Special Announcement: Land Blessing Tickets Available this Week!
Three years after our home temple was destroyed by an arson fire, the Columbus Karma Thegsum Chöling is ready to come “home” again! We are still raising funds to complete our new temple, but we have enough funds to begin building this year.
To spiritually prepare our ground for building, we will host Lama Karma Drodhul and a group of Buddhist lamas from KTD Monastery for a day-long traditional Tibetan Buddhist Land Blessing from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday April 7, 2019 on our property at 231 S. Grubb Street in Columbus.
The Land Blessing will have three parts:
- Morning offering and blessing prayers (called pujas) from 9-10:30 a.m. in a tent on the property.
- A Groundbreaking Ceremony for the new temple at 11 a.m. outdoors on the northwest corner of the property.
- Afternoon offering and blessing prayers from 1:30 to 3 p.m. in the tent on the property.
Due to conditions on the site and limited space in the tent, seats in the tent for the Morning and Afternoon prayer services will be by REGISTRATION ONLY.
In other words, in order to attend the morning and afternoon prayer sessions, a ticket will be required. Tickets will be free, and will be offered online only.
To ensure that the maximum number of people can attend, we are setting up an Eventbrite registration system for a total of 100 free tickets – 50 for the morning prayer session and 50 for the afternoon prayer session.
You can order a free ticket for EITHER the morning OR the afternoon session. Please be generous to our dharma family and friends and only sign up for one spot – either in the morning or afternoon, but not both.
To register for either the morning or afternoon prayer session, please click here.
Once all 100 free tickets have been claimed, a waitlist will form on Evenbrite. Those on the waitlist will be contacted if additional seats become available.
We regret that at this time, we cannot offer standing room inside the tent for the morning and afternoon prayers. However, the official Groundbreaking for the new temple will take place outside the tent and no ticket will be required to attend the ground-breaking ceremony at 11am.
About the Day
Both prayer services in the tent will include Tibetan chants and offerings. In the morning we will make auspicious aspirations and offerings to the land; in the afternoon we will ask the blessing of the dharma protectors. We won’t have prayer books for all the chants (some will be in Tibetan only), and all seating will be in chairs without tables, but your personal prayers and mantras will help us bless the land, so bring your malas and join us!
Note: Please dress for the weather, as the Groundbreaking will be outdoors on the uneven ground of our construction site.
Schedule for the day includes:
9 a.m. Opening prayers and “Cleansing the Mountain” puja
9:30 a.m. Sang Smoke offering and Short Tara prayer
10:45 a.m. Break
11:00 Groundbreaking, followed by aspirations and dedications
12 noon: Lunch Break (bring a sack lunch or go out with friends)
1:30 p.m. Mahakala protector Puja and Sur Smoke Offering
3 p.m. Grand Dedication of Merit and end of pujas
Volunteers needed!
Would you like to volunteer to help during the day? We will need assistance with parking lot traffic control, crossing guard help (getting people safely across the alley), fire tending, supply runs and more. Contact Assistant Director Chuck Drake, ad@columbusktc.org to volunteer. Morning and afternoon shifts available.
Reduced Sunday program at Tifereth this week
If you cannot make it to the event on the 7th, please join us at our slightly shortened Sunday programs at Tifereth Israel, 1354 E. Broad St.:
10 a.m. Open Meditation
10 a.m. Introduction to Meditation Class
11 a.m. Tea break
11:30 Introduction to Buddhism Class and Dharma Talk – Main Shrine Room
And if you can’t be with us at either place, join us in prayer by reciting the Tashi Prayer for our community.
The time of prayer and blessing is upon us. Please join us in dedicating the upcoming construction to the benefit of all beings.
