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Group MeditationsGroup meditations and prayers are held at Olympia Center every day of the week. These meditations have a particularly powerful effect on the mind and create strong positive energy that is shared by all. Through these meditations we can receive special blessings from Buddha. Each meditation emphasizes a different aspect of our practice. For example, prayers to Buddha Tara are very beneficial for those in need of swift protection from external or internal fears and problems. Please Join UsGroup meditations are open to everyone (except where specifically noted) and no pre-registration is required. All group meditations are at Olympia Mahayana Buddhist Center. If you have any questions about any events or need directions to the center, please do not hesitate to contact us by phone (360-754-7787), email us, or click this page for a map. Our address is 211 Legion Way SW (downtown Olympia between Columbia and Water Street near Capitol Lake). Note: Please check our calendar for the latest group meditation schedule as the days and times may change or be pre-empted by special events. Heart Jewel with Lamrim MeditationThis practice is the heart essence of Kadampa Buddhism. In the first part we visualize our Spiritual Guide as Je Tsongkhapa and make prayers and requests to purify negativity, accumulate merit, and receive blessings. This prepares our mind for a twenty-minute meditation on Stages of the Path to Enlightenment. After the meditation we make prayers to our Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugdän. Through this we can overcome obstacles to our practice and create favorable conditions so that we can nurture and increase our pure Dharma realizations. (1 hour) 5 pm to 6 pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and 9 am to 10 am most Saturdays. Wishfulfilling Jewel PujaThis is a more extensive version of Heart Jewel in which we make prayers and requests to Je Tsongkhapa and our Dharma Protector Dorje Shugdän. We make a special food offering known as a tsog offering to create a vast amount of positive energy for ourselves and others. We invite all the Buddhas and holy beings to come and enjoy a feast of great bliss and then we enjoy the food offering together. Please bring a food offering. (1 hour) 5 pm to 6 pm Thursdays. Offering to the Spiritual Guide PujaThis is a special Guru yoga of Je Tsongkhapa in conjunction with Highest Yoga Tantra that is a preliminary practice for Vajrayana Mahamudra. The main practice is relying upon our Spiritual Guide as a Buddha and making praises and requests, but it also includes all the essential practices of the stages of the path, and training the mind, as well as both the generation state and completion state of Highest Yoga Tantra. By relying upon Je Tsongkhapa our compassion, wisdom and spiritual power naturally increase. This practice includes a tsog offering so please bring a food offering with you. (2 hours) Held on 10th and 25th day each month. Check calendar for times. 
Liberation from Sorrow, Praises and Requests to TaraTara is our holy, spiritual mother who helps and protects us in all our activities. In particular she help us to deepen our understanding of Lamrim (the stages of the path to enlightenment). By offering praises and requests to Tara we increase our wisdom and compassion and come under the loving care and protection of an enlightened mother. Occasionally for special reasons we do a 24-hour Tara practice, in which we recite these prayers every four hours for a twenty-hour period. (1 hour) 5:30 Sunday. Long Protector PujaThis monthly practice consists principally of prayers to our Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugdän. A Dharma Protector is an emanation of a Buddha or Bodhisattva whose main functions are to avert the inner and outer obstacles that prevent practitioners from attaining spiritual realizations, and to arrange all the necessary conditions for their practice. Dorje Shugdän always helps, guides, and protects pure and faithful practitioners by granting blessings, increasing their wisdom, fulfilling their wishes, and bestowing success on all their virtuous activities. This practice includes a tsog offering so please bring a food offering with you. (4 hours) Held on the 29th day of the month. Check calendar for times. Powa CeremonyMillions of human and billions of animals die every day from many different causes. The practice of transferring of consciousness, known as “powa” is preformed to lead countless deceased beings to the Pure Land of a Buddha, where they will experience permanent liberation from suffering and everlasting happiness. We perform this powa practice on behalf of those who have recently died, traditionally within 49 days of their death. This practice helps us develop compassion for all living beings. (1 hour) Check calendar for times. Mahayana PreceptsThe practice of taking and keeping the eight Mahayana precepts is a special practice of moral discipline that is performed with a strong motivation to benefit others. In this practice we take eight precepts and vow to keep them purely for a period of 24 hours. In so doing we acquaint ourself with the practice of pure moral discipline and thereby make our human life meaningful. (1 hour) Precepts offered on the 15th day of each month at 6:30 am if requested. Olympia Mahayana Buddhist Center
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