The Wisdom and Love Festival of Wesak!

Taurus Editorial
May 5, 2009

Happy birthday to all! As some Mahayana Buddhists wish each other happy birthday, because the Buddha’s birthday is everyone’s birthday.

On Wesak we celebrate Buddha's birth, and at the same time the enlightenment and the passing away of Siddhartha Gautama. Buddha was born in a human body, served as great symbol, died and disintegrated. Yet Buddha, the Wisdom, the Light, is eternal. The same applies to Christ and Love.

We celebrate Wesak this month around the full moon time. Wesak is the second Festival of Light this year, and the most important, because two cosmic energies converge during the full moon in Taurus: the one of Wisdom (Buddha) and the one of Love (Christ).

Left to right top to bottom: Wesak Valley, ritual preparations, Wesak ceremony in the valley, baby Buddha alike head at the MFA in Boston, tea bath of purification to baby Buddha --a symbolism of the water--.

“Buddha embodies the Principle of Light, and because of his illumination, humanity was able to recognize Christ, the embodiment of a still greater Principle of Love.”*

'Light and Love' - the two words we sometimes use as a greeting are our real experiences on Wesak.

There is no love without illumination. Wesak is Illumination and Love. That is why some celebrations of Wesak in Asia include distributing of happiness to others, the aged, the handicapped, the sick and the unprivileged.

In Sri Lanka the two days of official celebration of Wesak include the “Symbolic act of liberation”, in which freedom is given to those who are in captivity, imprisoned, and tortured. I just wish that during Burma’s celebration of Wesak, the Junta honors Buddha with a symbolic act of liberation. However, the Junta is guided by greed and cruelty, while the Buddhist monks share their love with Burmese people. Their love is coming from their spiritual practices, their sacrifices, and their good will. One hopes that gradually the world get transformed by the higher energies, and Buddhist monks will prevail in Burma.

There are more examples of how wisdom and love work in social and political life of humanity. For example, Obama's enlightenment made him peaceful and cordial towards a perceived and targeted enemy of the previous United States government administration -President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. Obama is being very wise, as Christ taught us to pray for our enemies and to show them our strength by giving them the other cheek when they hit us on one. Obama is practicing the love that Christ taught us. It is much easier to keep the pride and have 'the masses’ applaud him, than to expose himself to the humiliation, the misunderstanding of weakness, and the wave of hate from Republicans. But, Love is about sacrifice, and it is the price to pay, in order to lead humanity to the path of peace and happiness. Thus, Obama's political choices “aim at the establishing of goodwill on earth as the basis for future living and world expansion.”*

…Taurus is ruled by Venus, the spiritual ruler of Earth. Venus is identified with Mary, the Mother of the World. May, the month of Taurus, is the month of Mary and Mother's day. Venus appears in the west as the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl who brought enlightenment to the Mayans; in the east she is MahaMaya, mother of Buddha…

Taurus brings us the duality of transcending the lower personality forces. It brings enlightenment to mind, and it is the embodiment of light. This is exactly what happens to every candle. The corporal structure of the candle is to be consumed by the fire that generates light, and light is what motivated the existence of the corporal structure of the candle.

In some countries the celebration of Wesak involves flowers and lights. We should not overlook the meaning of these two elements of human culture. I mentioned the candle as an example of the duality that surrounds everything in our worldly environment, but also the candle signifies the birth of Buddha in our consciuosness. The candle gives light that vanishes, but this is not true of the Light of Wisdom that shines deep in us, and to which the candle is an allusion. A flower is as beautiful as love and vanishes too, but not the Love that lays deep in us and of which the flower is a symbol.

The light of the soul is absolutely essential for the survival of this planet, and humanity.

Light and Love, Buddha and Christ, a candle and a flower, hence the exoteric and the esoteric in each.

Let’s reflect on these thoughts and remember also that Wesak is a day of silence, because it is in silence that the souls communicate.

Wish each of you personal purification and to start loving the one you are with.

Blessings of Light and Love,

* Excerpts from Alice Bailey

Symbolic Buddha Iillumination on Wesak