Every year, on the 4th lunar day of the 6th month (of Dharma Calendar), Buddhists all around the world celebrate “Wheel Turning Day”, also known as Chokhor Duchen in Tibetan. This annual prayer day commemorates the day that Buddha Shakyamuni gave his first teaching on the Dharma.
This year, Chokhor Duchen falls on Friday 24th July 2020.
After Buddha attained enlightenment beneath the Bodhi Tree at Bodhgaya, he remained in silent meditation for seven weeks. Then the gods Indra and Brahma visited Buddha and requested teachings from him. They brought with them a dharma-chakra and conch shell as offerings. Buddha gave his first teaching on the Four Noble Truths in Sarnath (located 10 kilometres north-east of Varanasi near the confluence of the Ganges and the Varuna rivers in Uttar Pradesh, India.)
Wheel Turning Day is very important spiritual day as all karmic deeds are multiplied 100 million times. For those of you who are dharma practitioners, the following prayers and practices are recommended:
- Praises, Prayers Sadhana and Mantras of Shakyamuni Buddha
- Praises, Prayers Sadhana and Mantras of Guru Padmasambhava
- Sutra chanting – Heart Sutra, Golden Light Sutra,
- Samantabhadra’s King of Aspirations (Zangcho Monlam)
- Smoke Puja / Incense Puja
- Light Offerings to the Triple Gems
- Any other Buddhist prayers you know
Shakyamuni Buddha’s Mantra
OM MUNI MUNI MAHA MUNIYE SOHA
Guru Rinpoche’s Mantra
OM AH HUM BENZA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG
All karmic deeds are multiplied on this day, so please do practice mindfulness. Whether you are Buddhist or non-Buddhist, you can still be benefit tremendously from this day by making time to do some beneficial deeds:
- Being vegetarian or vegan for the whole day (sunrise to sunset)
- Release LIVE ANIMALS who are meant for food or other purposes. i.e. live fishes, prawns, chicken, rabbits, pigeons.
- Making financial donations to monastic communities or spiritual organisations
- Making financial donations to charities (orphans, old folks and disabled)
- Refraining from any negative or harmful deeds (killing, stealing)
- Refraining from negative speech (Cursing, scolding others, gossiping about others)
