Buddha Day In Ireland

On the 20^th of May, PK Lom, PM Paisan and I were invited to Dublin, Ireland to hold the Buddha Day for Thai people there. It was nice to meet people there and they were very much looking forwards to seeing us as there is no Thai temple in Ireland. It is a year when they can see monks.

Mrs Aravan with friends and the Thai embassy in London organise the event every year in Dublin. This year, approximately 300 people joined the event. It was such a wonderful and meritorious event. It started with paying homage to the triple gem and doing a circumambulation. After PK Lom gave a talk on ‘the Buddha Day’, people asked for the five precepts.

PK Lom gave them the five precepts and blessed them all the best.

This special day has come to a close, leaving us with wholesome memories.

The theme of the day
Visakhapuja day occurred on a full moon day. It is known as the Buddha day or the teacher day. It is really important because without the Buddha, there is neither Buddhist teaching nor Sangha. The three remarkable events happened on Visakha day as followed;

The birth of the Buddha; the Buddha was born in Lumbini Park, now located in Nepal. He was named ‘Siddhattha’ which means a wish fulfilled. He was well brought up and well educated. According to the custom of the time, he was married at the age of 16 to a beautiful young princess, named Yasodhara, in the neighbouring kingdom, Devadaha. When he was 29 years old, he happened to go to town and saw four signs namely a sick man, an old man, a corpse and a holy man, which surprised him. "Why did people become like this?" he asked Channa, his charioteer. He answered him, "Lord, all human beings are subject to sickness, old age, death, even you cannot escape these. Then he realised the truths of life namely three characteristics of existence; impermanence, suffering and non-self, no permanent entity. On that day, Princess Yasodhara gave birth to their only son, Rahula. After the trip, he thought to seek the ways out of human suffering. That evening, he visited his wife and son in silence and resolved to leave them, people and all material worlds to seek for the security from suffering. This is regarded as a great renunciation of the world.

The attainment of enlightenment of the Buddha; after leaving the kingdom, he became an ascetic and met a number of religious teachers. He followed them and practised a number of traditional methods. Some approaches almost took his life as it was ascetic practice. He spent almost 6 years to follow some teachers and practised some methods. One day he realised that those teachers who he followed and those methods which he practised were not the ways to the freedom of all suffering. He left them behind and practised the purification of mind. On the full moon of May, he sat under the Bodhi tree and practised meditation. At the dawn of Visakha day, he became enlightened and recognised as the Buddha, the enlightened one.

The passing away day of the Buddha; after his attainment of enlightenment, the Buddha spent the rest of his life, 45 years to teach people. His teaching was open to people from all walks of life, who were ready to learn and practise his teaching. At the age of 80, he passed away in the Malla Royal park, Kusinakara kingdom. When he passed away, all his teachings did not dry out with him. His disciples carried on teaching the world and passed on his teachings from generation to generation until today, the 21^st century.
When this remarkable day comes, all Buddhists around the world celebrate this event. We commemorate his birth, enlightenment and passing away.