If you are on a mobile phone, turn your phone sideways to see full calendar view
Events in List Format
White Tara Empowerment - KMC Bloomington
in Bloomington with Resident Teacher, Gen Chokyi
Contemplating Death & Impermanence Walk & Talk | FREE
Social Event with Indianapolis & Bloomington
Centered in the Solution
Most of the time, we may feel off center — overwhelmed and exhausted by life’s circumstances at work, home or just life in general. Come join Gen Chokyi to explore the power meditations of taking and giving in conjunction with six beautiful mindsets called the six perfections. These meditations that harness our compassion and love in a very powerful way will balance your mind and body swiftly.
On this retreat you will learn:
— Connecting our breath with visualizations that transform your mind and body
— Developing a solution using your compassion to suffering
— Giving to others the most powerful, pure love
This retreat is suitable for everyone. It includes guided meditations, short teachings as well as Q&A in the last session. Everyone can benefit from this retreat — you don't have to be Buddhist to participate.
READING MATERIAL for the RETREAT
This retreat will be using the book Modern Buddhism by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche. It's not required to have these books, but some people like to have them on hand during the event or read more afterward.
Pre-register or drop in | All levels of experience are welcome | Cushy chairs and cushions
Centered in the Solution Retreat Schedule
Session 1: 10:00am - 11:30am
Session 2: 11:45am - 1:00pm
What to Expect
2 sessions with 15min breaks
calming guided meditations
short talks to inspire
guided meditations to transform
About the Resident Teacher
As a student of Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche, Gen Kelsang Chokyi has been practicing Kadampa Buddhism for 19 years and is an American Buddhist nun. She is the Resident Teacher at KMC Indianapolis and KMC Bloomington. With joy, wisdom and experience, she illuminates how we can integrate Buddha's teachings into daily life.
A Meaningful Life
What gets us out of bed in the morning? Is it to go to work? Feeding our family breakfast and getting them off to school? A furry friend who needs to go outside? There are many reasons that get us motivated to rise and shine. However, the most beneficial one is based on becoming a friend to the world, a bodhisattva.
Join Fred May for a retreat to explore the six perfections: giving, moral discipline, patience, effort, concentration and wisdom. These mindsets direct our actions to make our life full of meaning and joy.
In Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, Shantideva says:
All the happiness there is in this world
Arises from wishing others to be happy
Pre-register or drop in | All levels of experience are welcome | Cushy chairs and cushions
Schedule
10:00 - 11:30am - Session 1
11:45 - 1:00pm - Session 2
What to Expect
>2 sessions with 15min break
>calming guided meditations
>short talks to inspire
>guided meditations to transform
About the Teacher
Fred has been a student of Geshe Kelsang Gyatso for over 20 years, and has been teaching at KMC Indianapolis for more than a decade. He is also professor emeritus at the University of Indianapolis. Fred brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in Buddhism and meditation to his teachings, with a healthy dose of practicality for everyday life.
VGKG’s Birthday | Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka day retreat
Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka day retreat
“Offering Our Faith — Celebrating Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche”
Donations welcome!
June 4 is a special day of retreat at KMC Indianapolis. Every day we remember the extraordinary kindness of Venerable Geshe-la, our Root Guru and Founder of the New Kadampa Tradition.
But on the auspicious day June 4 (Turning the Wheel of Dharma Day), at Kadampa centers around the world, with minds of rejoicing and gratitude, we offer him our faith through using the special prayer Request to the Holy Spiritual Guide Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso from his Faithful Disciples and collecting our Guru’s name mantra in a one-day retreat.
Gen Chokyi will give some overview of the retreat to understand the meaning of this precious annual retreat on Sunday, June 2 at Prayers for World Peace meditation class.
There will be three sessions of self-guided retreat using the sadhanas The Hundreds of Deities of the Joyful Land According to Highest Yoga Tantra and Request to the Holy Spiritual Guide Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso from his Faithful Disciples. In the evening, the retreat will conclude with Offering to the Spiritual Guide.
Schedule
8:00 - 9:30am - Session 1
10:00 - 11:30am - Session 2
3:00 - 4:30pm - Session 3
5:30 - 7:30pm - Offering to the Spiritual Guide Chanted Prayer
About the Resident Teacher
As a student of Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Gen Kelsang Chokyi is a modern-day Kadampa nun. With joy, wisdom, and experience, she shows how everyone can easily integrate Buddha’s teachings into daily life. She has been a student of Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche for 18 years.
Clear Sky Mind
Our problems are like bad weather in the mind, or like clouds in the sky. We all know that when the storms disappear and the clouds fade away, the sky becomes clear, still and bright. We don’t have to make the sky like that; it's always like that before and after the stormy weather.
In the same way, our mind always has the potential to be peaceful, clear and positive. That is its true nature. We don’t have to force peace into our mind. We just have to understand our own mind and how to uncover its natural potential.
During this retreat, Gen Kelsang Chokyi will explore “what exactly is my mind?” based on the wisdom of the Mahamudra masters. The retreat will provide us with the opportunity to experience the vast space of mental peace that already exists within us. We will learn how to stop identifying with our mental bad weather and instead with our clear sky mind.
READING MATERIAL for the RETREAT
This retreat will be using the Mahamudra Tantra book and the Clarity of Mind booklet by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche. It's not required to have these books, but some people like to have them on hand during the event or read more afterward.
