KTC’s Podcasts Bring Dharma to New Audiences

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During the last year, many of you have found KTC online through our Virtual Shrine Room on Zoom. But you might not know that KTC also has a podcast presence on the web.


In 2017, we launched the “KTC Dharma Talks” podcast on iTunes. Since then, we’ve reached hundreds – and perhaps thousands – of listeners with audios of our 11:30 AM Sunday Dharma Talks.


Here’s some statistics about the KTC podcast:

  • Since January 1, 2017 we have published 177 episodes of the Dharma Talk Podcast 
  • We’ve had a total of 39,193 lifetime listens.
  • The average numbers of listens per episode is 211.
  • The highest number of listens to date is 797 for our special “history of KTC” podcast titled, “A Lotus Blooms in Central Ohio,” making it the most popular episode by almost double the number of listens compared to the next highest number.

Don Fortner, a photographer and designer who is also a voiceover artist, is the “voice of the KTC Podcasts.” His is the voice you hear introducing the weekly talks. 


“I enjoy helping to bring the Dharma Talks to people who might not be able to attend KTC in person,” Don said. “and it is great to be part of the effort to build an archive of dharma that can be accessed from virtually anywhere on the planet, for years to come.”  He also enjoys working with KTC’s lamas and meditation instructors, and the rest of the KTC recording team, which includes volunteers Ron Hess and Joseph Francik.


We all look forward to a future time when we can get together again, but until then, we hope you will join Don for the KTC Dharma Talk Podcasts on iTunes and other platforms.

May all beings benefit!

KTC Building Update: Roofs and Walls and Floors!

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As you read elsewhere in the newsletter this week, KTC is entering a new phase of fundraising for its Rebuilding Project with work being done by the Shrine Design Team of Lama Karma Drodhul, Lama Tsultrim Yeshe, Lama Tsultrim Gyaltsend and others. 


But how are things going at the building site at West Rich and South Grubb streets?  We’re glad you asked!

Hanlin-Rainaldi Construction has completed the shingles on the “hip-roof” over the Shrine Room section of the building and is now applying special materials to the flat-roof section of the building over the office and classroom wing. Walls and Floors also are slowly taking shape, and builders hope the site will be “dried-in” – fully enclosed to the weather – in a couple of weeks. 


Meanwhile, bricks are being laid on the outside of the structure, and the entrance porticos on the north and west sides of the building are going in.

Want to donate? It’s easy – just go to our online giving portal here: 
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=YMTXX46F2X7AG&source=url

Every dollar you give helps the center provide a “home” for meditation in downtown Columbus – benefits that will last as long as the building itself.

Thanks – and may all beings benefit!

Reading Transmission Unites KTC’s “Distance Sangha”

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This past weekend on a warm spring day under the cover of swiflly moving clouds, Lama Adam and Lama Kathy gave a socially-distanced Reading Transmission to more than a dozen people at Scioto-Audubon Park in downtown Columbus.


The event was organized by Lama Adam, who is helping facilitate an upcoming class on the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Chöd – an offering practice aimed at reversing ego-clinging and developing wisdom. The class will be taught via Zoom this coming Saturday by Lama Tsultrim Gyaltsen, men’s retreat master at the Karme Ling Retreat Center in upstate New York.

The class is unfortunately sold out, but will be repeated later this year.
Included in the group were several dharma students from central Ohio, as well as dharma friends from outside the city – and Tonya Kowalska, our KTC Zoom Team Lead, who drove from Lawrence, Kansas to attend. Tonya said she enjoyed seeing her KTC dharma friends “in person” and was delighted to see the new KTC building go up in downtown Columbus.

Creating The Sacred World: A New Shrine for Columbus KTC

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Five years after a devastating arson fire destroyed the Karma Thegsum Chöling Meditation Center in Columbus, Ohio, a brand-new meditation hall is rising from the ashes.  

A two-level 10,000 square-foot meditation hall and sangha activity center – twice the size of the original temple – is being built at the corner of West Rich and South Grubb streets in Columbus’ East Franklinton Neighborhood.

Its creation is a testament to the power of founder Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche’s wishes for his Columbus sangha – that we rebuild on the site of the arson and that we make the building larger and better than before.

Now that construction is more than half complete, it’s time to turn our attention to creating the “sacred environment” of our KTC shrine room.

To that end, we’re announcing our Shrine Fundraising Campaign. Starting Sunday April 18, all donations to the KTC Rebuilding Fund will be dedicated to the shrine until we reach a goal of $125,000! It’s easy to donate online: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick…

Here are details about the new KTC’s Shrine:

Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche gave us the parameters for the new shrine room before he passed away in 2019. He asked us to create an environment that reflected the main shrine room at Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, our “home” monastery in Upstate New York:

  • A flat ceiling with walls at right angles, symbolic of the mandala palaces of Buddhist Meditational deities.
  • Four central pillars, symbolic of the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths.
  • Eight ceiling beams, symbolic of the Buddha’s Eightfold Noble Path
  •  A large central Buddha figure, symbolic of our Buddha Nature
  •  Side statues of awakened Bodhisattvas, symbolic of the qualities of wisdom and compassion.
  •  A full set of the Kangyur (Buddhist scriptures), symbolic of the treasury of the Buddha’s instructions.
  • The best available materials, so we have a shrine room that is “built to last 100 years.”

To make these a reality, Khenpo Rinpoche pre-ordered all of the statuary and some of the religious scroll paintings, and arranged for us to have a beautiful set of the Kangyur.

Now it’s up to us to complete the work he started and finish this room that we hope will uplift and support future generations of meditators and Buddhist practitioners.

Using Khenpo Rinpoche’s basic guidelines, a nine-member Shrine Design team – six lamas and three laypersons – has come up with plans for a stunning sacred environment, with all of the qualities Rinpoche envisioned, including:

  • A solid oak hardwood floor
  •  Pillars and beams made of fine wood with gold decorations
  •  Large central throne for the Buddha statue
  • Two side shrines for bodhisattva statues and texts.
  •  Brand-new chairs and meditation cushions

Final figures are not yet complete, but our best estimates say that these items and appointments will cost approximately $125,000. 

This is the initial goal for the “Creating the Sacred World” campaign.

In the last five years, we’ve raised $3 million to help make Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche’s vision a reality. Friends from all over the world have donated, flooding the world with generosity and merit

The KTC Shrine Room will be a further expression of Khenpo Rinpoche’s wise and loving vision for the expansion of the Dharma in America and a sheltering sanctuary of mindfulness, love and kindness in the center of our city.

Won’t you join us in making this sacred vision a reality?

It is said that the virtue of creating a sacred space for dharma lasts as long as the structures stand; every donation you make will last 100 years or more, and will uplift the hearts of generations of future dharma students, who will meditate there, receive Refuge Vows there, take Bodhisattva Vows there and receive Vajrayana empowerment there. 

All donors’ names will be placed in a Book of Honor in the KTC foyer; those who give $1,000 or more will be memorialized on plaques displayed on the foyer walls.

We look forward to seeing your contributions take share as sacred beauty all around us. May all beings benefit!