About Wesak Celebration 2010

Enlightenment

The Buddha's Enlightenment is the central event in Buddhism. And Wesak, the celebration of that Enlightenment, is the most important festival of the Buddhist year.
Enlightenment is an ideal to which all Buddhists aspire. So Wesak is also a chance to reflect on what moving towards Enlightenment might mean for the individual.
It's also an opportunity for Buddhists to gather together to reflect back on the life of the Buddha and his teaching, known as the Dharma.

Wesak, celebrated as close to the full moon of May as the calendar allows, is the day the historical Sakyamuni Buddha gained full Enlightenment after meditating under the Bodhi tree in what is now Bodhgaya in Bihar, India more than five hundred years BC.

The Young Buddha

The Buddha was born Siddhartha Gautama, son of a ruler of the Sakyamuni tribe and, as such, led a privileged life protected from human suffering. But, after encountering an old man, a sick man and a then a funeral procession on three separate journeys outside the palace, he began to ponder the nature of existence. On a fourth journey he met a holy man and decided it was possible to find a way to the end of suffering.

The young man left his home and family to become a wandering ascetic and practised austerity in the hope of finding the Truth, including denying himself food until he was close to death. But he eventually realised practising extremes, of either self-mortification or self-indulgence, would not bring him what he sought. But rather that the Middle Way, a path between the two, was what he must follow.

Siddartha sat down beneath a large tree to meditate and vowed he would remain there until he had achieved his goal. In the final watch of the night he gained Enlightenment and became the Buddha, which means 'Awakened One'. The Buddha's birth and death is also celebrated as part of Wesak by some traditions.

Buddhism and Wesak Today

This is the 2,554th year the Buddhist world has marked the Buddha's Enlightenment and, over the centuries, practitioners have seen his teaching spread throughout Asia, from India to Japan, and from Tibet to Indonesia. Over the last century, Buddhism has also become increasingly established in Europe and America.

A Buddhist will try to practice kindness, generosity and awareness in their everyday life. And at Wesak there's always a big emphasis on generosity. Just as the Buddha shared his knowledge with mankind, we want to share this very special celebration with the world, Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike.