Generating Merit During Losar

Purifying the Past and Blessing the Future

The Tibetan New Year, Losar, marks the end of the Tibetan lunar calendar and the beginning of a fresh cycle. This year, Losar falls on February 28, 2025, bringing with it a profound opportunity for purification, renewal, and the generation of immense merit.

As the culmination of the lunar year, Losar is not merely a celebration but a spiritual gateway, where practitioners focus on cleansing the karmic residues of the past twelve months and setting intentions for the year ahead. It is a time to:

• Purify negative actions through sacred rituals and offerings.

• Renew vitality and energy by uplifting lung-ta (wind horse energy).

• Connect with the lineage blessings to foster both spiritual and worldly flourishing.

Through tsok offerings, retreats, and the raising of prayer flags, Losar aligns us with the timeless wisdom of the Dharma, ensuring an auspicious and transformative beginning to the new year. This sacred tradition is an opportunity to honor the past while creating the causes for an enlightened future.

STEPS TO PREPARE FOR LOSAR:

1. Purify Karma from the Past Year As the year draws to a close, purification practices release residual negativities caused by unskillful actions.

   • Tsok Offerings: These strengthen connections to lineage blessings and purify obstacles.

   • Mantra Recitation: Vajrasattva’s hundred-syllable mantra dissolves karmic imprints at the root.

   • Smoke Offerings (Sang): Burning juniper or incense symbolizes releasing obscurations while spreading blessings.

     
     

2. Generate Merit Merit is the foundation for both spiritual progress and harmonious worldly conditions. Acts of generosity, prayer, and devotion establish auspiciousness for the new year.

   • Offering Butter Lamps: Light symbolizes the dispelling of ignorance and illuminates the path for all beings.

   • Making Aspirations: Dedicating positive intentions uplifts the practitioner and benefits all sentient beings.

     
     

3. Set Intentions for the New Year: Reflect on goals for spiritual growth and align your life with the Dharma, creating a fresh and merit-filled start.

LOSAR RETREATS - PURIFY, EMPOWER, AND TRANSFORM:

Chagdud Gonpa’s 10-Day Losar Retreat

Held at Rigdzin Ling, this retreat offers powerful practices for purification and transformation, culminating in the Losar Day celebration.

• Red Vajrasattva (February 19–21, 2025):A profound method for clearing mental and emotional obscurations, this practice originates from Terton Padgyal Lingpa's teaching cycle, "The Union of Enlightened Intent of the Three Kayas."

• Padmakilaya (February 22–24, 2025):This wrathful guru practice serves as an antidote to harmful influences and strong emotions, transmitted by Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche.

• Vajrakilaya (February 25–27, 2025):Known as The Razor That Destroys at a Touch, this practice embodies the compassionate wrath of enlightened activity, removing negativity and clearing obstacles.

• Losar Day Celebration (February 28, 2025):The retreat concludes with a joyful celebration, including the raising of prayer flags to uplift lung-ta for the new year.

Black Hayagriva Retreat at Pema Osel Ling

From February 22–28, 2025, this seven-day retreat centers on Black Hayagriva, a wrathful manifestation of Avalokiteshvara. This powerful practice focuses on purifying accumulated karma, removing obstacles, and uplifting beings during degenerate times.

• Engage deeply with this wrathful deity, whose compassion and wisdom pacify obstacles and diseases.

• In this time of degeneration, the inner elements of beings are imbalanced, causing external chaos—war, disease, and environmental disasters.

• Black Hayagriva has special power to affect beings’ minds, pacify harmful forces, and benefit those suffering from disease, depression, or dysfunction.

  
  

THE POWER OF PRAYER FLAGS - UPLIFTING LUNG-TA:

One of the most iconic and transformative rituals of Losar is the raising of prayer flags, a practice that clears obstacles, uplifts wind horse energy (lung-ta), and generates immense blessings for the year ahead.

This ritual symbolizes the union of spiritual and worldly renewal, ensuring a year filled with auspicious conditions and spiritual progress.

Lama Tharchin Rinpoche on the Benefits of Prayer Flags

By raising prayer flags, practitioners engage in a deeply interdependent act. As the wind carries the sacred mantras and prayers imprinted on the flags, blessings ripple outward, purifying negativity and creating auspicious conditions for all beings. The flags act as a bridge between the inner and outer elements, harmonizing them for spiritual and physical well-being.

When lung-ta is strong, both worldly and spiritual activities thrive effortlessly. Increased sok provides vitality and longevity; lu strengthens health and resilience; wang-tang enhances influence, authority, and confidence. The combined effect uplifts the practitioner’s circumstances, creating an environment where meditative experiences deepen and worldly aspirations come to fruition.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

If you cannot attend a retreat or ceremony in person, you can still support these transformative practices and generate vast merit:

1. Sponsor Prayer Flags: Contribute to the uplifting of lung-ta and blessings for all beings.

2. Black Hayagriva Gutor Losar Retreat. Your contribution helps to sustain these powerful practices and ensures that their benefits are shared widely.

3. 10-day Chagdud Gonpa Losar Retreat Join together to conclude the final  days of the Wood Dragon Year with power and auspiciousness

   
   

CONCLUSION:

Losar is more than a celebration—it is a powerful opportunity to purify the past, align with lineage blessings, and enter the new year with clarity and strength. Through retreats like the 10-day Chagdud Gonpa Losar Retreat and the Black Hayagriva Retreat at Pema Osel Ling, as well as practices like raising prayer flags, practitioners can generate vast merit for themselves and all beings.

Let us embrace this sacred time with devotion and joyful effort, creating the causes for an auspicious and spiritually vibrant new year.

Tashi Delek! May your Losar be filled with merit, blessings, and the energy of wind horse!