Pre-register or drop in | All levels of experience are welcome | Cushy chairs and cushions
Clear Sky Mind Retreat Schedule
Session 1: 10:00am - 11:00am
Session 2: 11:15am - 12:00pm
Session 3: 12:15pm - 1:00pm
What to Expect
3 sessions with 15min breaks
calming guided meditations
short talks to inspire
guided meditations to transform
About the Resident Teacher
As a student of Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche, Gen Kelsang Chokyi has been practicing Kadampa Buddhism for 19 years and is an American Buddhist nun. She is the Resident Teacher at KMC Indianapolis and KMC Bloomington. With joy, wisdom and experience, she illuminates how we can integrate Buddha's teachings into daily life.
Practical Methods for Overcoming Anxiety
Practical Methods for Overcoming Anxiety | FREE Online Public Talk
April 29, 7:00 – 8:00pm | Led by Fred May
Many people suffer from feelings of anxiety or are overwhelmed by the stress and demands of everyday life. This class will explore meditation methods and ways of thinking that will help us to let go of our stressed and anxious minds and deal with our negative emotions more confidently and effectively.
Blink, and it’s a new world
It’s easy to feel as if nothing can change, like we are stuck the way we are or our circumstances will be the same forever. When we have problems it can be hard to imagine them being solved, and when we have shortcomings it can feel like we’re stuck with them forever.
All of this is coming from a kind of ignorance in our minds that sees everything as permanent. Even though we know intellectually that things change, we relate to them as more permanent and end up feeling stuck.
Impermanence is a major topic of Buddha’s teachings, and very practical. Through meditating on impermanence we can come to realize how quickly things change. Buddha’s teachings on subtle impermanence help us to understand that they are changing every moment, and when we take this knowledge deep into our hearts it is liberating.
Everyone welcome!
No experience necessary.
Drop of Essential Nectar Retreat
Free for Members | Non-member $5 per session. Pay at the door
This special fasting and purification retreat is performed in conjunction with Thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of Compassion. It is a powerful practice for purifying negative karma of body, speech, and mind, and for pacifying mental negativity. It is also a special method for receiving blessings (inspiring energy) and enhancing our capacity for love, compassion, and bodhichitta (the wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all). Everyone is welcome to join this special retreat.
Saturday, April 13th
7:00–9:00 am Precepts and First Session
10:30–11:45 am Second Session
2:30–4:00 pm Third Session
Sunday, April 14th
7:00–9:00 am Precepts and First Session
1:30–2:45 pm Second Session
3:30–5:00 pm Third Session
You can choose to attend both days or just one. On each day that you attend, you must take precepts in the morning. If you have taken precepts before, it is ok to do them at home if you cannot make it to the Center by 7 am. If you haven’t taken precepts before, please click here to learn about the commitments of precepts.
The Power of Acceptance
When things go wrong in our life and we encounter difficult situations, the last thing we want is to accept—it feels like that would mean giving up. Unfortunately our non-acceptance only creates more suffering for ourself.
When we learn to temporarily accept unpleasant experiences, it gives us a certain mental stability and enables us to respond in the most constructive way. Having accepted whatever has arisen, we are free to work toward a better future, unburdened by anger or denial.
In this meditation course, we will explore practical methods taught by Buddha to develop true acceptance in our hearts. Through practicing them, we can solve our own problems, help others, and experience real peace of mind.
Understanding How to Develop a Clear Mind
Understanding How to Develop a Clear Mind | FREE Online Public Talk
December 18, 7:00 – 8:00pm | Led by Fred May
Our lives are so busy that we neglect to stop and take the time to be happy. A clear and peaceful mind is just waiting to be discovered; it is the nature of our mind. Join us in developing a clarity of our mind that is as vast as the ocean and always there.
Blessing Empowerment of Avalokiteshvara
The name Avalokiteshvara means “the most powerful one in the world.” Destructive emotions like anger and rage feel intense, but the deep inner peace from pure compassion can cleanse them from our heart completely. Through training in compassion our mind becomes as strong and stable as a mountain.
The blessing empowerment of Avalokiteshvara is a blissful guided meditation that gives us a closer connection with the compassion of all Buddhas. Afterward, Gen Wangden will transmit the teachings on purifying and transforming the six classes of living being from the book The Mirror of Dharma with Additions.
Schedule
9:55 Doors Open
10:00am – noon Empowerment
Noon – 2:00pm Lunch break
2:00 – 3:45pm Teaching
4:00 – 5:00pm Guided Meditation
Craving, Addiction & Contentment
Register Now!
Class description and schedule coming soon.
Healing Power of Pure Love
“Love hurts.”
“Love is complicated.”
This is our experience because our love is always mixed with other things, like wanting something in return. When our love is pure, it never hurts. Pure love heals. Join us to learn Buddha’s simple, practical methods for developing pure love in our hearts.
Everyone welcome!
No experience necessary.
Schedule
10:00–11:15am Session One
11:15–11:45am Break
11:45am–1:00pm Session Two
Willpower
New Year’s Resolutions have become almost a joke these days because so many of us have never learned how to follow through and enjoy a new habit week after week, month after month. But by using Buddha’s practical methods we can learn how to relax and enjoy making positive changes, even when it’s challenging.
Everyone Welcome! No experience necessary.
Retreat Schedule
10:00 – 11:15 am Session 1
11:45 am – 1:00 pm Session 2
Amitayus Retreat
Amitayus Retreat
A Special Method for Increasing Life Span, Wisdom, and Merit