Happy Chokhor Duchen!

If you are in Ottawa, please join us for Shakyamuni Buddha practice at the Dharma Centre to celebrate the Buddha’s first teaching on the Four Noble Truths.

Held on the fourth day of the sixth Tibetan lunar month, Chokhor Duchen is the third of four major prayer festivals in the Tibetan Buddhist calendar commemorating great events in the Buddha's life.  Chokhor Duchen commemorates the first teaching of the Buddha given to five fortunate companions in the Deer Park near Sarnath in India. It is recorded in the Sutra literature as "Setting in Motion the Wheel of Dharma". In it the Buddha explains for the first time the true meaning and cause of suffering and dissatisfaction, and how it can be brought to an ultimate end. This is the same Dharma transmitted to us by our teachers and to them by their teachers and so on for 2600 years. 

In Palyul monasteries around the world, all the precious texts that hold the teachings will be removed from their shelves and carried on the shoulders of monks and lay practitioners as they circumambulate the temple. This day is also a special one for the Palyul lineage because on this day in 2014 the Yangsi (reincarnation) of HH Penor Rinpoche was enthroned at the mother monastery in Tibet.