General information

• Year at a glance
• Weekly Calendar
• Monthly Calendar
• Daily Prayers and Meditations
• 3 Study Programs

Classes & courses

• Monday Night General Program
• Daytime Meditation Classes at the Temple
• Prayers for World Peace
• Dharma for Kids
• Family Events
• Day Courses
• Public Talks

Retreats

• Annual Retreats
• Day Retreats
• Post Festival Retreats
• Preliminary Guide Retreats

Study programs

• The Foundation Program
• The Teacher Training Program

Special courses

• International Kadampa Festivals
• 2010 Northwest Dharma Celebration
• NKT US National Festival
• Special Events

Daily Prayers and Meditations

The Center holds regular sessions of chanted prayers, which are often combined with meditation, visualization, and mantra recitation. These meditations have a particularly powerful effect on the mind and create strong positive energy that is shared by all.

Through these meditations we can receive special blessings from Buddha. Each meditation emphasizes a different aspect of our practice. For example, the monthly Powa Ceremony is performed on behalf of those who have died, the purpose being to lead countless deceased beings to the Pure Land of a Buddha. By engaging in this practice we ourself will create a great collection of virtue, which will also lead us into the pathway to the Pure Land of a Buddha. Below is a list of chanted prayers we do at KMC Washington.  Please check the calendar for dates and times.

Wishfulfilling Jewel with Lamrim Meditation
Check calendar for specific daily times

A Guru yoga practice combined with meditation on the path to enlightenment (Lamrim) and prayers to the Dharma Protector. These two practices are the very essence of the New Kadampa Tradition of Mahayana Buddhism. If we practise them regularly and sincerely, we shall reap a rich harvest of pure Dharma realizations, and eventually come to experience the supreme joy of full enlightenment. (1 hour)

Wishfulfilling Jewel with Tsog Offering                   Check calendar for dates and times

A Guru yoga practice combined with meditation on the path to enlightenment (Lamrim) and prayers to the Dharma Protector. These two practices are the very essence of the New Kadampa Tradition of Mahayana Buddhism. If we practise them regularly and sincerely, we shall reap a rich harvest of pure Dharma realizations, and eventually come to experience the supreme joy of full enlightenment. Please bring a food offering. (1 hour)

Offering to the Spiritual Guide Prayers
10th and 25th - check monthly calendar for times

Offering to the Spiritual Guide, or Lama Chöpa in Tibetan, is a special Guru yoga of Je Tsongkhapa in conjunction with Highest Yoga Tantra. It was compiled by the first Panchen Lama, Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen, as a preliminary practice for Vajrayana Mahamudra. 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 please bring a food offering with you. (2 hours)

Dakini Yoga
Check calendar for dates and times (HYT practitioners only)

Everyone who has received a Highest Yoga Tantra empowerment has a commitment to practise six-session Guru yoga. This six-session yoga has been specially arranged for those who have received a Vajrayogini empowerment.

Six-session yoga can be practised in different ways according to our ability and how much time we have. If we are new to the practice, or if we are very busy, we can keep our basic commitments by reciting the Condensed Six-session Yoga according to the instructions given in the second section of this sadhana.

If we have more time, we can recite the main six-session practice, Dakini Yoga, for one session, and the Condensed Six-session Yoga for the remaining five sessions. We can then gradually increase this according to our time and ability, until eventually we are able to recite Dakini Yoga in all six sessions.

Quick Path
Check calendar for dates and times (HYT practitioners only)

The instructions on the Highest Yoga Tantra practice of Venerable Vajrayogini were taught by Buddha Vajradhara in the forty-seventh and forty-eighth chapters of the Condensed Root Tantra of Heruka. This particular lineage of instructions, the Narokhachö lineage, was passed directly from Vajrayogini to Naropa, and from him through an unbroken lineage of realized practitioners to the present-day Teachers. 

This particular sadhana, Quick Path to Great Bliss, was composed by the great Lama Phabongkha Rinpoche. Compared to other sadhanas it is not very long, but it contains all the essential practices of Secret Mantra. To practise the sadhana successfully we should first receive the empowerment of Vajrayogini, and then study authentic instructions on the practice such as those found in the commentary Guide to Dakini Land. This sadhana is suitable both for our regular daily practice and for retreat; and we can practise it alone or in a group. (2 hours).

Long Protector Prayers
Check monthly calendar for dates and times

This monthly practice consists principally of prayers to our Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugdän. 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 Shugdän 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 please bring a food offering with  you. (3.5 hours)

Powa Ceremony
Check monthly calendar for dates and times

Millions of humans and billions of animals die every day from many different causes. The practice of transference of consciousness, known as "powa," is performed to lead countless deceased beings to the Pure Land of a Buddha, where they will experience permanent liberation from suffering and everlasting happiness. We perform this powa practice on behalf of those who have recently died, traditionally within 49 days of their death. This practice helps us develop compassion for all living beings. (1 hour)

Precepts 15th of each month - 6:30 am

The practice of taking and keeping the eight Mahayana precepts is a special practice of moral discipline that is performed with a strong motivation to benefit others. In this practice we take eight precepts and vow to keep them purely for a period of 24 hours. In so doing we acquaint ourself with the practice of pure moral discipline and thereby make our human life meaningful. (1 hour)