with Ven. Katy Cole
Monday, February 19, 2024 1:00pm – 3:00pm PST (Pacific Standard Time) Guru Puja is a practice consisting of making offerings to and requesting inspiration from the Spiritual Master. Spiritual vows and commitments which might have degenerated are also restored through the practice of tsog offering (feast offering). In this practice, we unite our minds with the holy mind of the Spiritual Master, who is considered the root and life-force of the spiritual path in order to receive blessings and generate realizations on the path to enlightenment. This puja is performed with both Tibetan chanting and English. It is a binding practice of Highest Yoga Tantra.
According to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, “Those who have received an initiation into Highest Yoga Tantra have a commitment to perform tsog” on the 10th and 25th of every Tibetan month. All are welcome to participate. |
Originally from Perth, Western Australia, Ven. Katy Cole has been a Buddhist nun for over 16 years. She was ordained with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala in 2004.
Since 2003, Ven. Katy has served in a variety of positions within Lama Zopa Rinpoche's FPMT: as Liberation Prison Project's spiritual program coordinator, chaplain coordinator, and on the project’s US Board of Directors; and at one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche's residences in Aptos, CA, Kachoe Dechen Ling, helping with the numerous extensive offerings completed there every day. In 2008 she did a one-year retreat at FPMT's De-Tong Ling Retreat center on the western side of Kangaroo Island, just off the coast of South Australia. Since 2013, and until the pandemic, Ven. Katy visited Lawudo Gompa annually for retreat, study, and to help Rinpoche’s sister with offerings in Rinpoche’s cave and main gompa, helping the tourists who come to stay, and baby cow care. Prior to meeting her teachers, Ven. Katy studied Vipassana meditation with practitioners from Myanmar. Ven. Katy has a BA Hons in Theatre Arts from Dartington College of Arts, U.K., a BA Hons in Psychology from Murdoch University, W.A, and a MA in clinical psychology from the University of Western Australia. She worked as a psychologist prior to moving to California to work for Liberation Prison Project. Ven. Katy is currently living north of San Francisco, leading meditations and pujas online over Zoom, studying, and engaging in Nyung Nay retreat. |