CELEBRATION OF LIGHT ~ WESAK FESTIVAL

The Wesak Festival



The second of the three major spiritual planetary festivals is The Wesak Festival, The Buddha’s Blessing, and is celebrated in the eastern hemisphere at the Taurus full moon. This is the festival of The Buddha, divine intermediary between the highest spiritual center, Shamballa, and the Hierarchy.

The Buddha is the expression of the Wisdom of God, the embodiment of light and the indicator of divine purpose.

The Forces of Enlightenment are active during this festival. These forces emanate from the Heart of God, and transmit the second principle of Divinity, Love-Wisdom, leading to Divine Understanding and strengthening those who serve humanity. The qualities of The Buddha and The Christ eminent are the two outstanding expressions of this principle.

The Forces of Enlightenment are initiating a World Religion. The first to be affected by these forces are the great educational movements, the forums of the people in all lands, and the values which can unfold through the mass communications media. The press, publishers of world literature, speakers, writers, radio commentators, newspaper reporters, ministers and all involved in communicating ideas are affected by these forces streaming into the minds of people everywhere. As these new emerging ideas are recognized, they can then be directly channeled to influence the masses of people everywhere.



In 2008 the Festival of the Wesak full moon in Taurus
occurs on Sunday, April 20 at 3:25 am PDT (10:25 UT).

The Legend of the Wesak

There is a valley, lying at a rather high altitude in the foothills of the Himalayan-Tibet ranges. It is surrounded by high mountains on all sides except towards the northeast, where there is a narrow opening in the mountain ranges. The valley is bottle-shaped in contour, with the neck of the bottle to the northeast, and it widens very considerably towards the south. Up towards the northern end, close to the neck of the bottle, there a huge flat rock. There are no trees or shrubs in the valley, which is covered with a kind of coarse grass.

Approaching the time of the full moon of Taurus, pilgrims from the surrounding districts begin to gather. The holy men and the lamas find their way into the valley and fill the southern and the middle parts, leaving the northeastern end relatively free. There, so the legend runs, gathers a group of those great Beings Who are the Custodians on Earth of God's Plan for our planet and for humanity.

This group of knowers of divinity are the main participants in The Wesak Festival. They arrange Themselves in the northeastern end of the valley, in concentric circles, and prepare for a great act of service. In front of the rock, looking towards the northeast, stand Those Beings Who are called by Their disciples The Three Great Lords. These are The Christ, Who stands in the center; the Lord of living forms, The Manu, Who stands at His right; and The Lord of Civilization, who stands to His left. These three face the rock upon which rests a great crystal bowl, full of water.

Behind the grouped Masters, adepts, initiates and senior workers under God's Plan are to be found the world disciples and aspirants in their various grades and groups (either "in the body" or "out of the body"), who at this time constitute the New Group of World Servers. Those present in their physical bodies have found their way there by ordinary means. Others are present in their spiritual bodies, and in the dream state. The "dream," which they later relate, has been uniformly registered by people throughout the world, and bears the testimony to the recollection of an inner spiritual happening.

As the hour of the full moon approaches, a stillness settles down upon the crowd, and all look towards the northeast. Certain ritualistic movements take place, in which the grouped Masters and Their disciples of all ranks take up symbolic positions, and form on the floor of the valley such significant symbols as the five-pointed star, with The Christ standing at the highest point; of a triangle, with The Christ at the apex; or a cross, and other well known formations, all of which have a deep and potent meaning. This is all done to the sound of certain chanted words and esoteric phrases, called mantrams.

The expectancy in the waiting, onlooking crowd becomes very great, and the tension is real and increasing. Through the entire body of people there seems to be felt a stimulation or potent vibration which has the effect of awakening the souls of those present, fusing and blending the group into one united whole, and lifting all into a great act of spiritual demand, readiness, and expectancy. It is the climax of the world's aspiration focussed in this waiting group. These three words — demand, readiness and expectancy — best describe the atmosphere surrounding those present in this secret valley.

