SPIRITUAL: Holy Day

Saka Dawa is the month when we honor Shakyamuni Buddha's birth, enlightenment and parinirvana (passing from this life). This day, Saka Dawa Düchen, is the full-moon day of the month.  This day, and the entire month, are especially auspicious for spiritual practice  — the karmic effects of all actions are multiplied one hundred thousand times.  Because of the COVID pandemic, Kadampa Center will not hold any Saka Dawa events at the Center. We will hold a Medicine Buddha Puja online at 12 noon.

Geshe Gelek advises us to create merit by going around the stupa (or the entire Center building), reciting mantras and sutras, liberating animals, saying prayers and doing charitable works. Those who have taken precepts from a qualified master are encouraged to do so at home before your altar.

Saka Dawa is the month when we honor Shakyamuni Buddha's birth, enlightenment and parinirvana (passing from this life). This month, May 12 through June 10, is especially auspicious for spiritual practice  — the karmic effects of all actions are multiplied one hundred thousand times.  Geshe Gelek and Geshe Sangpo advise that we can create merit by going around the stupa (or the entire Center building), reciting mantras and sutras, liberating animals, saying prayers and doing charitable works. Those who have taken precepts from a qualified master are encouraged to do so at home before your altar.

One powerful practice is to take the Eight Mahayana Precepts, simple vows of morality that we take for 24 hours. These must be taken from a qualified master the first time, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche has kindly made it possible to begin doing this practice by taking the precepts online from Rinpoche himself! (Please note: this web page was created in 2020 and cites the date of the 15th day for 2020. In 2021, that date is May 26.)

May 26 is Saka Dawa Düchen, the full moon day. Kadampa Center will hold a Medicine Buddha Puja online at 12pm on this day. 

Because of the Covid pandemic, Kadampa Center will not hold any events at the center for Saka Dawa. Please remember all those suffering from the virus in your prayers. 

Specific practices recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche for these special days:

• Taking the eight Mahayana precepts: Students can receive the lineage of these precepts from a specially produced video of Lama Zopa Rinpoche granting them, which was edited from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and Practice Advice at Kopan Monastery, recorded in May 2020.
• Reciting the Sutra Remembering the Three Jewels

Other recommended practices include:

• Reciting sutras, such as Vajra Cutter Sutra, Sutra of Golden Light, and Sanghata Sutra
• Reciting other prayers, such as Chanting the Names of Manjushri and King of Prayers
• Performing the Guru Shakyamuni Buddha puja
• Undertaking Nyung nes
• Performing self-initiation, for those who fulfilled the necessary prerequisites
• Performing Lama Chopa, and at either the beginning of the practice or during the lamrim section, you can meditate on emptiness
• Reciting the names of the Thirty-Five Buddhas, with prostrations
• Reciting Vajrasattva mantras
• Reciting OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ with bodhichitta
• Meditating on emptiness and dependent arising
• Meditating on bodhichitta
• Practicing tonglen
• Rejoicing
• Liberating animals
• Joining in activities as your local FPMT Center

Lama Tsongkhapa is extremely important to Kadampa Center - his writings are the framework for our study and practice, and he founded our Gelugpa lineage in Tibetan Buddhism.  With commentary from Geshe Gelek, we will celebrate Lama Tsongkhapa and his great contribution to the Dharma with a festival of prayer and practice.  Our celebration also includes review of his major short works.

Lama Tsongkhapa was a renowned scholar, practitioner, meditator, teacher and author.  His studies and meditations in all the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism resulted in the founding of the Gelugpa lineage.

Among his major accomplishments is writing the Lamrim, or the Great Treatise on the Path to Enlightenment, a step-by-step guide to the spiritual practices that lead to enlightenment. He also wrote several condensed versions of the Lamrim, including Foundation of All Good Qualities, the Three Principal Aspects of the Path, and Song of Experience. 

We will meet online via both Zoom and YouTube.

Registration is required to access the Zoom session.  Please register here.

Geshe-la encourages us all to come, even if we can't attend the entire festival. Students are welcome to drop in and drop out throughout the morning.

Program
Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga
  Chant 21 Lama Tsongkhapa mantras 
  Mandala offering.
Foundation of All Good Qualities – review & analytical meditation
Chant 21 Lama Tsongkhapa mantras 
  Mandala offering.
Three Principal Aspects of the Path – review & analytical meditation
Chant 21 Lama Tsongkhapa mantras 
  Mandala offering.
Song of Experience – review & analytical meditation
Chant 21 Lama Tsongkhapa mantras 
  Mandala offering.
In Praise of Dependent Origination – review & analytical meditation
Chant 21 Lama Tsongkhapa mantras 
  Mandala offering.
Recite Lama Tsongkhapa mantra 14 times
Lamrim dedication prayer

Geshe Gelek encourages students who have previously taken Eight Mahayana Precepts to take them at home before sunrise, before their home altar.

