Morning Session with Geshe Sonam
When: Sunday, June 4, 2023, 7:00 – 8:15 am EDT (Please note early morning time)
Geshe Sonam will lead a morning session on this year’s Saga Dawa. This is a wonderful opportunity to accumulate merit on Saga Dawa, the fifteenth day of the fourth month in the Tibetan lunar calendar, as it is one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan calendar, commemorating Shakyamuni Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and parinirvana.
Saga Dawa is one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan calendar, each of which celebrates an anniversary of Shakyamuni Buddha’s display of extraordinary 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.
On this day, karmic results are multiplied by 300 million times as it commemorates one of Shakyamuni Buddha’s three major life events.
The program for this session will include:
- Bodhisattva Vows
- Prayers and Praises to the Buddha
- Oral Transmission of the Namgyalma mantra and other mantras
- Oral Transmission of the Ganden Lhagyama Guru Yoga practice
- Short Guided meditations with extensive dedication
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, which 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. The precepts are to be taken at sunrise in your location.
Geshe Sonam will not be giving the precepts online this year as he will be attending an international Buddhist event hosted at TCCC which will offer lunch. Geshe la will not offer the precepts in case the lunch is late and he is not able to eat before the correct time.
Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre – Saga Dawa Celebrations
The TCCC will be hosting Saga Dawa Celebrations at their centre in Toronto between 10:30 am and 1:00 pm EDT. They are inviting sangha from all Buddhist schools and all of us to this event. Lunch will be served. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend. You can see the invitation that was sent to Geshe Sonam and Khedrup la and other sangha and learn more about the event should you wish to attend in person on this page. There will be traditional prayers and food with our 30 ordained sangha in Toronto.
Support the Dharma on Saga Dawa
The opportunity to support the dharma, especially on holy days, gives us the chance to create vast amounts of merit and cultivate minds of generosity. Through this generosity, may many people be given the gift of the Dharma. We can feel joy in our hearts and rejoice!
This is the highest form of generosity, sharing with others the path to full awakening. Offerings to the Dharma create the causes to never be separated and to have conditions to realize the teachings. It deepens your connection with Dharma teachers, and you become connected with our community.
Pujas and Offerings on Saka Dawa Duchen
The FPMT Puja Fund is arranging an extensive array of pujas on Saka Dawa, dedicated to the swift return of our precious guru, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Rinpoche mentioned many times that he wishes for, “the pujas being sponsored and offered on each of the four Buddha days to continue forever, or for as long as the monasteries and nunneries exist.” Rinpoche has mentioned how important they are for the success of the whole organization and for FPMT to be most beneficial to all beings.
On Saga Dawa, as part of the Tara Puja Fund, the FPMT is sponsoring two different recitations of the 100,000 Praises to Tara by over 4,000 sangha as well as recitation of the Prajnaparamita, Medicine Buddha puja, 1,000 Offerings to Buddha Namgyalma, and other pujas and practices. Offerings will be made to over ten thousand sangha and to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus as well as to the holy stupas in Nepal and the Buddha statue in Bodhgaya.
You are welcome to join in these offerings but the most important thing is to remember on the actual day that the pujas and offerings are happening and to rejoice and dedicate the merit. Rinpoche said, “that this is the best business, the best way to create the most extensive merit.”
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