Puja

Medicine Buddha

Image courtsey of Andy Weber Studios

Jamyang Leeds holds pujas most Tuesdays at 7pm.

Mainly we do Medicine Buddha Puja and also Vajrasattva purification. We also try to perform Lama Choepa Puja on Tsog dates.

Check out our programme!

If you would like to donate flowers, candles or offerings for the puja and if you want someone mentioned when we dedicate the merit of the Medicine Buddha prayers please email or telephone us. Pujas are a prayerful, energising and highly beneficial chanted meditation. Everyone is welcome.

What is a Puja ?
A puja is a meditation which takes the form of chanting recitation in which prayers are offered to request the Buddha's blessings or invoke their help. Pujas are performed to avert and clear the three types of obstacles which prevent us from achieving our worldly and spiritual goals.

The three types of obstacles are:
Worldly obstacles
These affect day to day life, relationships, business, and finances.

Inner obstacles
These affect our health or mental state.

Secret obstacles
These obstructe the attainment of innate wisdom.

By making prayers and offerings with sincere motivation, unfavorable circumstances can be changed.

Pujas performed by ordained sangha are said to be especially powerful and effective as they are done on the base of pure morality. Similarly making offerings to the sangha during a puja collects extensive merit and purifies obstacles.

Pujas can be performed for various purposes:

for the dying - to help pacify their mind, and decrease fear during the time of death.
for the deceased - to bless and guide their mind to a higher state of rebirth and liberation.
for sickness - to remove obstacles to mental and physical health.
for success in your activities - removing obstacles to the success of your worldly or dharmic activities.

If you would like a puja or Tsog Offerings to be dedicated to someone you know then check out our Prayer Tree page, Pet's page or contact the Centre to make a request.

Lama Choepa Puja

Twice a month, based on the lunar calendar, we do the Lama Choepa Tsog puja. Lama means Guru; Choepa means offering; and Tsog means gathering or party.

The auspicious dates for Tsog are published in our programme. It usually starts at 19.00 and lasts for about an hour and a half. Each participant can bring an offering of flowers, food or non-alcoholic drink, which is
placed on the shrine. The food is distributed amongst the participants during
the puja, and can be eaten then, and/or taken home afterwards.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche describes it as a ceremony of prayer, chanting, music,
meditation and a ritual feast, directly appealing to our senses and emotions.

The Lama Chopa text we use was composed by the first Panchen Lama, Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen (1570-1662). It brings together all the essential practices of Lam Rim (stages of the path), Lojong (mind training) and Highest Yoga Tantra.

Lama Chopa provides an opportunity for those practising tantra to restore
and reaffirm their vows and pledges. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, according to Geshe Tashi, describes Lama Chopa as one of the main Highest Yoga Tantra practices, but traditionally as a group practice, it can be practised by anyone.

Everyone is welcome to attend this ceremony of making offerings, actual and imagined, to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and particularly the Lama, and of accumulating the positive energy needed to progress along the spiritual path.