What is the Southern Dharma Celebration?

The Southern Dharma Celebration is a regional Buddhist meditation festival where people gather to receive blessings, learn about the Buddhist spiritual path and meditate together. This regional event is organized by Kadampa meditation centers and branches in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle.  In 2024, the Southern Dharma Celebration is hosted by Kadampa Meditation Center Georgia. 

During this rare and precious event, the New Kadampa Tradition’s Eastern U.S. National Spiritual Director, Kadam Morten Clausen, will grant the blessing empowerment of Buddha White Tara, the compassionate mother of all living beings. Everyone is welcome!

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What is an empowerment?

“An empowerment bestows upon us special blessings that heal our mental continuum and awaken our Buddha nature.”  — Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche

A blessing empowerment is a transformative guided meditation. It servers to connect our body, speech and mind to a Buddha’s enlightened body, speech and mind. Through receiving their blessings we can swiftly actualize our own potential and gain the confidence we need to progress along the spiritual path. Through the power of our compassion we can help to bring enormous relief to our suffering world.

Who is White Tara, the Buddha of Long Life, Good Fortune & Wisdom?

White Tara is a female enlightened being whose function is to bestow long life, wisdom and good fortune. These oppose our three main obstacles to a meaningful life – a short life, ignorance and little merit. If we rely on White Tara with faith, she will protect us from contagious disease, the danger of fire, and other disasters. It is said that living beings receive Tara’s help as swiftly as the wind moves because she is a manifestation of the wind element of all the Buddhas.  She particularly helps us to overcome our ignorance by teaching ultimate truth, the way things really are, which leads us directly to permanent liberation from suffering and the lasting pure peace of full enlightenment. By maintaining a continuous connection with Buddha Tara, our wisdom, good fortune and life span will naturally increase day by day.

What is the spiritual meaning of this blessing empowerment? 

We need a long life to complete our spiritual practice, wisdom to free ourselves and others from daily pain and problems, and good fortune or positive energy to achieve a long-lasting experience of inner peace and happiness.

During the weekend-long event, Kadam Morten will be offering teachings on the wisdom of emptiness, the word used by Buddha to describe the ultimate nature of reality. 

Emptiness is not a nihilistic nothingness, but rather an experience of freedom from limitation that allows us to let go of our painful ways of relating to ourselves and the world. It is a source of joy, creativity and healing that we can all tap into at any time. Through meditation on emptiness we can quickly become the person we wish to be, and we open ourselves to our potential for complete liberation and enlightenment. Kadam Morten will guide us into a practical experience of the meditation on emptiness, and show us how to integrate it into our own daily life.