Lha Bab Düchen (lha babs dus chen) in Tibetan translates as, ‘The Festival of the Descent from Heaven.’ We celebrate this great event on the 22nd day of the ninth month of the Tibetan lunar calendar, marking the descent of the Buddha from the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven (the Heaven belonging to the thirty-three deities). This year, we celebrate Lha Bab Düchen on October 27th, 2021.
During Lha Bab Düchen, one of the four great festivals of the Tibetan Buddhist calendar, the effects of positive or negative actions are multiplied ten million times. Therefore, we engage in virtuous activities such as lighting butter lamps, giving alms to the needy, circumambulating or reading about sacred sites, making aspiration prayers, and engaging in meditation practices on this day.
This year, Samye Institute invited our global Sangha to commit to sitting in meditation collectively during this sacred time. Our Sangha spent three days, eighteen hours, and fifty minutes in meditation! Over one hundred people submitted their meditation time. We rejoice in this global activity!
As we sit to meditate, we can recall the Buddha Ghoṣadatta’s instructions from the Samādhirājasūtra on the superiority of meditation practice as the supreme offering. You may wish to recall the kindness of the Buddha of our age by practicing the Treasury of Blessings sādhana, composed by Mipham Rinpoche, or according to other meditation instructions that you have received. You can find visualization aids to support your practice in our chant library.
