Happy Saka Dawa 2018, May 29

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Ayu
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Happy Saka Dawa 2018, May 29

Post by Ayu »

phantom59 wrote: Sun Jun 03, 2012 4:43 pm 'The full moon day of Saka Dawa commemorates Lord Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana. As cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the Vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic, virtuous actions done on this day are multiplied one hundred million times.

Practices specifically recommended by Rinpoche for Saka Dawa include:
Taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts
Doing Nyung Nyes
Performing the Guru Shakyamuni Buddha puja

Of course, any other meritorious activities often advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche are also good to do on this day, such as recitation of the Sanghata Sutra, Golden Light Sutra'

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This year, 2018, Saka Dawa will be on May 29.

:namaste:

I plan to take some free time and practice Vajrasattva with our Geshe and the community. :heart:
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Re: Happy Saka Dawa 2018, May 29

Post by weitsicht »

I plan to start the morning with a kora at Potala Palace :-)
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Re: Happy Saka Dawa 2018, May 29

Post by jet.urgyen »

happy month! i'm also doing more purification practices :)
true dharma is inexpressible.

The bodhisattva nourishes from bodhicitta, through whatever method the Buddha has given him. Oh joy.
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Re: Happy Saka Dawa 2018, May 29

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

Just to clarify, Saka Dawa is the whole month, which started somewhere between May 12th and 15th, depending on which Tibetan calendar you go by. Saka Dawa Düchen is the full moon day during this holy month when monasteries will do special pujas and such. So you don't have to wait until the 29th to get your merit magnified; Saka Dawa is already here!


An aside for those interested in Tibetan language:

Saka (sa ga is simply the proper name of the 4th Tibetan month according to the calendar based on the Kalachakra Tantra.

Dawa (zla ba) is "moon; month," just as our English words for these are likewise related.

Düchen (dus chen, literally "great time") is used to designate the major holidays that are celebrated (Chotrul Düchen, etc).
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"The Sutras, Tantras, and Philosophical Scriptures are great in number. However life is short, and intelligence is limited, so it's hard to cover them completely. You may know a lot, but if you don't put it into practice, it's like dying of thirst on the shore of a great lake. Likewise, a common corpse is found in the bed of a great scholar." ~ Karma Chagme

དྲིན་ཆེན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཁྱེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ།།
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Ayu
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Re: Happy Saka Dawa 2018, May 29

Post by Ayu »

Thanks. Good news. :twothumbsup:

I remembered faintly and thus something like that dawned on me already.
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Re: Happy Saka Dawa 2018, May 29

Post by Tiago Simões »

Happy Saga Dawa! 🙏🙏🙏
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Kim O'Hara
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Re: Happy Saka Dawa 2018, May 29

Post by Kim O'Hara »

Ayu wrote: Thu May 17, 2018 9:26 pm Thanks. Good news. :twothumbsup:

I remembered faintly and thus something like that dawned on me already.
I'm always a bit confused about it, if that makes you feel better.
Theravadins celebrate it as Vesak on the full moon day, May 29 but in some countries they have chosen to celebrate a month earlier. Wikipedia says -
29 April (Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Myanmar and Bangladesh)
30 April (India, Nepal)
29 May (Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia)
The more I think about it, the more it reminds me of Easter - different every year, and different from one church to another. :rolleye:

But happy Saka Dawa anyway. :group:

:namaste:
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Re: Happy Saka Dawa 2018, May 29

Post by Sādhaka »

Technically Saka Dawa is at the full moon, which was 10:19 A.M. this morning in the USA Eastern time zone and 7:49 P.M. in India.

Is Saga Dawa over at the full moon? Or does it continue until sunrise the following day of the India or Nepal time zone?
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Re: Happy Saka Dawa 2018, May 29

Post by Virgo »

Sādhaka wrote: Tue May 29, 2018 9:26 pm Technically Saka Dawa is at the full moon, which was 10:19 A.M. this morning in the USA Eastern time zone and 7:49 P.M. in India.

