Let Us Pray for your Family and Friends this December

Offer special blessings for family and friends at KTD’s Amitabha Ceremony

Each December, KTD concludes the year with its annual Amitabha Retreat. Dharma practitioners come from near and far to chant the Amitabha Sadhana with Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche and the KTD lamas, and to pray especially for their loved ones.

Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, abbot of KTD Monastery, will conduct a special Amitabha Purification Ritual from 2 to 5 p.m. on Thursday December 31, 2015, in the Main Shrine Room at KTD. All are welcome to attend.

During this ceremony (called the Amitabha Jangchok, or “purification ritual”), special purifications, blessings, and empowerment are offered to our loved ones (both living and deceased) who are represented in the ceremony by names inscribed on special mantra-marked papers.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the obstacles and obscurations of the living and deceased are ritually burned away by offering the names to a fire burning outside the shrine building.

We invite all of our friends to send us the names of their loved ones for this special ritual.

We also invite donations for the ceremony, which will be used to fund ritual materials used as well as provide support for the monastery, home for the Karma Kagyu dharma of His Holiness the Gyalwang Karmapa in America.

IF YOU WISH TO MAKE A DONATION:

Please click this link, which will take you to the KTD Website’s “Giving Opportunities” portal.

Click “Continue Without Login.”

This will take you to the main Giving Opportunities Page.

After typing in the amount of your donation, in the “Comments” section, please type in the words “December 31 Purification Ritual,” followed by the names of those you wish placed on the list.

Please divide the names into two lists, as in the example below:

LIVING: Mary and Todd Smith, Jiang Chang, etc.

DECEASED: Emily Zhu, David Jones, etc.

IF YOU WISH TO SUBMIT NAMES ONLY WITHOUT MAKING A DONATION:

Please sent the names via email to the KTD Front Office at office@kagyu.org.

Please put “December 31 Purification Ritual” and the words “Names of LIVING” or “Names of DECEASED” in the subject line.

In this way, you divide the names into two groups, each one (for living and deceased) in its own email.

DEADLINE for submitting names and donations:

5 pm Eastern Standard Time on Monday, December 28, 2015.

THE ANNUAL AMITABHA RETREAT BEGINS DECEMBER 27:

The annual Amitabha Retreat begins December 27 and concludes December 31, 2015. All are welcome to attend.

Even if you cannot attend, you can participate from a distance by reciting the Amitabha mantra OM AMI DEWA HRI, dedicating your recitations for the benefit of beings and peace in the world.

Thank you for your interest in this ceremony, and for your continuing support for His Holiness Karmapa, Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, and Karma Triyana Dharmachakra.

May all beings benefit from your practice of the dharma, and may all beings be free from suffering and come to happiness in the New Year.