Honoring the Parinibbana of Mahapajapati Gotami & the Courageous Five Hundred.

“Patipatti puja” is a gesture of respect for our Kalyanamittas, our spiritual benefactors - honoring them with the highest and most beneficial kind of respect: the offering of our Dhamma practice: listening to and contemplating the Dhamma and training our minds through meditation.

On the Magha full moon on February 25th, we celebrate Magha Puja Sangha Day.

As the Magha full moon remembers the announcement of the impending Parinibbana of the Buddha, so too it also commemorates another event: Mahapajapati Gotami, the foster mother of the Buddha as well as the founding mother of the Bhikkhuni Sangha, decided her own Parinibbana (final nirvana) and commenced seven straight days of offering her final teachings [,]. A large number of her awakened bhikkhuni companions who had ordained together with her, thirty years before, decided they would follow her in going to final nirvana also. Then, on the Atthami Uposatha, the lunar eighth…