On August 5th, we were at the chalet, and I was celebrating not only my mom's birthday, and my old best friend Erika's birthday, but also Chökhor Düchen, which is one of the four great festivals of Tibetan Buddhism. It's when we celebrate the first turning of the wheel of the dharma, or the first time the Buddha taught after attaining enlightenment.
There are often community celebrations and such merit-lending events as teachings and dharma activity for the Düchens, since the positive and negative effects of our actions on these days are said to count ten millionfold. I'm never sure about this insane multiplication of karmic results, but I do believe in doing good things. This year, I did a morning meditation, karma yoga, and some dharma reading in preparation for the teachings I'll be attending this coming week, but I also listened to a Theravada teaching by Ajahn Sumedho, which I've had on mp3 for a number of years (thanks, Trish). Ajahn Sumedho is a disciple of Ajahn Chah in the Thai Forest tradition, and is abbott of Amaravati Monastery in England.
There are two reasons I hadn't listened to this teaching yet. First, Trish gave me so many other teachings, notably from Ajahn Amaro, and judging by the titles, the others seemed more relevant than this one whenever I had time to listen. Second, the recordings for Ajahn Sumedho were not clearly done, and there is a lot of static in the foreground, so you really need to listen to them with headphones. If you want a copy of this or any of the teachings I have, though, just let me know and I'll e-mail or burn them for you.
The following post will be about the teaching itself, but I'm going to timestamp it so that you can read it while I'm away. Happy end of the summer, everyone.
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