Southwest Dharma Celebration 2026
White Tara Empowerment
Gather together with Kadampa Buddhist practitioners from all around the Southwest United States in a celebration of faith, wisdom and compassion. Meet new Sangha friends from other Centers, discuss Dharma, listen, contemplate and meditate on profound teachings, and relax within the peaceful environment of the International Kadampa Retreat Center Grand Canyon. Everyone is welcome to sign up for this event!
About the Southwest Dharma Celebration
The SWDC is a regional gathering of Kadampa Buddhists from Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and surrounding states. It is a wonderful opportunity to develop connections with the Sangha community while receiving inspiring teachings and meditations.
This year Gen Kelsang Gomlam, our Western National Spiritual Director, will grant the blessing empowerment of Buddha White Tara. This empowerment is a special guided meditation in which we make a connection with White Tara and receive her special blessings into our mind. After the empowerment, Gen Gomlam will give teachings on subtle impermenance. Through this we can understand how to solve all our stresses and daily problems by truly living “in the moment.”
Who is the Buddha White Tara?
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.
About the Teachings
In this special weekend, we will learn how we can rely on Buddha White Tara in busy modern life. Gen Gomlam will also give teachings on the profound wisdom of subtle impermanence. She will explain how to use this knowledge to quickly and practically stop our painful delusions and self grasping, bringing us inner balance and immeasurable peace.
Schedule:
Friday - Intro
Saturday - Meditation, Empowerment, Teachings
Sunday - Meditation, 2x Teachings
Monday - Meditation, Teaching