Buddha

AND

Vesakha

By

Tamarapu Sampath Kumaran

 About the Author

Mr T Sampath Kumaran is a freelance writer. He regularly

contributes articles on Management, Business, Ancient Temples,
and Temple Architecture to many leading Dailies and Magazines.
His articles are popular in “The Young World section” of THE HINDU. His e-
books on nature, environment and different cultures of people around the world are
educative and of special interest to the young.
He was associated in the production of two Documentary films on Nava Tirupathi
Temples, and Tirukkurungudi Temple in Tamilnadu.

Acknowledgement:
I wish to express my gratitude to the authors from whose works I gathered the
details for this book, Courtesy, Google for the photographs.
 Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad are
the four extraordinary sages who influenced world civilization more deeply than
any other human beings in history. As just one measure of their importance,
current rankings of the most influential people in history consistently put them at
or near the top of the list. Four centuries after the rise of the scientific worldview,
their influence in human affairs continues to be fundamental, underscoring issues
ranging from questions of ethics and justice to religious and political conflicts to
other issues that dominate today's headlines.
Buddhism, founded in the late 6th century B.C.E. by Siddhartha Gautama (the
"Buddha"), is an important religion in most of the countries of Asia. Buddhism has
assumed many different forms, but in each case, there has been an attempt to draw
from the life experiences of the Buddha, his teachings, and the "spirit" or "essence"
of his teachings (called dhamma or dharma) as models for the religious life.
Buddha is not a name, but a title. It is a Sanskrit word that means “a person who is
awake.” What a buddha is awake to is the true nature of reality.

The traditional story begins with Siddhartha Gautama’s birth in Lumbini, Nepal, in
about 567 BCE. Siddhartha Gautama was the warrior son of a king and queen.
According to legend, at his birth a soothsayer predicted that he might become a
renouncer (withdrawing from the temporal life). To prevent this, his father
provided him with many luxuries and pleasures. But, as a young man, he once
went on a series of four chariot rides where he first saw the more severe forms of
human suffering: old age, illness, and death (a corpse), as well as an ascetic
renouncer. The contrast between his life and this human suffering made him realize
that all the pleasures on earth where in fact transitory and could only mask human
suffering. Leaving his wife—and new son ("Rahula"—fetter) he took on several
teachers and tried severe renunciation in the forest until the point of near-
starvation. Finally, realizing that this too was only adding more suffering, he ate
food and sat down beneath a tree to meditate.
 By morning (or some say six months later!) he had
attained Nirvana (Enlightenment), which provided both the true answers to the
causes of suffering and permanent release from it.

He sought teachers and punished his body with ascetic practices such as extreme,
prolonged fasts. It was believed that punishing the body was the way to elevate the
mind and that the door to wisdom was found at the edge of death. However, after
six years of this, the prince felt only frustration.

Eventually, he realized that the path to peace was through mental discipline. At
Bodh Gaya, in the modern Indian state of Bihar, he sat in meditation beneath a
fiscus tree, “the Bodhi tree,” until he awakened, or realized enlightenment. From
that time on, he would be known as the Buddha.

He spent the rest of his life teaching people how to realize enlightenment for
themselves. He gave his first sermon in modern-day Sarnath, near Benares, and
then walked from village to village, attracting disciples along the way.

He founded the original order of Buddhist nuns

and monks, many of whom became great teachers also. He died in Kushinagar,
located in what is now the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India, about 483 BCE.

The Buddha was not a god, and the many iconic figures of Buddhist art are not
meant to represent godlike beings who will do you favors if you worship them.
The Buddha was said to be critical of worship, in fact. In one scripture (Sigalovada
Sutta, Digha Nikaya 31) he encountered a young man engaged in a Vedic worship
practice. The Buddha told him it’s more important to live in a responsible, ethical
way than to worship anything.

Now the Buddha ("the Enlightened or Awakened One") began to teach others these
truths out of compassion for their suffering. The most important doctrines he
taught included the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-Fold Path. His first Noble
Truth is that life is suffering (dukkha). Life as we normally live it is full of the
pleasures and pains of the body and mind; pleasures, he said, do not represent
lasting happiness. They are inevitably tied in with suffering since we suffer from
wanting them, wanting them to continue, and wanting pain to go so pleasure can
come. The second Noble Truth is that suffering is caused by craving—for sense
pleasures and for things to be as they are not. We refuse to accept life as it is. The
third Noble Truth, however, states that suffering has an end, and the fourth offers
the means to that end: The Eight-Fold Path and the Middle Way. If one follows
this combined path he or she will attain Nirvana, an indescribable state of all-
knowing lucid awareness in which there is only peace and joy.

