SPIRITUAL: Holy Day

Our Spiritual Director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, encourages students to take the Eight Mahayana Precepts on holy days. This is a set of vows that are taken for 24 hours, from just before dawn to sunrise of the following day.  Those who have taken precepts previously from a qualified teacher can take them at the center, or at home, at “first light”.

If there are Kadampa Center students who haven’t taken the vows before and wish to do so, Geshe Gelek will come on the 16th, but as is traditional only if requested by the students. Please contact our holy day coordinator, Patrick McGinity, if you haven’t previously taken precepts and want to make this request, or have questions about the practice.

For more information about the Eight Mahayana Precepts you can also go to http://www.lamayeshe.com/index.php?sect=article&id=503&chid=973

Our Spiritual Director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, recommends reciting the Golden Light Sutra on holy days for world peace. When we read as a group, we divide the sutra up into short sections for each individual. Once we've each completed our part, we are able to count that as a full recitation and all share in the merit!

More about the sutra, including free downloads, visit FPMT's website. If you can't join us but instead recite the sutra at home, please dedicate it for world peace and enter your count on FPMT’s website:
http://fpmt.org/education/teachings/sutras/golden-light-sutra/email-reporting/

Wheel Turning Day and International Sangha Day
Thursday, July 31st

5:30a.m. The Eight Mahayana Precepts, followed by a light breakfast

6:30a.m. Group recitation of The Golden Light Sutra

5 a.m.-6 p.m. The Center will be open all day for individual or group practices.

Wheel Turning Day is one of the major Buddhist holy days, the anniversary of the Buddha's first teaching. Karmic effects are multiplied by one hundred million times, so it's an important day to do practice and thing good thoughts. The center will offer precepts at 5:30am followed by a light breakfast. At 6:30am there will be a group recitation of The Golden Light Sutra. The center will also be open until 6:00pm for people to come and do practice. If you'd like to help provide breakfast, please sign up on Volunteer Spot.

It's also a great day to circumambulate the stupa - including pets! Geshe Gelek also encourages students to read any of the sutras or teachings as a particularly beneficial activity on this day, such as Praises to Shakyamuni Buddha, The Golden Light Sutra, or any sutra, text, practice, or commentary focusing on the teachings of the Buddha.

In addition, FPMT celebrates our 12th annual International Sangha Day to show respect for and appreciation of Sangha, as well as generate deeper awareness of the Sangha jewel. Students at Kadampa Center are encouraged to write cards (but avoid holy images - flowers or other beautiful images are better) to our monks and nun to thank them, explaining how they have been of benefit and how we appreciate their example by living in the vows. This type of offering of practice and rejoicing not only shows our appreciation but is a source of merit as well. So please hand out cards anytime during the week!

Also in honor of International Sangha Day, the center will be offering lunch to our monks and nuns in the lobby on Sunday, July 27th, after the 10:45am program. This helps create merit for our community, as well as show our respect and gratitude for their vows upholding the Dharma. If you are interested in helping, please contact Sandy Carlson at membership@kadampa-center.org.

More about the holy day

Seven weeks after attaining enlightenment at Bodhgaya, the Buddha gave his first teaching at the Deer Park in Sarnath. He expressed his profound realization of the nature of existence in the Four Noble Truths:

• The Truth of the Nature of Suffering
• The Truth of the Origins or Causes of Suffering
• The Truth of the Cessation of, or Liberation from, Suffering
• The Truth of the Eight Fold Path as a means to attain happiness and freedom from suffering.

This teaching, referred to as the First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma, led to the formation of the Sangha, the community of disciples committed to following the
Buddha's example of living simply, following the Path, and teaching the Dharma.

Accordingly, every year at this time, the FPMT encourages its Centers to celebrate the presence of the sangha community with International Sangha Awareness Day. This is a most auspicious way to celebrate Buddhism as a living tradition with an unbroken lineage from the Buddha's first disciples to the present day, and to demonstrate support for current day sangha who provide teachings, spiritual guidance, and spiritual support at Kadampa Center and throughout the FPMT.

Lama Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), the founder of the Tibetan Gelugpa tradition, is renowned as a great scholar, practitioner, meditator, teacher, and author. Among his many accomplishments, he revitalized the monastic code in Tibet, established the annual Great Prayer Festival, established Ganden Monastery, the first of the great monasteries in the Gelugpa tradition, and wrote 18 volumes of teachings, including his Great Treatise on the Path to Enlightenment, the Lam Rim.

Lord Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana (Saka Dawa).

Days of Miarcles (Monlam Chenmo) is a two-week period during which the Buddha performed various miracles. The two weeks of holy days are observed with the Tibetan Great Prayer Festival beginning on Tibetan New Year, and, on the final day - the Day of Miracles - many fesitvals and rituals are held. On holy days, it's especially important to be kind and do prayers and practices because karmic results are multiplied by one hundred million times [as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, from the Vinaya text Treasures of Quotations and Logic].

For more information, please see our description of the holy day Monlam Chenmo.

Our Spiritual Director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, recommends reciting the Golden Light Sutra on holy days for world peace. When we read as a group, we divide the sutra up into short sections for each individual. Once we've each completed our part, we are able to count that as a full recitation and all share in the merit!

If you can't join us but instead recite the sutra at home, please dedicate it for world peace and enter your count on FPMT’s website:
http://www.fpmt.org/component/Chronoforms/?chronoform=sgl&Contact=Reporting
 

As part of our holy day activities, members are invited to come for a potluck lunch and spend time with each other, and hopefully stay for some of the prayers and practices. We'll be starting at 11:30am so people who took precepts can begin their meal before noon.

We recommend bringing a dish or beverages that serve 4-6 people. Please remember that a crockpot won't heat a cold dish and it's best to heat your food before you come. We ask that you put your name on serving dishes and utensils and please take them and any leftover food home with you.

On this holy day honoring the Buddha's first teaching, Wheel Turning Day, it's particularly powerful to do practice. The center will be open all day for individuals who would like to come and do individual practice in the gompa. 

For the evening group practice, students are encouraged to make light offerings and circumambulate the stupa. We'll have a table of extensive light offerings tealights that students can offer on the stupa as well (or bring your own). We'll recite Lama Atisha's Light Offering Prayer together, and then students are encouraged to circumambulate  the stupa. Geshe Gelek says that "circumambulating the stupa creates more merit than can fit in this whole universe! Each time you come to the center, circumambulate at least once to take advantage of this holy object. There’s also a chain of benefit that includes all the people who worked on the stupa."

Saka Dawa is full of reasons to come practice at the center, and we invite everyone to join us for a potluck lunch. This event is generously sponsored by Son and Hien Pham who are providing a substantial amount of food, but please also bring a vegetarian dish to share so we have enough for everyone. To help support the practice of students who are taking precepts that morning, please try to bring food that does not have any of the black foods (garlic, onion, radishes, turnips, eggs, and of course meat). Check ingredients carefully - almost all salad dressings have garlic or onion in them - and bringing a list of ingredients is a big help, especially for those who have special allergies. Warm foods should be brought in a crock pot since we have limited kitchen facilities, and remember to take all your dishes, serving utensils, and any leftovers home with you that day.

For precept holders - solar noon is at 1:14pm that day, so you will still be able to join us for lunch. Geshe Gelek also said that if your lunch is delayed because you are participating in Dharma activities (such as the consecration ceremony and then refuge), you can eat later than solar noon without breaking the precepts.

Volunteers are needed to help with setup and cleanup, so please spend a little extra time and lend a hand if you can!