The chanting and the rhythmic weaving grows stronger, and all the participants and the watching crowd raise their eyes towards the sky in the direction of the narrow part of the valley. Just a few minutes before the exact time of the full moon, in the far distance, a tiny speck can be seen in the sky. It comes nearer and nearer, and grows in clarity and definiteness of outline, until the form of The Buddha can be seen, seated in the cross-legged Buddha position, clad in his saffron-colored robe, bathed in light and color, and with his hand extended in blessing.

When The Buddha arrives at a point exactly over the great rock, hovering there in the air over the heads of The Three Great Lords, a great mantram, used only once a year, at The Festival, is intoned by The Christ, and the entire group of people in the valley fall upon their faces. This Invocation sets up a great vibration or thought current which is of such potency that it reaches up from the group of aspirants, disciples and initiates who employ it, to the Being we know as God. It marks the supreme moment of intensive spiritual effort throughout the entire year, and the spiritual vitalization of humanity and the spiritual effects last throughout the succeeding months.

The effect of this great Invocation is universal or cosmic, and serves to link us up with that cosmic center of spiritual force from which all created beings have come. The blessing is poured forth, and The Christ, as the representative of humanity, receives it in trust, for distribution.

Thus, so the legend runs, The Buddha returns once a year to bless the world, transmitting renewed spiritual life, through The Christ. Slowly then The Buddha recedes into the distance, until again only a faint speck can be seen in the sky, and this eventually disappears. The whole ceremonial blessing, from the time of the first appearance in the distance until the moment The Buddha fades out of view, takes just eight minutes.

The Buddha's annual sacrifice for humanity (for He comes back only at great cost) is over, and He returns again to that high place where He works and waits. Year after year He comes back in blessing; year after year, He and His great brother, The Christ, work in the closest cooperation for the spiritual benefit of humanity. In these two great Sons of God have been focussed two aspects of divine life, and They act together as Custodians of the highest type of spiritual force to which our humanity can respond. Through The Buddha, the wisdom of God is poured forth. Through The Christ, the love of God is manifested in humanity, and it is this wisdom and love which pour forth upon humanity each Wesak full moon.

When The Buddha has again disappeared, the crowd rise to their feet; the water in the bowl is distributed in tiny portions to the Masters, initiates and disciples, and they then go their way to their place of service. The crowd, who have all brought their little cups and vessels of water, drink of them and share with others. In this beautiful "water ceremony of communion" is portrayed the symbol of the new age which is upon us, the Aquarian Age, the age of the Water Carrier.

In this ceremony is perpetuated for us the story of the universality of God's love, the need for our individual purification, and the opportunity to share with each other that which belongs to all. The water, which has been magnetized by the presence of The Buddha and of The Christ, carries certain properties and virtues of a healing and helpful nature.

Thus blessed, the crowd silently disperses.

- From "The Wesak Festival—A Technique of Spiritual Contact"
booklet by Alice A. Bailey, published by Lucis Trust

History for Wesak (Vesak) Day

The decision to agree to celebrate Vesak as the Buddha’s birthday was formalized at the first Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists (W.F.B.) held in Sri Lanka in 1950 , although festivals at this time in the Buddhist world are a centuries-old tradition. The Resolution that was adopted at the World Conference reads as follows, "That this Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, while recording its appreciation of the gracious act of His Majesty, the Maharaja of Nepal in making the full-moon day of Vesak a Public Holiday in Nepal, earnestly requests the Heads of Governments of all countries in which large or small number of Buddhists are to be found, to take steps to make the full-moon day in the month of May a Public Holiday in honour of the Buddha, who is universally acclaimed as one of the greatest benefactors of Humanity."
On Vesak Day, Buddhists all over the world commemorate events of significance to Buddhists of all traditions: The birth, enlightenment and the passing away of Gautama Buddha. As Buddhism spread from India it was assimilated into many foreign cultures, and consequently Vesak is celebrated in many different ways all over the world.