The Eight-Fold Path—often pictorially represented by an eight-spoked wheel (the

Wheel of Dhamma) includes: Right Views (the Four Noble Truths), Right
Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood/Occupation, Right
Endeavor, Right Mindfulness (total concentration in activity), and Right
Concentration (meditation). The Eight-Fold Path is pervaded by the principle of
the Middle Way, which characterizes the Buddha's life. The Middle Way
represents a rejection of all extremes of thought, emotion, action, and lifestyle.
Rather than either severe mortification of the body or a life of indulgence intense
pleasures the Buddha advocated a moderate or "balanced" wandering life-style and
the cultivation of mental and emotional equanimity through meditation and
morality.

After the Buddha's death, his celibate wandering followers gradually settled down
into monasteries.. They also engaged in such practices as visiting the Buddha's
birthplace; and worshipping the tree under which he became enlightened (bodhi
tree), Buddha images in temples, and the relics of his body housed in various
stupas or funeral mounds. A famous king, Ashoka, and his son helped to spread
Buddhism throughout South India and into Sri Lanka.

Many monastic schools developed among the Buddha's followers. This is partly
because his practical teachings were enigmatic on several points; for instance, he
refused to give an unequivocal answer about whether humans have a soul
(atta/atman) or not. Another reason for the development of different schools was
that he refused to appoint a successor to follow him as leader of the Sangha
(monastic order). He told the monks to be lamps unto themselves and make the
Dhamma their guide.

About the first century C.E. a major split occurred within the Buddhist fold-that
between the Mahayana and Hinayana branches. Of the Hinayana ("the Lesser
Vehicle") branch of schools, only the the ravada school (founded 4th century
B.C.E.) remains; it is currently found in Sri Lanka and all Southeast Asian
countries. This school stresses the historical figure of Gautama Buddha, and the
centrality of the monk's life-style and practice (meditation). The ravada monks
hold that the Buddha taught a doctrine of anatta (no-soul) when he spoke of the
impermanence of the human body/form, perception, sensations/feelings,
consciousness, and volition. They believe, however, that human beings continue to
be "reformed" and reborn, and to collect karma until they reach Nirvana. The
ravada school has compiled a sacred canon of early Buddhist teachings and
regulations that is called the Tripitaka.

You might think of worship if you see Buddhists bowing to Buddha statues, but
there’s something else going on. In some schools of Buddhism, bowing and
making offerings are physical expressions of the dropping away of a selfish, ego-
centered life and a commitment to practice the Buddha’s teachings.

When the Buddha achieved enlightenment, he also realized something else: that
what he’d perceived was so far outside ordinary experience that it couldn’t entirely
be explained. So, instead of teaching people what to believe, he taught them to
realize enlightenment for themselves.

The foundational teaching of Buddhism is the Four Noble Truths. Very briefly, the
First Truth tells us that life is dukkha, a word that is often translated as “suffering,”
but it also means “stressful” and “unable to satisfy.”

The Second Truth tells us dukkha has a cause. The immediate cause is craving, and
the craving comes from not understanding reality and not knowing ourselves.
Because we misunderstand ourselves we are riddled with anxiety and frustration.
We experience life in a narrow, self-centered way, going through life craving
things we think will make us happy. But we find satisfaction only briefly, and then
the anxiety and craving start again.
The Third Truth tells us we can know the cause of dukkha and be liberated from
the hamster wheel of stress and craving. Merely adopting Buddhist beliefs will not
accomplish this, however. Liberation depends on one’s own insight into the source
of dukkha. Craving will not cease until you realize for yourself what’s causing it.

The Fourth Truth tells us that insight comes through practice of the Noble
Eightfold Path, explained as an outline of eight areas of practice ― including
meditation, mindfulness, and living an ethical life that benefits others ― that will
help us live happier lives and find the wisdom of enlightenment.

People imagine that to be enlightened is to be blissed out all the time, but that’s not
the case. And achieving enlightenment doesn’t necessarily happen all at once. Very
simply, enlightenment is defined as thoroughly perceiving the true nature of
reality, and of ourselves.

Further, Buddhist scriptures are not considered to be the revealed words of a god
that must be accepted without question. The Buddha taught us to accept no
teaching on authority alone, but to investigate it for ourselves. The many sutras
and other texts are there to guide us, not to indoctrinate us.

The important point is that Buddhism is not something you believe, but something
you do. It’s a path of both personal discipline and personal discovery. People have
walked this path for 25 centuries, and by now there are plenty of directions,
signposts and markers. And there are mentors and teachers for guidance, as well as
many beautiful scriptures.

Buddha’s Word: The Eightfold Path

“This is the noble eightfold way, namely, right understanding, right intention, right
speech, right action, right livelihood, right attention, right concentration, and right
meditation.”
Just as a quick overview, here is a tight synopsis of the eight “rights”:

 Right Understanding
 Right Intent
 Right Speech
 Right Action
 Right Livelihood
  Right Effort
 Right Mindfulness
 Right Concentration.

