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Air What is the Wesak System & Festivals and Why is it in the Program? Year 1 Last Update: Introduction ψ Every religion has its key days. Buddhism is no different. Wesak also pronounced Vesak is Buddha’s Day. It is the most important day for those of the Buddhist faith. It is a sacred ritual for its practitioners that is celebrated annually on the full moon of the ancient lunar month of Vesakha, which usually falls in May, or in early June. On Vesak Buddhist celebrate the Enlightened birth of Lord Buddha Prince Siddhattha Gotama, at his 35th year when he became the Buddha and his final ‘passing’ into Nirvana at the age of 80. Buddha’s enlightenment meant that he would not be reborn ever again and he was off the wheel of Samsara. The Buddhist scriptures tell the three major events that occurred on a full moon of the Indian lunar month of Vesakha. They are his birth, his enlightenment, and his passing into Nirvana. According to tradition he was born in 623 BC and was calculated according to the Buddhist calendar which counted down from his final passing that was 80 years later. And the decision to agree to celebrate Vesak as the Buddha's birthday was formalized at the first conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists held in Sri Lanka in 1950, although festivals at this time in the Buddhist world are a centuries-old tradition. Siddhartha’s Early Life According to modern academic consensus Gautama Buddha was born 563–483 BCE as Prince Siddhatha Gotama in Lumbini (what is now Nepal) and raised in the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu. He was born into an aristocratic family in the Shakya clan. Growing up, the Buddha was exceptionally intelligent and compassionate. Siddhartha as a young man grew to be tall, strong, and handsome. He belonged to a warrior caste and was destined to be great. As such it was predicted that one day, he would become either a king or spiritual leader. Siddhartha’s parents were powerful and wanted him to become a mighty ruler for their kingdom. They believed that the best… -
Air What is Deity and Creative Force and Why is it in the Program? Year 1 Last Update: Introduction ψ A deity is a creator or supreme being that is of supernatural source and existence. It is considered divine and sacred. It can be male or female as god or goddess and is found in polytheistic religions. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness, beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life”. This is due to the field of energy of which they are composed, their creations and the realm of which they live. A human being surrounded by a deity or god is unlikely to be the same at the level that they have the strongest consciousness. It is said that the Buddha’s aura extended 3,500 kilo meters from where he stood. The New Testament does not speak about auras, but it does mentions Jesus Christ as “the light of the world” (John 8:12). This would be in reference to his aura. A deity or god’s aura is that force that attracts people. It could be a warm glow, an exciting glow, a healing glow, and a positive glow. It would be fair to say that just as many people who are attracted to the light are also repelled by the light in fear or jealousy. This tendency marks religions especially those that are polytheistic. The Numbers of Gods and their Power There is no culture on earth ancient or modern that does not believe in some god or creative force of creation. The notion that things sprang up due to natural combustion still leaves space for the idea that some singular or plural creative force with intelligence had a hand in the creation. Some cultures believe that forces of nature are gods. Are they right? We will address the question of what constitutes a god or deity a little later and then will answer many probing questions in the Unit. But…Year 1: Deity, Creative Force
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