Wikipedia for Wesak (Vesak) Day

Vesak (Sinhalese) is an annual holiday observed by practicing Buddhists. In Indian Mahayana Buddhist traditions, the holiday is known by its Sanskrit equivalent, Vaisakha. The word Vesak itself is the Sinhalese language word for the Pali variation, "Visakha". Vaishākha is the name of the second month of the lunar Hindu calendar. Vesak is also known as Visakah Puja, Buddha Purnima or Buddha Jayanti in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, Visakha Bucha in Thailand, Phật Đản in Vietnam, Waisak in Indonesia, Vesak (Wesak) in Sri Lanka and Malaysia, 佛誕 (fó dàn) in Chinese-speaking countries, and Saga Dawa in Tibet. The equivalent festival in Laos is called Vixakha Bouxa and in Myanmar is called Ka-sone-la-pyae meaning Fullmoon Day of Kasone which is also the second month of the Myanmar Calendar. Vesak is a public holiday in many Asian countries like Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and also Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
The exact date of Vesak varies according to the various lunar calendars used in different traditions. In Theravada countries following the Buddhist calendar, it falls on the full moon Uposatha day (typically the 5th or 6th lunar month). In China it is the fourth month in the Chinese lunar calendar, coinciding with the first full moon of that month. The date varies from year to year in the Western Gregorian calendar but falls in April or May.
Sometimes informally called "Buddha's birthday," it actually encompasses the birth, enlightenment Nirvana, and passing (Parinirvana) of Gautama Buddha.

Nancy sent me a email today about this story. It really touching and made me felt really upset about China government system.Maybe due to China so big country and the government cannot control the official.

