Beginners Guide to Kalachakra Ngondro
Teacher
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Julie O’DonnellClick on the arrow above to offer Dana to Julie
At an early age, Julie searched for a deeper meaning to life until finally at the age of 22 found the precious Buddhist path of Dharma. She dedicated her life to the practice, living in temples and serving teachers from around the world practicing the Buddhist teachings and living according to its principles. Julie has spent the last 34 years practicing this ancient path and for the past twelve years has lived at the Tibetan Buddhist Rime Institute in Tecoma helping the resident teacher Khentrul Rinpoche.
Julie is now one of the senior teachers at the temple giving classes on meditation and basic Buddhist principals that can be applied to our everyday lives. Julie also manages the temple and arranges a program of courses, tours and fundraising activities to support the temple.
This is a very practical course that will take you step-by-step how to work with the Divine Ladder Sadhana. This is perfect for anyone who has recently taken the empowerment and does not know how to work with the text. In this 8 week series, you will be guided through the very basics of how to practice the Jonang Kalachakra ngondro. Each week we will do the practice together focused on a specific area with teachings and learnings. For those who are new to the sadhana or would like to learn how to flexibly work with the Kalachakra path, this is the best place to start.
Key Topics Covered
- Cultivating the mind of Renunciation
- How to take refuge and make Prostrations
- Generating Bodhicitta
- Cultivate Merit through Mandala Offerings
- How to do the mandala offering Mudra and make a physical mandala offering
- Vajrasattva Purification Practice
- Working with the 3 Guru Yoga Texts
Languages Available
English, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. Will Occur in Zoom.
Time
8 week series that meets once a week on Sundays.
Starts October 11 and ends November 29th.
9:30 PM AEDT Melbourne
Find Your Local Time
Dates
Sunday 11 October
Cultivating the mind of Renunciation
In session 1 we will learn about the Outer Preliminaries which include:
The Four Convictions of Renunciation
Orientation of The Profound Vajra Yoga Text
Visualise and recite the Brief Invocation Prayers of the Jonang Tradition of Kalachakra
Visualise and recite the Full Invocation of the Jonang Shambhala Lineage. For each section we will chant from the Profound Path of Vajra Yoga text.
Sunday 18 October
How to take Refuge and make Prostrations
In session 2 we will start the Inner Preliminaries which include:
Visualise the Refuge Field
Reciting the Refuge prayers
Making prostrations
Integrating the previous session with Ngondro practice.
Sunday 25 October
Generating Bodhicitta – The Mind of Enlightenment
In session 3 we will continue the Inner Preliminaries with:
Generating the Mind of Enlightenment (Bodhicitta)
Visualise the Refuge Field with Bodhicitta
Integrating the previous sessions with Ngondro practice.
Sunday 1 November
Vajrasattva Purification Practice
In session 4 we will learn Vajrasattva Purification practice with:
Purification
Visualise Vajrasattva
Visualise the practice
Vajrasattva Mantra and chanting with the visualisation
Integrating the previous sessions with Ngondro practice
Sunday 8 November
Cultivate Merit through Mandala Offerings
In session 5 we will learn how to do Mandala offerings and:
Visualise the mandala with directions
How to use the physical mandala
Mandala offering mudra
Mandala offering practices
Integrating the previous sessions with Ngondro practice.
Sunday 15 November
Guru Yoga – Foundation
In session 6 we will learn the practice of Guru Yoga:
Visualising the Guru
Reciting the Foundation Guru Yoga
Integrating previous sessions with Ngondro practice
Sunday 22 November
Guru Yoga Dolpopa & Taranatha
In session 7 we will learn the practice of Guru Yoga:
Visualising Dolpopa & Taranatha
Reciting the Dolpopa Guru Yoga
Reciting the Taranatha Guru Yoga
Integrating previous sessions with Ngondro practice
Sunday 29 November
Enlightening The Heart
In session 8 we will learn the Enlightening The Heart Ngondro written by Khentrul Rinpoche:
Visualisations
Blessing the speech mantra
Reciting the practice
Required Course Materials
You will need a copy of the Divine Ladder Sadhana in your language. We will provide a link to the online version.
– Mandala Offering Set
– Profound Path of Vajra Yoga. Prayer Book (English only)
We encourage English speakers to purchase the prayer book for practice. We use this at all events with Rinpoche and it much easier to work with.
For those in Australia and Asia, you can purchase it on the Rimé Institute Website at rimebuddhism.com.
For those in the rest of the world please purchase it at store.dzokden.org
Dana and Course Offering
Donate at the amount you are able to offer. Please be mindful the sliding scale is specifically made to be inclusive to accommodate people in countries wealthy as well as less affluent countries. Our normal minimum class fee for this series is $80. No one with genuine interest to practice is turned away for lack of funds. Please write to [email protected]