Venerable Lama Karma Samten has entered paranirvana
Tashi delek dear friends,
It is with deep sorrow that we write to tell you that early on the 10th of May, our precious teacher, Venerable Lama Karma Samten Gyatso passed away and entered paranirvana at Mt. Best south of Melbourne, Australia.
Under the guidance of Venerable Pong Re Tulku Rinpoche, our beloved Venerable Lama’s precious Kudung will be brought back to New Zealand, and a traditional cremation ceremony will be held at Karma Choeling monastery.
On Wednesday 22 May, the precious Kudung will be welcomed by local Iwi onto the Karma Choeling property. He will be carried, as is customary, by palanquin with attendants, and he will be positioned in repose in the Gompa.
The Programme
Wednesday 22 May
The precious Kudung will return to his traditional seat of Karma Choeling between 10 and 11am, he will be welcomed by Iwi onto the property. We request all participants have open kata and lit incense, as we will line-up from the main gate to the outdoor stairs by the Bodhi House to welcome him.
To begin in the Temple, Venerable Pong Re Tulku Rinpoche, Choje Lama Shedrup, and invited Lamas will lead the traditional prayers in Tibetan for the deceased. There will be a catered lunch break around 1pm, then the second session of prayers will be in English, starting with the Message Book (Ngöndro Practice) and Calling the Guru From Afar. Around 3pm there will a catered afternoon tea, followed by the third session starting with Chenrezig Puja.
After this everybody is welcome to sit in the Gompa and do their own personal practice, receiving the Kudung’s blessing before cremation the next day.
Thursday 23 May (Saga Dawa)
This will be the day of cremation. The morning will begin at 6am with prayers at the specially constructed Cremation Stupa site (in the campground near the Stupas).
The precious Kudung will be carried by palanquin to this site at approximately 6.30am where the Buddha Akshobya Cremation Fire Puja will begin, conducted by Venerable Pong Re Tulku Rinpoche as the Vajra Master. This ritual will take several hours, and we invite all participants to remain until the end.
Please note that this event will be professionally videoed, and a film of the events will be shared at a later date. The Trust requests that no images from the two days of events be publicly posted.
How you can participate
We are welcoming contributions to this sacred event, knowing that our offerings help us all to feel closer to our precious Guru. You can specify what your offering is for in your donation reference, or make it a general offerings for the event expenses. Some suggestions would be:
Sangha
Shrine offering
Cremation Stupa offering
Sangha travel expenses
Food
Tea offering
Bank transfer to ASB: 12-3209-0303196-51
For overseas use PayPal and enter the email: office@kagyu.org.nz on the official PayPal website.
Other general notes:
The two days will be catered professionally, but we request your understanding if anyone has special food requirements. Please consider bringing your own food if you are concerned.
We hope the weather will be kind to us but recommend sensible shoes, an umbrella, and rain jacket in case.
For purposes of catering and parking, we would be grateful if you could add your details to this form: https://forms.gle/TPV5AxBFNMGaL1ti8
We are honoured to host this sacred and historic event, and we pray all aspects are as our precious Guru would wish - heartfelt, sincere and without obstacle.
Tashi Delek,
The New Zealand Karma Kagyu Trust