This Holy Wesak Day

Wesak Day.

A holy day. A day to remember and pay homage to the Lord Buddha who was believed to be born, attained enlightenment and passed away on this very day.

A day to reflect perhaps, on the excesses in my life:

• too much loathing
• too much hate
• too much love
• too many desires
• too many wants
• too much attachment to material things
• too many …
• too much …

I’m not a very good Buddhist am I? But I’m trying. And what better day to start than today.

We (Dad, bro and I) trooped off to the neighbourhood buddhist temple last night. It was our first time there as we’ve just moved into this neighbourhood. We had 2 reasons for strolling there early.

1. We don’t like crowds and the heat that is inevitable on Wesak Day itself.
2. We are kiasu and wanted to get our prayers heard first. LOL….

I don’t confess to being much of a religious person. I try to follow the buddhist precepts the best I can, which basically means:

• I try not to be evil or do evil, and
• I try not to hate people too much, and
• I believe whole-heartedly in karma being a right bitch (if you have been the first 2 of course)

I lit an oil lamp to light the darkness within and without, and prayed at the large statue of Buddha. It was interesting that there was hardly any joss sticks to be seen. There was none in the main prayer hall. I was thankful for that as I hate it when incense smoke gets in my eyes, and the choking feeling when you get a faceful of it from some over-zealous worshipper grasping a fistful of sandalwood incense sticks. Not to mention getting burnt by kids running around with their incense sticks stuck out at right angles to their body. Seriously, there are some crazy parents out there who allow mere kids to carry joss-sticks.

This time, there were no crazy kids playing tag with their joss sticks, no smoke gets in your eyes to make you cry, just clear fresh air and a steady trickle of people going into the main prayer hall, getting on their knees to say a prayer and out again. Very refreshing.

There was no buddhist talk being held so we did not linger long. Last year, we went to the Buddhist Centre in USJ in Subang Jaya. There was a talk by a teacher which was very entertaining yet made an impact on me.

He was talking about being a Buddhist and how the Buddha teaches us not to indulge in excesses but to walk the middle path. Don’t indulge in too much or too little, just have enough. Sort of like Goldilocks and the 3 bears. Not too hot, not too cold, not too hard, not too soft, but just right.

As he said, it is because of this moderation that is taught that it is impossible to have a Buddhist Terrorist because terrorism requires that you practice extremism - unheard of in Buddhism.

And finally, this one, I like. According to him, there is nothing in Buddhism to say that you can’t own luxury items like a Gucci if you want to or can. Just keep it moderate. So, owning 1 or 2 Gucci is fine, but owning 5 Gucci is no longer moderate! Sounds like something I can relate to!

Namo Amitabha Buddha!

Praise to Amitabha Buddha!

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