Chanted Prayers / Religious Services
Join us for our weekly and monthly prayer sessions.
See our Calendar for our current schedule of prayers as times & dates vary, but the calendar is kept up to date.
You can attend any prayers free of charge and they are also live streamed for members to join online.
We also dedicate for those who are sick or recently deceased during the tsog pujas, please send us an email if you would like a dedication to be made for someone.
Chanted Prayer (or pujas in Sanskrit) are an important element of our spiritual training.
They are powerful meditation practices in their own right, that still our mind and enable us to receive blessings from enlightened beings. They help us to create the best internal conditions for our meditation practice to be successful and free from obstacles.
The prayer booklets we use are known as “sadhanas” meaning “methods for accomplishing attainments”. Using ancient ritual prayers translated into English, these practices help us to purify our negativity and fill our mind with positive energy.
“In general, prayers made by an assembly of many practitioners are very powerful and cannot be compared to the prayers of one or two people.
The scriptures give the analogy of a broom. If we try to clean a floor with a few bristles we shall make little progress, but if we gather many bristles to make a broom we shall be successful.”
VENERABLE GESHE KELSANG GYATSO
Heart Jewel
Every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday @ 5.00pm (1 hour) free to attend,*check calendar as times change
This is the heart practice that many sincere kadampa practitioners do as a daily practice.
It includes special practices for relying on our Spiritual Guide, for overcoming obstacles and creating favourable conditions for our spiritual practice.
It includes 15 minutes for lamrim meditation on the stages of the path to Enlightenment. The first part of the meditation is guided and then you have 10 minutes of silence to continue meditating.
You can read more about Heart Jewel here
Download a practice booklet
Tara Prayers
8th of the month – 45 mins *check calendar as times change
We recite Liberation from Sorrow, Prayers and Requests to the 21 Taras and deeply request the Blessed Mother to bestow her blessings on all living beings so that all sickness and other obstacles are quickly removed. Everyone is welcome to join in.
Download a practice booklet.
Offering to the Spiritual Guide (OSG) with tsog
10th and 25th of the month (2 hours) *check calendar as times change
This is a very special, treasured and blessed practice of relying upon our Spiritual Guide. It includes beautiful prayers to gain the realisations of all the essential practices of the stages of the path and training the mind, as well as both the generation stage and completion stage of Highest Yoga Tantra and is a preliminary practice for training in Mahamudra.
There is a reading and dedication during the practice.
The practice includes a tsog offering, so it is customary to bring a vegetarian food offering to set out as an offering. These are normally enjoyed together afterwards.
Download a practice booklet.
Melodious Drum / Wishfulfilling Jewel with Tsog – Protector Day
29th of each month *check calendar as times change
Melodious drum (3.5hrs), WFJ (1 hour)
Free to attend in person at the Aberdeen Centre.
Dorje Shugden always helps, guides, and protects pure and faithful practitioners by granting blessings, increasing their wisdom, fulfilling their positive wishes and bestowing success on all their virtuous activities.
This extensive or condensed protector practice is usually performed once a month and is used for fulfill our heart commitment to practise Lamrim, Lojong and Mahamudra and to rely upon the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden, regarding him as inseparable from our Spiritual Guide and Buddha, and for restoring any degenerate or broken commitments we may have incurred.
Also included are Praise to Manjushri, the Guru yoga of Je Tsongkhapa, self-generation as Heruka, and the ritual for fulfilling and restoring our commitments with other Dharma Protectors.
Download a practice booklet.
Precepts
15th of each month @6.30am (1 hr)
Free to attend in person at the Aberdeen Centre
Precepts is a special practice of moral discipline that is performed with bodhichitta motivation. The essence of the practice is to take eight promises and keep them purely for a period of 24 hours. On this special day we take vows to abandon: killing; stealing; sexual activity; lying; taking intoxicants; sitting on a high or luxurious throne or seat; wearing jewellery, perfume, or make-up; singing or dancing; and eating more than one meal (lunch at 12.30pm).
There are many benefits – it helps us solve our day to day problems, creates powerful positive karma, purifies negative karma & bad habits and accumulates merit bringing us closer to the happiness of Enlightenment.
Download a practice booklet.
Other practices on request
In addition to the above practices we can also organise and officiate at ceremonies for the recently deceased.
Please email us for more info.