'Waisak' marks a sipiritual transformation

'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.