
To become a Jewel Heart webcast subscriber, visit this site.
**PLEASE NOTE: THERE WILL BE NO WEBCASTS ON DECEMBER 23 AND 30.**
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Group Meditation Practices
Thursdays, 7-8:30pm
October 4, 11, 18, 25; November 8, 29
Free to All
On Thursdays when Jewel Heart retreats in the US are not being held, Jewel Heart New York will feature group practice sessions, led by senior students.
October 4, 18, and 25 as well as Nobember 29 will feature a White Tara practice. White Tara, healing protector and mother goddess of Tibetan Buddhism, is called upon around the world by those in need of healing guidance and safe-keeping. Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche, like many Gelugpa lamas, has a particularly close connection with White Tara and has taught numerous facets of the White Tara practice over the past 3 decades in the West.
White Tara healing practices were the focus of the Memorial Day 2011 retreat and these monthly group practices will follow in that same pattern. October 4 and November 29 will led by Fredericka Foster, October 18 by Amy Hertz, and October 25 by Kathleen White.
The October 11 and November 8 sessions will be a Medicine Buddha practice. Medicine Buddha is an extremely powerful form of enlightened energy directed at helping us to accomplish our spiritual goals as well as healing. This practice benefits those who are ill and even those who have died.
Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche has emphazied this practice at two successive Fall retreats. The Medicine Buddha practice will be facilitated by Mya Myint.
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LAMA CHOPA COURSE WEBCAST
Mondays, 7–8:30pm
September 10, 24; October 1, 15; November 26; December 3, 10.
Lama Chopa is a complete guru yoga practice integrating aspects of sutra and tantra into a common framework, based on Gelek Rimpoche’s commentary Guru Devotion: Integrating the Primordial Mind. The transcript is available in hard cover from the Jewel Heart Store and as a PDF file from the Digital Dharma portion of this web site. The Digital Dharma site will also allow you to subscribe to the webcast of this course.
This course is open to all.
New York Programs, September – December 2012
Meeting the Medicine Buddha:
Initiation into the Art of Invoking the Field of the Seven Healing Buddhas
Empowerment to Perform the Role-Modeling Practice of the Healing Mentor, Bhaishajyaguru
Granted by Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche
Co-Sponsored by Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science And Jewel Heart International
The initiation will be held
Saturday, January 19, 2013
From 12-3:30 PM
at Tibet House US
22 West 15th Street
New York City
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Registration
Donation: $50
Enrollment is restricted and limited.
Tickets will be available on a first-come-first-served basis. On January 3 these tickets will be offered to a wider audience, so if you’re interested in attending, please consider purchasing your tickets soon.
Purchase your tickets online by registering here. Or you may pay by check. Please make checks payable “Nalanda Institute,” and mail to: Nalanda Institute, 300 Central Park West, Suite 1D, New York, NY 10024. Please circle your name or write your name on the check along with your affiliation (Nalanda Institute or Jewel Heart).
Need-based scholarships are available on a limited basis. To apply for scholarship, email need/request letter to: [email protected].
Your donation will go to defray expenses and support Jewel Heart International.
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Tsongkhapa Day Lama Chopa Practice with Tsoh
Saturday, December 8, 4-5:30 PM
Jewel Heart New York Dharma Center
Free to All
The Tibetan word Tsoh means gathering, collection, or assembly. The Tsoh offering is a great feast offered to all enlightened beings and to all non-enlightened beings as well, including ourselves. It is one of the most important practices of generosity, and is also extremely effective for accumulation of merit. A Tsoh can be done in various ways. In Jewel Heart we commonly make this offering within the practice of the Lama Chopa.
The food offered is always of the best possible quality and quantity. After the Tsoh is completed, the food offerings are shared among the participants and may either be eaten at that time or taken home to share with family. A Tsoh always includes offerings of bala (meat or fish) and mandana (alcohol). A small amount of these substances will be distributed to all participants after they have been offered to the enlightened beings. If you are a strict vegetarian, you may just touch the bala with your ring finger and don’t really have to eat any, and those who don’t want to take alcohol can do the same.
All are invited to participate, including children, who can sit with their parents and get up and move around if they need to. Children often enjoy helping to distribute the food offerings. If the entire practice is too long for them, they can come in at the time of the actual offering and enjoy the singing. The Lama Chöpa with Tsoh offering generally takes about an hour.
This group practice will be led by Mark Harada. If you wish to help with set-up, please arrive at 3:00. If you will be bringing flower or food offerings, please plan to arrive no later than 3:30.
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2012 Jewel Heart Benefit Fundraiser
Monday, October 29, 7:00-9:00 PM
Join Gelek Rimpoche, along with Philip Glass, for cocktails and conversation on October 29, 2012 to benefit Jewel Heart.
The setting will be a loft in Tribeca. Light refreshments and selected beverages will be served. Capacity is limited to 70 people, so hurry and RSVP!!!
Your donation of $100 per person will reserve your seat. Please contact Debbie Burr via phone (734-994-3387, ext 223) or e-mail ([email protected]) to make your donation. You will be provided with the address after you have reserved your place.
Please follow this link to a copy of the event invitation. We hope to see you there!
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Live in New York: “Making Every Day Meaningful”
With Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche
Saturday, September 22, 1:00 to 4:00 PM
Free to All
All are welcome to this teaching from Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche, who returns to New York for the first time in several months.
