SPIRITUAL: Holy Day

Join us for the power of group practice to take the Eight Mahayana Precepts, followed by a light breakfast, on the anniversary of the Buddha's first teaching. If you'd like to participate in the merit by helping provide breakfast, please sign up on Volunteer Spot.

Wheel Turning Day is a holy day when karmic results are multiplied one hundred million, as cited by our Spitiual Director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, in the Vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic. 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 31st, 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

On Sunday, July 6th, His Holiness the Dalai Lama turns 79! Please join us for a birthday celebration during the 10:45am program. We'll invite His Holiness to join us (represented by a large photo), learn a little about his life story, say a prayer for his long life, and at the end present cake and sing happy birthday. The 9:00am program that morning is canceled - let's all party together!

In addition, FPMT encourages participation in Compassion Day as a way of honoring His Holiness by putting his teachings into practice. We'll be launching a very special Compassion in Action project by our Outreach program to help alleviate hunger and participate in http://www.1billionacts.org/ - a joint project led by 13 Nobel Laureates, including His Holiness. Let's be a part of One Billion Acts of Peace!

Would you like to help make His Holiness the Dalai Lama's birthday party special? We'd love it if you'd bring some watermelon or iced tea/lemonade (perfect for a summertime treat!) for everyone to enjoy at the end of the 10:45am program. It's easy - just pick what you'd like to bring and sign up on Volunteer Spot! Go to http://vols.pt/inL5fn, put in your email address, and sign up on July 6th!

Join us to benefit from the power of practicing together as a group taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts (see below), reciting the Golden Light Sutra for Lama Zopa Rinpoche's long life and for world peace, followed by a light breakfast for anyone who would like to stay.

To volunteer to help on Saka Dawa by bringing breakfast foods or helping the center stay open for the day, please sign up on Volunteer Spot.

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. For an explanation of the Eight Mahayana Precepts, go to http://www.lamayeshe.com/index.php?sect=article&id=503&chid=973

The vows can be taken any time before a statue of the Buddha. To receive the lineage (line of teachers unbroken since Buddha), the vows should be taken with a qualified teach. If there are Kadampa Center students who want to request Geshe Gelek to give precepts (and have not taken them before with a teacher), please contact our holy day coordinator, Patrick McGinity, to make this request or with questions about the practice.

Join us for our monthly vegetarian potluck lunch!  Please bring a main or side dish, dessert, or beverages to share. Since this is a holy day, many people will have taken precepts which include avoiding eating the black foods - please bring dishes that do not have these ingredients if possible: eggs, garlic, onion, raishes, turnips, and of course meat. Also, preceptors cannot eat the rest of the day, so hearty main dishes are expecially appreciated! Please lable your ingredients so people know which dishes they can eat. To sign up to bring a specific dish or volunteer for setup and cleanup, please go to VolunteerSpot.

If you don't have time to prepare something, please come along anyway. There's always plenty of food and all are welcome! 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.

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, 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).