The Great Compassion Bodhi Prajna Temple, Toronto Canada,

invites you to initiate the field of merit.

 

Having proper knowledge can benefit you for lifetimes. One who studies Buddhism with correct knowledge and views is not only able to gradually subjugate his/her own mind, but also start to part with all causes of pain, to plant the seeds of good causation, and to obtain joy for the present life and future. Furthermore, he/she becomes capable of the way of the Bodhisattva to benefit self and others, staying off the course of suffering and achieving happiness. 

The Great Compassion Bodhi Prajna Temple abbott Master Miao Jing and Master Miao Yin recognize that Buddhism is not just about teaching the disciples to burn incense and worship. Buddha’s teachings respond to modern society. It is essential to teach those determined to learn Buddhism, including youngsters, step by step. First is to cultivate moral principles and establish right conduct before getting into Buddha’s dharma and enhancing one’s thoughts. This is to build in the disciples the habit of seeking dharma first, then reflecting, and then acting, so as to truly incorporate Buddha’s teaching into every moment in life. 

The Great Compassion Bodhi Prajna Temple built a temple near Toronto in order to keep Buddhadharma everlasting. The primary focus is not on holding ceremonies, but rather on teaching adults and adolescents to continue the Buddha’s dharma-body and wisdom-life by meditation, hearing the dharma, and group practice. The Great Compassion Bodhi Prajna Temple hopes to propagate Buddhism to the Western world so that people can learn to calm their minds with peace and enable everyone to acquire true understanding and right views and to create harmony among family and friends; ultimately, to reach a society and a world free of disasters.

Sincere resolution to support temples results in extraordinary good karma. Your resolution supports the continuity of Buddhadharma and the functionality of this temple, thus providing a place to study Buddhism for those who have bonds to the temple. This not only plants the nutriment of blessed virtues and wisdom for your present and future lives, but also forms an extensive virtuous affinity with Dharma Protectors, Masters, and everyone that visits the temple to learn about Buddhism.  

We welcome any donation to plant your field of merit. Below are the items for donations and initiatives.   

Items	Amount	Temple Initiatives
Joyful donation	One time, any amount to sponsor and support temple	Email notifications for all ceremonies, classes, and meditations Year-end/new year transference of merit from Masters to you and your families, held in temple)
Great Compassion Sponsors	$50/month or $600/year	Email notifications for all ceremonies, classes, and meditations Monthly transference of merit from Masters, held in temple Transference of merit from Masters, held in holy place Bodh Gaya, India Light offering to Buddha for 1 month in holy place Bodh Gaya, India Email notifications for special ceremonies conducted by the invited guest eminent Rinpoche To pray and seek blessings from His Holiness the 17th Karmapa for all family members
Dharma Protecting Sponsors	Accumulation of over $ 1000/year	Email notifications for all ceremonies, classes, and meditations Monthly transference of merit from Masters, held in temple. Transference of merit from Masters, held in the holy place Bodh Gaya, India Light offering to Buddha for 3 months in holy place Bodh Gaya, India Free admission to ceremonies and classes for adults, held in temple. One time donation welcome. Priority to limited seating to special ceremonies conducted by the invited guest eminent Rinpoche To pray and seek blessings from His Holiness the 17th Karmapa for all family members

We welcome you to invite your family and friends and anyone that shares a connection to join the accumulation of merit. This will allow The Great Compassion Bodhi Prajna Temple to continue as a pure and peaceful religious place in Eastern Canada with a lasting ability to keep carrying forward Buddha’s teachings.

The Great Compassion Bodhi Prajna Temple offers worship light offerings in the Main Buddha Hall of the temple. The purpose of worship lights is to have virtuous wishes answered with blessings from Buddha and to have the ability to walk a path of pure Buddhist principles, free of obstacles. This will lead to a safe and auspicious life, diminish calamity and misfortunes, and increase merit and life extension. Light offering for the whole family is $300/year, $150/month or $50/week. One time donation of any amount to sponsor Masters and meals is also welcomed and very much appreciated. 

Methods to support this temple

Your ongoing support and affirmation are greatly appreciated. We wish you and your family a harmonious and auspicious life.

 

With warmest respect and greetings,  

The Great Compassion Bodhi Prajna Temple 

H.H. the 17th Karmapa graced the Great Compassion Bodhi Prajna Temple by conducting a blessing ceremony, ground breaking for future buildings and laying the foundations for Buddha stupas

At 1:45 PM, June 8, 2017, H.H. the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje graced the Great Compassion Bodhi Prajna Temple, which is set within a tranquil forest north of Toronto, Canada. Under the guidance of the abbess Master Miao Jing, the lay practitioners respectfully lined alongside the secluded path full of fresh flowers, with their hands holding up white khatas, waiting wholeheartedly for the arrival of H.H. the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje. The sky was crystal blue with a gentle breeze and the soothing sounds of insects and birds. The surroundings displayed a sense of auspiciousness.

