'Waisak' marks a sipiritual transformation

By Harkiman Racheman

MEDAN, North Sumatra (JP): This year, Waisak, Buddha's Day of Enlightenment, was celebrated on May 18 by Buddhists worldwide. In Indonesia, a national commemoration by local Buddhists of various persuasions was centered around the Borobudur temple in Central Java.

And, as the government has renewed recently its religious policy which guarantees absolute freedom as well as flexible redefinition of religious harmony, this year's Waisak celebration will hopefully constitute a unique celebration of Indonesian Buddhists' religious rights and social emancipation.

Even though deeply established here from the 5th century to the 17th century, Buddhism is still the most underrepresented and misunderstood minority religion in Indonesia. It is not surprising that the average non-Buddhist, and, in fact, even some statistical Buddhists, may not have the faintest idea of what Buddha's Day commemorates.

Waisak (named after the month Vaisakha in the Buddhist calender, which corresponds to April-May) commemorates three big events in the life of Siddhartha Gautama. The most important festival in the entire Buddhist calender, Waisak celebrates the birth, the enlightenment and the passing away of Siddhartha Gautama, who later became a Buddha (or "an enlightened one"). On this particular day, Buddhists from all denominations gather together to worship and rejoice with hymns and flower offerings.

Also referred to as Sakyamuni (Sage of the Sakya clan), Siddhartha was born on a full-moon day in the month of Vaisakha around 563 B.C. in a wooded garden called Lumbini (now Rummindei), near Kapilavastu, in modern Nepal. The legend says that the Bodhisattva (Future Buddha) was conceived by Queen Maya, wife to King Suddhodana, after her body was entered by a white elephant in a rare dream.

An old sage named Anita came to visit after the infant was born in order to confirm his signs of spiritual greatness and reveal that he would grow up to become either a powerful monarch or a Buddha. However, as recounted in history, Siddhartha chose to leave his inherited life of abundant luxuries in order to seek the Truth. However, just what spiritual significance does the birth of Prince Siddhartha Gautama entail?

Buddhism

While multiple interpretations exist in accordance with diverse sectarian traditions, one thing is clear in point. The birth of Siddhartha paved the way for the institutionalization of the distinctive religious teachings known today as Buddhism.

Without the sage's nativity, it would not have been possible for humankind to know Buddha's teachings as an integrated body, even though certain universal values contained therein may also be found elsewhere in other religious discourses.

At the age of 29, Prince Siddhartha Gautama took a radical turning point in his spiritual career after experiencing absolute disillusionment with suffering-laden human existence. In Buddhist literature, this is widely known as The Great Renunciation.

The legend has it that, upon encountering signs of appalling human destiny (i.e. old age, sickness and death), Siddhartha determinedly left his home, family and kingdom with the help of his charioteer Channa. Cutting off his well-groomed hair and exchanging his princely clothes with a hunter he met on the way, Siddhartha ventured on a quest for total emancipation from the utter miseries of existence.

After some years of painstaking spiritual experiment, wandering, training, learning and refinement, Siddhartha finally discovered the answers to his long-time question on human suffering. At Bodh Gaya under a bodhi tree on a full-moon day in the month of Vaisakha, the 35-year-old ascetic finally reached the ultimate understanding of the Truth through self-realization. It is the discovery of this entire body of spiritual knowledge and experience which is another thing commemorated serenely by Buddhists on Waisak.

Having become a Buddha, the enlightened Siddhartha continued to preach Buddhism for 45 years to every desperate being, irrespective of their caste or social class -- something prevalent in the Indian subcontinent in those days. The Mahayana tradition even says that Buddha taught other sentient beings that resided in other celestial realms. In traditional Buddhist terminology, Buddha is pictured as setting in motion the Wheel of the Dharma seven days after his cosmos-shaking enlightenment.

But, what did the historical Buddha really teach?

To answer in a nutshell, Buddha taught (as well as teaches, of course!) a path of spiritual liberation through virtue, meditation and wisdom. This constitutes the essence of Buddha's teachings or, what may be justifiably called, Basic Buddhism, to distinguish it from further developments of Buddhism; such as Mahayana Buddhism, Zen Buddhism and Vajarayana Buddhism.

