Buddha Day (Half Moon)

October 3rd, 2003 at 12:00am

Day 17. The night of Buddha Day is when we have our little candle and incense party by the big chedi here at Wat Ram Poeng. The ‘party’ consists of taking a flower, incense, and candle arrangement and walking it around the chedi three times. This is done to pay respect to the ‘Triple Gems,’ which are the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha.

The Buddha is the Enlightened One. The Dhamma is the teaching of the Deliverance, as discovered by Lord Buddha. The Sangha is the Assembly of community of mendicant monks. It provides the favorable conditions for all those who earnestly devote to their entire life to the realization of the highest goal of Deliverance. The walk around the chedi is one time to go to the refuge of the Buddha, one time to go to the refuge of the Dhamma, and one time to go to the refuge of the Sangha. Through reciting those formulas 3 times, one has declared himself a Buddhist.

The purpose of Vipassana meditation, or Insight meditation, is to be free from all kinds of suffering.

Well, Jen, can you elaborate a bit more? What are ya crazy, I’ve only been here 2 weeks! I just copied that out of a book. By the way, this spell check is not Buddhist-friendly!

Buddha Day candle party at the Chedi

Entry Filed under: Chiang Mai,North,Thailand