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This short prayer booklet includes two practices revealed by the Wisdom Buddha Manjushri. By engaging in the special Guru yoga practised in conjunction with Je Tsongkhapa we can purify negativity, accumulate merit and receive blessings, and attain a very special wisdom. By engaging in the special method for relying upon the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden we can overcome obstacles to our practice and create favourable conditions so that we can nurture and increase our spiritual realizations. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

The middling sadhana or ritual prayer for spiritual attainment that contains the essence of the self-generation practice of Vajrayogini – the female enlightened Deity of Highest Yoga Tantra who is the manifestation of the wisdom of all Buddhas. 

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. 

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. 

One of the most powerful purification practices is the Mahayana Sutra of the Three Superior Heaps, also known as The Bodhisattva’s Confession of Moral Downfalls. In this practice, we visualize the Thirty-five Confession Buddhas and practise purification in their presence. Through the power of their blessings and prayers, we can swiftly purify even the heaviest negative actions simply by faithfully reciting their names.

Included in most of the above sessions
Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche is the root Spiritual Guide of all modern Kadampa Teachers and practitioners. By reciting and contemplating this prayer, faithful Kadampa practitioners can connect with his inspiration and guidance as they make their own progress on the path to enlightenment.