Is Saga Dawa over at the full moon? Or does it continue until sunrise the following day of the India or Nepal time zone?
That whole day.

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Re: Happy Saka Dawa 2018, May 29

Post by Sādhaka »

Thanks Virgo.

From what I understand, in India, Tibet, Nepal, etc. generally the new day starts at sunrise, not midnight; therefore Saka Dawa would go today until 8:30 P.M. Eastern time in the USA, as sunrise is 6:00 A.M. in India right now. That is because we celebrate Buddhist events during the time that they happen in India.
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Re: Happy Saka Dawa 2018, May 29

Post by Sādhaka »

I didn’t mean to say that sunrise was happening right now in India; but that currently sunrise happens at 6:00 A.M. in India, which is in about two and a half hours.
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Re: Happy Saka Dawa 2018, May 29

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

A Tibetan Sage said that one must follow Indian time to do Saka Dawa 'right':
According to the late Ven. Choden Rinpoche, one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachers, observation of auspicious days should be according to the date in India, not the date in one’s home country. Therefore, when Lama Zopa Rinpoche is not in India, Rinpoche celebrates Buddha Days and other auspicious dates according to the time in India.
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Re: Happy Saka Dawa 2018, May 29

Post by Tenma »

Nicholas Weeks wrote: Wed May 30, 2018 12:50 am A Tibetan Sage said that one must follow Indian time to do Saka Dawa 'right':
According to the late Ven. Choden Rinpoche, one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachers, observation of auspicious days should be according to the date in India, not the date in one’s home country. Therefore, when Lama Zopa Rinpoche is not in India, Rinpoche celebrates Buddha Days and other auspicious dates according to the time in India.
Then how come there are certain times of the days for certain rites like morning for purification, early afternoon for wealth, later afternoon for magnetizing, and midnight for destruction?
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Re: Happy Saka Dawa 2018, May 29

Post by Sādhaka »

Tenma,

Because regarding what you’re mentioning here has to do with your own locality for your own regular personal practices, in relation to phases of the day.

Special events such as Saga Dawa pertain to where and when they originally happened historically, e.g. Bodhgaya, Kailash, etc. So it’s better to adhere to the time zone of India for such special events.

Also, full moons and new moons happen at the same time around the world; therefore people doing practices for them in different time zones may be practicing for them during different times of the day locally, but at the same time as everyone else around the world; that is if they’re all trying to do a given full/new moon practice say within the hour of the peak of a full or new moon.

Of course this isn’t always practical, but you can try to start practice on the same day as a full/new moon yet before it’s peak if possible. If not, then maybe it’s not a big deal as long as the next day after the peak hasn’t started yet. And for big events such as Saka Dawa, I’d suggest that it’s worth it to throw your sleep schedule off for a day.
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Re: Happy Saka Dawa 2018, May 29

Post by Tenma »

Sādhaka wrote: Wed May 30, 2018 2:36 am Tenma,

Because regarding what you’re mentioning here has to do with your own locality for your own regular personal practices, in relation to phases of the day.

Special events such as Saga Dawa pertain to where and when they originally happened historically, e.g. Bodhgaya, Kailash, etc. So it’s better to adhere to the time zone of India for such special events.

Also, full moons and new moons happen at the same time around the world; therefore people doing practices for them in different time zones may be practicing for them during different times of the day locally, but at the same time as everyone else around the world; that is if they’re all trying to do a given full/new moon practice say within the hour of the peak of a full or new moon.

Of course this isn’t always practical, but you can try to start practice on the same day as a full/new moon yet before it’s peak if possible. If not, then maybe it’s not a big deal as long as the next day after the peak hasn’t started yet. And for big events such as Saka Dawa, I’d suggest that it’s worth it to throw your sleep schedule off for a day.
Wait, but what about Dakini Day? When one is engaging in Riwo Sangchod, nagas, etc., does the day count under the time zone they are in or the one in India?
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