Drukpa TsheZhi

Every fourth day of the six month in the Lunar calendar is observed as the First Sermon of Lord Buddha.

Natively known as Drukpa Tshe Zhi, it is regarded as one of the most sacred and auspicious days in the Buddhist calendar. It is on this day that the Buddha Shakyamuni, gave the first sermon regarding the Middle Path and the doctrine of the “Four Noble Truths” (བདེན་པ་བཞི), spiritually revered as Turning the Wheel of Dharma (Choe Khor Duechen). 

The First Sermon of Lord Buddha       Image courtesy: Click LINK

Bhutan celebrates the day by paying visits to the holy sites such as temples and monasteries, offer prayers and butter lamps, chant the religious mantras and receive blessings from the religious figures, relics and murals (thongdrels). Any noble and virtuous deeds steered on this day is believed to multiple thousand times and a person will earn all the merits and blessings in manifolds.

Some 2500 years ago at Deer Park, Sarnath in India, the Lord Buddha has given a religious discourse to the five ascetics who were his former companions about The Four Noble Truths which are:

1. སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་བདེན་པ། Life is full of suffering:

2. ཀུན་འབྱུང་གྱི་བདེན་པ། There is a cause to suffering.

3. འགོག་པའི་བདེན་པ། There is an end to suffering.

4. ལམ་གྱི་བདེན་པ། The end to suffering is contained in the eightfold path. 

1. སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་བདེན་པ། Life is full of suffering

Buddha said that life is full of suffering. Birth, ageing, sickness and death are all suffering. Pain and grief, lamentation and agony, despair and misery are suffering. Separation of emotions, detachment from the beloveds and dissociations from the pleasant is suffering. Not getting what you desire is suffering.  

       

2. ཀུན་འབྱུང་གྱི་བདེན་པ། There is a cause to suffering.

Buddha said that all suffering is caused by desire. Craving for sensual pleasures, delight and lust is what causes sufferings.

3. འགོག་པའི་བདེན་པ། There is an end to suffering.

Buddha said that the end to suffering is to cease our desire and thirst, renounce or relinquish and detach completely from worldly desires.     

4. ལམ་གྱི་བདེན་པ། The end to suffering is contained in the eightfold path.

Buddha said that the noble truth of the way that will lead to cease the suffering is following the Eightfold Path. The Eightfold path is:

Right View

Right Intention

Right Speech

Right Action

Right Livelihood

Right Effort

Right Mindfulness and

Right Concentration.

 

Eightfold Path       Image courtesy: Click LINK

Buddhist narration has it that as soon as the sermon of the Lord Buddha concluded, the five ascetics got enlightenment. It is due to this spiritual magnificence that Bhutanese who are Buddhist since times immemorial get to remind and realize the fundamental teachings of the Lord Buddha on this very day.    

“Three things cannot hide for long: the moon, the sun and the truth”

Lord Buddha