     

At the entrance gate, H.H. the 17th Karmapa pleasantly stepped out of the car. The temple abbess Master Miao Jing and Master Miao Yin welcomed the 17th Karmapa with most respect and formal Buddhist tradition in welcoming their root guru. Master Miao Jing accompanied the 17th Karmapa entering the main Buddha hall, and the abbess Master Miao Jing and Master Miao Yin followed the Tibetan Buddhist tradition by offering the Mandala of body, speech, mind, activities, and merit to H.H. the 17th Karmapa, wishing for blessing, wisdom, knowledge, the longevity of H.H., and the prosperity of the Buddhist enterprise, so as to benefit all sentient beings.

     

In his address, H.H. the 17th Karmapa emphasized that he was overwhelmed with delight to pay a visit to the Great Compassion Bodhi Prajna Temple, the first ever temple perfectly integrating the different branches of Mahayana Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism. H.H. the 17th Karmapa opined, “Even though my stay here is not long, it means a lot to me, and the meaning is significant. The reason is that the two Masters, who take charge of this temple, have profound understanding of different branches in Buddhism, namely Mahayana Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism. What’s better is that they ingeniously fuse various ideas together. I am quite convinced that everyone, under their teachings, will be able to experience joy through various Buddhist lineages and bring harmonious joy into each Buddhist family. In this way, everyone will learn more about various strands of Buddhism, enjoy more happiness, and more complete wisdom.” After the speech, H.H. the 17th Karmapa gave his heartfelt blessings to the temple. H.H. shared his joy and the significance of his coming to the Great Compassion Bodhi Prajna temple with more than thirty people in the main Buddha hall including the lamas of H.H.’s entourage, abbot Masters from other Canadian Karma Kagyu centres, representatives from Kagyu lineage centres in the U.S. and Hong Kong, and temple lay representatives.

The abbess Master Miao Jing expressed gratitude toward her root guru, H.H. the 17th Karmapa for his presentation to the temple. Furthering H.H. the 17th Karmapa’s support for Bhikkhunis (the women who take the Buddhist full ordination vow as nuns) and with H.H.’s guidance, the two Masters officially announced that, after years of planning and under the guidance and approval of H.H. the 17th Karmapa, the “North America Karma Kagyu Bhikkhuni Institute“ was officially established on June 8th , 2017 in Ontario, Canada. Establishing this organization is helping to fulfill H.H. the 17th Karmapa’s wish to support the activities of Buddhist nuns. The main objective of the institute is, under the guidance of H.H. the 17th Karmapa, to support the revival of the full vow ordination of Tibetan Buddhist nuns, and to help establish a complete education system for Buddhist nuns and those women aspiring to become Buddhist nuns. The Great Compassion Bodhi Prajna Temple, being the first Mahayana-Tibetan fusion Buddhist nunnery centre carrying the Karma Kagyu lineage in Canada, has an extraordinarily significant historic importance.

    

Canada is a multicultural nation and places emphasis on equal human rights, and male and female equality. Buddhism in this nation also demonstrates multiculturalism. The Great Compassion Bodhi Prajna Temple is a temple in which Buddhism is delivered both in Chinese and English. The Masters learned their teachings from Mahayana and Tibetan Buddhism. The visit of H.H. the 17th Karmapa symbolized his support for the integration of both branches, and the Masters’ support of their root guru the H.H. 17th Karmapa’s Buddhist activities. Therefore, the visit of H.H. to the temple for the blessing and ground breaking ceremony has a historic significance. This not only showed that H.H. recognized the importance of Mahayana-Tibetan Buddhism fusion but also demonstrated H.H.’s tangible actions to support Bhikkhunis.

In an opening lecture in a ceremony several years ago, the 17th Karmapa made a vow to support nuns. He said, “As far as I am concerned, I will spare no effort to advocate the learning of nuns and the establishment of retreats for nuns so that they will have a place to cultivate themselves without worries. I am not the only one who would like to devote myself to this calling, indeed all the previous Karmapas did the same as well. Therefore, I will certainly do my part as long as I am alive.”

 

Right after the blessing ceremony at the temple, everyone present enjoyed traditional Tibetan sweet rice and tea together in the main Buddha shine room. Then H.H. the 17th Karmapa strolled out into the forest and set foot on the ancient land, which is more than 14000 years old. The H.H. 17th Karmapa sprinkled blessing rice through the air while he recited the mantras and short prayer, which was intended to bring the blessing to this land and every being here. Later, H.H. the 17th Karmapa planted a Japanese maple tree in the temple garden, wishing that it would thrive here and benefit numerous beings to come in the future.

