Liberation from Sorrow
The Blessing Empowerment of Green Tara

with Kelsang Dechok and Visiting Teacher Gen Kelsang Norbu

Friday, September 6th - Sunday, September 8th

“When we are young, we turn to our worldly mother for help. She protects us from immediate dangers, provides us with all our temporal needs, and guides and encourages us in our learning and personal development. In the same way, during our spiritual growth, we need to turn to our Holy Mother, Tara, for refuge. She protects us from all internal and external dangers, she provides us with all the necessary conditions for our spiritual training, and she guides us and inspires us with her blessings as we progress along the spiritual path.” –Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

An empowerment is a blissful guided meditation through which we make a connection with the Enlightened mother, Buddha Tara, and create the causes to receive her continual blessings and help. We will draw closer to her and develop a special feeling that we have an enlightened mother who is protecting us, giving us whatever we need, and guiding us as we learn and develop spiritually. 

In the afternoon, Kelsang Dechok will explain a special practice through which we can receive Tara’s powerful blessings and help directly. 

Everyone is welcome! No experience necessary.

About this Empowerment ​

This empowerment is a blessing ritual and guided meditation through which we make a deep connection with Green Tara. Through this, we can begin to purify our inner obstacles and bad habits, and create a new and better future. We will receive commentary on how we can engage in Tara's special practice known as Liberation from Sorrow. The Empowerment day will be followed by a day retreat on Sunday where we can gain familiarity with these beautiful methods of quick wisdom.

Important Details

• Please arrive no later than 9:45 a.m. so that you have time to settle your mind and relax before entering the meditation room. 

• On Saturday, we will be practicing silence in the morning from arrival until the end of the empowerment session. 

• It is customary to bring beautiful offerings to a blessing empowerment such as delicious food or flowers. Offerings will also be available for sale at the Center giftshop. These will be collected on Saturday, before the start of the morning session.

• We will have coffee and tea during the afternoon break and some light snacks, but lunch is on your own.

Who are all these Buddhas?

An empowerment is a special blessing ceremony where we are introduced to a particular Buddha.

There are many Buddhas—a Buddha is someone who has completed the spiritual path by removing all their imperfections, and Buddha Shakyamuni (the founder of Buddhism) taught that we all have the potential to achieve this. It’s possible for everyone to become a Buddha.

Different Buddhas represent different aspects of the enlightened mind. The mind of enlightenment, which we aspire to, has many qualities, such as love, compassion, and wisdom. So if we want to emphasize developing compassion, for example, we make requests to Avalokiteshvara, who is the Buddha of compassion. Or to improve our wisdom, we get to know Prajnaparamita.

Getting to know the enlightened beings

Imagine you’re at a party full of amazing people you’d really like to meet; it’s a lot easier if you know someone who can introduce you, isn’t it? This is what happens at an empowerment. The teacher who is granting the empowerment prepares by doing a focused retreat to make a strong connection with a particular Buddha, then they use that special connection to form a bridge between Buddha and us.

The empowerment ceremony itself usually lasts about two hours, and can be seen as a long guided visualization. There are some prayers and rituals, but the teacher explains what is going on and what we should visualize.

An empowerment bestows upon us special blessings that heal our mental continuum and awaken our Buddha nature.

~ Mahamudra Tantra by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

Can anyone come to an empowerment?

Yes: you don’t need to know what’s going on, you just need an open mind. In the afternoon and on the following day, the teacher will give some explanation about the Buddha we’ve just met and we can increase our understanding.

A little bit about Tantra

All empowerments are part of Buddha’s Tantric teachings. There are different levels of Tantra, from Action Tantra up to Highest Yoga Tantra, but they all have the same basic purpose: to get us to enlightenment quickly through harnessing the power of imagination.

We train in stopping our ordinary way of thinking about ourselves and instead create the mental image of ourselves as an enlightened being. In Mahamudra Tantra, Geshe-la says:

In Tantra, the principal objects to be abandoned are ordinary conceptions and ordinary appearances. The terms ‘ordinary conceptions’ and ‘ordinary appearances’ are best explained by the following example. Suppose there is a Heruka practitioner called John. Normally he sees himself as John, and his environment, enjoyments, body and mind as John’s. These appearances are ordinary appearances. The mind that assents to these ordinary appearances by holding them to be true is ordinary conception. The appearances we have of an inherently existent ‘I’, ‘mine’ and other phenomena are also ordinary appearances; self-grasping and all other delusions are ordinary conceptions. Ordinary conceptions are obstructions to liberation, and ordinary appearances are obstructions to omniscience. In general, all sentient beings, except Bodhisattvas who have attained the vajra-like concentration of the path of meditation, have ordinary appearances.

Now if John were to meditate on the generation stage of Heruka, strongly regarding himself as Heruka and believing his surroundings, experiences, body and mind to be those of Heruka, at that time he would have the divine pride that prevents ordinary conceptions. If he were also to attain clear appearance of himself as Heruka, with the environment, enjoyments, body and mind of Heruka, at that time he would have the clear appearance that prevents him from perceiving ordinary appearances.

An empowerment is the first step on this path of transformation. When we receive an empowerment, the gateway to Tantra is opened and we can, if we wish, engage in the meditation and prayer practices that lead to enlightenment quickly; or if we prefer, we can just enjoy the blessings and feel the benefit of that inspiration in our daily practice.

WHAT IS THE EMPOWERMENT? – A PRELIMINARY EXPLANATION

Schedule 

Friday, September 6 

7:00 – 8:30 p.m. | Introductory Talk with Gen Norbu

Saturday, September 7 

9:00 – 10:00 a.m. | Meditation with Gen Norbu

11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Blessing Empowerment of Green Tara with Kelsang Dechok

1:00 – 2:30 p.m. | Lunch break. Grab lunch at Krog Street Market or on the Beltline!  

2:30 – 4:00 p.m. | Commentary to Liberation from Sorrow with Kelsang Dechok

Sunday, September 8 

10:30 – 11:45 a.m. | Teaching (Sunday Morning class) with Kelsang Dechok

11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Lunch break. Grab lunch at Krog Street Market or on the Beltline!  

1:00 – 2:15 p.m. | Retreat session 1: Liberation from Sorrow, Tara chanted prayers

2:45 – 4:00 p.m. | Retreat session 2: Liberation from Sorrow, Tara chanted prayers

4:30 – 5:30 p.m. | Wishfulfilling Jewel chanted prayed with tsog offerings