July 9^th the 4^th day of the 6^th lunar month of the Tibetan calendar, celebrates Chokor Dhuchen - "Turning of the Wheel of Dharma.” Dharma refers to the Path of Buddhism; its collection of teachings. Tibetan Buddhists take this day to commemorate the first teaching given by Buddha Shakyamuni. We will making offerings at temples, light butter lamps, meditate, perform rituals and engage in prayers for the welfare of others. It is considered a special day for generating merit and purifying negative karma.

    According to traditional Buddhist accounts, after attaining enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree, Shakyamuni Buddha spent 7 weeks (49 days) in meditation, deep contemplation and reflecting on the insights he had gained. He considered that the profound insight he had attained would be too deep and subtle for most people to comprehend.

    Ultimately, it was the encouragement from the god Brahma Sahampati that moved Buddha to decide to teach. He traveled to Deer Park, near Sarnath, where he gave his first teachings to five former companions who had previously practiced asceticism with him. This first sermon marked the beginning of Buddha Shakyamuni's teaching career and the establishment of Buddhism as a spiritual path for others to follow.

THE 4 NOBLE TRUTHS

In his first sermon, known as the "Turning of the Wheel of Dharma," the Buddha Shakyamuni taught the Four Noble Truths which are the foundational teachings of Buddhism:

1.    The Truth of Suffering acknowledges that dissatisfaction and suffering is an inherent aspect of existence. All living beings experience varying degrees of physical and mental discomfort.

2.    The Truth of the Origin of Suffering teaches that suffering arises due to craving and attachment to an illusory permanent self and to the things in this impermanent world.

3.    The Truth of the Cessation of Suffering explains that liberation from suffering can be attained by removing craving and attachment.

4.    The Truth of the Path to Liberation is known as the Noble Eightfold Path, which consists of ethical conduct (right speech, right action, right livelihood), mental discipline (right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration), and wisdom (right understanding, right intention).

In the summer of 2014 I attended a Long Life Blessing ceremony with H.H.Sakya Trizen. Held in a hot high school gymnasium in Berkeley, it went on for hours. I noticed that many participants were playing with their cell phones instead of meditating or reciting mantras - the suggested Dharma activity.

It got me thinking how helpful it would be to have a cellphone app on which one could count mantras. The idea germinated for a few months and I eventually began designing an iphone app that would have deity photos to aid in visualizations, audio and visual mantras for recitation, and digital malas for counting mantra repetitions.

I chose 10 popular deity practices to start with and selected photos of the deities from the digital files of thangka paintings I've taken over the years. In his sound studio, my brother recorded my wife and I chanting mantras. Using Photoshop and Vectorworks, I drew a mock up of all the typical windows.

The image above shows the app's basic architecture. It comes preprogrammed with 10 well-known deity images image and their corresponding mantras in written and audio form. The screen can display a deity image and a workable mala on which to count mantra recitations.The mala can be displayed on the screened, superimposed on the Deity image or the scrolling mantra "prayer wheel." One merely taps the screen to advance the mala. For practitioners that do several practices, the app will keep running totals of all the various mantra repititions. There are a dozen different malas to choose from. The scrolling mantra function can display in Western or Tibetan script and it's background color and the scrolling speed is controllable. My wife and brother and I recorded the audio mantras. They're not bad, but there are hundreds of more beautiful mantra recordings available for downloading from the internet. Adding other deity images, mantras, and recordings to the app is not difficult. A Dharma-brother/ computer programmer, Ryan Zander, took my mock up and made is into a wonderful little iPhone App named "Buddhist Mantra Mala" which we launched in 2015 through our LLC, "Wisdom Eye Studios."

In my files I found this small (6"x8") rice paper print of Shakyamuni Buddha with his hands in the gesture called "Turning the Wheel of Dharma", also called his "Teaching Mudra." If you'd like a chance to win it in this month's drawing, email your name and address to: prayerflags2@gmail.com.

Thank you for submitting your entries.

Congratulations to the winner of last month's drawing for the

Medicine Buddha rice paper print:

David Quegg of Iowa City, IA



SUMMER NAGA ACTIVITIES

During July, the Nagas are entering their summer season and gathering their food. If you make offerings to them on a teb day, they will help you fulfill your wishes. They will bestow children, wealth, and livestock.

If you have any questions or comments, I will try to answer your emails. I appreciate getting photos and videos of prayer flags that I can post in the monthly newsletter.

Email me at: prayerflags2@gmail.com

Thank you for taking the time to read my newsletter.

Timothy Clark

Owner of Radiant Heart Studios