Peace begins in the mind and a peaceful mind benefits both you and those around you. Join Alan in meditation to cultivate a peaceful and loving mind. The session includes mindfulness of breathing meditation and analytical meditation. Ideal for anyone wishing to kick start their own meditation or to be supported in their on-going practice by meditating with a group. Suitable for beginners and seasoned meditators.

Dates: Wednesdays

• August 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
• September 12, 19, 26
• October 3, 10, 17, 24, 31
• November 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
• December 7, 12, 19

Time: 6:00pm – 7:00pm

Cost: $10/$9 VI member

Ever wanted to know how to setup your alter and make water bowl offering but too shy to ask?

This workshop is for you!

Setting up the alter and making offerings are an integral part of the preliminary practices taught by The Buddha to enable us to engage in successful meditation. By doing these daily practices our minds become ripe for realisations. Venerable Rabdrol, Jackie and Lesta will provide an explanation of how to set up a personal alter, how to make water bowl offerings and how to offer them in the most extensive and beneficial way.

Date: Wednesday 12th December

Time: 7pm – 8pm

Cost: Suggested Donation $10

All Welcome

Peace begins in the mind and a peaceful mind benefits both you and those around you. Join Alan in meditation to cultivate a peaceful and loving mind. The session includes mindfulness of breathing meditation and analytical meditation. Ideal for anyone wishing to kick start their own meditation or to be supported in their on-going practice by meditating with a group. Suitable for beginners and seasoned meditators.

Yoga works with the body and the breath to still the mind. Through regular practice, achieve a sense of lightness and ease in the body and clarity and stillness of mind. At VI, we teach an integrated style of classical yoga incorporating breath, movement and meditation.

Classes are suitable for all ages and abilities. Mats provided.

Dates: Friday mornings

• August 3, 10, 17, 24, 31
• September 7, 14, 21, 28
• October 5, 12, 19, 26
• November 2, 16, 23
• December 7, 14

Time: 11.15am -12.30pm

Cost: $15 per class or buy a 10-pack of classes for $120

A puja is a special ceremony in which prayers are offered to the Buddhas or different manifestations of enlightened beings to request their blessings or invoke their help.

Pujas are performed to avert and clear the three types of obstacles which arise due to the lack of merit, which prevent us from achieving our worldly and spiritual goals. These include issues affecting our day to day life, our mental and physical health and difficulties we might be experiencing in Dharma practice. Removing these obstacles will help us to achieve happiness and good fortune in all our activities.

The following pujas are held at VI each month:

• Guru Puja with Tsog
• Tara Puja
• Medicine Buddha Puja
• Yamantaka Self Initiation (Restricted attendance)
• Vajrayogini Self Initiation (Restricted attendance)

There is also an opportunity to observe a Precepts Day at home by taking the 8 Mahayana precepts and devoting the day to practice.

Tara Puja – once each month

The Tara Puja is a practice focusing on Tara, making offerings and giving praise, as a way of creating merits and strengthening our connection with our own enlightened potential. Tara is also known as the “Mother of all Buddhas” because she embodies wisdom – all buddhas are born from this wisdom, she is the manifestation of the Buddha’s omniscient mind.

“Reciting the 21 Taras’ prayer with devotion – remembering Tara singing praises and reciting mantras at any time of the day or night – protects you from fear and dangers, and fulfils all your wishes.” Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Green Tara is especially swift in granting the wishes of sentient beings.

Note: times for Tara Pujas vary – please check the calendar for exact times.

This Yamantaka self-initiation is a brief text composed by the early twentieth-century master, Khangsar Thubten Chökyi Wangchuk, based on the secret oral instructions of the Ganden Hearing Lineage. In order to engage in its practice, one must have received the empowerment of Vajrabhairava (i.e., Yamantaka), completed an authorizing retreat of 100,000 mantras together with the traditional concluding fire puja.

This practice is restricted to only those with the appropriate tantric empowerment.

