{"id":6391,"date":"2013-07-22T12:57:54","date_gmt":"2013-07-22T16:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=6391"},"modified":"2013-07-22T12:57:54","modified_gmt":"2013-07-22T16:57:54","slug":"dharma-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/07\/dharma-day.html","title":{"rendered":"Dharma Day ~"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dharma<\/a>July 22nd is Dharma Day for observant Buddhists. There are three ‘jewels’ in Buddhist tradition: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The Buddha is the easy one. \ud83d\ude42 Sangha<\/em> <\/a>is the community on the Buddhist path with you, as I’ve discussed elsewhere<\/a>.<\/p>\n

‘Dharma<\/a>‘ is commonly understood to mean the Buddha’s teachings, but it’s more than that. In Hindu faith — which is what the\u00a0 Buddha was born into — it connotes your sacred duty. I like the idea that this meaning backgrounds what the Buddha taught. And that’s what we celebrate on Dharma Day: the Buddha as teacher.<\/p>\n

It’s the first day of (or after, depending on who you ask \ud83d\ude42 ) the Buddha’s enlightenment. He rises from beneath the bodhi tree and goes off looking for his former disciples, to share his new-found knowledge. Dharma Day marks that moment, when the Buddha began to teach.<\/p>\n

Traditionally Dharma Day is spent reflecting on the Buddha’s teachings. It also begins Vassa<\/em><\/a>, sometimes known as ‘Buddhist Lent,’ since many Buddhists give up eating meat, smoking, and other luxuries. Kind of a cross between Ramadan and Lent. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

So I’m considering what I will do to mark the passing of Dharma Day this year. What one of the Buddha’s teachings do you find most useful? And why?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 22nd is Dharma Day for observant Buddhists. There are three ‘jewels’ in Buddhist tradition: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The Buddha is the easy one. \ud83d\ude42 Sangha is the community on the Buddhist path with you, as I’ve discussed elsewhere. ‘Dharma‘ is commonly understood to mean the Buddha’s teachings, but it’s more…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[587,1],"tags":[11,1181,1187,262,1312,588],"class_list":["post-6391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dharma-day","category-uncategorized","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-dharma-day","tag-vassa"],"yoast_head":"\nDharma Day ~ - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"July 22nd is Dharma Day for observant Buddhists. There are three 'jewels' in Buddhist tradition: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The Buddha is the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/07\/dharma-day.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dharma Day ~ - Beginner's Heart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"July 22nd is Dharma Day for observant Buddhists. There are three 'jewels' in Buddhist tradition: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The Buddha is the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/07\/dharma-day.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beginner's Heart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-22T16:57:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/files\/2013\/07\/dharma-wheel.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Britton Gildersleeve\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dharma Day ~ - Beginner's Heart","description":"July 22nd is Dharma Day for observant Buddhists. There are three 'jewels' in Buddhist tradition: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The Buddha is the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/07\/dharma-day.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dharma Day ~ - Beginner's Heart","og_description":"July 22nd is Dharma Day for observant Buddhists. There are three 'jewels' in Buddhist tradition: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The Buddha is the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/07\/dharma-day.html","og_site_name":"Beginner's Heart","article_published_time":"2013-07-22T16:57:54+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/files\/2013\/07\/dharma-wheel.jpg"}],"author":"Britton Gildersleeve","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/07\/dharma-day.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/07\/dharma-day.html","name":"Dharma Day ~ - Beginner's Heart","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/07\/dharma-day.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/07\/dharma-day.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/files\/2013\/07\/dharma-wheel.jpg","datePublished":"2013-07-22T16:57:54+00:00","dateModified":"2013-07-22T16:57:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/#\/schema\/person\/b4348bfbe2223c0ec325db830aa95f52"},"description":"July 22nd is Dharma Day for observant Buddhists. There are three 'jewels' in Buddhist tradition: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The Buddha is the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/07\/dharma-day.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/07\/dharma-day.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/07\/dharma-day.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/files\/2013\/07\/dharma-wheel.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/files\/2013\/07\/dharma-wheel.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/07\/dharma-day.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dharma Day ~"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/","name":"Beginner's Heart","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Britton Gildersleeve","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/#\/schema\/person\/b4348bfbe2223c0ec325db830aa95f52","name":"Britton Gildersleeve","description":"Britton Gildersleeve is a 'third culture kid.' Years spent living on the margins - in places with exotic names and food shortages - have left her with a visceral response to folks \u2018without,\u2019 as well as a desire to live her Buddhism in an engaged fashion. She\u2019s a writer and a teacher, the former director of a federal non-profit for teachers who write. She believes that if we talk to each other, we can learn to love each other (but she's still learning how). And she believes in tea. She is (still) working on her beginner's heart ~","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/author\/brittongildersleeve"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/398"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6391"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6423,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6391\/revisions\/6423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}