Happy New Year!
May the causes of harm and violence throughout the world be swiftly pacified and vanquished from their very roots.
May the minds of all be filled with love for one another!
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Our center will remain open during the holidays through the New Year
TRTCC will remain open during the holidays through the New Year
We wish you wonderful celebrations during this winter holiday season.
Our resident teacher Lama Kalsang will continue to lead our regular practices during the winter holidays at Three Rivers Tibetan Cultural Center.
ALL ARE WELCOME
May the entire world enjoy abundant happiness and wealth!
Buddha Amitayus Practice Saturday and Sunday Morning Dec 14, 15
BUDDHA AMITAYUS PRACTICE
Saturday and Sunday, December 14 & 15, 2019
with Ven. Lama Kalsang
Ven. Lama Kalsang will lead two special Buddha Amitayus practices on Saturday and Sunday morning, December 14 & 15, instead of our regular weekend practices.Amitayus, Buddha of Boundless Life, is regarded as the Sambhogakaya aspect of Amitabha Buddha, the Buddha of Boundless Light. In the traditional Tibetan tanka images, Amitayus is often depicted as red in color as the rays of rising sun, seated in a meditation posture, holding a long life vase filled with the elixir of immortality. “Boundless Life” refers to his blessings and virtue.
The format of both practices on Saturday and Sunday will be the same, so you can either come on Saturday or Sunday, or both. There will be a food offering ritual (TSOK) during the practice. If you wish to participate in the tsok offering you are welcome to bring some fruit or little cookies for the occasion. The Amitayus Retreat text will be used for this practice. No prerequisite or prior experience is required to participate. Lama Kalsang also mentioned that if you have a ritual item “Datta” as shown in this picture you are welcome to bring it to the practice.
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, Dec 14 & 15
10:00am – 11:30am — Buddha Amitayus Practice with food offering
ALL ARE WELCOME
Please make a donation to support the continuation of TRTCC’s teaching programs and cultural events. Thank you so much for your kindness! May it benefit all.
No one will be turned away because of insufficient funds.
Three Rivers Tibetan Cultural Center is located at:
7313 Florence Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15218
Venerable Lama Sonam’s Teaching Nov 16-17, 2019
Visiting Teacher Ven. Lama Sonam
Saturday & Sunday, November 16-17, 2019
Avalokiteshvara Empowerment and 35 Buddhas Purification Practice
Saturday, 11/16/2019
10:00am-12:00pm
2:00pm-4:00pm
Ven. Lama Sonam will give the empowerment of Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezig, the deity embodying the quality of loving kindness and compassion) Saturday morning, before his teaching on the 
35 Buddhas and Purification Practice. Based on the Sutra of the Three Heaps, this practice is for the benefit of purifying past negative actions, accumulating merits, removing emotional obstacles, and generating the power of regret, reliance, remediation and resolution to avert downfall regarding our broken vows, including Vinaya Vows, Bodhisattva Vows, and Tantric Samaya Vows.
Omniscient Rigdzin Choedrak’s Mind-Training
Sunday, 11/17/2019
10:00am-12:00pm
2:00pm-4:00pm
On Sunday morning and afternoon Lama Sonam will focus on Rigdzin Choedrak‘s special Mind-Training methods. Rigdzin Choedrak (1595-1659) was the first H.H. Drikung Chungtsang Rinpoche of the Drikung Kagyu lineage.
Ven. Lama Sonam has come to teach at TRTCC several times in recent years. He is currently the spiritual director of Drikung Meditation Center in Arlington, Massachusetts. Originally from Drikung Katsal monastery in Tibet, Lama Sonam began his training since young age in the Drikung Kagyu lineage, took full ordination at the age of 18, and has received teachings and transmissions from many lineage masters in Tibet and India.
ALL ARE WELCOME
A vegetarian lunch will be offered by our sangha members on both days. Suggested donation is $30 for each day, Saturday or Sunday, and $50 for the whole weekend. Your donations will support TRTCC’s many teaching and cultural events year round. No one will be turned away from dharma teaching for insufficient funds.
To download a flyer of this event please click: Lama Sonam Nov 16-17, 2019 flyer
Three Rivers Tibetan Cultural Center is located at: 7313 Florence Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15218
Special Achi Practice on October 20, 2019 and TRTCC General Meeting
Special Achi Chokyi Drolma practice with Ven. Lama Kalsang, a sangha sponsored vegetarian lunch, and our Annual General Meeting
Sunday, October 20, 2019
10am – 2:00pm
The name Achi Chokyi Drolma means “Grandmother, Savior of the Dharma” in Tibetan. Being the great grandmother of Lord Jigten Sumgon, Achi is the great female protector of the Drikung Kagyu lineage and its practitioners. She is revered by many as an emanation of Vajrayogini, Tara, and the Wisdom Dakini of the Five Buddha families, who can display a limitless number of manifestations at different times and in different space dimensions for the benefits of all beings in samsara.
