May 16-June 15, 2007: We are very happy to report that KTC Monastery is sponsoring this year's Saka Dawa million mani initiative and encouraging all its members, students, friends and affiliated centers to participate. During the sacred month of Saka Dawa, the anniversary (in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition) of Shakyamuni Buddha's birth, enlightenment and parinirvana, the effects of all our actions are said to be greatly magnified. Each year at this time, Kagyu Samten Choling (the NH-Maine affiliated center) takes advantage of this opportunity by engaging in our annual community recitation of om mani peme hung, the mantra associated with the compassionate activity of the Bodhisattva Chenrezi (Avalokiteshvara). This year, KSC will continue to coordinate the project, but we hope to have many more participants, thanks to KTC Monastery's sponsorship.

Please join us!  Anyone reading this is welcome to participate, whether you have experience with the Chenrezi practice and mantra or not. It's easy to learn, quick to recite, and a very beneficial use of our time, especially during this month when all our actions are greatly magnified. According to Lama Dechi at KTC Monastery, the results of all our actions and Dharma practice are traditionally said to be increased 100 times during most of Saka Dawa, and ten million times on the full moon, which this year falls on Thursday, May 31. All mantra contributions, large and small, are welcome. It is said that even contributing a single mantra earns each participant the full merit (positive momentum toward enlightenment) of the entire group recitation. So please don't be shy about reporting even a small number of recitations; they will all help propel us to our goal.

News flash: As of June 8, with one week to go until the end of Saka Dawa, we have already surpassed our original goal of one million recitations! Our total to date is over 1,222,000 (not all updates have been added yet). But let's not rest on our laurels: the merit of all our positive activities remains magnified until June 15, so let's take advantage of it and do as much practice as possible. Can we work together to recite TWO million mani's?

Lama Jamdron at KTC Monastery says that Lama Norlha Rinpoche is very happy that we are all reciting mani's together during this most auspicious month. Eight KTC-affiliated centers that we know of are participating, plus a number of individual pracitioners. The Million Mani Project is happening from Toronto to Peru to Colorado, and we even have three participants in Cornwall, UK!

At the end of Saka Dawa, we will send Rinpoche a letter with our grand mani total and a list of all the participants who have reported in, either individually or through a Dharma center. If you haven't contributed any mani's yet, please do so by June 15, and we will add your name to the list.

If you would like to participate, scroll down to the details below.

Though we did not feel we could accomplish a million mantras as individual practitioners, we decided to try to do it by joining together as a community. We made the goal that year, with the participation of a number of sangha members and friends. The following year, we did not complete the million recitations by the end of Saka Dawa, but continued and completed the recitations the following month, on the 49th day following the passing of one of our founding Dharma center members, Wim Frank.

How to Count: You may use traditional prayer beads or any other method you want to work with. You can use a notebook or sheet of paper to make a mark for each completed round of the prayer beads (counted as 100), or use traditional Tibetan counters that are attached to the beads. If you don't have prayer beads, or for occasions such as driving when they may not be feasible to use, a simple method is to spend five minutes reciting mantras, keeping count by whatever method you can (e.g., drawing marks on a piece of paper), divide the total recitations by the number of minutes, and thus calculate how many mantras you typically say in one minute of recitation. Then you only have to keep track of time spent reciting, and you can multiply the number of minutes by your average recitations per minute (perhaps being a bit conservative, to avoid inadvertently reporting more mantras than you may have recited).

Recitation speed: Fast or slow, whatever you are comfortable with.

From Bokar Rinpoche, Chenrezi, Lord of Love: "When we recite this mantra, we are in fact continually repeating the name of Chenrezi...The mantra is invested by the grace and power of the mind of Chenrezi, who himself gathers the grace and compassion of all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. In this view, the mantra is endowed with the capacity to purify our mind from the veils that obscure it. The mantra opens the mind to love and compassion and leads it toward awakening....The deity and the mantra being one in essence means that one may recite the mantra without necessarily doing the visualization. The recitation still retains its effectiveness."

Bokar Rinpoche also mentions that the six syllables of the mantra om mani peme hung are said to have various auspicious correspondences, e.g., to the closing of the door of rebirth in each of the six realms of samsara, purification of the six obscurations, the six paramitas (generosity, ethics, patience, diligence, meditative concentration, and wisdom), the six Buddha families, and the six wisdoms. It is not necessary or helpful to think about these correspondences when reciting the mantra, but being aware of them helps us appreciate the power of the mantra.

From Kalu Rinpoche, teaching at Samye Ling in Scotland in 1983: "Let us trust the mantra, let us allow the body to attend to its work and the mind to its reflections leading to result, but at the same time let us recite the mantra om mani peme hung, without even being attentive. We will purify many karmic veils and finally attain awakening."

In addition, mantras are said to benefit all beings who hear them. So when we recite om mani peme hung, even in a very soft voice, it may be overheard by countless beings--other humans, animals, insects, even beings in realms that are invisible to us, such as the hungry ghost realm--thus helping to awaken their ultimate nature as well. (We try to refrain from reciting mantras aloud in situations where other humans may not be receptive to it...but animals and insects never seem to mind! In fact, when Kalu Rinpoche walked around the grounds of KTC Monastery in the 1980s, he was frequently observed to stop and say mantras for all the beings he encountered.)