Saga Dawa Teachings with Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche & Pema Khandro

With Khenpo Gawang and Pema Khandro

Khenpo Gawan and Pema Khandro and the beloved dog Sweat Pea at the House of Bodhichitta in 2016

Saga Dawa is the most auspicious day of the Tibetan Buddhist Calendar and a day celebrated by Buddhists all around the world. It is the anniversary of the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and the day he passed away into parinirvana. The effects of actions on this day are said to be multiplied by ten million times because of the spiritual power of this full moon on the fourth month. This year, the Saga Full Moon also takes place on an eclipse day. Join us for prayers and aspirations on this auspicious occasion. 

For Saga Dawa, Khenpo Gawang will teach the Sadhana of Sakyamuni Buddha and give the initiation for the practice and for the mantra. This will be a reading transmission, or rlung.

This year, Saga Dawa Full Moon falls on an eclipse. Therefore, for this special occassion, Pema Khandro will lead the beloved and powerful prayer of the Nyingma lineage for eclipses, the Kunzang Monlam.

Join Khenpo Gawang, Pema Khandro, friends and members  for this joyous celebration of the Buddha’s Anniversary.

Instructions for Offering Butterlamp and Prayer.

Friends and members of the community will offer aspiration prayers on this special occasion. Donate upon registration and/or as a butterlamp sponsor.
Sponsors of the Butterlamp offering will be given the opportunity to come online live during the ceremony and recite their aspiration prayer while holding a butterlamp or a candle or tealight.

For an example of an aspiration prayer, see the following example below. Plan to write your aspiration prayers to be completed in under two minutes.

༄༅།  །བློ་སྦྱོང་སྨོན་ལམ་དོན་བསྡུས་བྱང་སེམས་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་བདེ་ལམ་བཞུགས།།

The Blissful Path to the Ocean of Bodhicitta

A Brief Prayer of Aspiration for Mind Training

by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

An excerpt of this prayer translated by  Translated by Adam Pearcey, 2015.

འཕགས་མཆོག་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་དང་། །

pakchok chenrezik wang dang

By the truth of the perfect mind of awakening

སངས་རྒྱས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་རྣམས། །

sangye changchub sempa nam

Generated by the supreme noble Lord Avalokiteśvara

ཐུགས་སྐྱེད་མཐར་ཕྱིན་བདེན་པ་ཡིས། །

tuk kyé tarchin denpa yi

And all the buddhas and bodhisattvas,

བདག་གཞན་མཁའ་མཉམ་འགྲོ་ཀུན་ལ། །

dakshyen khanyam dro kün la

May the supreme mind of bodhicitta be born

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་མཆོག་སྐྱེ་བར་ཤོག །

changchub sem chok kyewar shok

In me and in all other beings, as limitless as space.

སེམས་ཅན་དུག་ལྔ་ལ་ཞུགས་དང་། །

semchen duk nga la shyuk dang

May the causes and effects of beings’ suffering—

རིགས་དྲུག་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མྱོང་བ་ཡི། །

rik druk dukngal nyongwa yi

Their involvement with the five poisons,

སྡུག་བསྔལ་རྒྱུ་འབྲས་བདག་ལ་སྨིན། །

dukngal gyundré dak la min

And painful experiences in the six classes,

བདག་གི་ཕྱིན་དྲུག་སེམས་དང་ནི། །

dak gi chin druk sem dang ni

All ripen on me! To them all, as limitless as space,

དུག་ལྔ་མེད་པའི་དགེ་རྩ་རྣམས། །

duk nga mepé getsa nam

I offer the six perfections in my own mind,

ནམ་མཁའ་མཉམ་པའི་འགྲོ་ལ་སྦྱིན། །

namkha nyampé dro la jin

And sources of virtue, free from the five poisons.

རིགས་དྲུག་འཁོར་བའི་གནས་སྟོང་ནས། །

rik druk khorwé né tong né

May all the realms of saṃsāra’s six classes be emptied,

རིགས་མཆོག་དྲུག་གི་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས། །

rik chok druk gi chenrezik

And may everyone attain the level of Avalokiteśvara,

ཡེ་ཤེས་དྲུག་ལྡན་ཐོབ་པར་ཤོག །

yeshe drukden tobpar shok

In his six sublime families and with six types of wisdom.

ནད་མུག་མཚོན་བསྐལ་ལོག་པར་བལྟས། །

né muk tsön kal lokpar té

May all disease, famine, belligerence, wrong views,

ཉམས་ཆག་ཉེས་ལྟུང་སྡིག་པའི་ཚོགས། །

nyamchak nyetung dikpé tsok

Impairments, transgressions, downfalls, harmful actions,

གཅེས་འཛིན་བར་ཆད་གདོན་བགེགས་ཀུན། །

chedzin barché dön gek kün

Self-cherishing, obstacles, harmful influences and impediments,

བདག་ཉིད་གཅིག་པུའི་སྟེང་དུ་སྨིན། །

daknyi chikpü tengdu min

All ripen on me and me alone!

ཚེ་དཔལ་ལོང་སྤྱོད་བདེ་སྐྱིད་མཐུ། །

tsé pal long chö dekyi tu

And to all these beings, who are as limitless as space

ཉམས་རྟོགས་མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀུན། །

nyamtok khyentsé yeshe kün

I dedicate long-life, glory, wealth, happiness, power,

ནམ་མཁའ་མཉམ་པའི་འགྲོ་ལ་བསྔོ། །

namkha nyampé dro la ngo

Experience, realisation, and knowing, loving wisdom.

ཀུན་ཀྱང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སྤྱོད་མཆོག་གིས། །

kün kyang changchub chö chok gi

May they all, through supreme enlightened actions,

རབ་མཛེས་འཕགས་པའི་གནས་ཐོབ་ཤོག །

rab dzé pakpé né tob shok

Attain the level of the most splendid Noble One!

This program is offered free and by donation, take this opportunity to support the buddhadharma through generosity!