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Tibetan Buddhist Calendar for 2004

2004 Year of the Wood Monkey 2131

Listed here are some of the dates of the Tibetan lunar calendar. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has requested FPMT centers and students to do certain practices on certain auspicious days.

Losar February 21
Great Prayer Festival - Mönlam February 21 - March 6
Day of Miracles March 6
Month of Saka Dawa May 20 - June 17
Saka Dawa June 3

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the spiritual director of the FPMT, recommends to his students that they take the Eight Mahayana Precepts on the Tibetan 8th, 15th (full moon) and 30th (new moon) of every month. Due to good spiritual energy on all these three monthly days, the karmic effects of all positive and negative actions are multiplied many times.

It is especially beneficial to take these precepts on all Buddha days as well, including solar and lunar eclipses. The karmic effects of actions performed on all special days of Lord Buddha are multiplied one hundred million times, as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the Vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.

Special Days of Lord Buddha

The first fifteen days of the First Tibetan month (Febraury 21 - March 6), which celebrate the days on which Lord Buddha performed many miracles, with the 15th being the Day of Miracles; the Great Prayer Festival Mönlam Chenmo takes place on these days.
Lord Buddha's conception (May 26)
Lord Buddha's birth, enlightenment and parinirvana (June 3)
Lord Buddha's first teaching (July 21)
Lord Buddha's acceptance to descend from Tushita (October 27)
Solar and Lunar Eclipses

The karmic results are multiplied by seven million on solar eclipses (April 18 and October 14) and by seven million on lunar eclipses (May 4 and October 27). All four are marked with a B.

According to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, "Those who have received an initiation into Highest Yoga Tantra have a commitment on the Tibetan 10th and 25th of every month to perform a tsog offering.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommends the practice of either Tara or Mahakala on the Tibetan 8th day of every month. Traditionally, a Protector Buddha puja is offered on the 29th. The confession ceremony of monks and nuns (Sojong) is performed on the Tibetan 14th or 15th and 29th or 30th.

Inauspicious Days

There are many days on which it is considered inauspicious to perfomr certain activities; several are marked on the calendar.

According to Rinpoche, by hanging prayer flags (including long prayer flags and banners) on the wrong astrological dates, "you will continuously receive obstacles." The following are the wrong dates according to the Tibetan calendar:

10th and 22nd of the First, Fifth and Ninth months
7th and 19th of the Second, Sixth and Tenth months
4th and 16th of the Third, Seventh and Eleventh months
1st and 13th of the Fourth, Eighth and Twelfth months.
Two days, called Nine Bad Omens, on which it is considered astrologically inauspicous to start an activity – such as a retreat, a journey, a new job – fall on the Tibetan 6th and 7th of the Eleventh month (December 17 and 18).

May whoever sees, remembers, thinks or talks about this site never be born in the lower realms, receive only perfect human rebirths, meet a perfectly qualified spiritual friend, and quickly achieve Guru Buddha's enlightened state.

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