Welcome a New Beginning
For Tibetan Buddhists, this weekend marks Losar, the new year, on February 10 — a time to clean house, cherish family, make offerings, contemplate the past year and welcome the new.
Losar is one of the most important days in the Tibetan Lunar calendar, a day of community practice and celebration, and a chance to express appreciation for the teachers, teachings, and the basic goodness that binds all beings together.
Generally falling around the second new moon after the winter solstice, the tradition originated thousands of years ago in the pre-Buddhist Bon period and is now celebrated around the world, including in many Buddhist centers in North America.
2024 is designated as the year of the Wood Dragon, traditionally associated with strength and vitality, inviting us to welcome new beginnings. The three pieces below speak to the merit of embracing new beginnings, even when they arrive disguised as an ending. We hope they inspire you to recognize the potential for a fresh start in every moment.
Happy Losar! |
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Sylvia Boorstein on the transformative power of acknowledging life’s constant cycles of creation and loss.
The Buddha taught that seeing beginnings and endings—the arising and passing away of all conditioned forms — is a vital step in developing the understanding that nothing exists apart from interdependent, cause-and-effect relationships. To see the beginnings and endings is also, in my experience, a great support in difficult times. Early on, as I began to trust in the fiber of my being that nothing lasts, I became less afraid of pain. The fact that everything has an end comforted me. “One way or another,” I would say to myself, “this too will pass.” I was glad I saw that. I didn’t think much, in those initial moments of insight, about how the pleasant things change as well as the difficult ones.  |
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Thich Nhat Hanh on the practice of starting over.
Beginning Anew is not to ask for forgiveness. Beginning Anew is to change your mind and heart, to transform the ignorance that brought about wrong actions of body, speech, and mind, and to help you cultivate your mind of love. Your shame and guilt will disappear, and you will begin to experience the joy of being alive. All wrongdoings arise in the mind. It is through the mind that wrongdoings can disappear... After the Beginning Anew ceremony, everyone in the community feels light and relieved, even if we have taken only preliminary steps toward healing. We have confidence that, having begun, we can continue. |
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The fruit of Chan practice is discovering the freshness of each moment. Guo Gu on silent illumination, gong’an, and engaging with the world.
Bringing the threefold practice of virtue, meditation, and wisdom into our lives is also about forming new relationships and seeing new beginnings. This is compassion in action. When we encounter difficulties in life, there’s no need to fixate on our impulse to label them as negative. What appears to be negative may turn out to be a learning experience. When life presents us with challenges — whether from our boss, colleagues, family members, friends, teachers, or students — if we can adapt to situations and recognize that each moment is a new beginning, we won’t hold grudges or feel resentment. Solutions to our challenges always appear when we stop labeling them, when we stop trapping ourselves in a fixed reality. |
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