“Making Every Day Meaningful” will be based upon The Foundation of All Perfections, a poetic rendering of the complete path to enlightenment by the 14th/15th Century Tibetan master, Je Tsongkhapa. The talk will be tailored to everyone from a first-time attendee up through the most experienced of practitioners.
Please join us for this increasingly rare opportunity to receive teachings from our spiritual master, kind in three ways.
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GESHE YESHE THABKHE TEACHING
at JEWEL HEART NEW YORK
LAMP FOR THE PATH OF ENLIGHTENMENT
Saturday, October 13, 1 – 5pm and
Sunday, October 14, 1 – 5pm
260 West Broadway, New York, NY 10013
Sharing Buddha’s unique understanding of compassion and wisdom, the great 11th century saint and scholar Atisha illuminates our steps along the path to freedom, capability and joy, clearing our way to total enlightenment. A revolutionary treasure in its own time, this grounding and accessible teaching is especially relevant today.
Sliding scale: $25-50 per day or $40-80 for both
Questions? Email [email protected] or leave a message at 212 966 2807.
GESHE YESHE THABKHE is a professor of Mool Shastra (Indian Tradition of Buddhist Philosophy) at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, the only Tibetan university in India, and is regarded as one of the most eminent scholars of both the Madhyamaka tradition and Indian Buddhist studies. As one of the greatest learned scholars of Drepung Loseling Monastery he facilitated the completion of numerous research works, including a complete translation of Lama Tsongkhapa’s ‘Lam rim chen mo’ or ‘Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment’.
ALSO AVAILABLE AS LIVE WEBCAST TO JEWEL HEART WEBCAST SUBSCRIBERS AND PARTICIPATING CHAPTERS
Please visit www.jewelheart.org/webcast-subscription and become a Jewel Heart webcast subscriber.
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Practices and Workshops with Sonam Dhargye
- Yamantaka and Vajrayogini tormas– $100 each
- Cittamani Tara, White Tara, and Lama Chopa tormas– $55 each
- Basic House Blessing (~1 hour)– $100
For other, more elaborate services, please speak with Sonam individually while he is in New York. To pre-order tormas, please contact Saara Cohen ([email protected]).
Sutrayana
Lama Chopa Group Practice and Tsoh
Tuesday, September 11, 7:00 to 8:30 PM
No Prior Registration; Free to All
Jewel Heart New York welcomes everyone who wishes to celebrate the Lama Chopa Tsoh, a practice which can be of great benefit for beginners as well as advanced practitioners. The practice will be led by Sonam.
The Lama Chöpa is a guru yoga of Je Tsongkhapa, the great scholar and yogi who founded the Gelug tradition within Tibetan Buddhism. This comprehensive practice strengthens our relationship with our spiritual teachers through offerings, especially offerings of our practice.
The Tibetan word Tsoh means gathering, collection, or assembly. The Tsoh offering is a great feast offered to all enlightened beings and to all non-enlightened beings as well, including ourselves. It is one of the most important practices of generosity, and is also extremely effective for accumulation of merit.
If you have a blue Jewel Heart prayer book, bring it; otherwise you can borrow one of the center’s copies. To participate fully, bring either an offering of good quality food such as bread, cookies, cake or fruit, or an offering of money, which will help to pay for the food which the center has purchased for the Tsoh.
If you will be bringing a food or flower offering, please plan to arrive early. Discretionary offerings may be made to Sonam directly.
Altar Set-Up (Non-Retreat) for Home and Center Workshop
Thursday, September 13, 7:00 to 9:00 PM
Suggested Donation*: Members– $25/ Non-members $35
Registration: [email protected]
Whether your interest is in setting up your altar at home to support your personal practice, or if your desire is to help with altar set-up at the Center, this workshop from Sonam will be perfect for you.
Weekend Ritual Workshop
Friday, September 14, 7:00 to 9:00 PM
Saturday, September 15, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Sunday, September 16, Noon to 1:30 PM
Registration: [email protected]
This workshop includes tsoh instructions for group and home, mandala offerings, basic mudra review. The workshop will conclude with a Lama Chopa group practice with Tsoh on Sunday after the “Tibetan Buddhism with Gelek Rimpoche” webcast.
* Jewel Heart workshops are open to all, regardless of ability to pay. If you are unable to pay a fee, please speak with registration about the possibility of a payment plan or full scholarship.
In 1959, at the age of four, Sonam Dhargye escaped from Tibet in the company of Gelek Rimpoche. At the age of 14 he entered the Gyuto Tantric Monastery and as a young monk he was recognized for his extraordinary talents in the ritual arts. In 1966 Dhargye was honored to be selected by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the youngest chant master in the history of the Gyuto Monastery, which was founded in the 15th century. Later he mastered the other tantric rituals of sand painting and butter sculpture
In the 1980s and ’90s he was part of a religious arts tour titled “Sacred Music, Sacred Dance” sharing the stage with Philip Glass, Paul Simon, Patti Smith and many others.
As religious assistant to his mentor, Gelek Rimpoche, Sonam Dhargye continues to offer his talents and skills in preparing and conducting ceremonies and ritual workshops in Gelek Rimpoche’s Jewel Heart Centers around the world. He currently lives in Chicago.