Virtuous lifestyle

In order to free themselves from suffering, secular people need to first commit themselves to a virtuous lifestyle. As lay Buddhists (unlike monastic monks and nuns), they need to take up the five training rules in their domestic life.

All Buddhists should refrain from killing living creatures, stealing, indulging in sexual misconducts, speaking harshly or falsely and taking intoxicating drinks or drugs. This psycho- ethical training is essential in order to lay the foundation for the subsequent stage of mental cultivation.

Largely known as meditation, Buddhist mental cultivation practices aim at calming the restless, misery-causing mind. Through insight meditation, practicing Buddhists are later expected to be able to unravel the complexity of their mind in order to fully understand its nature or activity. Continuous and persevering mental practice may eventually lead to a crystal clear mind which is no longer tainted with negative thoughts, doubts or worries. It is only within this meditative state of mind that the Ultimate Truth may manifest itself concretely.

When the mind has been cleared of its defilements, a sense of wisdom will come into being. From the Buddhist perspective, wisdom is commonly described as people's empirical faculty, as it were, to see their life as it is, not as they would want it to be.

When people have teethed this advanced level of wisdom, through repeated practices of virtue and meditation, they will fully comprehend the Four Noble Truths. These truths are: First, life is fundamentally unsatisfactory.

Next, the cause of unsatisfactoriness is our negative desire. However, the unsatisfactoriness can be eliminated. And, the way to eliminate the unsatisfactory life is by following the Way or the Eightfold Path.

This eight-way path, to put it briefly, comprises: the right view, the right intention, the right speech, the right action, the right livelihoods, the right effort, the right mindfulness and, finally, the right concentration.

Thus is the core teachings of Buddhism. And, when celebrating Buddha's Day of Enlightenment, Buddhists will remind themselves of these important precepts and guidelines in order to lead a good and meaningful life.

The enlightened one passed away at the age of 80, again on the full-moon day of the month Vaisakha, in the Sala Jungle on the outskirts of the town Kusinara, India. The sage, whose teachings were later committed to writing and expanded by his closest disciples, has left Buddhists with a rich spiritual system and heritage.

This body of knowledge, called Tripitaka (three baskets of scriptures), more importantly, gives Buddhists an exact action plan toward developing their virtue, meditation and wisdom -- the three essential qualities prior to a complete release from suffering-laden existence.

Now, the fact that Buddha's death coincides with that of his birth and his enlightenment makes the Waisak celebration of utmost importance to the Buddhist community.

Unlike other religious festivals, which celebrate important events separately, Waisak provides a combined momentum for Buddhists all over the world to commemorate the three spiritually significant events together, and within the same breadth.

Therefore, in celebrating Waisak this year, it is important that local Buddhists fully comprehend the threefold significance of the religious festival. Otherwise, they will miss the whole idea of embracing the religion! Rather than being swept along into the massive current of shallow formality and skin-deep ritualism, Indonesian Buddhists should instead use this year's observation to reflect on their level of devotion, piety and faith by referring back to the examples demonstrated by Buddha.

New resolution

At the same time, they should probably make a new resolution to place the teachings of Buddha back at the core of their everyday individual life and to allow these teachings to inspire their activities all of the time. That way, they will find this year's Waisak celebration spiritually transforming and energizing, especially in helping them brave the uncertain future of the country.

In the mean time, though occasional socioreligious tension is still occurring between believers of different creeds, we should be grateful to the state and the non-Buddhists of Indonesia who have generally shown a high-level of tolerance, well-meaning and understanding toward the aspirations of Indonesian Buddhists. And let us all hope that their appreciation and understanding of the religion as a whole will continue to improve in a religiously pluralistic Indonesia.

Finally, to all Indonesian Buddhists, Happy Waisak 2543 to you! May our still-fragile country be blessed by the Triple Gems (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) with accelerated socioeconomic and political stabilization and improvement. Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

The writer graduated from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Based in Medan, he is currently a freelance writer and university teacher.