Karmapa Center 16 is pleased to announce pujas and prayers to be held in honor of the 42nd anniversary of the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje’s parinirvana on November 5 and 7, 2023.
Sunday, November 5: Please join us via Zoom for The Guru Yoga Puja of His Holiness the 16th Karmapa. The puja will be performed in Tibetan by Lamas and monks residing in the United States and Canada. We invite you to attend this special occasion via Zoom as in-person attendance is not available. Upon registration (link below), the Zoom link will be sent.
Tuesday, November 7: Under the guidance of His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the Lamas and monks will perform in Tibetan the Green Tara puja, Dugkar, White Umbrella Deity practice, and Mahakala protector chants. These pujas and prayers will be for Karmapa Center 16, with the aspiration to clear away obstacles and to complete the center’s projects for the benefit of sentient beings. Please join us via Zoom as in-person attendance is not available. Upon registration (link below), the Zoom link will be sent.
May we all honor the profound kindness and wisdom of His Holiness.
Schedule
Sunday, November 5, 2023
All times are shown in the local time zone, Central Standard Time. Please note: Daylight Saving Time ends on November 5, 2023
| Time (UTC -6)* | Puja |
|---|---|
| 7:00-8:00 am | Green Tara Puja ཟབ་ཏིག་སྒྲོལ་མ། |
| 8:00–8:30 am | (break) |
| 8:30–10:00 am | Session 1: 16th Karmapa’s Guru Yoga Sadhana རིག་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་བླ་སྒྲུབ། ཚོགས་ཐེང་དང་པོ། |
| 10:00–10:30 am | (break) |
| 10:30 am–12:00 noon | Session 2: 16th Karmapa’s Guru Yoga Sadhana རིག་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་བླ་སྒྲུབ། ཚོགས་ཐེང་དང་པོ། |
| 12:00–2:00 pm | (break) |
| 2:00–3:30 pm | Session 3: 16th Karmapa’s Guru Yoga Sadhana རིག་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་བླ་སྒྲུབ། ཚོགས་ཐེང་དང་པོ། |
| 3:30–4:00 pm | (break) |
| 4:00–5:00 pm | Mahakala Puja མགོན་པོའི་གསོལ་ཁ། |
Tuesday, November 7, 2023
| Time (CT UTC -6)* | Puja |
|---|---|
| 8:30–10:00 am | Green Tara Puja ཟབ་ཏིག་སྒྲོལ་མ། |
| 10:00–10:30 am | (break) |
| 10:30 am–12:00 noon | Tara སྒྲོལ་མ། |
| 12:00–1:30 pm | (break) |
| 1:30–3:00 pm | Sitatapatra, White Parasol གདུགས་དཀར། |
| 3:00–3:30 pm | (break) |
| 3:30–5:30 pm | Mahakala Puja and Feast Offering མགོན་པོའི་གསོལ་ཁ་ཚོགས་བཅས། |
Your kind support
With deep gratitude for your continuous kind support of Karmapa Center 16, we welcome your donations for this important practice anniversary for His Holiness the 16th Karmapa. Please donate HERE.
May all be auspicious!
History
His Holiness the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa passed into parinirvana at the American International Clinic (now called Cancer Treatment Center of America) in Zion, IL, on November 5, 1981. For Buddhist practitioners, the death of a teacher such as the 16th Karmapa is called parinirvana—enlightenment or complete awakening—and the area surrounding the location of such an occurrence becomes a very significant place, a place of pilgrimage.
Once, the Buddha Shakyamuni was asked by his disciple Ananda, “What should we tell the followers in the future after you pass away into parinirvana?” The Buddha answered, “There are four places, Ananda, that a pious person should visit and look upon with feelings of reverence. What are the four? ‘Here the Tathagata [the one who has gone beyond all transitory phenomena] was born.’ ‘Here the Tathagata became fully enlightened.’ ‘Here the Tathagata set in motion the wheel of the dhamma.’ ‘Here the Tathagata passed away into the state of nibbana in which no element of clinging remains!’ And the monk, the nun, the layman or laywoman who has faith should visit these places…” (Digha Nikaya 16.5)
His Holiness the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, whose enlightened activity was like Buddha Shakyamuni, chose Zion, in the great state of Illinois, to be one of the most significant places in his life. To honor the choice of His Holiness and under the guidance of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche and Dilyak Drupon Rinpoche, KC16 purchased land in Wadsworth, just a few miles from where the 16th Karmapa passed into parinirvana.
Our mission is to commemorate His Holiness with a stupa representing his dharmakaya, a memorial, meditation hall, retreat center, and residence for His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa. Our aspiration is for KC16 to be a place for pilgrims and future generations to learn about Buddhism, and in particular, the enlightened activities of the 16th Karmapa and the inspiring history of all the Karmapas.