This weekend is the Buddhist full moon ritual known as Māgha Pūjā, one of the three great festival days in the Theravāda Buddhist calendar, also known as “Saṅgha Day,” celebrating the spiritual community. The tradition remembers a day when the first 1,250 arahant (fully awakened) disciples all spontaneously returned from their travels and came together with the Buddha. Honoring this ancient ritual, we will practice together in global spiritual community, reflect on the preciousness of spiritual friendship in these times (and all times), and learn to chant the Ovāda Pātimokkha, a single verse containing the essence of the training, which the Buddha taught to the monastics at this gathering.
With Sean Oakes recorded on February 25, 2024.
Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.
Discussion
One thought on “The Whole of the Holy Life: Celebrating Buddhist Community on Māgha Pūjā 2567”
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Discover more from the Dharma Library
-
Beautiful and beloved communities in the Dharma – the practice of inclusive and diverse sanghas.
Recorded :
January 14, 2018 Worldwide Insight talk from Larry Yang: “Beautiful and Beloved Communities in the Dharma: The Practice of Inclusive and Diverse Sanghas”. Guided meditation, Dharma talk and Q&A.
-
Mindfulness of sympathetic joy.
Recorded :
February 14, 2016 Sympathetic Joy (mudita) is one of the four noble qualities recommended by the Buddha on the path of awakening. Such joy arises from appreciating the good fortune of self and others.
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nirmala Werner – Week of March 20 – 24, 2023
This week’s topic is “The Art of Embodied Listening”. This week is an invitation to explore the skill of true, deep and embodied listening. Living in a culture where people are mainly self-focused, wanting to express themselves, we can look into our capacity to listen. Rather than talking to ourselves we can learn listening with our whole body to others, ourselves and to silence in which all phenomena arises. Creating space to express, really tuning into “what’s going on here?“ enables our stress, worries, fear and insecurities to be unveiled and liberated and is a powerful tool for cultivating insights.
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Yahel Avigur – Week of 14 July, 2025
We’re delighted to have Yahel Avigur guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these sessions enrich and support your practice.
This week’s theme is: Metta — Healing All Aspects
This week, we’ll open to the healing power of metta – loving-kindness, or goodwill – as a transformative force in our lives. We’ll practice offering this gentle warmth first to those we naturally care about, and to ourselves. Gradually, we’ll widen the circle, allowing metta to infuse our relationships with neutral people, those we find difficult, and ultimately all beings. As kindness suffuses more corners of our hearts and lives, we may begin to discover a growing sense of spaciousness and connection – and with it, insight, balance, and inner freedom.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of May 6, 2024
This week’s topic is “Finding Balance in the Midst of Uncertainty”. Dharma teachings support us in meeting the wholeness of our lives with interest, gentleness and creativity. Acknowledging the inconstancy and flux of our experience, both joys and sorrows, with sensitivity and care nourishes a deep wellbeing. Through the week we will cultivate a nurturing environment through which to connect with challenging aspects of the human condition. By prioritising spacious tenderness over contraction and demand, we can find the liberation of the true heart’s release.
-
Clearly visible but hard to see.
Recorded :
May 10, 2015 Worldwide Insight talk from Stephen Batchelor: “Clearly Visible but Hard to See”. Guided meditation, Dharma talk and Q&A.
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Sophie Boyer – Week of 18 May, 2026
This week’s theme is: The Unfolding of Presence
This week, Sophie Boyer invites us back to the heart of daily meditation: just practice. It’s a practice where no effort is needed to be present, for presence is already here. Let us simply return to it.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
-
When did you stop breathing?
Recorded :
June 4, 2017 We could say that the Buddha was teaching us to breath again. It’s said that the prince Siddhartha was sitting under a Bodhi tree, practicing the anapanasati (the mindfulness of breathing) when he gained enlightenment and became awake, a Buddha. He was aware of the whole experience of breathing. Through breathing he trained the mind…
thank you Sean