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
- Watch Ven. Chodron explain Why We Celebrate Vesak
- Watch Ven. Chodron’s beautiful telling of the Buddha’s life story and how it relates to your own life.
- Listen to Ven. Sangye Khadro explain what Vesak is.
- Read or recite and reflect on Buddhist sutras, like the Heart Sutra. (Watch or read Ven. Chodron’s commentary here.)
“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.