Peace begins in the mind and a peaceful mind benefits both you and those around you. Join Alan in meditation to cultivate a peaceful and loving mind. The session includes mindfulness of breathing meditation and analytical meditation. Ideal for anyone wishing to kick start their own meditation or to be supported in their on-going practice by meditating with a group. Suitable for beginners and seasoned meditators.

Dates: Sundays

• November 7, 14, 21, 28
• December 5, 12

Time: 10:30am – 11:30am

Cost: $10/$9 VI member

A puja is a special ceremony in which prayers are offered to the Buddhas or different manifestations of enlightened beings to request their blessings or invoke their help.

Pujas are performed to avert and clear the three types of obstacles which arise due to the lack of merit, which prevent us from achieving our worldly and spiritual goals. These include issues affecting our day to day life, our mental and physical health and difficulties we might be experiencing in Dharma practice. Removing these obstacles will help us to achieve happiness and good fortune in all our activities.

The following pujas are held at VI each month:

• Guru Puja with Tsog
• Tara Puja
• Medicine Buddha Puja
• Yamantaka Self Initiation (Restricted attendance)
• Vajrayogini Self Initiation (Restricted attendance)

There is also an opportunity to observe a Precepts Day at home by taking the 8 Mahayana precepts and devoting the day to practice.

Guru Puja with Tsog (also known as Lama Chopa) – twice each month

During the practice of Lama Chopa, we invoke all the lamas of the graduated path lineage beginning with Shakyamuni Buddha himself, extending to our present direct teachers who have shown us the path. We pay homage to them, make offerings, and request each of them to please bless our minds with the same realizations that they themselves have generated. By offering sincere, heartfelt requests, we make our minds ripe to receive the full blessings of this precious lineage and quickly actualize the realizations we need to attain enlightenment.

Note: starting times for Pujas vary – please check the calendar for exact times.

Peace begins in the mind and a peaceful mind benefits both you and those around you. Join Alan in meditation to cultivate a peaceful and loving mind. The session includes mindfulness of breathing meditation and analytical meditation. Ideal for anyone wishing to kick start their own meditation or to be supported in their on-going practice by meditating with a group. Suitable for beginners and seasoned meditators.

Dates: Wednesdays

• August 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
• September 12, 19, 26
• October 3, 10, 17, 24, 31
• November 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
• December 7, 12, 19

Time: 6:00pm – 7:00pm

Cost: $10/$9 VI member

Peace begins in the mind and a peaceful mind benefits both you and those around you. Join Alan in meditation to cultivate a peaceful and loving mind. The session includes mindfulness of breathing meditation and analytical meditation. Ideal for anyone wishing to kick start their own meditation or to be supported in their on-going practice by meditating with a group. Suitable for beginners and seasoned meditators.

A puja is a special ceremony in which prayers are offered to the Buddhas or different manifestations of enlightened beings to request their blessings or invoke their help.

Pujas are performed to avert and clear the three types of obstacles which arise due to the lack of merit, which prevent us from achieving our worldly and spiritual goals. These include issues affecting our day to day life, our mental and physical health and difficulties we might be experiencing in Dharma practice. Removing these obstacles will help us to achieve happiness and good fortune in all our activities.

The following pujas are held at VI each month:

• Guru Puja with Tsog
• Tara Puja
• Medicine Buddha Puja
• Yamantaka Self Initiation (Restricted attendance)
• Vajrayogini Self Initiation (Restricted attendance)

There is also an opportunity to observe a Precepts Day at home by taking the 8 Mahayana precepts and devoting the day to practice.

Medicine Buddha Puja – once each month

Most commonly this puja is performed on behalf of sick people to assist with recovery from illness or an operation and those who are dying. It is also done to achieve higher rebirth for the deceased and is very powerful in bringing about success, both temporary and ultimate. The prayers invoke help from the Seven Medicine Buddhas and Buddha Shakyamuni.

Note: times for Medicine Buddha Pujas vary – please check the calendar for exact times