Amitābha Retreat with Lama Rabten Tshering

*REGISTRATION IS OPEN*
Sunday, March 31 & Monday, April 1
(Easter Sunday & Monday)
Onsite & Online

Please join us for two days of onsite and online Amitābha practice with Lama Rabten Tshering. Come for all or part of the program.

Register by filling out and submitting the form below. Onsite participation will be at Maitrivana. Zoom meeting details will be sent to you automatically via email once registration is completed.

SCHEDULE (Pacific)

9:30 am – 11:30 am  morning session (doors at 9:15 am)
11:30 am – 1:30 pm  lunch break
1:30 am – 3:30 pm  afternoon session
3:30 pm – 4:00 pm  break
4:00 pm – 4:30 pm  Mahakala practice

Program Cost

Participation is cost-free, though offerings of any amount are much appreciated and help to support our teacher and this program. In particular, when prayer requests are made, it is customary to make an offering to help with the cost of shrine and ritual materials, and it is also as an expression of gratitude.

PRAYER REQUESTS

Within Tibetan Buddhism, Amitābha Buddha practice is most commonly performed on behalf of the departed. It is also beneficial for the living, and is often practiced in supplication for a loved-one’s health and well-being.

With this in mind, you are warmly invited to submit a prayer request on behalf of the living or deceased. The names will be read aloud during the program, and we will make lamp offerings for them.

Prayers for the deceased will be performed on Sun., Mar. 31 and prayers for the living will be performed on Mon., Apr. 1.

Please know that due to time constraints, if the volume of submitted names is greater than the allotted time of the practice session, we will instead display the listed names for participants to silently include in our prayers and aspirations, rather than read the names aloud. 

To submit a prayer request please fill out and submit this form: https://forms.gle/6jZXRirSpP8h5vcq6. 

NOTE: Deadline for prayer request submission is Saturday, March 29, 2024. Because we require adequate time to make preparations, we cannot guarantee the inclusion of prayer requests submitted after this date. Thank you for your understanding.

ABOUT AMITĀBHA PRACTICE

According to Mahayana Buddhist sutras, Amitābha was once a king who renounced his kingdom and became a monk named Dharmakāra. Inspired by the teachings of Lokesvararaja Buddha, he made forty eight great vows for the liberation of the sentient beings. The Eighteenth Vow, which is the basis of the “Pure Land” called Sukhāvatī, ran like this:

“When I have attained Buddhahood, all sentient beings in the ten quarters who aspire in sincerity and faith to be reborn in my land and who have thought of me (or repeated my name) up to ten times; if they fail to be born there, then may I not attain the Perfect Enlightenment …”

After five aeons of self-cultivation, the Bodhisattva Dharmakāra finally attained the Supreme Enlightenment and became Buddha Amitābha. Because of his infinite merits and compassion, simply calling out Amitābha Buddha’s name is enough to draw his infinite life. Repeated recitation of his name praise (especially when dying)—or his mantras—can help his devotee be reborn in Sukhāvatī Pure Land.