Celebrating Vesak Day in Singapore

Today is Vesak Day, the day of Buddha's birth, enlightenment and parinirvana. I spent the day writing my reflection on this day, grateful for the Buddha's teaching. The enlightened and compassionate Buddha had tirelessly taught the Dhamma for forty-five years to human in human realm( regardless of social castes and genders) and devas, brahmas from the heavenly realm. I am immensely joyous that I finally understand Buddha's teaching on the Four Noble Truths and the cessation to suffering is the Noble Eight-fold path. I have been observing the five precepts but am now considering the 8 precepts.

Yesterday I went to Fo Guang Shan event, located next to Punggol MRT station to explore vegetarian food fair. At the same time, I made some donation. This week, I also went to Palelai Temple to make dana as I enjoy Ajahn Keng's dharma talk. 

I found happiness in Buddha's teaching as he taught us the path to end cyclic rebirth in this samsara world with the Noble Eight-fold path and to eliminate the three poisons- greed, hatred and delusion. 

Parinirvāna of Buddha
Buddha 'When I am gone, my Teaching shall be your Master and Guide.' Three months before His passing away the Buddha addressed His disciples and said: 'I have delivered sermons to you during these forty-five years. You must learn them well and treasure them. You must practise them and teach them to others. This will be of great use for the welfare of the living and for the welfare of those who come after you'. At the age of eighty, on His birthday, He passed away without showing any worldly supernatural powers. He showed the real nature of component things even in His own life. The parting words of the Buddha: 'Work diligently. Component things are impermanent.

By Buddha
" Craving, with you I've been born again and again. But now you're reviewed and your power redundant.  It is the nature of all conditioned to arise, persist for a while and then pass away. Investigate the impermanence of all conditioned phenomenon. For the tears of beings wandering through the samsara are beyond measure. One who is still attached to form, sound, taste, smell and physical sensation cannot find liberation from this world."

Singapore's icon Merlion is also featured at Fo Guang Shan .

Lotus and Buddhism

Lotus is one of Buddhism symbolisms. It is a symbol of purity and enlightenment. The lotus despite growing from the mud (like greed, hatred and delusion), it is not polluted but is able to rise up and blossom. 

From the Thus I have Heard video,

There are several kinds of people in the world. The quick-witted upon hearing my teachings, know and understand them quickly, just like a lotus flower above the surface of the water that blossoms as soon as it receives the sun rays. 

Those of moderate intelligence having heard my teachings and then receiving some further explanation and training are able to know and understand within a short time, just like a lotus flower level with the surface of the water, ready to blossom the next day. 

The slow-witted having heard the teachings, receiving further explanation and training, preserving with faith are able to know and understand in the end like the lotus flower below the water which grows upwards before finally breaking through the surface and blossoming. 

The final kind of person, no matter how many times they hear the Dharma are unlikely to grasp the meaning or understand although their listening maybe a cause for realisation in a future existence. This type may be compared to a lotus down in the mud and mire, falling prey to fish and turtles, not rising up and blossoming. This being the case, I will preserve my life for the sake of spreading the Dharma. 

From Wikipedia

In Buddhist symbolism the lotus is symbolic of purity and enlightenment. It is symbolic of purity of the body, speech, and mind as while rooted in the mud, its flowers blossom on long stalks as if floating above the muddy waters of attachment and desire. It is also symbolic of detachment as drops of water easily slide off its petals.

Thus I have Heard. Lotus analogy starts from 7:50.

Lotus and Buddhism by Master Sheng Yen

The lotus flower is described in Buddhism as pure and undefiled, and as being of great benefit. It teaches us to become a person of pure wisdom, who cultivates the bodhisattva path among ordinary people, learns to be free of greed, hatred, and delusion, and only gives and contributes to our world without seeking to gain anything of this world.

Reflection on Vesak Day

Happy Vesak Day everyone! Today is Vesak Day which commemorates the birth, enlightenment (Buddhahood), and death (Parinirvāna) of Gautama Buddha. Gautama Buddha was born a Prince of Sakya clan about 2500 years ago but he gave up luxury and power when he saw the 3 sights: a sick man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. He left the palace to seek the Great way of liberation to save all sentient beings from the cycle of birth and death. After 6 years of intense practice, Buddha realized that the path to awakening is the Middle Way - a path of moderation instead of extreme self-indulgence and self-mortification and meditation, The Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eight-fold path. 

Buddha, the compassionate and enlightened teacher relentlessly spent more than 45 years teaching the Dharma to all irrespective of social castes and genders in the human realm and the devas and brahmas in the heavenly realm: the Four Noble Truth ( 1) The Truth of Suffering, 2. The Truth of the Cause of Suffering 3) The Truth of the Cessation of Suffering 4. The Truth of the Path to the Cessation of Suffering is the Noble Eight-fold Path. After reading and contemplating, I finally realised why Buddha first taught the Four Noble Truth and Noble Eight-fold path to the five ascetics who were with him during his ascetic days. It is due to greed, desire and delusion that one continue the cyclic rebirth in the six realms (hell, animal, hungry ghost, human, asura and heaven). I had the “aha moment” when Ajahn Suchart said that the consciousness or mind constantly seek external gratification to make it happy via sensual pleasures of the five senses ( taste, eye, smell, touch, hear). When the body is gone, the mind/consciousness seek a new body (rebirth) to continue. I have been practising the 5 precepts. Perhaps it is high time, I start the 8 precepts.

