K
a r m a . K a g y u . T r a d i t i o n
His Holiness The 17th Gyalwa Karmapa Thaye Dorje consecrates Buena Park Center’s New Facility
(2003, September)
At the end of September, HH Karmapa visited the Bodhi Path center in the Los Angeles area, also known as the Mahavaipulya Buddhist Association, to consecrate the 10-year-old group’s new facility, a spacious former Wells Fargo bank building located in Buena Park. It replaces a smaller building that had served as the group’s previous home. To make the building an optimal space for the activities of the community, significant renovations were completed. The former bank lobby now serves as a large shrine room capable of seating several hundred people.
The three-day program consisted of a Karma Pakshi Guru Yoga initiation on Friday the 26th, followed by the consecration ceremony itself and public talk on Saturday the 27th. Sunday the 28th, the final day, saw a ceremony where Karmapa gave Refuge and Bodhisattva vows as well as the Chenrezig initiation. That evening the group held a farewell dinner for Karmapa at a Chinese restaurant in Pasadena.
“ I would like to assure you of my support and I would like to encourage you to work together in harmony as you always have,” Karmapa said in his public talk. “I pray that this will help beings through the study and the practice of Buddhism, develop sincere loving kindness and compassion toward all sentient beings without exception.”
Nearly 500 people attended Karmapa’s public talk, while a smaller group of Bodhi Path L.A./Mahavaipulya staff were able to meet with Karmapa in private. There, Karmapa praised the accomplishments of the group, and urged them to continue to work together and use the tools of Dharma so as not to get caught up in the normal suffering of life. “I want you, all of you also to be very, very positive. And most of all, [I want you] to understand one another and to help one another.”
“ With the opening of this new location and with the blessing from HH and the support from all of you, we believe this is an auspicious beginning of a new decade for our organization,” said Bodhi Path L.A./Mahavaipulya co-founder Howard Yang. “For example we have plans to open more courses, publish text books, and establish a retreat center. Most importantly we wish to eventually develop a practical system to implement the wisdom of the Buddhism into our daily life.”Bodhi Path L.A./Mahavaipulya Buddhist Association was established in 1993 by Howard and Cybele Yang under the direction of Shamar Rinpoche primarily to serve the large Chinese-American in the Los Angeles area. The center offers an extensive program of meditation practice, teachings by visiting lamas and regular classes on Buddhism taught in both Chinese and English language, focusing on texts such as Gampopa’s Jewel Ornament of Liberation and Mahayana sutras. The group’s extensive bi-lingual library is open to the public.
The center is located at 8781 Knott Ave. Buena Park, CA 90620, phone (714) 220-0028, email info@bodhipath-la.org
Bodhipath Newsletter, Spring, 2004
