Gaden Choling Mahayana Buddhist Meditation Centre

We are very fortunate that our Spiritual Director, Zasep Rinpoche, will be returning to Toronto in March. He will be undergoing two minor eye surgeries, but has still very kindly agreed to give as much of the teachings and initiations that were requested as he can, given that he will be required to rest for several days between both surgeries.

Please see below for his confirmed schedule.

Best,
Matt King
President, Gaden Choling

Zasep Rinpoche's March 2011 Schedule at Gaden Choling

• Friday, March 18th @ 7pm: Powa teaching. Suggested donation is: $15 members, students, seniors, underemployed/ $25 non-members

Powa practice concerns the transference of consciousness to a pure land during the death process. Practitioners of powa habituate themselves with methods to use their own death as a path towards enlightenment, as well as helping others who are dying by means of by helping them go through the powa practice. Rinpoche will introduce the concept of powa, teach some of the core methods of practicing powa, and lead some group practice.

• Sunday, March 20th @ 10am-5pm: Mindfulness Meditation Commentary and Practice. Suggested donation $25/$35

Rinpoche will lead us in this one day mini-retreat in order to introduce methods to develop the foundational practice of mindfullness. Mindfullness creates the space in order to cultivate ethics, concentration and wisdom, the actual means of accomplishing liberation and enlightenment. Please join us for this excellent opportunity to either learn about mindfullness practice for the first time, or else deepen our practice. Rinpoche will also provide advice for students so that they can develop and deepen their own personal practice.

• Tuesday, March 22nd@ 7pm: Yellow Tara Initiation. Suggested donation $35/$45

Yellow Tara is one of the 21 emanations of Tara, the female Buddha of spontaneous love and action. Yellow Tara practice helps the practitioner quickly develop the qualities of Tara herself, such as love, compassion, bodhicitta and the wisdom realizing emptiness. Yellow Tara practice also helps the practitioner create the causes for wealth, especially for virtuous purposes. This is an Action Tantra initiation, and students will receive refuge and bodhisattva vows according to tradition.

• Friday, March 25th @ 7pm: Singhamukha (Lion-faced Dakini) Initiation. Suggested donation $40/$50

Singhamukha emanates with the head of a lioness in order to suppress gods and demons (especially the demon of our own delusions) who are difficult to best by other means. All schools in Tibetan Buddhism carry a lion-faced dakini practice because of the belief that she is the wrathful manifestation of the “Guhyajnana dakini” – the secret Wisdom dakini who is said to have been the principle female teacher of Padma Sambhava in Oddiyana. Also that of Atisha in his youth when he studied in the same region and that of the Dalai Lama incarnations in their pre-Dalai Lama life as Ratnadas. Her lion face demonstrates fearlessness and that all fierce emotions are turned into a constructive activity towards enlightenment.

• Saturday, April 2nd @ 10am-4pm: Powa Practice Retreat. Suggested donation $25$/$35

The Tibetan Buddhist tradition contains various methods which can transform death into a positiv, liberating experience. One primary method is powa, otherwise known as 'transference of consciousness', which are meditation systems which can be relied upon during and after death to help direct the mind of the deceased into a positive state conducive to furthering spiritual practice. Specifically, powa is a method of transference of mind of of the deceased into Pure land of Buddhas. NOTE: This event was originally scheduled for Sunday, April 3rd, but has been moved up one day.