Overview of The Vajrasattva Practice
DATE: Sunday 31st May 2026
TIME: 8:30pm-9:00pm
LOCATION: Zoom
LEVEL: Buddhist Practices – All Welcome
SUGGESTED DONATION: £3
Saka Dawa Duchen, which occurs this year on May 31, is one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan calendar, each of which celebrates an anniversary of Shakyamuni Buddha’s display of extraordinarily powerful deeds for the sake of sentient beings. On this particular holy day, karmic results are multiplied by 300 million times as it commemorates Shakyamuni Buddha’s three major life events.
Please join us for this Vajrasattva purifcation practice. Purification here means looking at our past unskillful actions which have created seeds of negative karma in our minds, and using visualisation and mantra recitation to remove those seeds in a healthy and productive way. Vajrasattva is the embodiment of all the Buddha’s cleaning and purifying energy. We all make mistakes, and how we deal with them is key to making spiritual progress. We’ll be using a short text composed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
We will also be holding Morning Prayers for Saka Dawa at 8:30 am to 9 am
How to best celebrate Saka Dawa? – fulfilling the lama’s advice!
Please refer to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice for merit multiplying days, in particular:
Taking the eight Mahayana precepts: students can receive the lineage of these precepts from a specially produced video of Lama Zopa Rinpoche granting them, recorded in 2020 at Kopan Monastery.
Reciting the Sutra Remembering the Three Jewels
The 2026 GLOBAL MANI RETREAT is scheduled to commence on the first day of Saka Dawa month (Sunday, May 17, 2026), and conclude on the final Buddha Day for this year, Lhabab Duchen (Sunday, November 1, 2026). This retreat will be something unprecedented for our global FPMT family. Please read all about this special retreat and consider incorporating it into your program for the month of Saka Dawa.
Swift Return Prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche – taking advantage of this merit-making opportunity!
Of course, at the conclusion of any activities at your center during the Saka Dawa month and on Saka Dawa day in particular, please take the opportunity to dedicate all the merit generated to the swift return of our most precious Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
A Day of Pujas and Prayers for All Beings
On Saka Dawa Duchen (May 31), the FPMT Puja Fund , on behalf of the entire FPMT organization, will be sponsoring two recitations of the 100,000 Praises to the Twenty-One Taras, the recitation of the Guhyasamaja Root Tantra, 1000 Offerings to Buddha Namgyalma, Medicine Buddha Puja and recitations of Jampal Tshen Jo (Chanting the Names of Manjushri). Offerings will be made to all the sangha undertaking these practices and to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus, and the stupas of Boudhanath and Swambyunath in Nepal will be freshly painted, and the umbrellas at the pinnacle of each stupa will be replaced, and a new set of robes will be offered to the Buddha statue in the Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya. Please consider sharing information about this vast offering and extensive prayers that have been specifically set up by Lama Zopa Rinpoche for the benefit of the whole organization and all beings.
Please join us in rejoicing in all the meritorious activities happening within the FPMT organization and around the world on this auspicious merit-multiplying day and month!