Tomorrow will be a public holiday in many countries with large Buddhist populations. It is Vesak Day. For those who didn’t grow up in one of those countries, it is often called “Buddha’s birthday,” however as the enlightening Wikipedia entry for Vesak day tells us, “it actually encompasses the birth, enlightenment Nirvana, and passing of Gautama Buddha”. Much more can be learnt there.
Instead of a public holiday, Melbourne celebrates the event on the weekend closest to the day -which happens to fall on the full moon in the month of May this year. A lot of activities were held at the Federation Square all weekend and I managed to go for a visit this morning. As I arrived, I was greeted by an interesting ‘display’ on the ground. There were many metal discs acting as weighted base with slender flexible wire spikes sticking perpendicularly upwards. The discs are arranged on the ground to form big concentric circles.
Some of these spikes had a large green (plastic) leaf – to signify a Bodhi tree leaf -an important tree in the Buddhist tradition because it was under one such tree that Buddha achieved his enlightenment. Each leaf is threaded through the spike and in the wind, this field of green leaves waves serenely. Upon closer inspection, you can see that the leaves had handwriting on them. For a gold coin donation, one can obtain a leaf, write one’s wish or message using a texta and then thread it through one of the empty spikes; adding to the growing collection. This ‘field of enlightenment’ was said to be ‘realised with an Australian industrial designer’ as a special participative project/installation. Apparently at the end of the day, the leaves will be collected and taken to the Fo Guang Shan Melbourne main temple (in Yarraville) for blessings.
Needless to say, I added my leaf.
Further into Fed Square there was a large statute of Buddha and many queue to pray in front of it. Lining the base of this giant statute were a row of little Buddhas, each standing in a pond of water. The idea is for the person praying to also bathe this statute with the water using a provided ladle. Its suppose to wash away one’s sins. I also bought some vegetarian food and according to tradition, some believers will be going vegetarian tomorrow. So tonight I prepared a big pot of vegetable curry, consumed for dinner and also enough for lunch and dinner tomorrow.
Despite my often skeptical stance towards organised religions, I do profess a deep connection to the buddhist philosophy. While the rituals described above are simply just that, I think that they provide some psychological comfort when confronted with the uncertainties of life. It is no more different than the rituals I described in a recent post about cleaning the desk, burning some oils, making a cup of tea to get oneself into writing mode.
