Ceremonies at Buddhist temple part of worldwide spiritual ‘house cleanse’
By Kristin Bender,
STAFF WRITER
ALAMEDA – Tibetans here and around the world this weekend will be chanting, praying and meditating to rid themselves of negativity for the coming year. Then on Monday they will celebrate the Tibetan New Year.
At Alameda’s Orgyen Dorje Den, a Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Center in the Nyingma tradition, dozens of people gathered Thursday and Friday for a powerful “reversal ceremony.” They will do the same today.
“We are gathering the negativity and trying to get rid of it,” said Scott Globus, a member of the temple’s board of directors. “We clean house, so to speak, but on a spiritual level.”
“The last three days of the lunar year are to clean negativity that has been generated over the year through our emotions, through fighting, and through work. Before we leave one year, we try and clean it up so we don’t take it into the new year,” said Lama Yeshe Nyima, a chant leader who has been studying Buddhism for 27 years.
During the ceremonies, the temple is decorated with candles and incense, colorful prayer flags and stupas — decorative towers packed with tightly rolled prayer scrolls. Books of Tibetan scriptures line one wall. There are paintings and sculptures representative of the “body of an enlightened form around one room,” Globus said.
“Our goal is to transform ourselves from regular body, speech and mind to enlightened body, speech and mind,” said Globus, who has been with the congregation 13 years and says it’s a reason he stays in the Bay Area.
Gyatrul Rinpoche (the name Rinpoche is given to teachers and technically means “precious jewel”) founded Orgyen Dorje Den in 1978 as “a place of refuge in the Bay Area for the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism.”
For years, the congregation rented buildings in San Francisco and in Oakland’s Chinatown. But two years ago an initial donation from a sponsor allowed the congregation to buy the former Fowler-Anderson funeral chapel, across from Alameda City Hall.
The two-story building has several bedrooms, and a kitchen and bathroom on the top floor for students, visiting spiritual leaders and monks. The ground floor houses the main prayer and meditation room, the Mirror of Wisdom bookstore, a meeting room and a couple of bedrooms.
“For us and our tradition, we felt it was auspicious coming here. And all the prayers we do here will ultimately benefit all the people who had their funerals here,” Globus said.
The New Year’s celebration is not the only time the temple is a focal point for Buddhists and others.
The temple also offers Wednesday night classes in Tibetan Buddhism and may start offering yoga classes.
The Vajrakilay Reversal Ceremony continues today from 9:30 a.m. to noon and from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Orgyen Dorje Den, 2244 Santa Clara Ave., Alameda. A donation of $15 per session is requested. At 7 p.m. Monday there will be a Shower of Blessings, which will include a celebration and meal to welcome the new year. A donation of $10 to $20 (sliding scale) is requested for this event.
