Happy Vesak Day 2017!

 Happy Vesak Day!

Yak butter candle at Pelko Chode Monastery, Tibet.

Today is Vesak Day in Indonesia, or Waisak as we call it. So I just want to wish everyone a Happy Vesak Day! Sabbe Sata Bhavantu Sukhitata, may all living things be happy!

As we commemorate the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha today, it is also a day in which I contemplate a lot about Buddhism. As weird as this may sound, Buddhism is really a religion that has ruined my life in a very very good way haha. I like Timber Hawkeye's decription of Buddhism. Or its teachings to be exact. It's like a wiper of a car. It clears off the water on the window during rain and make the glass clear again. So that we can see better. And I totally agree with that.

How has Buddhism ruined my life? Okay like I mentioned a few times, I've only started to know Buddhism closer in 2012-ish. That's when I started to dig more to the Dharma (the teachings of the Buddha). And from then onwards I start to dissect Sutras and so on. Last year I was reading a lot on the Prajnaparamita Sutra, which is a sutra I really enjoy, and learned a lot about life from.

Before all of these, I have a "fixated" state of mind about how I should live my life, and how I will be happy. And this state, now, I would call it my ego. I have this belief that my life should be this way and that way. Anything apart from these ways would cause me unhappiness. And I would feel miserable whenever I'm "forced" to go to this way. As I learned in Buddhism, this is called the relative truth. It is permanent. But as one of the cores of Buddhist teachings say, nothing is permanent.

Studying and reading more Buddhist teachings have taught me a lot about the reality of phenomenon. And in turn, they taught me to live a happier life and how to live my life to the fullest. Things like impermanence, non-self, emptiness, relative vs absolute truth and so on, all these things connect together to form a line that ties every misconceptions I have in life. And then straighten them out.

I feel like the Dharma has "ruined" all these little concepts I have in life which I believe to be true, and I hold on dearly. Not knowing that these concepts bring me more suffering than happiness. 

I would say that actually Buddhism is a "harsh" religion. Not the literal way, but how the teachings of the Buddha is really trying to break us free from our ego. And this is something very difficult to do. The Buddha also didn't sugar-coat his words. He just tells the truth, and the rest is up to us to finish them or not. And that's one more thing I love about Buddhism. Is that there is no "absolute way" to follow the Dharma. I feel like the Dharma is a set of instructions, but how we carry them out, is up to us.

Like the Buddha didn't say "you have to do this, if not you're wrong". The Buddha just say "fill your life with love". How do we do this? "Don't hurt anyone, don't tell lies, don't take part if misconduct" etc. As for the sutras... Well they are a little bit more complicated than the discourses. We have to get extra help to dissect them haha. This is why there are commentaries by Buddhist masters.

So yeah. Today we celebrate the life of the Buddha. For whom without him, all of these words won't be heard worldwide. The Dharma will not flow, and its wheel will not turn. Thank you for your teachings and I will try my very best, as always, to practice the Dharma till I reach Nirvana.

Here's to the religion that has ruined my life in an extremely good way!

Happy Vesak Day once again, and may all living things be happy :)