Vesak Day

Vesak (also Wesak and Visakha) which takes its name from the month in which the Buddha was supposedly born, won enlightenment and passed into nirvana (also nibbana). It is usually celebrated in May and is also known as Buddha Day. Temples will be adorned with lanterns, light symbolizing the Buddha's enlightenment, and lay followers will involve themselves in acts of generosity, meditation and observing extra precepts.

The festival celebrates the birth of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha who was born into a life of privilege and pleasure, surrounded by all that one could wish for in a material sense. Although his mother died soon after he was born, there seems little doubt that he was loved and cherished by his family. His father hoped that one day his son was succeed him as the head of his people. As he grew up, he experienced much that - on the face of it - should make one happy. But despite all this, there was something gnawing away at him, a sense that all these natural pleasures could not last and would one day vanish. He saw himself, his father, his wife, his child and, indeed, all mankind, subject to the vicissitudes of life - old age, sickness and death.

After six years of hardship and continual striving, he finally gained enlightenment. The profundity of this experience left him in no doubt that he had achieved final knowledge, that there was something beyond the cycle of old age, sickness and death, that there was an end to suffering. As he sat meditating under the Bodhi tree, he realized that he had been reborn many times; that all beings were reborn according to their deeds; that suffering was fueled by craving and that there was a means of bringing this suffering to an end. What comes through in the scriptures is the Buddha's absolute certainty that he had attained ultimate realization and that he knew the precise means by which others could attain it too. The Buddha's enlightenment experience, therefore, is a beacon of hope - enlightenment is possible and you don't have to be superhuman or a god to walk the path that leads to it.

Finally as he lay dying, there was no miraculous transformation, no magical ascension into heaven, no inexplicable escape. His death was ordinary. He died, just as all people must die just as what he taught. In other ways his death was extraordinary as it was at this point he was freed from the circle of life and death, freed from suffering, totally liberated in nirvana. His final words were simple and direct: "All things are impermanent - strive on with diligence".

Vesak Day, therefore, is a day to remind oneself of the Buddha's example, of what is possible and what it is that is worth striving for. It is a day for focusing the mind on just what a remarkable individual the Buddha was, and what an amazing example he gave to the world of what it means to be a complete human being.