Total Solar Eclipse April 8 2024

Monday’s total solar eclipse is a very powerful time for Dharma practice. Both solar and lunar eclipses, Lama Tharchin Rinpoche taught, represent the sun and moon’s outer dissolution, which corresponds to the inner dissolution of the body’s white and red elements into the subtle body’s central channel. Due to the interdependence of the outer universe and our inner body, our secret mind settles and becomes less turbulent during eclipses. It is a special time to recite the Kunzang Monlam (Great Perfection Prayer of Kuntuzangpo). While chanting, we can visualize ourselves as Kunzang Yab Yum, meditating on inseparable awareness-emptiness.

Monday’s total solar eclipse will be visible, weather allowing, in parts of North America, including Mexico, the United States, and Canada. If you are not in the path of totality, you may still be able to see the partial eclipse. Here in Santa Cruz and the San Francisco Bay Area, the eclipse begins around 10:14 am Pacific Time and ends around 12:16 pm, peaking around 11:13 am. Regardless of where you are or whether you can see the eclipse, this is an important time to practice.

As a support for our practice on this auspicious occasion, you will find the following resources:

Download the Kunzang Monlam text here: https://www.vajrayana.org/media/files/files/80d9a9d0/Kunzang_Monlam.pdf

 Stream Lama Tharchin Rinpoche chanting the Kunzang Monlam on SoundCloud:https://soundcloud.com/lamatharchinrinpoche/ltr-kunzang-monlam-chant-2005-03-28 

And YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rolElaM2oX4&t=4s&ab_channel=LamaTharchinRinpoche 

You can also stream Rinpoche’s short teaching on the Kunzang Monlam, given during tsok at Pema Ösel Ling on the Autumnal Equinox in 2001, on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/lamatharchinrinpoche/ltr-kunzang-monlam-teaching-2001-09-22

Join Siddhartha's Intent to recite the Kunzang Monlam together: https://siddharthasintent.org/events/kuntuzangpo-monlam-during-solar-eclipse/ 

To join Vajrayana Foundation lamas and sangha for New Moon puja at 8 am Pacific Time, visit www.vajrayana.org for more information.

For more great information about the eclipse, check out: https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/ ,  https://www.space.com/ , or https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/total-solar-eclipse-april8-24/

To read Annie Dillard’s 1982 essay, Total Eclipse: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/annie-dillards-total-eclipse/536148/

Photo courtesy of the Nasa Image Gallery. Credit: S. Habbal, M. Druckmüller, and P. Aniol. Total eclipse image taken March 20, 2015 at Svalbard, Norway.