Lama Tsongkhapa Day honors a very powerful practitioner so there is great power in the merit of supporting it financially. Supporting this holy day's spiritual practices – whether you are able to attend or not – is an opportunity to collect great merit. If you are sponsoring but not attending, you can offer prayers for those who are participating in the events.

Supporting the Holy Day event is a two-step process

Step One  is dedicating your generosity (click here).

Step Two  is making the donation or sponsorship (use the button below on this page)

Dedications may be very simple - "For my mother, Rosemary" - or they might encompass more extensive spiritual wishes, such as "May these teachings be the cause to liberate all sentient beings," or wishes for the teacher's long life, to benefit a person who is ill - any heart-felt positive intention!  You also can dedicate for more than one intention.

The festival begins with Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga puja.

Sponsor Holy Day Puja ~ $125

Lama Tsongkhapa is the founder of our lineage, the Gelugpa tradition, in Tibetan Buddhism. He was a renowned scholar, practitioner, meditator, teacher and author.  His studies and meditations in all the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism resulted in the founding of the Gelugpa lineage.       Among his major accomplishments is writing the Lamrim, or the Great Treatise on the Path to Enlightenment, a step-by-step guide to the spiritual practices that lead to enlightenment. He also wrote several condensed versions of the Lamrim, including Foundation of All Good Qualities, the Three Principal Aspects of the Path, and Song of Experience. He also 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.  Lama Tsongkhapa Day is a celebration of the anniversary of his parinirvana. Practices recommended for this day include making offerings and reciting Lamrim texts, as well as Guru Puja.

Please watch our calendar for a schedule of events for the day.

Lhabab Düchen is one of the four major Buddhist holy days of the year. On this day, we celebrate the Buddha’s return to beings in our realm after a three-month separation. During that separation, he had gone to the God Realm of Thirty-Three, a higher realm where his mother was reborn after giving him birth, in order to repay her kindness by giving teachings to liberate her from samsara. His teachings in the God Realm of the Thirty-Three also benefited the Arya Beings who lived there.

As a Buddha holy day, this is an auspicious day for practice, when the karmic effects of actions are multiplied one hundred million times, according to our Spiritual Director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, citing the Vinaya text The Treasure of Quotations and Logic.

Lhabab Düchen occurs on the 22nd day of the ninth month on the Tibetan lunar calendar.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, encourages students to take the Eight Mahayana Precepts on holy days. For more about the practice of precepts, please read The Direct and Unmistaken Method by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Rinpoche advises many other practices on holy days as well.

We will celebrate with a Shakyamuni Buddha Puja at 1 pm on Zoom.

Registration is required to participate. Please register here.

Sponsorship of a Holy Day puja is $125, and of general Holy Day events and activities, it's $108.

Supporting the Holy Day event is a two-step process

Step One  is dedicating your generosity (click here).

Step Two  is making the donation or sponsorship (use the button below on this page)

Dedications may be very simple - "For my mother, Rosemary" - or they might encompass more extensive spiritual wishes, such as "May these teachings be the cause to liberate all sentient beings," or wishes for the teacher's long life, to benefit a person who is ill - any heart-felt positive intention!  You also can dedicate for more than one intention.

Sponsor Holy Day Activities $108

Sponsor Holy Day Puja ~ $125

The month of Saka Dawa celebrates Shakyamuni's birth, enlightenment and passing into parinirvana.  The merit of any positive actions are increased exponentially.

On this holy day we will do two merit-making practices: Prostrations to the 35 Confession Buddhas and a group recitation of the Vajra Cutter Sutra, each of us taking a turn to read a page (if we wish).

This is an online event, available on Zoom and our YouTube channel.

Registration is required to participate via Zoom.

Click here to register.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Seven weeks after attaining enlightenment at Bodhgaya, Shakyamuni Buddha gave his first teaching at the Deer Park in Sarnath. We celebrate this day as Chokhor Düchen.

At this teaching, the Buddha 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 the means to attain ultimate 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. Our website includes a Sangha Support and Offerings page with valuable information, including a previous year's talk and Q&A about sangha with our director, Robbie Watkins.

Kadampa Center will offer a reading of the Vajra Cutter sutra, as well as other prayers, online at 12pm.

You can sponsor Holy Day events - amazing merit!  Click here to sponsor Chokhor Düchen