Saga Dawa

rivercane

I'm not sure if this mainly applies to Tibetan Buddhism but for those of you who belong to a local sangha, will you be doing anything special for the month of May?

From About.com:

Saga Dawa is the entire fourth month of the Tibetan lunar calendar. The seventh day of Saga Dawa is the day of the historical Buddha's birth for Tibetans. However, the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and entry into Nirvana at his death are observed together on the 15th day of Saga Dawa, which in 2013 is May 25.

The woman who runs our group said that the first full moon in May is what determines the date and that sometimes there is disagreement over the first full moon. According to About.com, this year it will be May 25th but she told us that NASA is listing May 24th as the first full moon so we will do Buddha Shakyamuni Practice on that day. I have no idea what this entails but I plan on attending.

According to the email that was sent out, the merit accumulated from any virtuous actions you perform on this day is "magnified by one hundred thousand." Has anyone done Buddha Shakyamuni Practice before or celebrated Saga Dawa? It is new to me.

Vastmind

I do celebrate Vesak, yes.
At home...
We make paper lanterns, do games/color sheets and either
eat at home or go out. I also bath/wash all my
Buddha statues.
Right now, the Sangha I gather with is rather small and we
are just getting off the ground, so I don't think we as a group
have anything planned. We meet that night though at the Temple...
so I have every intention of dana.

karasti

Our Sangha "headquarters" is based about 250 miles from where we live. We have our own local satellite Sangha here, and there is another about 120 miles from here. We share the same teacher who is at Sangha HQ, and he travels to the satellite Sanghas a few times each year. The Sangha had a Saga Dawa vegan potluck this weekend but as it's 250 miles away I won't be able to attend this time. Our teacher has requested that for the month of Saga Dawa, his students not eat meat and he is taking all our names to Asia with him to the monastery to include in their prayer list. He splits his time between about 6 months in MN and 6 months in Nepal and Tibet (if he can even get in this year) and will be leaving for Asia very shortly. Thankfully he puts his teachings on youtube, so along with weekly meetings with our own local satellite Sangha, I can catch up on any videos I missed while he is gone.

This was his message about Saga Dawa to us:

Today is 30th of the Tibetan month tomorrow is the first day of what we call million month which is the month of Saga Dawa. During this month is when the Buddha was born and he reached Parinirvana and passed away. It is important month. So I'd like to request that people don't eat meat this month. If you stop eating meat this month we will have a big prayer ceremony and dedication of the merit for you at the Monastery. So please give me your name and how many days that you are not eating meat and we will pray for you. If you don't want to leave your name here you can send me a message and let me know this information. Also if you can do other virtuous things this month that will be very good. Everything you do will be multiplied 1 million times. We will pray for all the virtuous acts that you do. Thank you very much!

riverflow

Vastmind said:

I do celebrate Vesak, yes.
At home...
We make paper lanterns, do games/color sheets and either
eat at home or go out. I also bath/wash all my
Buddha statues.
Right now, the Sangha I gather with is rather small and we
are just getting off the ground, so I don't think we as a group
have anything planned. We meet that night though at the Temple...
so I have every intention of dana.

@Vastmind - I believe they do (are doing? will do?) have a full day of ceremonies at the Batesville monastery (at least, I have seen some pics on their website from previous years)

Patr

For this year, Wesak day falls on 24th May.
It falls every year on the Lunar 4th month, 15th day (full moon)

Happy Wesak day to all!!!

sova

Happy Saga Dawa everyone!

http://www.bemindful.org/metta.htm