Today is Losar (Tibetan New Year), as well as Chinese New Year.
It coincides with the first day of the ‘Fifteen Days of Miracles’ when Shakyamuni Buddha (our historical Buddha) showed miraculous powers for 15 days to inspire his followers and others. It culminates with the full moon on 24th February in what is termed Chӧtrul Düchen (The Day of Miracles). This period is one of the most important times on the Buddhist calendar.
“Then the Blessed One entered into such a state of meditation that he completely disappeared.
He then became visible in the sky in the eastern direction and displayed the four types of noble bearing—that is, walking, standing, sitting, and lying down—all while remaining fixed in meditative equipoise.
Then he entered into the fire-element concentration; and once the Blessed Buddha had entered the fire-element concentration, multi-coloured rays of light emanated from his body, rays of blue, yellow, red, white ,maroon and crystal.
Displaying the Twin Miracle, fire blazed from the lower half of his body and water flowed from the upper half, and then fire blazed from the upper half of his body and water flowed from the lower half.
And the same miracles he displayed in the eastern direction, he also displayed in the western, southern and northern directions. He displayed these four miracles of superhuman power in the four directions, and after curtailing his superhuman powers he went back to sitting on the lion throne.”
Fiordalis, David, The Buddha’s Great Miracle at Śrāvastī: A Translation from the Tibetan Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya, 2014.
During these 15 days our actions of body, speech and mind accumulate karma, which is multiplied by 100 million. Therefore, ensuring that we perform actions that create merit on each of these days rather than negative karma is very important.
For FPMT, Losar is also a very special time as it commemorates the anniversary of FPMT founder Lama Yeshe’s parinirvana (death) at the dawn of Losar in 1984.
This year is also the Year of the Wood Dragon!
The Tibetan dragon, a symbol of power and of hidden, intangible knowledge. Being invisible, he manifests himself through sound and energy. The dragon thunders in the sky with the sound of compassion that awakens us from delusion and increases what we can understand through hearing. Thus, it is said that dragons bring forth our awareness towards the things that we cannot see.
As you can tell, this is a very special time for Buddhists!
Wishing everyone a very, very Happy Losar and 15 Days of Miracles!!