Program & Schedule
About the celebration
The 2024 Midwest Dharma Celebration welcomes everyone in the Midwest to come receive an energizing blessing empowerment, listen to inspiring teachings, engage in powerful meditations, and visit with spiritual friends – all for the purpose of creating a pure world for ourself and others.
During this meaningful weekend, Gen Kelsang Demo, Midwestern US National Spiritual Director, will grant the blessing empowerment of Vajrasattva, the Buddha of purification. The empowerment is a blissful guided meditation in which we will receive the special blessings of Buddha Vajrasattva upon our body, speech and mind. This powerful experience gives us a brief glimpse of the inner freedom and universal love experienced by an enlightened mind.
After the empowerment, Gen Demo will give commentary to the purification practice of Buddha Vajrasattva following the sadhana Meditation and Recitation of Solitary Vajrasattva. Gen Demo will share teachings on how this skillful and creative practice allows us to purify our negative karma and connect with the natural potential of our mind. Through this practice, we can heal our past, and purify painful habits of thinking and behaving. By purifying our mind, we can gradually transform our experience of our world and everyone in it – including ourself.
Celebration schedule
Click tabs to view schedule for each day. All times are listed in Central Daylight Time.
| 7-8:30pm | Introductory talk | Gen Dorje |
| 9-10am | Meditation | Gen Zamling |
| 11am–1pm | Empowerment | Gen Demo |
| 1-3pm | Lunch | |
| 3-4:30pm | Teaching | Gen Demo |
| 4:45-5:15pm | NKT Day Video Presentation | |
| 5:30-6:30pm | Wishfulfilling Jewel |
| 9-10am | Meditation | Gen Zamling |
| 11am–12:30pm | Teaching | Gen Demo |
| 12:30-2pm | Lunch | |
| 2-3:30pm | Teaching | Gen Demo |
Buddha taught many different methods to purify non-virtuous actions, downfalls and broken commitments, but the supreme method is the practice of meditation and recitation of Vajrasattva. This practice is a scientific method to purify our mind and transform it from an impure mind into a pure mind using Tantric technology.
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
The Oral Instructions of Mahamudra
Prayer booklets and books
The following prayer booklets will be used during the Celebration: Prayers for Meditation, Request to the Holy Spiritual Guide Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche, Wishfulfilling Jewel, Meditation & Recitation of Solitary Vajrasattva
The books that Gen Demo will be teaching from are: Joyful Path of Good Fortune, The Oral Instructions of Mahamudra, The New Guide to Dakini Land.
We encourage you to bring your own copy of the prayer booklets, if you have them. We will have some copies available for use during the sessions. These prayer booklets and books will be available for purchase in the shop at KMC Madison. You can also purchase them in advance at Tharpa.com/us.
For the Benefit of All
All International and National Festivals and Dharma Celebrations are hosted by Kadampa Meditation Centers and Kadampa Buddhist Centers, and many are held in Temples for World Peace. All profits from these events are dedicated to public benefit through the International Temples Project (ITP). Simply by attending this and any Kadampa Dharma Celebration you are helping to bring peace into the hearts of this and future generations.