I’m also glad that I took about a year hiatus in 2017 to read all the books I want and just to rest. Reading the Near-death experience from people around the world just confirm what Buddha taught about reincarnation and karma 2500 years ago. Buddha had said that who you met in this life, you also met them in your past prior life. 

By Duane:” I remembered many past events When I returned from the afterlife, I had near-perfect memories of a prior life in Germany. I knew where I lived, the address, the town, and the circumstances surrounding my death. Having been stationed in Germany as a young soldier in the U.S. Army, and having married a German woman, I went back to see if we could locate where I had lived in the prior life. I found an older German man, who had befriended me while I was there. He had been part of my prior life and was still alive in this lifetime. We were able to verify a number of memories that we had in common from that prior life. I had always wondered why he and I had become such close friends while I was there in this life. “

I finally realized the danger of craving; even craving for food. I must practise the 8 precepts. 

By Linda” Yes I came to understand that we all choose to come to Earth to fulfill a plan of some sort or even learn about a particular interest. We choose our bodies, parents, and life plan. May I also add that some people come here for the most simple of reasons; to learn how to play tennis for example; or simply for the cake and food.” 

Parinirvāna of Buddha
Buddha 'When I am gone, my Teaching shall be your Master and Guide.' Three months before His passing away the Buddha addressed His disciples and said: 'I have delivered sermons to you during these forty-five years. You must learn them well and treasure them. You must practise them and teach them to others. This will be of great use for the welfare of the living and for the welfare of those who come after you'. At the age of eighty, on His birthday, He passed away without showing any worldly supernatural powers. He showed the real nature of component things even in His own life. The parting words of the Buddha: 'Work diligently. Component things are impermanent.

By Buddha
" Craving, with you I've been born again and again. But now you're reviewed and your power redundant.  It is the nature of all conditioned to arise, persist for a while and then pass away. Investigate the impermanence of all conditioned phenomenon. For the tears of beings wandering through the samsara are beyond measure. One who is still attached to form, sound, taste, smell and physical sensation cannot find liberation from this world."

The Noble Eight-fold Path
1. Right Views (Four Noble truths, karma, rebirth) 

2. Right Resolve

3. Right Speech

4. Right Conduct (Observe 5 or 8 precepts)

5. Right Livelihood

6. Right Effort

7. Right Mindfulness (impermanent of body, the 5 skandhas or aggregates) 

8. Right Meditation

Dhamma Talk by Ajahn Suchart " To see the danger in your cravings and your desires that if you follow your craving and desire, you will always have to crave and desire and it will never end. When your body dies, you will go and look for a new body to continue on with your craving and your desires. That's why you have ceaseless birth, rebirth. You are reborn and then you get old, get sick and die. And when you die, you go seek a new body so then you can use the new body to satisfy your craving and your desire which is never satisfied, no matter how many craving or desires you have. Its better not to desire everytime you crave for something. Just resist it, don't do it. Then your desire, your craving will disappear. And if you can do this with all your craving and desire, eventually there will be no craving left in your mind, then your mind will be fully satisfied, fully contented.

Happy Vesak Day! Thank you Buddha, Sanga and Dhamma for the teaching.

From google image

Craving and Desire Leads to Rebirth

I'm very happy that my ex-colleague shared with me this video of Ajahn Suchart Abhijato Dhamma to laypeople from Singapore. I finally have a better understanding of Buddha's teaching on samsara and the Heart Sutra Its like connecting the dots of what I read from Mahayana sutra like the Heart sutra. Ajahn Suchart explained how craving and desires leads endless rebirth as the mind search for body to satisfy its craving and desires to make the mind happy.

Buddha" Craving, with you I've been born again and again. But now you're reviewed and your power redundant. 

It is the nature of all conditioned to arise, persist for a while and then pass away. Investigate the impermanence of all conditioned phenomenon. For the tears of beings wandering through the samsara are beyond measure. One who is still attached to form, sound, taste, smell and physical sensation cannot find liberation from this world."

By Ajahn Suchart

" To see the danger in your cravings and your desires that if you follow your craving and desire, you will always have to crave and desire and it will never end.

When your body dies, you will go and look for a new body to continue on with your craving and your desires. That's why you have ceaseless birth, rebirth. You are reborn and then you get old, get sick and die. And when you die, you go seek a new body so then you can use the new body to satisfy your craving and your desire which is never satisfied, no matter how many craving or desires you have. Its better not to desire everytime you crave for something. Just resist it, don't do it. Then your desire, your craving will disappear. And if you can do this with all your craving and desire, eventually there will be no craving left in your mind, then your mind will be fully satisfied, fully contented.

