Celebrate Buddha’s First Teaching – Chokhor Duchen with Geshe Sonam

When: Monday, July 28th, 8:00 – 9:00 am EDT (*Note early morning timing). 

Where: Please register to attend on Zoom, or watch the sessions live-streamed on YouTube or Facebook. 

This day celebrates Buddha’s first turning of the wheel of Dharma (Tib. Chokhor Duchen). When the Buddha achieved full awakening, he did not teach others at first.  After seven weeks, the gods Indra and Brahma offered a dharmachakra and a conch shell to the Buddha and requested that the Awakened One teach others what he had accomplished. Buddha Shakyamuni then turned the Wheel of Dharma at Sarnath with the teaching of the Four Noble Truths.

Chokhor Duchen is one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan calendar, each of which celebrates an anniversary of Shakyamuni Buddha’s display of extraordinarily powerful deeds for sentient beings’ sake. On these four days, karmic results are multiplied by 100 million, as taught in the Vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.

The program for this session with Geshe Sonam will include:

• Transmission and Explanation of the Meaning of the Vajrasattva Mantra
  You can find the mantra and a Sadhana of Solitary Vajrasattva on this page
• Lung in Tibetan of The Sutra Recollecting the Three Jewels 
• Oral Transmission of the Following Mantras:
  Shakyamuni Buddha Mantra
  Tara Mantra
  Guru Rinpoche
  Migtsema
  Medicine Buddha
• We will recite the swift return prayer of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, composed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Eight Mahayana Precepts – Take on your own if you wish

The practice of the Mahāyāna precepts is a wonderful opportunity to accumulate merit on Saga Dawa. The practice involves keeping precepts of pure conduct and fasting after the noontime meal for a period of 24 hours. You can learn more and take the precepts using the recording from Lama Zopa Rinpoche if you have not already received the transmission or would like to do so again. You can also find the texts used to take the precepts at the bottom of this page. The precepts are to be taken just before sunrise in your location.

Chokhor Duchen also commemorates FPMT’s International Sangha Day!

Here is how you can celebrate the Sangha Jewel:

• Deepen your understanding and refuge in the Sangha Jewel.
• Show appreciation for Sangha, and cultivate respect for the heroic efforts made by Sangha.
• Support our Sangha here at Lama Yeshe Ling
• Donate to The Lama Yeshe Sangha Fund at the International Mahayana Institute

• On Chokhor Duchen the FPMT Puja Fund will be sponsoring numerous pujas including Yamantaka, Guhyasamaja, and Heruka self-initiations; Mitugpa and Namgyalma pujas; and Drugchuma. The stupas of Boudhanath and Swambyunath in Nepal will be freshly painted and the umbrellas will be offered at the pinnacle of each stupa. A new set of robes will be offered to the Buddha statue in the Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya. Additionally, animals will be liberated, sutras recited and printed, and offerings will be made to all of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus and to all the IMI Sangha communities in FPMT. You can contribute to all of these pujas and practices through the FPMT Puja Fund.