Empowerment

What is an empowerment?

An empowerment is a traditional Buddhist ceremony during which we receive the blessings or the inspirational energy of a Buddha. Each Buddha has a specific function that we learn about during this ceremony. The presider explains the nature and history of this Buddha and describes the type of help he or she brings to all living beings.

We are guided through various meditations and visualizations to help us gain experience of the practice.

What are the benefits of such a ceremony?

A blessing empowerment is a unique and powerful experience. Everyone is encouraged to develop a good heart and a desire to improve as a person in order to help others. By doing this, we create an enormous amount of individual and collective virtue or good fortune.

Who can participate in a blessing empowerment?

Anyone can attend an empowerment, Buddhist or not.

Why is this ceremony called an empowerment?

During the ceremony, we receive the blessings, or inspirational energy of a Buddha's body, speech and mind. This ceremony grants us permission to visualize him or her and to generate ourselves in our imagination in his or her guise. We also receive the oral transmission of his mantra and permission to engage in its recitation. These methods are unique to Buddhist Tantric practice. There is no mandatory commitment to this practice.