Our practice on October 20th will be led by our resident teacher, Ven. Lama Kalsang. It will include our regular opening and dedication prayers and the recitation of Achi’s special mantra for the swift removal of all obstacles on our path.
ALL ARE WELCOME
Sunday, October 20, 2019
10am – 12:00pm Achi Chokyi Drolma practice
12pm – 1:00pm Sangha offered vegetarian lunch
1:00pm – 2:00pm TRTCC Annual General Meeting
Dear sangha friends,
Three Rivers Tibetan Cultural Center has been serving our Pittsburgh community as a dharma and cultural center for many years. Originally as part of the Pittsburgh Friends of Tibet, we began using the name Three Rivers Dharma Center in January of 1994, when Ven. Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche first came to Pittsburgh to give teachings. Our mission then and now was to provide an opportunity for the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism in this region. A highlight of those early years was when we sponsored the visit of H.H. Dalai Lama in November 1998. His presence and teachings touched the hearts and minds of thousands of Pittsburghers.
With Ven. Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche as our original spiritual director, followed by Ven. Khenpo Choephel as our current spiritual director, and Ven. Lama Kalsang as our current resident teacher, we have since established our center’s affiliation with the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Over the years, we continued to offer regular meditation practices in various locations as well as to invite many teachers and lamas to give special teachings. Ven. Khenpo Choephel became our first resident lama in late 2011. Relying on the kindness of our sangha friends, supporters and donors, Three Rivers Tibetan Cultural Center was incorporated as a charitable non-profit organization in 2013 and acquired our current property in Swissvale in 2015. This has been 25 years in the making, and our work to spread the dharma and preserve the rich cultural heritage of Tibetan Buddhism will continue.
To commemorate the 25 years of multiple contributions from our sangha friends, supporters and donors and to share our joy with you having established this center for our practice in Pittsburgh, on Sunday, October 20th, we will have a special Achi Chokyi Drolma practice at 10 a.m. led by Ven. Lama Kalsang. A vegetarian lunch will be offered at noon, and our annual general meeting will start around 1 p.m. Our board members will share with you our recent progress and future plans for the center. We will also be open to hear from you whatever feedback and valuable suggestions that you may have for us.
All sangha members and friends of TRTCC are welcome to join us on October 20th for the Achi practice, our sangha sponsored lunch, and to participate in our general meeting. Please continue to support Three Rivers Tibetan Cultural Center by making a donation.
Three Rivers Tibetan Cultural Center is located at: 7313 Florence Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15218
Ven. Khenmo Konchog Nyima Drolma’s Teaching, Sep 6-8, 2019
Visiting Teacher Ven. Khenmo Konchog Nyima Drolma’s Teaching on
Engaging with the Dharma to Uproot Hatred and Bias and Reclaiming Joy
September 6-8, 2019
FRIDAY, September 6
7:00pm-9:00pm–A public teaching: What comes after the Shootings for Dharma Practitioners (at the Sixth Presbyterian Church)
Marches, memorials, and prayers… , then what? We do our own work on our own hearts and minds. We see clearly that we have an inner and outer responsibility as Dharma practitioners and bodhisattvas in training. We can use the teaching of Dharma to see where our own ignorance begins. Then, deconstructing the human heart/mind, we learn how to lift confusion wherever we find it.
SATURDAY, September 7 (at TRTCC )
10:00am-12:00pm; 2:00pm-4:00pm–Using the Dharma to uproot hatred and bias
Learn about the Buddhist understanding of bias as an integral part of how we perceive the samsaric world. The good news is that Buddhist philosophy’s very purpose is to uproot ignorance, and thus is directly applicable to understanding unconscious bias and its removal. Khenmo will present the Buddhist science of perception which dissects bias as it arises and the philosophy of the Three Marks of Existence: Impermanence, Suffering and Non-self as an antidote. Khenmo will teach a Loving kindness practice as a specific, subtle retraining of the heart/mind to overcome bias.
SUNDAY, September 8 (at TRTCC)
10:00am-12:00pm–Reclaiming Joy
Khenmo will continue teaching the Loving Kindness meditation with an emphasis on uncovering joy. Meditation leads to joy! And many of us have to teach ourselves what joy is, not knowing we have it within. Retraining our minds away from anger and desire to form a habit of joy is key to contributing to a more loving world.