In this quiet retreat centre, H.H. the 17th Karmapa stepped onto the pavilion in the middle of the forest and gave a short talk to the lay practitioners. He noted that the forested temple was a fine and tranquil place for retreat. He then led the lay practitioners to recite the Verse of Three Refuges and explained its meanings. The ceremony went smoothly and everyone was happily blessed. After the speech, H.H. the 17th Karmapa bestowed a small Shakyamuni Buddha sculpture to the abbess Master Miao Jing to give his blessings to the temple.

Eventually, H.H. walked to the place destined for the main Buddha hall of the temple and gave a blessing. T H.H. the 17th Karmapa relaxed and enjoyed the atmosphere of the forest. H.H. the 17th Karmapa left at around 4 in the afternoon. Every participant was very pleased and peaceful and looked forward to the next advent of H.H. the 17th Karmapa in Canada. In response to and in support for H.H. Karmapa’s guidance for Buddhist nuns’ activities, the temple is planning to organize the first Bhikkhunis’ Mahayana-Tibetan fusion conference in Toronto, Canada in the year 2018. We sincerely invite your continuous support and attention.

Karmapa Chenno!

 

 

To wish the 17th Gyalwang Karmampa Ogyen Trinley Dorje his holiness live long and his activities will benefit six realms of sentient beings, we kindly invite all individuals and lay practioners to join in to accumulate recitations of this dharani [long mantra].  Karmapa Chenno!

http://karmapafoundation.eu/request-for-long-life-mandala-offerings/

 

OM YE DHARMA HETU-PRABHAVA HETUM TESHAM TATHAGATO HYAVADAT TESHAM CHA YO NIRODHA EVAM VADI MAHASHRAMANAH SVAHA

ये धर्मा हेतु प्रभवा हेतुं

 

ཨོཾ་ཡེ་དྷརྨཱ་ཧེ་ཏུ་པྲ་བྷ་བཱ་ཧེ་ཏུནྟེ་ཥཱཉྟ་ཐཱ་ག་ཏོ་ཧྱ་བ་དཏ། ཏེ་ཥཱཉྩ་ཡོ་ནི་རོ་དྷ་ཨེ་ཝཾ་བཱ་དཱི་མ་ཧཱ་ཤྲ་མ་ཎཿསྭཱ་ཧཱ:

 

All dharmas originate from causes.
The Tathagata has taught these causes,
And also that which puts a stop to these causes—
This too has been taught by the Great Shramana.

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The two Dharma Masters, lamas from various centers, and everyone present, Amitabha:

Today is my first time in Canada. Despite the relatively short time, I am happy to be here.  I cherish the time that even though it is only a brief ment, it has extraordinary significance.  So today being here at this center, I see that it is more beautiful than what I saw on the pictures.  I believe the pictures only showed me parts of the center.  I feel this place is relatively quiet and peaceful.

And I believe everyone knows that the two Masters have Mahayana Buddhism background. Now they are learning (Tibetan Buddhism). Although all Buddhism branches have one common source, sometimes the followers of different Buddhadharma lineages lack a little mutual understanding and learning.  Now the two Masters with Mahayana background are studying Tibetan Buddhism, which I think will bring everyone a more holistic view of Buddhism and result in more harmonious joy. This I believe is very important.

And as you all know, this is my first time in Canada. Usually when I visited a country for the first time, many centers here and there would invite me to go.  So being here the first time, I am a bit scared because I have been to some countries where due to inexperience, I accepted many invitations.  In the end, I was exhausted and my body could not take it any longer.

Since then, every time when I was in a new country, I would be slightly scared and not dared to keep my schedule too tight.  Although I could not visit many centers, I would try my best. Yet I know people have many expectations.  So we are trying to visit as many centers and temples as possible. 

This center we are in today seems somewhat different from other Tibetan Buddhist centers. It integrates Mahayana and Tibetan Buddhism, so the center is slightly different from others meaning-wise.  It is my hope that under the guidance of the two Masters, everyone can do better.  Foremost of all, the best we can do is to bring the joy from integrated Buddhism into the heart of every Buddhist.  This is very important. We will be able to receive more transmitted Buddhadharma, more dharma nourishment. Doing so, our Bodhicitta will grow. Give rise to Bodhicitta! You might be able to tap into the wisdom within faster and be closer to perfectness.  

Thank you for giving us the chance. Thank you for such a sincere welcome. Thank you so much.