Visitor’s Guide to the Columbus Karma Thegsum Choling
The Columbus Karma Thegsum Choling loves to welcome visitors – it’s an important part of our broader mission to be an open and harmonious place for people to make contact with the Dharma.

Many people ask, “What do you do at the KTC?  When’s the best time for me to visit?” This page will attempt to address those questions, and more!

• 10 a.m. Sundays - “Introduction to Meditation” class
• 11:30 a.m. Sundays - “Introduction to Buddhism” class
• 7 p.m. Tuesday nights - “Chenrezig Sadhana,” a chanting meditation
• 7 p.m. Thursday nights - “Chenrezig Sadhana,” a chanting meditation
• 10 a.m. to 12 noon First Saturday of the Month - “Meditation Practice and Study Group,” a workshop.

What to Wear
Comfortable clothing that is appropriate for sitting on the floor. Short-shorts and short skirts and tank tops are discouraged. (We do have chairs for sitting, as well, so feel comfortable to use them!)

What to expect when you visit
The KTC is housed in an 1920s vintage church formerly used by a Christian congregation. You may park in our rear parking lot. Please do not park on Grubb Street, as our neighbors do not have driveways and need room to park their cars along the street in front of their homes.

When you enter the foyer, you will see two stairways. The large stairway directly in front of you goes up to our Main Shrine Room. The smaller stairway to the right goes down to our ground-floor Meeting Hall, where our coat rack, restrooms, conversation area, and tea and coffee service area are located.

If you are going downstairs, you may leave your shoes on – the floors can be quite cold! – but if you are going upstairs, you may leave your shoes in the shoeracks on the right-hand side of the foyer.  If you have difficulty with stairs, you may leave your shoes on and take them off in the Main Shrine Room on the benches to the right and left of the Main Shrine Room doors. In keeping with Tibetan tradition, shoes are not worn in the Main Shrine Room.

The Open Public Sitting Meditation takes place in our Main Shrine Room on the second floor of the KTC. Participants can sit on cushions on the floor or on chairs at the rear of the Main Shrine Room. The session consists of 25 minutes of quiet sitting followed by 10 minutes of silent walking meditation (in a circle in the shrine room) and 25 more minutes of quiet sitting. No opening or closing prayers are recited, but a meditation gong is rung to mark the sitting and walking periods and the session is led by a Meditation Umdze (leader).

You may sit for all or part of the session. Some choose to sit for only the first half of the session, and go downstairs for tea during the second half. Others choose to join during the walking meditation and stay for the second half. Please enter and exit quietly and respectfully, and keep voices low in the Meeting Hall.

Introduction to Meditation class takes place in the Library at the rear of the Main Shrine Room. It consists of a brief introduction to the mission and activities of the KTC, a short meditation lesson, a short meditation practice, and a question period.

If you’re not free on Sundays, you can call the KTC at (614) 228-6546 and Press 2 to schedule your Introduction to Meditation Class on another day.

Come for tea. At 11 a.m. every Sunday, at the conclusion of our Open Public Sitting Meditation period, we have announcements in the Main Shrine Room and then break for tea in the Meeting Hall downstairs. Tea, coffee and other snacks are available from 11 a.m. until the center closes for the day at 2 p.m.

Stay for class. At 11:30 a.m. every Sunday, we have one-hour Dharma Talks at the KTC. In the Library, we offer our free, eight-week Introduction to Buddhism course. The course is designed so that you can join at any point – your first visit to KTC is fine! – and covers a variety of basic Buddhist topics.  In the Main Shrine Room, we have a one-hour Dharma Talk on various topics, taught either by Resident Teacher Lama Kathy Wesley, or by a senior student of the Columbus KTC.

Come early or stay late to chant! Sundays are also good days for Tibetan sadhana practice – chants and mantras in the Tibetan language. We have sadhana texts for you to use that have Tibetan script, English phonetics, and English translation.

7 a.m. Sundays – the 90-minute Green Tara Sadhana, a chant of the feminine Bodhisattva of Compassion, whose practice is done to remove obstacles and develop our inner compassionate response.

9 a.m. Sundays – the 30-minute Medicine Buddha Sadhana, a chant of the Healing Buddha, is done to pray for those who are ill and to promote inner and outer health in the sangha (congregation) and the general community at large.

1 p.m. Sundays – the 60-minute Chenrezig/Amitabha Sadhana. These sadhanas  invoke the Bodhisattva of compassion (Chenrezig) and the Buddha of the Western Pure Land of Dewachen (Amitabha). These meditations benefit all beings, and are dedicated to increasing our compassionate response to all.

What happens on Tuesdays and Thursdays at KTC
The second-best time to visit the Columbus KTC is at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays or Thursdays, when we do our Chenrezig/Amitabha Sadhana practice.

The Chenrezig/Amitabha Sadhana is a one-hour long chant and mantra practice chanted in the Tibetan language. Chenrezig is the Tibetan form of the Indian Buddhist bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, who is invoked as a means to increase compassion in our minds and lives. Amitabha is the Buddha of the Western Pure Land of Dewachen (Sukhavati in Sanskrit) whose practice is done to benefit both the living and those who have passed away.

Sadhana participants sit on the floor or on chairs in front of tables that hold their prayer books. Prayer books containing the practice, along with English pronunciation and English translations of the prayers, is available for all participants to use. You can read silently, chant along, or merely sit and meditate or observe.

If you would like to schedule an “accompanied” Tuesday or Thursday night visit with a KTC Meditation Instructor acting as your guide and helper, you can call the KTC at (614) 228-6546 and Press 2 to schedule an accompanied visit.

The Meditating Peacocks: A Meditation-Oriented AA Group
A member of the Alcoholics Anonymous family, the “Meditating Peacocks” gather every Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. in the KTC basement Meeting Hall.

Donations gratefully accepted
There is no charge to visitors for our regular weekly programs on Tuesday night, Thursday night and Sunday morning. However, as the Columbus KTC runs solely on donations from the local community, you will find a donation box located near the Main Shrine Room doorway. Your contributions are joyfully accepted! You can also donate online: