Lunar Calendar Anniversary of the Buddha’s
Birth, Awakening, and Passing Away

Monday, May 12, 2025

The entire Vesak month is a special time for creating virtue

All merit accumulated from virtuous actions during this time is multiplied 100,000 times!

Vesak Day is a celebration of hope and joy.
Ven. Thubten Chodron explains.

How to Celebrate

Cultivate compassion. Practice generosity. Purify negative actions. Study Buddha’s teachings. Rejoice in all that is good and beneficial.

Teachings

“May I become fully enlightened and lead all sentient beings to full enlightenment, and spread the Dharma throughout the entire universe.”
This is the prayer of the bodhisattva on Vesak Day.
—Venerable Thubten Chodron

Practices

  • Do the Shakyamuni Buddha meditation practice. When you do the mantra recitation and visualization, please count your recitations and report the number, dedicating the merit to help overcome any obstacles to completing the Abbey’s new Buddha Hall. Learn how.
  • Take and keep the Eight Mahayana Precepts for 24 hours.
  • Make special offerings to the Three Jewels on your altar and do the extensive offering practice.
  • Make offerings to your teachers and Dharma centers to support continuation of Buddha’s teachings.
  • Make offerings to help people affected by war, famine, poverty, and other great sufferings.
  • Go here to include the Abbey in your Vesak Day offerings.
monks and nuns posing for community portrait
monks and nuns posing for community portrait