Saka Dawa

June 14, 2022

Saka Dawa is the most important Tibetan Buddhist festival day – celebrating Shakyamuni Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and parinirvana!

During the mornings of June 13 & 14 His Holiness the Dalai Lama will give public teachings at His Temple in McLeod Ganj! 

On the occasion of Buddha Shakyamuni’s Birth, Enlightenment and Parinirvana Day (sa-dhe duechen), His Holiness will give a two-day teaching on Tsongkhapa’s Concise Stages for the Path to Enlightenment (lamrim dudon) and confer the Avalokiteshvara Jinasagara Initiation (chenrezig gyalwa gyatso wang) in the mornings at the Main Tibetan Temple (tsuglhakhang). June 13 will be the Preliminary Initiation and June 14 will be the Actual Initiation.

During the afternoon of Saka Dawa, June 14th, we have the following program at Tushita. Please feel very welcome to join us in person at Tushita or online on this special day!

Hybrid Sessions – you can join in person or online:

12:30 – 2:00 pm: Medicine Buddha Puja with Venerable Drolma

3:00 – 5:00 pm: Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche Teachings – Meditating with Clarity and Intensity

7:00 – 8:00 pm: Guided Meditation with Venerable Drolma & Light Offering Ceremony with Sangha

This is an unique opportunity to have your own butterlamp with your special dedication offered on this auspicious day!

And remember! On the auspicious day of Lhabab Düchen karmic results are multiplied by one hundred million times!!! See Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice for Saka Dawa Duchen.

Video: Lama Zopa Rinpoche Offering the 8 Mahayana Precepts

Lama Zopa Rinpoche taking precepts from the altar before giving precepts, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 25, 2020. (Screenshot of YouTube video.)

Students wishing to take the eight Mahayana precepts on the merit multiplying day of the fifteenth day of Saka Dawa, which is June 5 this year, may watch a specially created video of Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering the precepts. 

During his videos from Kopan Monastery, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a three-hour teaching in which he offered the eight Mahayana precepts with commentary, giving special permission to receive the lineage of the eight Mahayana precepts from Rinpoche to anyone who wishes to do so.

The opportunity to receive precepts from Lama Zopa Rinpoche is precious. In order to fully receive the lineage, it is necessary to actually take the precepts. To help facilitate this, we’ve created an hour-long version of the video of Rinpoche offering the precepts specifically for students to watch, take the precepts, and receive the lineage.

When giving his teaching on the precepts, Rinpoche emphasizes how fortunate we are to have met the Mahayana teachings, and to learn and practice Dharma. However, we don’t take advantage of the opportunities we have. Rinpoche explains that we get taken away by wave upon wave of attachment, ignorance, and anger, and that we are completely under their control, so much so that our human life is wasted. Therefore, every day, every hour, every minute, and every second, it is so important for us to use our perfect human rebirth to practice Dharma.

“Taking the eight Mahayana precepts is a way to make life meaningful, to take its essence all day and night, by taking vows,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche has taught. “It is so simple. It is just for one day. Just for one day. It makes it so easy.”

The eight Mahayana precepts can be taken on any day of the year, but their karmic effects are particularly powerful on merit multiplying days. The full moon day, or fifteenth day of the month, of Saka Dawa is one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan Buddhist calendar, commemorating Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment and parinirvana. Any actions done on this day, both auspicious and harmful, are magnified in their power. Karmic results are multiplied by one hundred million, as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic. This year’s fifteenth day of Saka Dawa, June 5, also falls on a lunar eclipse, multiplying karmic results by a further seven hundred thousand times. With so much merit being generated, please remember to also rejoice!

Watch on Youtube: Taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts from Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The eight Mahayana precepts are taken from early morning until sunrise the next day. Therefore, this video is meant to be watched early in the morning, before dawn. Together with Rinpoche, you will go through the Ritual for Taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts.

To receive the lineage, it is necessary to repeat the words of the following prayers after Lama Zopa Rinpoche:

  • Prayer for Taking the Precepts
  • Commitment Prayer to Keep the Precepts
  • Mantra of Pure Morality
  • Prayer to Keep Pure Morality

Please be aware that by taking the lineage of the eight Mahayana precepts from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Rinpoche will become one of your gurus.

Links to resources for this video:

Learn about Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Recommended Practices for the Fifteenth Day of Saka Dawa.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and Practice Advice  from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis, and also links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, and more.

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.