Three Months Spiritual Rains Retreat Season begins on Sunday 10th July 2022

Annual Invitation Ceremony for Vassana Three Months Spiritual Rains Retreat

This year Vassana (Rains Retreat) Season will be from 10th July 2022 till 22nd October 2022. You can sponsor a week during this three months holy period in order to share the noble merits and blessings of this sacred period. We will be hosting Special Blessings Pooja and protection chanting on every Saturday. You can sponsor any of these Saturday poojas.

Traditional Invitation to the

2022 Spiritual Rains Three Months Retreat

Invitation Ceremony to Vassana Sunday 10th July 2022


Do Join at temple or Online Temple from Zoom with the ID: 696 889 1414 Passcode: dhamma

05:00PM Bodhi Pooja, Chanting of Most Sacred Sutta “Dhamma Chakkha Pavaththana Sutta” and Seth Pirith Special Protection Blessings Chanting


05:30PM:  Sinhala Dhamma Talk & English Dhamma Talk

06:00PM: Vassana Invitation

07:30PM: Sharing Merits (anumodana) and Blessings

This Sunday Evening Pooja is sponsored by

Mrs Shiromi & Mr Rosco Kariyawasam

Mrs Namal & Mr Thusitha Kariyawasam

Mrs Manjula & Miss Jeevani Jayasooriya

Mr Rajitha & Mrs Lakshi Weerakkody

and Families. 


Login Details to Join our Online Temple

Zoom ID: 696 889 14 14
Password: dhamma


Dear All,

Greetings with Dhamma Blessings..!

Namo Buddhaya..!

You are cordially invited to our Esala Full Moon Day Programme together with Invitation Ceremony to Annual Three Months Rains Retreat, held on Sunday 10th July 2022 at 5.00PM at temple or from home through online temple by using zoom ID 696 889 1414. Passcode: dhamma

You can attend in person or online. This holiest spiritual day blessings will be very meaningful to attend. We dedicate this Spiritual Three Months to heal the whole world.

It is also very hard time for Buddhist Centre as all our donations and support have been very limited and restricted. We are very grateful to our dayakas (devotees) for understanding this situation and coming forward to keep the centre activities going.

We will continue to host weekly meditation programmes, children dhamma school, pooja blessings, pirith chanting, dana programmes. All are requested to attend in person or online from home.

May all the blessings, merits be with all those who worked very hard to support the centre by monthly standing orders and the other means.

We invite all to join online or in person temple programme on this holiest day Esala (July) Full Moon Day on Sunday 10th July 2022. Programme will start at 5.00PM with Bodhi Pooja, Chanting of First Discourse, Dhamma Chakkha Pavaththana Sutta and Blessings, Vas Aradhana (Invitation to Three Months Rains Retreat).

This day we start the programme with Bodhi Pooja and chanting the first sermon of the Lord Buddha, Dhamma chakka pavaththana Sutta (wheel of Dhamma Set in Motion). Then we invite the monks to observe three months retreat at Letchworth Dhamma Nikethanaya.

This is a highly blessed and an auspicious occasion, we encourage to keep the day free to join us and share the blessings!


Spiritual Rains Retreat Three Months Season 10-07-202 till 22-10-2022


We invite all our friends and devotees of Letchworth Dhamma Nikethanaya Buddhist Cultural Centre to attend online or in person on Sunday 10th July 2022 at 6.00PM.


Esala (July) Full Moon Day has many traditional significances. The three Jewels reached a completion on Esala (July) Full Moon Day with the ordination of the five ascetics as Bhikkhus and with the start of the Rainy Retreat “VAS” by the Buddha and his disciples. In commemoration of this great event and abiding to the monastic rules as laid down by the Buddha, the monks residing at Letchworth Dhamma Nikethanaya are observing their Rainy Retreat “Vas” for the seventeenth consecutive year.

During this season both monks and lay devotees engage in extra Dana (Charity), Sila (Morality) and Bhavana (Meditation). Hence this period is regarded as the highest sacred in the Buddhist Calendar. At the end, to commemorate the success and achievements of the retreat, devotees host Sangha Day Gratitude Kathina Ceremony which will be held. We kindly remind you to keep this date free for this special meritorious ceremony which can be held only once a year in any temple and share the merits of this.

This year the Rainy Retreat “Vas” period happens to be between 10th July 2022 and 22nd October 2022. During this period we are organising a series of Weekly Dhamma Sermons, Bodhi poojas and meditation on Every Saturday Evening for the benefit of devotees and to make them understand to attend to the needs of the Buddhist monks during the rainy season. You can sponsor one week during this season. It is a great blessing to sponsor a pooja during this holiest retreat period. It is indeed in great help if you can sponsor one of these events during this periods to make the retreat success.

One individual can sponsor the event by taking the main responsibility. However it has to be done with the full participation of all the members (dayaka) of the centre.

We also conduct a Special Ceremony on this Full Moon Day July (Esala) Saturday 10th from 5PM till 7.00PM.

We kindly invite you to take part in this programme. If you wish to support by any other means to the day programme, please contact the centre.


Programme:  Sunday 10th July 2022


05:00 PM:  Bodhi Pooja Blessings Ceremony, Chanting of Dhammachakkapavaththana Sutta and seth pirith protection blessings.

07:45 PM:  End of the Day Programme

All are Welcome!

 


                                                  

 

Significances of Esala (July) Full Moon Day

 

Significances of Esala (July) Full Moon Day

 

Esala (July) full Moon Poya day is given much significance apart from other  two  main  full  moon  days Vesak (May) and Poson (June) because it is related  to  great  incidents  of  the  life  of  Prince  Siddartha (Later  the  Buddha) both  prior  to  and  following  his  Enlightenment.  Among  those significances, The conception  of  Boddhisatta  in  the  womb  of  Queen  Maya, The  Great  Renunciation  at the age of 29 the prince decided  to  leave  his  palace  and  beloved  ones  in  order  to  find  the  way  out  of  the  universal suffering,   Preaching   Abhidhamma  (Buddhist   Analytical   Philosophy   or  The  Highest  Dhamma)  to Matru Divya Rajaya (his  mother) in  the  Thavuthisa  heaven,  above  all,  two  months  after the Buddha attained Enlightenment, he delivered his first  sermon,  Dhamma  Chakka  Pawathna  Sutta  (the  wheel of truth) to the five ascetics, Realizing the Dhamma all five ascetics became Bhikkhus establishing the community of monks and as a result all three jewels (Buddha, Dhamma & Sangha) reached a completion, Declaration of his passing away to nibbanic bliss, the beginning of the ‘Vas’ “rainy season retreat” of the Sangha  or  the  monks,  Realizing  the  difficulties  that  mendicant  monks  undergone to propagate The Dhamma  during  the  rainy  season, The  Buddha  set out  a monastic  rule for monks to stay in one place during the rainy season, The first  Vas  was  observed  by  the Buddha and his first five disciples - the five ascetics  at  Isipathana  in  Benares, Laying of the foundation for the Ruwanwelisaya in Sri Lanka and its enshrinement of relics by  King  Dutugamunu,  Starting  the  Esala  Celebration  and  Procession  (Kandy Perahera) in Sri Lanka to honour  The  Tooth  Relic  of  The  Buddha  which  brought  to  Sri  Lanka  in  847  Buddhist  Era.


                


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