July 31, 2014
The Tibetan Buddhist festival day of Choekor Duchen marks Shakyamuni Buddha’s First Teaching, when the Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths in Sarnath, near Varanasi.
Also, it is the FPMT’s International Sangha Day.
Please feel very welcome to join us at Tushita on this special day for the following program of events
Open Drop-In Sessions:
5:00am
TAKING EIGHT MAHAYANA PRECEPTS
9:30 – 10:30am
GUIDED DROP-IN MEDITATION
10:30 – 11:30am
“THE LIFE OF BUDDHA” – EXCELLENT BBC DOCUMENTARY
2:00 – 3:00pm
SUTRA OF GOLDEN LIGHT READING
3:30 – 5:30pm
“WHAT THE BUDDHA TAUGHT” – A TEACHING BY GESHE LHAKDOR (brief biography below)
6:30 – 7:30pm
MEDICINE BUDDHA PUJA
8:00pm
MEDITATION & LIGHT OFFERING
Anyone is welcome to drop in for any session! No registration needed and by donation.
Venerable Geshe Lhakdor was born in Yakra, Western Tibet in 1956 and left Tibet in 1962 following the communist Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959. Geshe received his novice monk ordination in 1964, attended the Central School for Tibetans, in Dalhousie, India from 1972 to 1976 and studied specialized Buddhist Philosophy in the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala, India until 1986.
From December, 1986 to May, 1989 he served as translator and research assistant in Tibet House, the Cultural Centre of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in New Delhi. In August 1989, Geshe joined the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama where he has served as Religious Assistant and Translator and has accompanied His Holiness the Dalai Lama to over thirty countries in the Americas, Europe, Australia, Africa and Asia.
Beside the Master of Prajnaparamita in 1982, he also received the Master of Madhyamika in 1989 and the Master of Philosophy (MPhil) from the University of Delhi. In 1995 he received the Geshe Degree from Drepung Loseling Monastic University in South India. In 2008, he was also conferred Honorary Professorship by the University of Delhi, Department of Psychology.
Since 2005 he has been the director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, after serving as His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s official translator for 16 years (still occasionally travels with H.H. as translator).
Geshe Lhakdor has also co-translated and co-produced several books by His Holiness, including The Way to Freedom, The Joy of Living and Dying in Peace, Awakening the Mind and Lightening the Heart, and Stages of Meditation, among others.
Geshe Lhakdor is a trustee of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility, established by His Holiness, Director of the Central Archive of His Holiness, a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Tibetan Classics in Montreal, Canada, and Honorary Professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada.
And remember! On wheel-turning days karmic results are multiplied by one hundred million times!!!
as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from the Vinaya text: Treasure of Quotations and Logic.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recommended practices for this special day:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/sakadawa/