Ven. Khenmo Konchog Nyima Drolma is the abbess of Vajra Dakini Nunnery in Maine, U.S.A. In 1997, she took her novice ordination with H.H. Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche and received many circles of Drikung empowerments and transmissions during her annual trips and solitary retreats to India. In 1999 she received monastic training at Gampo Abbey guided by Ven. Pema Chödrön in Nova Scotia, Canada. In 2002 she took full ordination as a Buddhist nun in Taiwan. In 2004 in Lumbini, Nepal, she was installed as a Khenmo (Abbess) in the Drikung lineage, becoming the first woman and first westerner in her lineage to officially hold this responsibility. Since then she has worked continuously to establish Vajra Dakini Nunnery and teach the Dharma internationally.
To download a flyer of this weekend event: Khenmo Drolma Sept 2019 teaching flyer
ALL ARE WELCOME
Suggested donation is $40 for the whole weekend teaching. A simple potluck vegetarian lunch will be offered by our sangha members at noon on both Saturday and Sunday. There will be an informal social time after lunch on Sunday with Khenmo. Your generous donations will support TRTCC’s many teaching and cultural events year round. No one will be turned away from dharma teaching for insufficient funds.
The Sixth Presbyterian Church is located at:
1688 Murray Avenue,
Pittsburgh, PA 15217
Three Rivers Tibetan Cultural Center is located at:
7313 Florence Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15218
Nyungnay Fasting Retreat Aug 24-25, 2019
Nyungnay Fasting Retreat
with Ven. Lama Kalsang
August 24-25, 2019
Saturday, Aug 24, 7-8:30pm
Sunday, Aug 25, 10am-12:00pm
1:30-3:30pm
NYUNGNAY is a fasting silent retreat focusing on the cultivation of loving-kindness, compassion and Bodhicitta and purifying negative past actions. Participants of this retreat at Three Rivers Tibetan Cultural Center will observe eight vows in a 24-hour period, practicing meditation, visualization and mantra recitation of the Thousand-Armed Chenrezig.
This retreat will be led by our resident teacher Venerable Lama Kalsang, who first came to TRTCC from Drikung Kagyu Rinchen Ling Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal, in November 2017, and came back again in April 2019.
On Saturday from 7-8:30pm, Lama Kalsang will give us instructions on how to observe the eight vows during the retreat. On Sunday, participants will observe the vows and start the fasting for a 24-hour period. TRTCC will provide fresh fruit, light yogurt, or non-dairy yogurt in the morning and during lunch time. This practice is purposefully designed for lay people and is commonly adopted in Tibet. The physical fasting helps to overcome obscurations of the body; the silence helps to purify obscurations of the speech; the one-pointed concentration purifies obscurations of the mind.
We invite you to join us and participate in this special one-day retreat as a way to establish a firm commitment to observing the vows. Suggested donation is $30 for the weekend. Your donations will support TRTCC’s many teaching and cultural events year round. No one will be turned away from dharma teaching for insufficient funds.
ALL ARE WELCOME
As always, your donations to our center will help sustain TRTCC’s many teaching and cultural events year round. Our heartfelt thanks to your continued supports to TRTCC!
To download a flyer of this event: Nyungnay Retreat Aug 24-25 2019 flyer
Three Rivers Tibetan Cultural Center is located at: 7313 Florence Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15218
Ven. Tashi Nyima July Teaching on Freedom from Suffering: The Noble Eightfold Path
Freedom from Suffering: The Noble Eightfold Path
A Weekend Teaching by Visiting Teacher
The Venerable Tashi Nyima
July 19, 20, 21, 2019
The Venerable Tashi Nyima will return to Pittsburgh to give a Friday public talk and a weekend teaching on the topic Freedom from Suffering: The Noble Eightfold Path.
The Friday night public talk will be an introduction to Buddhism’s foundational teaching, the Noble Eightfold Path, with a focus on the RIGHT VIEW, the very first of this path. It will take place at the Sixth Presbyterian Church from 7:00-9:00pm
On Saturday morning and afternoon, and Sunday morning at TRTCC, Lama Tashi will continue to help us take an in-depth look at the whole Eightfold Path, from the Right View, Right Thought, to the Right Speech, Action, Livelihood, and finally toward the Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration. There will be opportunities for comments and questions as we contemplate on how to apply these guidelines in our lives.
In Lama Tashi’s own words: “The Buddha did not invent the Noble Eightfold Path, nor is it a sectarian religious discipline. The Buddha observed what it is that we all do in ordinary life, and proposed that every thought, word, and deed can either lead to continued suffering or to the cessation of suffering. We can choose freedom. We can choose happiness.“
Ven. Tashi Nyima is an ordained monk in the Jonang lineage of Vajrayana (Tibetan) Buddhism, and leads the Universal Compassion Buddhist Congregation, with Sanghas in Texas and Mexico. For more than three decades, Lama Tashi has shared the Dharma in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Known for his directness, clarity of expression, and sense of humor, Lama Tashi shares the Dharma in fluent English and Spanish.
