By H.E. Dagmo Kusho Sakya
Date: Sunday, March 3, 2019
Time: 11:15am PST (6:15 pm GMT)
Location: Sakya Monastery Shrine Room
Free, donations accepted.
Live Stream available at http://dagmokusho.sakya.org

Prayers of the Three Long Life Deities is a text that we recite each Sunday at the end of Chenrezi. This book includes short prayers for the three long life deities: Amitayus, Usnisavijaya, and White Tara. Her Eminence Dagmo Kusho Sakya will tell us more about the prayers in this book, and their significance for our own lives.

Her Eminence Dagyum Kusho Sakya, also known as H.E. Dagmo Kusho, was born in Kham, Eastern Tibet. As the niece of one of the most highly realized Sakya Masters of the twentieth century, H.E. Dezhung Rinpoche III, her training in Buddhist practice began at an early age. She has received extensive teachings and empowerments from many great lamas of all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism throughout her lifetime. Dagyum Kusho is the wife of H.H. Jigdal Dagchen Sakya Dorje Chang of the Khön lineage, a Head Lama of the Sakya order of Tibetan Buddhism. She is currently the Acting Head Lama of the Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism in Seattle, Washingon. Dagyum Kusho specializes in Tara empowerments, practices, and teachings, and has many students throughout the world.

By Rigdzin Tingkhye
Date: Sunday, March 10, 2019
Time: 6:30pm
Location: Sakya Monastery Shrine Room
Suggested Donation: $15 Members, $20 Non-Members

The very fabric of Tibetan Buddhism was tested when His Holiness Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959, followed by tens thousands of Tibetans. Everything we believed and knew was shaken to its core: love, compassion, forgiveness, and the laws of karma, all were on the brink of falling apart. His Holiness Dalai Lama never give up his vow to guide us. As long as sentient beings remain, as long as suffering remains, may I too remain and dispel the misery of all sentient beings. He holds this attitude of total acceptance of the present moment, the practice of giving and receiving (tönglen), and the principle of training the mind in everyday life, all while never giving up the truth and the dignity. He reminds us that life is full of opportunity to practice Dharma in the fullest engagement.

Rigdzin Tingkhye was born in Tibet in 1957, two years before his family followed His Holiness the Dalai Lama into exile in India. There, along with other first generation Tibetan refugees, they supported his efforts in preserving Tibetan heritage and building a thriving community in exile. Rigdzin spent his formative years studying under a faculty body comprised of some of the leading scholars of old Tibet. The blessing of receiving teachings in Tibetan history, culture, language and philosophy from these eminent masters has been one of the great joys of his life. Living in the United States over the past twenty-five years, Rigdzin has sustained his passion for philosophy and everyday loving-kindness through his work as a language teacher, private chef, business owner, and interpreter for distinguished lamas, astrologers and political activists.

To read more about Rigdzin, visit www.thislimitlesslife.com

By Lama Kelsang
Date: Sunday, March 24, 2019
Time: 1:30 pm
Location: Sakya Monastery Shrine Room
Suggested Donation: $20 Members, $30 Non-Members

A shrine is a place that holds the symbols of enlightened body speech and mind. A home shrine creates a sacred space for you to focus your spiritual practice. By making offerings, we purify our obscurations and generate positive merit, which moves us further along the path to enlightenment.

Lama Kelsang teaches us about the significance of making offerings and demonstrate how to make offerings of body, speech and mind to the Three Jewels. He also shows us how to set up the offering bowls, placement of statues and holy pictures, and other offering items on the shrine.

Ven. Lama Kelsang was born in 1980. In his early twenties, he entered Sakya College in Dehradhun, India, where he took monastic vows. There, he studied Buddhist philosophy for five years. During those years, he also received empowerments and teachings from H.H Dalai Lama, H.H Sakya Trichen Rinpoche, H.E Luding Khen Rinpoche, H.E Thartse Khenpo, and Khenchen Kunga Wangchok. He next went to Nepal’s Tharlam Monastery and completed a Manjushri retreat for three months. He received the Lamdre from H.H. Jidgal Dachen Dorje Chang in 2007. He was appointed as a tutor to H.E Asanga Rinpoche, a position he held from 2008 until 2012. After 2012, he was on a three year retreat. He has completed five times the requisite one-hundred thousand accumulations for the preliminary practices (ngondro) and has also completed the preliminary and main practice of Luminous Great Perfection, and the ritual practices of the Longchen Nyingtik tradition. He has lived at Sakya Monastery since 2017.

