Practices
There are three main spiritual practices (or sadhanas) we focus on at our centers. Each relies upon the support of one of the three deities pictured in our banner above*: Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava), Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara), and Medicine Buddha (Orgyen Menla).
Padmasambhava
The "Shower of Blessings" by the great Mipham Rinpoche is our main Guru Yoga practice which is centered around the recitation of the Seven-Line Prayer. This practice also includes a Tsog offering, which is a special practice of offering food to the gurus, yidams, dakinis, protectors, buddhas, and bodhisattvas. This is practiced on the 10th day of the lunar month (Guru Rinpoche Day), and on the 25th day of the lunar month (Dakini Day) unless a Dakini practice is held.
Avalokiteshvara
The main practice of Chenrezig (Sanskrit: Avalokiteshvara) is “For the Benefit of All Beings as Vast as the Skies” by the great siddha Thangtong Gyalpo. This sadhana centers around the recitation of the blessed mantra “Om Mani Peme Hung” which is considered to be inseparable from Chenrezig himself. From Chenrezig (visualized above one’s head), lights and blessings are sent out to all of the beings suffering in the six realms.
Medicine Buddha
The main practice of Medicine Buddha is "The River of Lapis Lazuli" Ritual of Menla taken from the "Sky of Dharmata" Jewel excerpt from the Revealed Treasure "Clear Expanse of the Mind". This is a special practice considered to be especially powerful for healing all kinds of illness, physical, mental, and spiritual.
Medicine Buddha practice occurs on the eighth day of the lunar calendar.
There are other important sadhanas that we also practice regularly, such as Ngondro (Preliminary Practices), Green Tara, Shakyamuni Buddha Puja, Protector Practices, Fire Puja (Riwo Sang Chö), Nyung Ne (Fasting Practice), T'hroma Chöd, Dorje Drolö, and Sampa Lhundrupma.
*Thanks to Pema Namdol Thaye for the images in our banner.
The Seven Line Prayer of Guru Rinpoche
ཧཱུྃ༔ ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཡུལ་གྱི་ནུབ་བྱང་མཚམས༔
HUNG OR GYEN YUL GYI NUB JANG TSAM HUNG
On the northwest border of the land of Orgyen,
པདྨ་གེ་སར་སྡོང་པོ་ལ༔
PEMA GE SAR DONG PO LA
Upon the pistil of a lotus,
ཡ་མཚན་མཆོག་གི་དངོས་གྲུབ་བརྙེས༔
YA TS’EN CHOG GI NGO DRUB NYE
You attained wondrous supreme siddhis.
པདྨ་འབྱུང་གནས་ཞེས་སུ་གྲགས༔
PEMA JYUNG NEY ZHEY SU DRAK
You are renowned as the Lotus-Born,
འཁོར་དུ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མང་པོས་བསྐོར༔
KHOR DU KHAN DRO MANG PÖ KOR
Surrounded by a vast retinue of dakinis.
ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་རྗེས་སུ་བདག་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི༔
KHYE KYI JE SU DAG DRUB KYI
I practice following in your footsteps,
བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས་ཕྱིར་གཤེགས་སུ་གསོལ༔
JYIN GYI LOP CHYIR SHEK SU SÖL
Come to grant your blessings, I pray.
གུ་རུ་པདྨ་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུྃ༔
GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG
གསོལ་འདེབས་འདི་ནི་གུ་རུའི་གསོལ་འདེབས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཡིན། གུ་རུ་མ་ འཁྲུངས་གོང་ནས་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཚིག་བདུན་གསོལ་འདེབས་ཀྱིས་འོད་ དཔག་མེད་དང་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་རྒྱུད་བསྐུལ་ཏེ་རྫུས་སྐྱེས་སུ་འཁྲུངས་པ་ ཡིན༔ གསང་སྔགས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་འདི་གང་ཟག་དད་པ་ལྡན་པ་དང་དག་སྣང་ཅན་གྱི་ངོར་ གསུངས་པ་ཡིན། བྱིན་རླབས་འཇུག་མི་འཇུག་དད་པ་ཡོད་མེད་ལ་རག་ལས། ཀུན་ སློང་བཟང་པོ་གཞན་ལ་ཕན་སེམས་ཀྱིས་འདོན་ན་ནད་རིམས་ཞི་བ་དང་གྲངས་བསགས་ན་ འཛམ་གླིང་ཞི་བདེའི་རྒྱུ་རུ་འགྲོ་ངེས། དད་མོས་གདུང་ཤུགས་དྲག་པོས་ཚིག་བདུན་གསོལ་ འདེབས་འབུམ་བསགས་ཐུབ་ན་ཟངས་མདོག་དཔལ་རིར་སྐྱེ་བའི་ཞལ་བཞེས་ཡོད། རྦ་ཁ་བས།
This supplication prayer is the most supreme of Guru Rinpoche’s supplications. Before Guru Rinpoche’s emanation manifested, the wisdom dakinis invoked the wisdom-realization of Sangye Yöpakme (Buddha Amitabha) and Chenrezik (Avalokiteshvara) through the Seven Line Prayer; his emanation then was miraculously born. The teachings of secret tantra are proclaimed to beings possessing devotion and pure perception. Therefore, receiving its blessings is solely dependent upon one having faith or not. Reciting this prayer with the altruistic motivation to benefit others will pacify plagues and diseases. Chanting and accumulating this prayer will certainly be a cause for peace in this world. Guru Rinpoche promised that chanting it one hundred thousand times with intense yearning desire, faith, and devotion, one will take birth in Zangdok Palri (the Coppered-Colored Mountain Pure Realm of Guru Rinpoche). By Bhakha Tulku Rinpoche.