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| A screen-shot of the UNDV website - www.undv.org |
THE MEANING OF
TRUE ‘HAPPY VESAK’ FOR A WRITER
About 5 years ago, I wrote a very
short article called, Happy Vesak; its essence is still hold true today. Yet,
this year is so special for me since I am going to speak at The 12th of
International Buddhist Conference on the United Nations Day of Vesak 2558/2015 in
Bangkok, Thailand on May 28
– 30, 2015 (BE 2558). The theme for this year is Buddhism and World crisis, which will be held at The
Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University (MCU), Wang Noi, Ayutthaya and United
Nations Convention Center Bangkok, Thailand. I am one of the panelists in the
sub-theme of Buddhism Response to Educational Crisis. (http://www.undv.org/vesak2015/en/conference4.php).
Let’s reread the essence and nuance of the Happy Vesak article in the Spring of 2011.
In Nepal, 2633 years ago, Siddhartha
Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, was born 563 BCE Lumbini, Nepal. He
passed away in 483 BCE Kushinagar, India at the age of 80. During the
month of April, Buddhists around the world are celebrating the Buddha’s birth
(This year, 2009, the Buddhist calendar year is 2553). The United Nations
also recognized and celebrated this annual event called Vesak.
Vesak
or Lễ Tam Họp is a very special and spiritual day in Buddhism that commemorates
the thrice sacred events of the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and passing away.
It is officially known as the United Nations Day of Vesak (UNDV) since 1999
under UN Resolution No. A/RES/54/115. The United Nation recognizes that it is a
worldwide cultural celebration that was started and organized by the United
Nations (UN) to venerate the Buddha as a great cultural and spiritual sage of
mankind. The objective of the celebration is to venerate the moral and cultural
values, the thoughts of peace, equality and non-violence of the Buddha and to
create mutual respect and understanding among countries and peoples over the
world.
Celebrating Vesak also means
making extra efforts to bring happiness to the unfortunate like the aged, the
handicapped and the sick. To this day, Buddhists will distribute gifts in cash
and kind to various charitable homes throughout the country. Vesak is also a
time for great joy and happiness, expressed not by pandering to one’s appetites
but by concentrating on useful activities such as decorating and illuminating
temples, painting and creating exquisite scenes from the life of the Buddha for
public dissemination. Devout Buddhists also vie with one another to provide refreshments
and vegetarian food to followers who visit the temple to pay homage to the
Enlightened One. According to wikipedia: This is how we’re paying homage
to the Buddha:
Tradition ascribes to the
Buddha himself instruction on how to pay him homage. Just before he died, he
saw his faithful attendant Ananda, weeping. The Buddha advised him not to weep,
but to understand the universal law that all compounded things (including even
his own body) must disintegrate. He advised everyone not to cry over the disintegration
of the physical body but to regard his teachings (The Dhamma) as their teacher
from then on, because only the Dhamma truth is eternal and not subject to the
law of change. He also stressed that the way to pay homage to him was not
merely by offering flowers, incense, and lights, but by truly and sincerely
striving to follow his teachings. This is how devotees are expected to
celebrate Vesak: to use the opportunity to reiterate their determination to
lead noble lives, to develop their minds, to practice loving-kindness and to
bring peace and harmony to humanity.
In practice, Vesak is an
opportunity to bring happiness to others. All Buddhist is concerned with and
needs to change and transform in our life as well as others. It is on
this day, the message of peace, of non-violence, of compassion, of equality is
refreshing to all Buddhists around the world for them to practice and apply
into real actions for the betterment of all sentient beings.
With that being said, I am going to
present a paper, which is a very condensed version of my doctoral dissertation.
The paper is called: “Mindful
Leadership – Another Perspective And Approach To Current World Crisis By
Examining The Vietnamese Buddhist Monks In America’s Leadership Practices And Their
Contributions To Society.” It is a phenomenological study or a sociological
investigation of the contributions and leadership practices of Vietnamese Buddhist abbots in
America. This paper presents “a blueprint for better living, towards harmony
and peace.”
Research shows that all transformations start from the
within and we, as, mindful leaders must lead inside
out with understanding, compassion, and wisdom.
Phe Bach
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