Chanted Prayers, or pujas, are an important component of training in a spiritual life and are held at our Center in Austin throughout the week. They help us to still our mind, connect with enlightened beings, and receive blessings.
Below is a list of the pujas we practice together at the center. Please check the online calendar for any schedule changes. All pujas are free of charge and open to the public. You do not need any previous experience and do need to be a Buddhist to attend. Everyone is welcome!
Note: Occasionally we have events or alternate meditation practices that might change the time and day of a regularly scheduled chanted meditation. Please see our calendar for the most up to date information.
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.
Wishfulfilling Jewel
Similar to Heart Jewel explained above, however, the session includes a tsog offering (food) ceremony, so you can bring a vegetarian food offering with you if you wish. Sundays, 3:30-4:30pm
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 stage and completion stage of Highest Yoga Tantra. This practice includes a tsog offering so you can bring a vegetarian food offering with you if you wish. (2 hours). 10th and 25th of every month
Long Protector Puja (Melodious Drum)
This monthly practice consists principally of 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 so you can bring a vegetarian food offering with you if you wish. (3.5 hours). Around the 29th of every month
Tara Prayers (Liberation From Sorrow)
If we rely upon Mother Tara sincerely and with strong faith, she will protect us from all obstacles and fulfill all our wishes. Since she is a wisdom Buddha, and since she is a manifestation of the completely purified wind element, Tara is able to help us very quickly. 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.
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.
We can all learn to tap into an abundant source of healing energy through meditation on Medicine Buddha, the embodiment of enlightened healing energy. Physical sickness and mental pain all have their root in our negative and painful states of mind. Cultivating compassion and meditating on Medicine Buddha will heal this inner sickness and bring about mental & physical health and well-being. This powerful practice is a true source of healing in a suffering world. This practice will be dedicated to healing ourselves, our family, our friends, our community, and our world.
Bodhisattva’s Confession of Moral Downfalls Prayer
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.