How You Can Help (Dakini Long Life Puja 2009)
We need your help! There is a lot of work to be done and a lot of support we need from the Gaden Choling community to help ensure the upcoming Dakini Long Life Puja is a tremendous success.
Logged in website members only: If you wish to be notified by email when any changes are made to this page, you can "subscribe to this post" using the link at the bottom of the page. If you have not logged in or do not yet have an account at this website, no link will be be displayed, but please feel free to sign up for an account.
How to Sponsor an Offering
During the Dakini Long Life Puja, a number of special offerings are made to the Guru. These offerings have deep spiritual significance and symbolic meaning in the context of the puja. A list of the offerings is provided below. If you are attending the puja and would like to sponsor and\or offer any of these offerings, please let me know as soon as possible by e-mailing me (Rob) at "razorsedge -at- sympatico.ca". In addition to these traditional offerings, if you feel you could lend a statue or thangkha to beautify the space for the day of the puja, we would very much appreciate the offering. Please email Rob to let him know what you would like to bring to beautify the space.
[Latest updating of the below list of offerings: 20 April 2009]
Presenters needed
Due to the generosity of Rinpoche's students from all over the world, we are happy to say that all of the offerings for the puja have been sponsored. However, we still require five more volunteers to present offerings to Rinpoche during the puja. The five offerings are:
- the coat of brocade
- the upper garment,
- the lower garment
- the seven precious articles of royalty and
- Durwa grass.
If you feel a connection with any of these offerings and would like to offer it , please e-mail Rob at "razorsedge -at- sympatico.ca" and he will put you on the roster. If you are presenting an offering in the puja, it would be good if you could attend the dress rehearsal but this is not absolutely necessary.
Personal Offerings to the Lama
After the ritual offerings are presented to the Lama, there is an opportunity for everyone in attendance to make personal offerings to the Lama and receive blessings. This part of the puja resembles the end of an initiation, where the participants offer the Lama a khata and an offering. Rinpoche has made the following request concerning personal offerings:
"I know some of you would like to give me a birthday present, and I am thankful for that, but I don't really need anything. Sometimes Lamas have more things than the students. If you would like to offer a donation of any amount to Gaden Choling centre to help pay off the mortgage as a birthday present for me, that will be great". (see full text)