SAGA DAWA DUCHEN
Today’s full moon marks the most sacred day of the Tibetan Buddhist calendar, one set aside to commemorate the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha Shakyamuni, called Saga Dawa Duchen, or Great Holiday of the Magnifying Month.
That title points to the belief that all activities, meritorious or not, are magnified in effect due to the synchronicity with these three momentous points in the life of the Buddha.
We will begin the day with chanting the Praise of the Twelve Deeds, a beautiful sadhana with a haunting melody that honors the twelve great deeds that all teaching buddhas are said to display in the life during which they manifest attaining enlightenment.
Today also begins the seven week period during which the Buddha remained silent, absorbing his experience of enlightenment in the quiet of the forest by the banks of the Niranjana River near present day Bodhgaya. The seven weeks ends with Chokor Duchen, the Great Holiday of Turning the Wheel of Dharma, commemorating the Buddha’s first public teaching.
Read A Song of Awakening by Lama Yeshe,
a glimpse into how these seven weeks sing of buddhanature
published in the Fall 2023 edition of Buddhadharma
This special Buddha-time, bracketed by the points with which he most impacts our lives as his students, is a wonderful opportunity to encounter, reconnect, and deepen our intimacy with the Buddha Shakyamuni. It is often a time dedicated to cloister, intensive practice, making offerings and circumambulation, prostrations, and other devotional practices.
Heal Transform & Transcend
To honor this time, we invite you to revisit what remains the most popular series of the Prajna Sparks podcast, 59 Days of Healing. In seven weeks, you will nearly complete this daily journey through the lo jong maxims for healing, transforming, and transcending dualistic mind.
Or visit them all in under four minutes flat:
From today through next Monday, May 27, Lama Yeshe’s Heal Transform Transcend: Notes on Kadampa Geshe Chekawa Yeshe Dorje's Seven Points for Healing Dualistic Mind, the companion volume for the series, is available for free on Kindle through Amazon. We hope it encourages you to take another journey through this profound and life-altering practice.
Your Own Sense of Wholeness
How else might you feel moved to create space for the sacred touch of the Buddha in your life over the next seven weeks? How might you invite the wholeness of open-eyed clarity and a tender heart to your days?
Perhaps a period of quiet reflection each day, meditation, or prayer suits you. Or simple appreciation of beauty, truth, and the interconnection between all that lives and our environment. You might take time to observe a moment of poignancy, standing in solidarity and compassion with the many sufferings beings experience continually at the hands of war, hunger, natural disaster, psychological unrest, and societal distress.
Whatever you wish, give yourself to the practice for as long as suits your day, and close by sharing the goodness of your intentions to the aim of universal buddhahood for all that lives.
JUNE DHARMA TALKS IN OREGON
Next month, we will attend the GenX Buddhist Teacher’s Sangha Gathering at Great Vow Zen Monastery near Portland, Oregon.
While we are visiting the Pacific Northwest, we are honored to have been invited by our dear Dharma siblings Lamas Eric, Yeshe, and Pema to offer Dharma talks at Kagyu Changchub Choling in Portland and Kagyu Sukha Choling in Ashland, sister Dharma centers of our hearts.
Join us live or on Zoom …
Beyond Meditator, Meditated and Meditation
Kagyu Changchub Choling, Portland, Oregon
Sunday, June 9, 9:00 am - 12:00 pm USA Pacific Time [including breaks]
In-person & via Zoom
All Tibetan Buddhist lineages offer a plethora of methods and practice styles to suit our individual preferences and varying needs throughout life. Mahamudra, the signature practice of the Kagyu lineage, is known for its spare, direct, and swift approach. Yet this clarity and simplicity can bring new direction and vivacity to the seminal practice of shamatha, in which all Buddhist spiritual experience and realization is grounded.
Join us for a morning of shamatha practice with instructions viewed from the perspective of the Four Yogas of Mahamudra.
Healing the Heartbreak of Being Human
Kagyu Sukha Choling, Ashland, Oregon
Wednesday, June 12 at 5:30 – 7:00 pm USA Pacific Time
In-person & via Zoom
Heartbreak touches our lives in myriad forms, great and small. Sometimes, it seems we glimpse our hopes for happiness through a hazy gauze of "if onlys" that keep us rushing outwards, constantly busy and craving. We project possible fulfillment onto things, others, and experiences, themselves incapable of satisfying our deepest wish.
Come join us in opening an exploration of the Buddha's profound approach to healing the heartbreak of being human.
Warmly,
Yeshe & Zopa