

Chanted prayers
Chanted prayers are special methods for purifying negativity, accumulating merit and receiving blessings. they help us to develop and maintain a positive mind and are a powerful preparation for meditation.
Everyone is welcome to attend all chanted prayers at Tara IKRC, except those prayers that require a Highest Yoga Tantra empowerment; these are clearly marked below. There is no need to book, and no fee

Wishfulfilling Jewel
Prayers addressed to the Wisdom Buddha, Je Tsongkhapa, and the Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugden. Through this practice, we can purify our negativities, accumulate spiritual energy (or merit), receive inspiration, and attain powerful compassion, wisdom and spiritual power. We can also overcome obstacles to our spiritual progress and create the right conditions for our inner qualities to grow.
Duration: 1 hour 10 minutes

Offering to the Spiritual Guide
Prayers addressed to our Spiritual Guide, which contain all the essential practices of the stages of the path (Lamrim) and the training of the mind (Lojong) as well as the generation stage and the completion stage of Highest Yoga Tantra. By relying on our Spiritual Guide as one with Je Tsongkhapa, our compassion, spiritual power and especially our wisdom will grow naturally.
Duration: 2 hours

Melodious Drum
Long prayers to the Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugden. A Dharma Protector always helps, guides and protects practitioners by granting blessings, increasing their wisdom, fulfilling their positive wishes and granting success in all their virtuous activities. This practice is usually done once a month at Kadampa Buddhist centres. We rely on the Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugden, who we recognise as inseparable from our Spiritual Guide and Buddha, to restore any commitments we may have broken or allowed to deteriorate.
Duration: 3.5 hours

Liberation from Sorrow
Prayers of request to the twenty-one manifestations of Tara, our Holy Mother. Tara is a female Buddha, the ultimate wisdom manifestation of all the Buddhas. Her name means ‘Rescuer’ because she frees us from all fears, external and internal. Just as a mother protects us from all inner and outer dangers, Tara brings together all the conditions necessary for our spiritual progress.
Duration: 1 hour

Powa Ceremony
When we practise transference of consciousness, or ‘powa’, with faith, compassion and concentration, we can transfer the consciousness of those who have recently died to a higher rebirth or to the Pure Land of a Buddha. The powa ceremony can be performed by a single person or a group of practitioners for the sake of one or more deceased people, as well as for the sake of countless people who have died recently. By performing this practice, we also create a vast collection of merit that will also lead us on the path to the Pure Land of a Buddha.
Duration: 1 hour

A Pure Life
A special practice of moral discipline that is performed with the motivation of bodhichitta (the determination to attain the enlightened state of a Buddha in order to help living beings). The essence of this practice is to make eight commitments and try to keep them for a period of 24 hours. This practice helps us solve the problems of this life by avoiding the causes of suffering. It also creates the cause for future fortunate rebirths. We must first receive these precepts from a qualified preceptor, and then we can take them on our own as often as we wish.
Duration: 45mins