July 19, Friday, 7:00-9:00pm, at Sixth Presbyterian Church
July 20, Saturday, 10:00am–Noon, 1:30-3:30pm at TRTCC
July 21, Sunday, 10:00am–Noon, at TRTCC
ALL ARE WELCOME
Suggested donation is $50 for the whole weekend. A simple vegetarian lunch will be offered by our sangha members at noon on Saturday and Sunday. Your generous donations will support TRTCC’s teaching programs and cultural events year round. No one will be turned away from dharma teaching for insufficient funds.
To help us better prepared for this teaching event please let us know you are attending by emailing us at: threeriversdharma@gmail.com
To download a flyer please click here: Tashi Nyima July 2019 flyer
The Sixth Presbyterian Church is located at: 1688 Murray Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
Three Rivers Tibetan Cultural Center is located at: 7313 Florence Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15218
Buddha Amitabha Jang Chog Ritual with Ven. Lama Kalsang
TRTCC Teacher Ven. Lama Kalsang
Amitabha Jang Chog Ritual
Saturday, May 18, 2019
The Amitabha Jang Chog puja (ritual) is a Vajrayana practice performed to purify the negative karma of the deceased, who passed away recently or in the distant past, to help them relinquish their clinging to the impermanent human world. It helps them by creating the causes and conditions for their liberation, furthering their journey to the peaceful Pure Land of Buddha Amitabha.
The puja also benefits the living friends or relatives of the deceased through the ritual blessings and accumulation of prayers, chanting, meditation and offering of food and merits on behalf of the deceased, purifying negativity, resolving karmic debts, which may be manifesting as obstacles in life.
This Jang Chog puja will be led by Ven. Lama Kalsang, who first came to Pittsburgh in November 2017 from Drikung Kagyu Rinchen Ling Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal, and came back again in April 2019. He was ordained in 1992 by H.E. Nubpa Rinpoche and the late Ven. Drubwang Rinpoche. Having studied under many Tibetan Buddhism masters, and trained in the ritual practices at Drikung Kagyu Jangchub Ling in India, Lama Kalsang has served for many years as a chant master, disciplinarian, and treasurer at Drikung Kagyu Rinchen Ling. From 2014-2016 Lama Kalsang was one of the three directors of the Rinchen Ling monastery, where our spiritual director Ven. Khenpo Choephel is serving as their current abbot. Lama Kalsang has traveled to European and Asian cities with his teachers to spread dharma teachings before coming to Three Rivers Tibetan Cultural Center as our resident teacher.
SATURDAY, May 18, 2019
10:00am-12:00pm — The ritual of Buddha Amitabha Jang Chog
12:00pm-2:00pm — Vegetarian Lunch offered by TRTCC sangha
2:00pm-5:00pm — Amitabha Jang Chog practice continues
7:00pm-8:30pm — Full-moon day Medicine Buddha practice
ALL ARE WELCOME
Suggested donation for this Amitabha Jang Chog event is $50 for the whole day. Donations on behalf of your deceased loved ones are gratefully accepted. A simple vegetarian lunch will be offered by our sangha members. Your donations will support TRTCC’s teaching programs and cultural events year round. No one will be turned away from dharma teaching because of insufficient funds.
To help us better prepared for this event we request that you let us know you are attending, and, if appropriate, include the names of your deceased relatives or friends by emailing us at: threeriversdharma@gmail.com
To download a flyer please click here: Amitabha Jang Chog Ritual May18, 2019 flyer
or click on the image:
Three Rivers Tibetan Cultural Center is located at:
7313 Florence Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15218
Drikung Kagyu Monlam Prayer Festival June 21, 22, 23rd, 2019
6th Annual Drikung Kagyu Monlam for World Peace
June 21, 22 & 23, 2019
at Regent Theatre, 7 Medford Street, Arlington, MA
Schedule of Events
Friday Afternoon, June 21st:
H.E. Garchen Rinpoche, public talk
Saturday Morning, June 22nd:
White Tara Empowerment
Saturday Afternoon, June 22nd:
King of Aspiration and
World Peace Prayers
Sunday Morning, June 23rd:
H.E. Garchen Rinpoche teachings, Doha of the
Compassion Master, Uniting All Beings Through Love and Compassion
Sunday Afternoon, June 23rd:
Continue Monlam Prayer Festival and end with Tsok
For registration or more information about this annual Drikung Kagyu prayer festival event please go to this link:
https://www.drikungboston.org/2019-monlam
