Tashi Delek! Happy LOSAR Tibetan Lunar New Year 2023 (Tibetan Year 2150) Female Water Hare year; how to prepare, how to celebrate to bring auspicious blessings
Buddhist Living, Buddhist Practices
TASHI DELEK, HAPPY LOSAR — YEAR OF THE WATER HARE. Let the bunny chase away the tiger blues! After a ferocious Tiger year — in lunar astrology, Tiger years are often difficult years — many of us are ...
Cham Dance in Tibetan Buddhism and Vajrayana: What is it and why is it important for Losar and other special occasions
Buddhist Living, Vajrayana
The Cham Dance is a special Buddhist ritual dance that is performed in order to drive away evil spirits. It is an important part of Tibetan Buddhism and culture, and has been passed down for centuries. The dance ...
Buddha’s Nirvana Day: Celebrations for Paranirvana day; quoting the last admonition of Buddha: Mahaparinibban Sutta
Buddha, Buddhist Living, Sutras & Sutta
On February 15, 2023 many Mahayana Buddhists celebrate the Paranirvana of Buddha — not his death, but release from karma and the cycle of suffering. It is a day celebrated around the world with light, festival and important ...
Kukkuripa’s Dog and the Sacred Animals in Buddhism — Power Animals of Enlightened Deities and their meaning
Buddhist Living, Dakini, Deities
In Buddhism generally, there are many different animals that are seen as sacred and have immense power. Even in early Pali Suta, animals such as snakes, elephants and horses are prominent. The Jataka tales, stories of Shakyamuni Budddha's ...
Active Compassion: the core of the teachings of the Dalai Lama and Buddhism
Buddhist Living, Dalai Lama
By Payal Seth and Tanzin Dakpa The Dalai Lama, while teaching in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, felt a sudden bout of severe pain in his abdomen. During the drive to the nearest hospital (two hours away), he saw ...
Prayer Wheels — “Mindful meritorious, mantra wheels” — Holy Land Prayer Wheels, guided by advice from H.E. Garchen Rinpoche
Buddhist Living, Garchen Rinpoche, Vajrayana
Responding to a question in Sutra from Shariputra, Buddha taught: “For those who turn the prayer wheel… during the times of the great festivals, but also daily, it is like the continuous flow of an unobstructed river. For ...
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Auspicious Buddhist traditions for New Year. Celebrating with joy, optimism, and compassion — for the benefit of all sentient beings!
Buddhist Living
Buddhists around the world celebrate different New Year dates around the world — although the traditions of warm wishes of good fortune and celebration are common to all of them. Why so many dates? Calendar New year is ...
Compassion and Love: Buddha’s remedy for suffering for all sentient beings: unattached, unselfish Karuna and Metta
Buddhist Living
By Payal Seth and Tanzin Dakpa (Author bio and end of this feature.) We need love. Science has proven it. After birth, the mother’s physical touch is the key factor in developing the brain properly. Child neurologist and ...
Preparing for Losar and Lunar New Year 2023, Year of the Water Rabbit. May All Beings be Happy!
Buddhist Living
Lunar New Year is celebrated in many countries around the world — as Losar or the Tibetan New Year, and as Chinese New Year, or just as "lunar" new year. Most special occasions in Buddhism align with the ...
“Torches That Help Light My Path”: Thich Nhat Hanh’s Translation of the Sutra on the Eight Realizations of the Great Beings
Buddhist Living, Sutras & Sutta
"When I was seventeen and in my first year of novice studies at a Buddhist monastery in Vietnam, I had to memorize the Sutra on the Eight Realizations of the Great Beings. Over sixty years have passed and ...
Shakyamuni Buddha, born to “warrior caste” taught how to be a fearless Buddhist: overcoming ignorance and suffering with the “weapons” of wisdom and compassion
Bodhisattvas, Buddhist Living, Dharma
Shakyamuni Buddha was born to the warrior caste, a prince and heir. As a young adult, when Shakyamuni Buddha cut his hair, he symbolically separated himself from the worldly, including his past role as a princely member of ...
What is Buddhist Prayer: a wish, an activity, an aspiration, an act of love, a form of meditation?
Buddhist Living, Buddhist Practices
An Introduction to Buddhist Prayer By Jason Espada In America, and in the West in general these days, people don’t usually associate Buddhism and prayer. We usually think of Buddhism as a tradition that teaches quiet sitting meditation, ...