Category Archives: Environmentally Conscious

Traditional Pujas and Vase Ceremony Ahead of Onsite Groundwork

From April 11 till April 19, special pujas (meditation practice with melodic chants and instruments) will be held at Karmapa Center 16 in preparation for the onsite groundwork that will begin later this spring. This is a significant step forward in our three-phased project and will literally create the foundations for the Parinirvāṇa Stupa Temple, a residence for His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, and two retreat houses. 

The pujas are intended to remove any obstacles, create the most auspicious conditions for the engineers, all workers, and volunteers to start our work together, and to promote environmental harmony. You are warmly invited to join our practices onsite or online, and make offerings in support of the lamas, practices, and the second phase of our Stupa Project. A link will be sent after an offering of any amount.

Schedule

Friday April 11 to Thursday, April 17

time (Central Time, UTC-6)puja
9:00–10:00 AMཟབ་ཏིག་སྒྲོལ་མ། Green Tara
10:30–12:00 PMམགོན་པོའི་བསྐང་གསོལ། Mahakala Practice 1
2:00–3:30 PMམགོན་པོའི་བསྐང་གསོལ། Mahakala Practice 2
4:00 – 5:30 PMམགོན་པོའི་བསྐང་གསོལ། Mahakala Practice 3
Schedule for KC16 pujas onsite in Wadsworth, IL, USA from April 11 to April 17, 2025
Click here to see the start time in your local time zone.

Saturday, April 19th, 2025

time (US Central Time, UTC-6)puja
10:00–12:00 PMལོ་ནག་བཅོས་བུམ། Vase Ceremony
Schedule for KC16 ceremony onsite in Wadsworth, IL, USA on April 19, 2025
Click here to see the start time in your local time zone.

Be Inspired by the Lineage of the Karmapas

We feel very fortunate to take this next step as part of creating a place for pilgrimage, study, and practice of the Dharma, the Kagyü, and especially the lineage of the Karmapas. In particular, to commemorate and be inspired by the life and teachings of His Holiness the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje. May all be auspicious! 

Karmapa Khyenno!

Architectural Plans

The preliminary draft plans drawn by architect Keith Spruce show that the parinirvana stupa will be on the western third of the ten-acre property. The 30 foot stupa will be enclosed by a building with the entrance facing east towards the cancer center. This stupa and meditation hall will offer seating for over 100 meditators and enable circumambulation around the stupa from the inside as well as the outside. The current proposal includes windows around the top portion of the stupa in order to be visible from the outside.

The current 17th Gyalwang Karmapa continues to employ ethical programs for living in harmony with the environment, such as the Khoryug Environmental Protection Program: Khoryug Vision. To this extent, our goals include environmental conservation and sustainable environmentally responsible practices proposed wherever possible for new construction, remodeling or removal of buildings proposed on this site. For example, we are considering uses of gray-water recycling, composting toilets & dry urinals, green roofs, natural native landscaping, natural storm water retention and processing on-site, pervious pavement areas, low-energy use buildings utilizing passive and active energy conservation system, among other considerations. Our intention is to minimize the impact on the natural environment as much as possible while restoring and harmonizing our proposed site development plans with the natural rural surroundings and improvements.