Losar Tashi Delek!

Happy new moon and happy Tibetan New Year.

Beginning tomorrow, there is an auspicious window for practice. Whether you follow Buddhist teachings or not, you can join in the energy of this time. Whatever your practice: yoga, meditation, nature, self-love, whispering sweet nothings to people in the grocery store… use this window to conjure kindness.

“The first through fifteenth days of the first Tibetan month (Feb. 24 – Mar. 9) commemorate the special time when The Buddha showed his miraculous powers in order to inspire faith.  Any actions done during this two week period are karmically multiplied by one hundred million, as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the Vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic. It is a very powerful time to practice.” 

Tibetan Buddhism Centre for World Peace

One hundred million?! I’m in!

2 weeks to put the ego aside and offer up kindness wherever you can. What fun! If you’d like a more formal practice, consider Metta Bhavana for 2 weeks.

Excerpted from Nourish: Ayurveda-inspired 21-day Detox:

Metta bhavana is the Buddhist practice of loving kindness. This is a powerful practice for healing, forgiveness and self-love.
For more on the practice of loving kindness, visit Sharon Salzberg at sharonsalzberg.com.

When you recite this blessing, feel your wishes with your whole heart. Smile with your entire body as you close your eyes and see before you, in your mind’s eye, yourself.

Offer yourself this blessing:

May I be happy
May I be healthy
May I be safe
May I live with ease and joy

You may repeat this three times (or as many times as you feel it is needed).

Then call to mind a friend or loved one. Again, smile with your whole body and offer the blessing:

May you be happy
May you be healthy
May you be safe
May you live with ease and joy

Feel the words as you offer them freely.

Now, call to mind an acquaintance or someone you know casually. Offer the blessing:

May you be happy
May you be healthy
May you be safe
May you live with ease and joy

Keeping the loving feeling in your heart and cells, bring to mind someone with whom you struggle. (It may take more effort to smile with your whole body here, but keep thinking good thoughts and remembering happy times).

Offer the blessing:

May you be happy
May you be healthy
May you be safe
May you live with ease and joy

Repeat several times.

Complete the practice by seeing everyone – animals, plants, rivers and oceans – as one being, and offer the blessing with great love, as I do to you now.

May you be happy
May you be healthy
May you be safe
May you be nourished

And may all beings benefit.

Losar Tashi Delek!