Visakhapuja Day Celebration

Visakhapuja Day, or Buddha Day, was celebrated at Buddhapadipa Temple on Sunday 18^th May 2008. Presiding in giving Blessings prior to the three times circumambulation of the temple was the Abbot and in attendance was His Excellency the Thai Ambassador and his wife and embassy staff. Devotees from both the Thai and western community were also present to receive blessings and to join in honouring the Buddha and the Triple Gem through this simple ceremony of chanting and walking around the temple three times carrying flowers, a candle and incense. It was a fine spring morning and the sun shone on the participants warming their hearts, encouraging feelings of gratitude and loving-kindness in recollection of the unselfish life of the Buddha – who gave up his kingdom and riches, his wife and family in order to seek out the Middle Path and then spent 45 years of his life showing the Way to others.


After the circumambulation, everyone gathered in the Uposatha Hall and paid further homage to the Triple Gem and took Five Precepts. A Dhamma talk was given and at this point those who could not speak Thai were urged to join Phramaha Sangthong for a talk in English in the temple. Phramaha Sangthong spoke of the purpose of the day to be to celebrate the birth, the enlightenment and death of the Lord Buddha all on the same day of the year. Phramaha Sangthong spoke of the incredulity of one recent young student visitor to the temple who doubted that someone could be born and die and have a significant event all happen on the same day of the year. Phramaha Sangthong likened such doubts as being akin to asking a fish about the nature of water. Although a fish is constantly surrounded by water and swims in it, he is unlikely to be the best authority on water, given that he has never been on land and known that another world exists on land and in air.


As Phramaha Sangthong spoke the chanting of the Jayamangala Gatha by the Venerable Monks could be heard in the background. After the Dhamma talk both the Thai and non-Thai speaking communities rejoined each other to offer Takbat to the seven monks who were present. This involved giving a donation of money to the temple and receiving a tray of food, medicine and toiletry requisites which each devotee, kneeling, placed in the bowl of each of the seven monks as an alms-giving. Having received and given blessings for this act of dana, the monks went to eat. Members of the Thai community in their ongoing acts of generosity had arranged foodstalls to give the devotees and visitors refreshments prior to the laity being invited to partake of the day’s main food offering. An enormous spread of food was placed on tables under the tented shelters on the lawn outside the monks’ house. The great generosity of those who had spent time cooking and preparing food was again much evident.


After lunch, the Lay Buddhist Association presented a reading of the Magandiya Sutta from the Majjihma Nikaya. The Sutta is one of those few occasions where the Buddha talks about his own past life and how he gave up his three palaces and the sensual indulgencies he enjoyed as a Prince in order to discover the enjoyment of higher spiritual life. Magandiya , a Brahmin of the hedonist school of philosophy, initially accuses the Buddha of being ‘a destroyer of growth’, but is eventually convinced by the correctness of the reason’s Lord Buddha gives as to why he should abandon sensual attachment. Magandiya becomes a Buddhist monk and attains Arahantship after 4 years. Invited to speak as the Guest of the LBA, Phramaha Sangthong pointed out the simplicity of the Buddha’s message, the importance of meditation and the importance of Buddhist study.