You can control your mind, you can make them always happy without having to rely on other things or the body once you no longer need the body. Then whatever happen in the body will not hurt the mind but if you still rely on the body to make it happy then when something happen to your body, you can be hurt.

The delusion that cause the mind to think that in order to be happy, you have to see, you have to hear, your have to feel, to touch to go to places, to have this and have that. This is all delusional because you will never satisfy your mind, no matter how much you see, how much you hear, how much you hear or get, they are temporary, they come and go after you have achieve it, it left you empty.

The only way to be satisfied is to resist your craving, your desire when there is no craving, there is no desire then your mind will be contented so this is the practise of samatha."

I agree on this for every time I satisfy my craving like trying delicious food or buying new stationeries, after buying it, I feel empty and want to buy more. Now I tell myself to resist it.

From the Heart Sutra

"HE PERCEIVED THAT ALL FIVE SKANDHAS ARE EMPTY"

During his practice of contemplation and illumination the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara attained Truth. By means of his minutely subtle Dharma practice he penetrated the five skandhas, perceiving them as empty.
The five skandhas, namely form, feelings, perceptions, volitions and consciousness continually provide five occasions for craving and clinging. Two types of craving and clinging characterize the human mind: 1) Craving and clinging to form and 2) Craving and clinging to mind. Clinging to form is the domain of the form skandha; the remaining four skandhas constitute the domain of the mind and the clinging to mind is generated in those four realms. All our grasping, manifested in our attachments and aversions, is generated and developed due to the activity of these four skandhas. Craving and clinging emerge at birth, and the Buddhadharma aims to sever them.

Ajahn Keng Retreat Dhamma Talk on 02 04 2019

I am a Buddhist who initially follow Mahayana Buddhism. But now with interesting Dhamma talk by Ajahn Keng, I also follow the Theravada Buddhism which emphasises on meditation. I enjoy listening to late Taiwan Mahayana monk, Master Sheng Yan Dhamma talk. Now I enjoy listening to Singaporean Theravada monk Ajahn Keng. 

Thus if someone ask me if I follow Mahayana or Theravada Buddhism, I just say I follow the best of both practices. I enjoy the Heart Sutra in Mahayana Buddhism and meditation practise from Theravada Buddhism. Both originate from Buddha but his disciples split to different groups but they are still from Buddha's teaching. As a Buddhist, be it Mahayana or Theravada, it is important to observe the 5 precepts.

Enlightened Nuns

More than 2500 years ago, Buddha accepted women to join the Sanga after much persuasion from Ananda. Many nuns became Arahant bhikkhunis or enlightened Buddhist nuns. In the past, I thought Arahants are male only. 

You can read more about the Arahant bhikkhunis written by Susan Elbaum Jootla. You can read the Enlightened Nuns here to read more.

The life story of Patacara before she came to the Dhamma, described in considerable detail in the commentary to the Therigatha, is even more dramatic. She lost her entire family, her husband, two small children, parents and brothers in various accidents within a few days. She went insane from the sorrow, but the Buddha’s compassion combined with Patacara’s paramis from the past enabled her to regain her right mind. 

When she came into his presence, he taught her to understand how often before she had hopelessly exhausted herself grieving for the dead. She became a stream-enterer (sotapanna), one at the first stage of irreversible progress on the path to liberation, and she was ordained. Later, as she was one day pouring water to wash her feet and watching it trickle away — as life does sooner or later for all beings — her mind became utterly free from clinging. Patacara, like Dhamma, had thoroughly developed seeds of understanding, so a very minor mundane incident at just the right moment cleared her mind of every trace of ignorance.

Vesak Day Celebration in May 2019

In Singapore, Vesak Day celebration is on 19th May Day (Sunday). 20th May is a public holiday for all in Singapore. There are many events to commemorate the life of the Buddha: his birth, his attainment of Enlightenment and his passing into Nirvana. Based on  Buddhist scriptures, each of these occurred on a full moon in the lunar month of Vesak.

You can click this link to find various events. For me, I plan to go to Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum and maybe Palelai Temple. 

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum. Image from visitSingapore.com

PROGRAMME FOR VISAKHA PUJA (VESAK DAY) AT PALELAI BUDDHIST TEMPLE

6.00 am                            Morning chanting

                                            Observance of five precepts

 6.40 am                            Breakfast dana to Sangha

7.30 am                            All stations open

 9.00 am                            Pindapata - offering of alms/requisites to the Sangha                                

9.30 am                            Free vegetarian lunch for the public

10.45 am                         Lunch dana to the Sangha

2.00 pm                            Dhamma Talk (English)

4.00 pm                            Dhamma Talk (Mandarin)

5.00 pm                            All stations closed

6.00 pm                            Evening chanting

                                            Candle Light Circumambulation  

                                            Paritta chanting