Led by Tsering Dolkar
Date: Saturday, May 11, 2019
Time: 3:00-6:00pm
Location: Sakya Monastery Kitchen & Cultural Hall
Class Size Limit: 15
Class fee (to cover cost of ingredients): $35
To register: https://conta.cc/2E9CyLX or contact the office (monastery@sakya.org)
Registration required by Friday, May 3, so we can buy ingredients!

Learn how to make fried pockets of goodness, the Tibetan recipe: Sha-bha-Lap! Traditionally made with meat, there will be a vegetarian option available.

Tse Drolkar has been cooking since age 7, has been a cook at PCC markets for 10 years as well as done many catering events including at the monastery.

Discussion Led by Jeff Schoening
Date: Wednesdays, April 10 & 24, May 8
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Sakya Monastery Cultural Hall
Suggested Donation:
per class: $15 Members, $20 Non-Members
Or, $35 Members/50 Non-Members for the series
Registration link: https://conta.cc/2IaiVY8

In 1265, Chögyal Phakpa composed a verse summary on the main points and practice of the Buddha’s Dharma for Kublai Khan at the Khan’s request. In 1271, Shérap Shönnu, a disciple of Chögyal Phakpa, wrote a prose commentary, Ornament that Explicates the Buddha’s Teaching. In 1976, Āchāryas Lobsang Jamspal and Mañjusiddārtha translated the verses into English prose with the title A Gift of Dharma to Kublai Khan. In this class we will read and discuss a new verse translation of the Gift of Dharma written by Jeff Schoening with Jeff Bennett and Tom Linder, in consultation with Shérap Shönnu’s commentary. In addition to the content of the translation, we will discuss issues encountered and choices made during translation, in order to take a deeper look into the meaning and content of the text. This marvelous treatise leads us into the stages of practice, the deepest view, and its culmination.

Jeffrey Schoening (Upasaka), holds a PhD in Buddhist Studies, and is a longtime member and interpreter at Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism. Jeff is the author of The Shalistamba Sutra and Its Indian Commentaries (Vienna 1995), a two-volume study of teachings on dependent arising. He served as a health care chaplain at Swedish Medical Center and Northwest Kidney Center and is currently a private practice spiritual director.

Led by Lama Kelsang
Mondays: March 18, 25
Tuesdays: April 2, 9, 16, 23
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Sakya Monastery Shrine Room
Registration is limited to 6 students. Those 13 years old and older are welcomed to register and attend.
Please register: https://conta.cc/2TNke0K
Suggested donation:
$80 for the series, Members
$100 for the series, Non-Members

For centuries, Dharma students have traditionally studied Nagarjuna’s Letter to a Friend, for it provides a concise and thorough introduction to the entire Buddhist path practice. By examining the Four Noble Truths and the Six Perfections, Nagarjuna describes logically and poetically the internal patterns of experience which leads a person to Buddhahood.

Please join Lama Kelsang for this weekly Study intensive.

This course is open to all levels of practitioner, teenaged or older. Lama Kelsang only asks that students make a firm commitment to attending class regularly.

NOTE: Class size is limited to 6 students, so please register by March 15, 2019

Ven. Lama Kelsang was born in 1980. In his early twenties, he entered Sakya College in Dehradhun, India, where he took monastic vows. There, he studied Buddhist philosophy for five years. During those years, he also received empowerments and teachings from H.H Dalai Lama, H.H Sakya Trichen Rinpoche, H.E Luding Khen Rinpoche, H.E Thartse Khenpo, and Khenchen Kunga Wangchok. He next went to Nepal’s Tharlam Monastery and completed a Manjushri retreat for three months. He received the Lamdre from H.H. Jidgal Dachen Dorje Chang in 2007. He was appointed as a tutor to H.E Asanga Rinpoche, a position he held from 2008 until 2012. After 2012, he was on a three year retreat. He has completed five times the requisite one-hundred thousand accumulations for the preliminary practices (ngondro) and has also completed the preliminary and main practice of Luminous Great Perfection, and the ritual practices of the Longchen Nyingtik tradition. He has lived at Sakya Monastery since 2017.