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Mt Adams Zen Buddhist Temple

雪山禅寺

  

Celebration of Buddha's Parinirvana    
Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 9 am
Parinirvana - the Buddha's final death after being fully awakened and freed from all suffering.

   This is a Buddhist day of meditating on our own life and death as well as celebrating the wonderful teachings of the Buddha.

   Parinirvana is the final death of one who has become fully awakened and passed beyond all suffering. This last death occurs when one is freed from samsara (the cycles of birth, life, and death) and karma.   We can read about this final death from the Mahayana school in the Nirvana Sutra (or Mahaparinirvana Sutra) and from the Thervada school as part of the Paili Canon in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta.

   Buddha died at Kuśinagara (which several temple members visited as part of our recent tour of the Buddhist holy sites in India).

   Different areas of the world celebrate the date as either February 8th or 15th. Some cultures combine the birth, death, and enlightenment days into a single day or a week of celebrations. 

 Please join us for meditation, sutra reading, and a pot-luck brunch after our service.  Please bring a vegetarian dish to share. 

Parinirvana 1

  "Behold, O monks, this is my last advice to you. All component things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Work hard to gain your own salvation."

Then the Buddha lapsed into the jhana stages, or meditative absorptions. Going from level to level, one after the other, ever deeper and deeper. Then he came out of the meditative absorption for the last time and passed into nirvana, leaving nothing whatever behind that can cause rebirth again in this or any other world.  The passing away, or the final nirvana of the Buddha, occurred in 543 BC.    

 The statue at Kusinagara celebrating Buddha's Parinirvana.    

Saturday  18 February 2012  9 AM 

 

46 Stoller Rd Trout Lake, WA 98650 509.395.2030

 

Google map search "Trout Lake Abbey"

 

1.5 hours drive from Portland

 

4.5 hours drive from Seattle

Schedule

 

Parinirvana Service
9am - 10am

 

Pot Luck Brunch 

(Vegetarian)

10:30 am - 11:30 am 

 

Overnight accommodations are available.

Please call and make a reservation.  
 

We surround all forms of life with infinite love and compassion. 

 

Especially, do we send out compassionate thoughts to those  

in suffering and sorrow,

 

to those in doubt and ignorance, to all who are striving to attain truth,

 

and to those whose feet stand close to the great change called death, we send forth all wisdom, mercy and love.

 

May the Infinite Light of Wisdom and Compassion so shine within us that the errors and vanities of self may be dispelled; so shall we understand the changing nature of existence and awaken into spiritual peace.