Funeral rites

Kuluta Buddhist Centre offers a Buddhist funeral ceremony for those who would like it performed for themselves or their loved ones. A Buddhist funeral ceremony helps us extract meaning and inner strength from the death of a loved one. It is a rare opportunity to transform death experiences into the spiritual path. This practice gives immense benefit to the deceased, their relatives and friends, as well as to all sentient beings. Kuluta Buddhist Centre also provides compassionate meditations and prayers for those who are seriously ill or dying and their families. These meditations and prayers encourage peaceful minds in those who practice them and those who receive them, thus, increasing calm and peace for all who are going through such difficult times.

 

Heartfelt Prayers.

This is a funeral service in which spiritual practitioners gather together to make heartfelt prayers and dedications for the deceased person to take a fortunate rebirth. Because it is a Buddhist service, the prayers are addressed to the assembly of Buddhas and other holy beings. The prayers set out in this ritual are only the basis for a funeral service and may be adapted as appropriate. The power of our prayers depends upon the strength and purity of our intention. In this service, it is very important for everyone to have a mind of compassion for all living beings in general and for the deceased in particular. If we have a genuinely compassionate motivation, our prayers will definitely be effective.

Powa Ceremony

The practice of transference of consciousness, known as ‘powa’, can be done either by a group of practitioners or individually. The purpose of doing this is to lead countless deceased beings to the Pure Land of a Buddha. We understand that throughout this world millions of humans and billions of animals die every day from so many different causes. If these living beings have the opportunity to take rebirth in a Buddha’s Pure Land they will attain permanent liberation from suffering and experience pure and everlasting happiness. Our practice of this powa offers them this precious opportunity. By engaging in this practice we ourself will create a great collection of virtue, which will also lead us into the pathway to the Pure Land of a Buddha. When we engage in this practice in a group, it can begin with a senior Dharma teacher giving some practical teachings about how to develop compassion for all living beings. When we engage in this practice individually, we should generate compassion for all living beings by remembering how they experience immense suffering. Then, with compassion for all the deceased throughout the world, we perform the following stages of the ceremony:

1 On behalf of the deceased, we accumulate a great collection of virtue and merit. We do this by making prostrations and extensive offerings to the holy beings, so that the deceased gather the necessary conditions to take rebirth in the Pure Land of a Buddha.

2 On behalf of the deceased, by sincerely making requests to the purification Buddha Vajrasattva with the recitation of the hundred-letter mantra, we purify the four main obstacles to their taking rebirth in the Pure Land of a Buddha. These obstacles are their non-virtues and negative actions created (1) physically, (2) verbally, (3) mentally, and (4) by their body, speech, and mind together.

3  Through the power of our compassionate intention, strong prayer, and concentration on the practice, we transfer the consciousness of the deceased to the Pure Land of Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of Compassion so that they will experience pure and everlasting happiness.

4 Through the power of our concentration on the final special ritual practice, together with the mantra recitation, we create a special auspiciousness for the deceased to attain permanent liberation from contaminated rebirth.

 We then conclude this powa practice with the dedication prayers.

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Kuluta Buddhist Centre

182 Wellington Street, Kingston, ON K7L 3E4
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A member of the New Kadampa Tradition - International Kadampa Buddhist Union.

Meditation courses in Kingston & Funeral rites.