| by Bhikkhu Samahita
( May 14, 2014, Kandy, Sri Lanka Guardian) 5th May 2012 Vesak Day celebrates birth, Enlightenment, and passing away of the Buddha Gotama. Rejoice! Keep clean, calm, cool, clever, and caring... About this Buddhist Vesak Festival: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesak
This May full moon also celebrates the Buddha's third visit to Sri Lanka in the eighth year after his Enlightenment, where he journeyed to Kelaniya on the invitation of the Nāga King Maniakkhika (Mahavamsa i,72ff.). The day also celebrates the crowning of king Devānampiyatissa (Mhv.Xi.42),
and the laying of the foundation stone of the Mahā Stūpa (Mhv.Xxix.1)
Please Remember:
At this very May full moon in year 528 BC the Blessed Buddha awakenedby completely perfect and utterly unsurpassable self-Enlightenment! At that time a girl named Sujata Senani lived in Uruvela. When adult sheprayed before a certain Banyan tree, that she might get a good husbandequal to herself in caste & that her firstborn may be a son. Her prayer wassuccessful. Since indeed it did happen. At the full moon day of the Wesakmonth, she rose at early dawn and milked the cows. As soon as new bucketswere placed under the cows, the milk poured spontaneously in streams all byitself! Seeing this miracle, she knew something special was happening! That same night the Future Buddha dreamt 5 dreams making him conclude:"Surely, truly, without any doubt, today I will reach perfect Enlightenment!" His 5 colored radiance illuminated the whole tree. Then Sujata came and offered the cooked milk rice into the hands of this Great Being.
Later a local grass-cutter came going with a bundle of grass just harvested from nearby. He offered the Great Being 8 handfuls of Kusa grass, when he saw that this Sage was a Holy Man. The Future Buddha accepted the grass and proceeded to the foot of the Bodhi-tree. Reaching the imperturbable
Eastern side, where all the Buddhas take their seat, he sat down saying to himself: This is the immovable spot, where all the prior supreme Buddhas have planted themselves! This is the place for destroying this net of desire! Then the Future Buddha turned his back to the trunk and thus faced east.
Right there, he then resolutely settled on this mighty decision:
Let just blood and flesh of this body dry up & let skin and sinews fall fromthe bones. I will not leave this seat before having attained the absolute and Supreme Self-Enlightenment!
So determined did he seat himself in this unconquerable seat, from whichnot a 100 lightning strikes could make him waver. At this very moment the rebel deity Mara -The Evil One- raised exclaiming: Prince Siddhattha will pass beyond my power, but I will never allow it! And sounding the Mara's war
shout, he summoned his mighty army for battle. Then Mara warned his evil militia: This Sakyamuni, son of Suddhodana, is far greater than any other man, so we will never succeed to fight him up front. We must thus attack him from the rear. Frustrated, being unable even to touch this big wielder
of power also with 9 mighty hurricanes of wind, rain, rocks, weapons, red coals, hot ashes, sand, mud, and darkness Mara somewhat in panic shouted at his army: "Why do you all stand still? Seize, kill & drive away this prince!"
Mara then yelled: "Siddhattha, leave this seat. It is not yours, but mine!" Hearing this, the Well-gone One replied: Mara, neither have you fulfilled the 10 perfections to the third degree, nor have you given the 5 great donations.
Neither have you striven for insight, nor for the welfare of all the world, nor for supreme self-enlightenment! Therefore does this very seat surely not belong to you, but truly indeed only to me. Suddenly overpowered by fearMara's followers fled helter-skelter in all directions. No two went in the same direction, but leaving their weapons in a chaos, they all fled terrified by metaphysical panic. Seeing them flee thus, the great assembly of deitiestriumphantly shouted: Mara is defeated. Prince Siddhattha has won! Let us celebrate this truly sublime, wonderful and unique victory! It was before the sun had set that the Tathagata conquered Mara and defeated his army.
That same night, after having bathed, while the Bo tree rained red sprigs ontohis robe, The Consummate One gained knowledge of his prior lives during the1st watch of the night: "With the mind thus concentrated, purified, bright,unified, focused, tractable, compliant, steady & imperturbable, I directed mind to remembrance of my past lives. I recollected many past lives, i.e., one re-birth, two...five, ten... 50, a hundred, a thousand, 100 thousand, many eons of cosmic contraction, & many eons of cosmic expansion: There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan & species, had such a body. Such was my food, such my life of pleasures and pains. Such was the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose there. There I had such name, belonged to such
a sort & family, had such a form. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasures & pains. Such was the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose here. Thus I remembered my various past lives in all their various modes and manifold details. This was the first knowledge I attained in the first watch of the night. Ignorance was destroyed; the knowledge arose; darkness was destroyed; light arose as happens in one who is alert, aware, and determined. But the very pleasant feeling that arose by this did neither invade my mind, nor remain. With the mind thus concentrated, purified, bright, intact, pliant, malleable, steady, and totally imperturbable, I directed it to the knowledge of the passing away and reappearance of beings. I saw by means of the divine eye, purified & surpassing the human eye! I saw beings passing away & re-appearing, and I realized how & why they are high or low, beautiful or ugly, fortunate and unfortunate all in exact accordance with the intentions of their prior actions: These beings who were endowed with bad behaviour of body, speech, and mind, who reviled the Noble Ones, held wrong views & acted under the influence of wrong views, with the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in the plane of misery, the bad painful destination, the lower realms, even in hell. But the beings who were gifted with good behaviour of body, speech and mind, who did not revile the Noble Ones, who held right views and acted under the influence of right views after the break-up of the body, after the death, have re-appeared in happy destinations, even in a divine world! Thus by means of the divine eye, purified and surpassing the human I saw beings passing away & re-appearing, all in accordance with their particular mixture of good and bad kamma...
But the satisfaction that arose here did neither invade my mind, nor remain.With the mind thus concentrated and completely absorbed, I then directedit towards understanding the ending of mental fermentation. I realized how it actually comes to be, that:
This is Suffering...
Such is the Cause of Suffering...
Such is the End of Suffering...
Such is the Way to End Suffering...
Such was the mental fermentations...
Such is the Cause of mental fermentation...
Such is the End of mental fermentation...
Such is the Way leading to the end of mental fermentation.
When my mind saw that, it was instantly freed of the fermentation of all sense-desire, it was released from the fermentation of becoming, and itbecame fully uncovered from the fermentation of ignorance. Thus fully andperfectly Enlightened - The Buddha - perceiving this immense glory, spoke
these 2 solemn verses, which never has been omitted by any of countless billions of prior Buddhas:
Through this round of countless existences have I searched, but yet failed to find "the Creator", who framed this construction: What Suffering indeed is such endless birth, ageing, decay, sickness and ever repeated death! Now I see that "the Constructor" of this structure is Craving...!!! Never shall
this construction be built again, since all the rafters are shattered and the main beam is busted and completely broken... At this calming of all Craving, the mind was finally, irreversibly and ultimately stilled…
Then, friends, this revelation of certainty arose in me: This release is indeed immutable, this is the very last rebirth, this endless reappearance has finally come to a happy end... Nibbāna is verily the Highest Bliss!
 5th May 2012 Vesak Day celebrates birth, Enlightenment, and passin...){kind=link}