The Buddhist view of marriage considers marriage a secular affair and as such, it is
not considered a sacrament. ... While the ceremony itself is civil, many Buddhists
obtain the blessing from monks at the local temple after the marriage is completed.

Monastics in Japan are particularly exceptional in

the Buddhist tradition because the monks and nuns can marry after receiving their
higher ordination. ... A nun in Taiwan gave birth.
Buddhists seek to reach a state of nirvana, following the path of the Buddha,
Siddhartha Gautama, who went on a quest for Enlightenment around the sixth
century BC. There is no belief in a personal god. Buddhists believe that nothing is
fixed or permanent and that change is always possible

Worship involves religious acts of praise, honour and devotion, usually directed
towards a deity or another figure worthy of this degree of respect. Most Buddhists
do not believe in God. Although they respect and look up to the Buddha,
they do not believe he was a god, but they worship him as a form of respect.

In Buddhism, however, the views on vegetarianism vary between different schools

of thought. According to Theravada, the Buddha allowed his monks to eat pork,
chicken and fish if the monk was aware that the animal was not killed on their
behalf.

However, even though most of the world's Buddhists recite the name of Buddha or
pray to Buddha, Buddha is not a deity or supreme being in the same way that the
Christian God is. ... For Buddhists, what and how you practice is more
fundamental than what you believe.

Buddhism believes in reincarnation (rebirth). The goal of a Buddhist is to get

enlightenment (Nirvana) and liberate oneself from endless reincarnation and
suffering. Some see Buddhism as a religion, others see it is a philosophy, and
others think it is a way of finding reality.
Vesakha
Vesakha is the most important of the Buddhist festivals and is celebrated on the
full moon in May. It celebrates the Buddha's birthday, and, for some Buddhists it
also marks his enlightenment and death.
Vesakha celebration in Malaysia begins at dawn when devotees gather at Buddhist
temples nationwide to meditate on the Eight Precepts. Buddhists celebrate
Buddha's three most important life stages on Vesakha: Birth, Enlightenment and
Death, which traditionally are said to all have happened on the same day of the
calendar throughout his life. Buddha's birthday, or Vesakha Day, is celebrated on
various dates in spring throughout the world, and each Buddhist culture has its own
traditions for the day. Buddhists monks celebrate Buddha Purnima, carry holy
water on Vesakha Day.
By finding the path to Enlightenment, Siddhartha was led from the pain of
suffering and rebirth towards the path of Enlightenment and became known as
the Buddha or 'awakened one'.

During Vesakha most of the dishes considered to be uniquely by Buddhist are

vegetarian, but opinions and restrictions on the eating of meat, and whether it
should be prohibited, vary among sects.

In many East Asian countries Buddha's Birth is celebrated on the 8th day of the 4th
month in the Chinese lunar calendar (in Japan since 1873 on April 8 of the
Gregorian calendar), and the day is an official holiday in Hong Kong, Macau, and
South Korea.

This festival is also known as Fourfold Assembly or Magha Puja Day.

Sangha Day is the second most important Buddhist festival. It is a celebration in
honour of the Sangha, or the Buddhist community. For some Buddhists Sangha
refers only to monks and nuns

On Dec. 8 Buddhists the world over will celebrate Bodhi Day, the day when
Siddhartha Gautama, on seeing the morning star at dawn, attained enlightenment
under the Bodhi Tree and became the Buddha, the “Awakened One.”
The Uposatha (Sanskrit: Upavasatha) is a Buddhist day of observance, in existence
from the Buddha's time (500 BCE), and still being kept today in Buddhist
countries. The Buddha taught that the Uposatha day is for "the cleansing of the
defiled mind," resulting in inner calm and joy.

Sangha, Buddhist monastic order, traditionally composed of four groups: monks,

nuns, laymen, and laywomen. The sangha is a part—together with the Buddha and
the dharma (teaching)—of the Threefold Refuge, a basic creed of Buddhism.
Asalha Puja (known as Asanha Bucha in Thailand,) is a Theravada Buddhist
festival which typically takes place in July, on the full moon of the sixth lunar
month (the full moon of Cancer).

Dharma Day is now seen as a chance to express gratitude that the Buddha and
other enlightened teachers have shared their knowledge with others. Dharma
Day is usually celebrated with readings from the Buddhist scriptures, and is an
opportunity to reflect deeply on their content

Asalha Puja Day, also known as Dhamma Day, is one of the most sacred days in
Buddhism and celebrates the first teaching of the Buddha. The festival
is celebrated on the full moon day of the 8th lunar month, Asalha, of the old Indian
calendar, Ashada also marks the starting of the monsoon
In English, Vassa is often glossed as Rains Retreat or Buddhist Lent, the latter by
analogy to the Christian Lent (which Vassa predates by at least five centuries). For
the duration of Vassa, monastics remain in one place, typically a monasteries or
temple grounds.
On this day devotees preach the teachings of Lord Buddha, decorate Buddha’s idol
with flowers, chant Buddhist scriptures, eat vegetarian food and donate food,
money and clothes to people. Each country celebrates the birth of Buddha in a
different way, here’s a peek at the major celebrations around the world.

In India: Known as the birthplace of Lord Buddha, the festival holds a special
importance in India. Buddhist devotees from around the world visit the cities of
Gaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar. Sarnath is the place where the lord gave his first
sermon, a huge procession and a fair is organised. Followers are also seen donning
white clothes holding prayers and chanting Buddhist scriptures. Buddha’s statue is
also offered fruits, sweets and candles.

Nepal
People here celebrate the day by wearing white dress and eating only vegetarian
food. Kheer, sweet rice porridge, has a special significance on the day. It recalls
the story of a maiden named Sujata who offered Buddha a bowl of milk porridge
who she perceived to be a holy man. Lord ate the porridge and bathed in the river
Neranjara. He then threw the bowl in the river and said that if the it goes upstream
I am successful in becoming a Buddha and if goes down I am not. And as expected
the bowl went upstream staying in the middle of the river. During the celebration
people also recite the story of the lord who followed asceticism to attain
enlightenment.
Japan
Though it is not considered a national holiday in Japan, people make replicas of
shrines with spring flowers and place Buddha idols on them. Temples hold special
events to remember the lord. People pour ‘ama-cha’, a beverage prepared using
several hydrangea, on Buddha idols decorated with flowers.

South Korea
The day is celebrated on the eighth day of the forth month in the Korean lunar
calendar and is known as ‘Seokga tansinil’ meaning ‘Buddha’s birthday’. It has
now grown as a fully-fledged festival and is recognised as an official holiday.
Throughout the holy month the entire temple is covered with Lotus lanterns and on
the auspicious day free meals and beverages are provided by temples.

Singapore
Buddhist temples organise celebrations and decorate it with flowers and flags.
People organise blood donation camps, visit old age homes, donate food, clothes
and money, release caged birds or animals and chant mantras. People offer flowers,
candles and joss sticks to the temples and the day ends with a candlelight
processions through the streets. After several petitions, Vesak was announced a
public holiday in 1955.

Sri Lanka
People in Sri Lanka decorate house and streets with candles and create huge
pandals that depicts the life of Buddha. During the day they chant scriptures, offer
prayers, listen to devotional songs, distribute food and sweets.

Thailand
People in Thailand celebrate the day with much fervor. It is a ritual to visit
Bankok’s wats i.e. Buddhist temples and in particular ‘Wat Phra Kaeo’ as it houses
the Emerald Buddha and Sanam Luang. The place also hosts several religious
ceremonies such as sticking of gold leaf on Buddha statue and walking around the
statue.

Buddhists visit monasteries, give to charity, hang lanterns, decorate with flowers,
and listen to lessons offered by
There are some cultural and local differences in how the various Buddhist groups
and nations celebrate Vesakha, but broadly speaking devout Buddhists will try to
attend their local temple for at least part of the day, while some remain there
throughout the day and night of the full moon. The celebration will include the
practices of Giving, Virtue and Cultivation and the doing of good and meritorious
deeds.
Giving usually involves bringing food to offer and share, as well as supplies for the
temple and symbolic offerings for the shrine. Virtue is observed by reaffirming
commitment to the moral precepts. Cultivation can include chanting, meditation
and listening to sermons.

In Burma (Myanmar) people water the Bodhi tree with blessed water and chant
prayers circling around.

SYMBOLS AND CUSTOMS

Bathing the Buddha

The tradition of bathing images of the Buddha on Vesak seems to have derived fro
m anepisode in the story of his life in which the two serpents, Nanda and Upanand
a, bathehim after his birth. Today, the bathing ritual takes many different forms. In
China his image is carried of the temple to the courtyard, where it is sprinkled with
Water. In Japan Buddha’s image is bathed with amacha a sweet tea prepared from
hydrangea leaves that have been steamed and dried.
Bodhi Tree

The tree under which the Buddha was enlightened in 528 BCE was a type of an
Asian fig tree, and like the banyan tree it branches indefinitely and has thick prop
roots that support the extended branches.
There are two points in Gautama's life where a tree plays a significant role.
Thefirst was when he was a boy and he slipped naturally into a trance while sitting
under an apple tree, and again sought refuge under a tree to compose his thoughts
and await enlightenment – known as the Bodhi tree.
When King Asoka, sent his daughter from India to Sri Lanka, as a Buddhist
missionary, she took a branch of the famous Bodhi tree with her. According to the
legend, the branch took roots branching as a big tree, a symbol of the new religion
in that country.