Mindfulness Incarnated: Buddha's Birthday
For Mahayana Buddhists May 6 is very special day. 2563 years ago a young prince was born in India to King Sudodana and Queen Maha Maya. His name was to be Siddartha Gautama and he would one day leave his home and family to become a Samana, a forest-dwelling ascetic monk in search of enlightenment. He is more familiar to us as the Buddha which means enlightened one. As determined by the Mahayana Buddhist lunar calendar, Buddha Purnima, the celebration of Buddha's birth, life, enlightenment and death, falls on the day of the full moon in the Buddhist month which corresponds roughly to April-May in the western calendar. Adherents of Buddhism dress in white and gather in their sanghas (Dharma communities) for meditations, Dhammapada (teaching) and decorating the sangha centre with flags and flowers. Light is celebrated with brightly coloured lanterns, candles, yak butter lamps, and even battery LED lights. Perhaps the largest celebration in the world is in Bodh Gaya, India, home of the famous Bodhi tree under which Siddartha was meditating when he reached the state of enlightenment, freedom from suffering. Thousands of people travel to Bodh Gaya each year for this spiritual event, many spending as much as a month in meditation and study of the Dharma (Buddhist philosophy). On the day chosen by lunar calculation, offerings of flowers and incense are placed around the Bodhi tree and statues of Buddha in the temples or outdoor shrines. The offerings are symbolic of the principle of impermanence, the inevitable cycle of life, decay and death that all livings things endure. The flowers will wilt and the incense and candles will burn out and a circle will be rounded and then begin again much like the wheel of the year turning day by impermanent day.
© Delia O'Riordan 2012
Photo credit: courtesy of Wikimedia Creative Commons.www.psychic-delia.com