After I read this story, I'm speechless. I don't know what to say, is it society's fault, or else?
Xia die, she was a hooker, or she was a teacher. She is the most honourable teacher in China . She use her dirty body, wash thru children's heart.
A hooker's death, all children cried and attend her funeral, a school drop the national flag for her
On the funeral of this 21yo pretty teacher, headmaster read Xia's diary
sadly in front of all the students, she wrote : 'Each prostitution, can help one schooless child; become a mistress once, can rescue a hopeless primary school.'....
Xia lived in a small village of province of Gan Shu . All ladies in this small village, no matter she is pretty or not, went to Southern part of city to earn money. Every spring time, they will come back with money and beautiful cloths. Xia didn't follow after she finished her secondary school. A lot of people don't understand what is she thinking of as she has the pretty face and body. And because of this, her father always scold her.
When she heard of the only primary school in the village needs some teachers, she volunteerly ask to become a free teacher. She is a very g ood student in her secondary school and because of this, she easily pass thru all the test and became the teacher of the school.
The 1st time when Xia walk into the classroom, all children shock to see a pretty teacher. From then on, the classroom always fill with children's laughter. Classroom -- should call it a hut instead as the wall is made of sticks and cover with leaves as its ceiling. A big stone become their table and the most expensive should be the polished dark-green stone as their blackboard. With this condition, Xia taught thousands of Chinese words and knowledge to her students.
There was wild rain destroy the classroom of the school and all students become schoolless. The headmaster visit the province's education minister for some money to repair the classroom and come back with nothing. Headmaster told Xia that the minister said only will give money if Xia ask for it. Xia never meet any minister before and afraid that she will make the things worst and decided to visit the minister. She walked more than 10km to the province ministry office and sit in a beautiful office in front of the minister. Minister's eyes looks hungry and point to a room and said to Xia. Your money is in the room, if you want, follow me. Xia saw a big bed in the room and is the bed that she lost her virgin. Minister raped her.
Her virgin blood drop on the bedsheet and is more reddish than the color of the national flag in the room.
Xia didn't cry, all she is thinking of is the eyes of all disappointed students that have no classroom.
She didn't tell anyone about the rape after she went home.
The next day, with the money that brought back by Xia, all villagers bought some woods and repair the classroom. But whenever there was a heavy rain, the classroom still cannot be used. Xia always tell the students that province ministry department will built a good school for them. In the past half year, headmaster had visited the ministers more than 100 times and never ever get any money from them. He is the only 1 knows what did Xia did and he can do nothing about it. New semester comes, a lot of student s cannot pay their fees and become schoolless and follow their parents to work. Xia sad about that.
When Xia feel that her hope of all students can go to school become hopeless, she drop all her cloths and swear to her naked body that she will use this body to exchange for the children to be able to go to school. She knows that all ladies in the village are working as a prostitute to earn the living and she knows this is a shortcut for her to earn money. She washed herself and sa y goodbye to headmaster, father, and school. She tight her hair as 2 ponytails and walk to the city. When she leave, her father smile and headmaster cry....
In the colorful city, Xia is not happy at all, in her mind, there are only broken classroom and sadness and disappointed eyes of students. She walked into a Hair-Saloon, lay down on a dirty bed, and accept her 2nd dirty business. In that night, in her diary, she wrote : 'Minister can't even compare to her 1st customer. At least they pay.'
She sends all her earnings except those for her to live on to headmaster. Headmas ter follows her instruction to use the money on the school. People ask about the source of the money and headmaster only answer that it was from some donation of society.
After a while, people knows about the source of money is from the teacher and many reporters would like to interview her and she just refused and the reason is that she is just a prostitute.
With the money, the school changed. First month, there is a new blackboard. 2nd month, a wooden table and chair. 3rd month, all children has their own books. 4th month, all children has a red tie. 5th month, no children go to school bare leg.
On the 6th month, Xia come back. All students welcome her happily and say 'Teacher is so beautiful'... With all student's smiling face, Xia cries.. how many tear drops and how many sadness in the past 6 months.. she feels worthy when she see all these.
After few days at home, she goes back to city.
7th month, built a ball park, 8th month, basketball, 9th month, all students has their new pencils. 10th month, the school has their own national flag, students raise the national flags daily. 11th month, a land-developer refuse to use condom and Xi a pregnant. After abortion, she become the developer's mistress. After a few months, the developers dump her because he faced problem on land-value drop in ShengXhen, he didn't pay her 1 cent.
Xia feel tired, she think of go home and go back to the school, but she has yet to fulfill student's dream which are building a concrete classroom and 2 PCs for the students. Because of these, she went bac k to beg the developer and the developer just refuse to pay anything but only introduce a foreigner to her. Said the foreigner will pay her 3000rmb for 1 night. Think of the wild rain happen few days ago, she tiredly goes to the foreigner's hotel. She sweared that she will go back to her home and school after this.
She killed by the 3 foreigner because of raping. She just turned 21yo.

Xia died without fulfill her final wish which to build a concrete classroom and 2 PCs.

A hooker dies, silently, the sky of ShengZhen is still as blue as before, ministers still happily sitting in their office, many expensive cars still running on street, people happily discussing share market, house market value, car value, and movies, music and love story. Youngster try to suicide because of small matters happen between themselves.
At this time, students, teachers and few hundreds of villagers attending the funeral in this small village 'GanShu'
In the funeral, people see a black and white photo of Xia. In the photo, she has 2 pony tails and happily smile. Headmaster open the diary of Xia and read in front of all students, she wrote : ' Each prostitution, can help one schooless child; become a mistress once, can rescue a hopeless primary school...' The national flag drop to its half... May be, this is the ONLY national flag drop half because of a GREAT hooker in China 's history.
After I read this, I cried for 2 hours. From now on, I won't discriminate any hooker, because among them there is a Xia. Hope you will forward this mail to all forum, friends, webspaces, to let all our governments to understand when they are saying and empty-promissing, when they are drinking in the pub, when they are doing dirty politics, Someone using her own power to change the world. Xia is using her sadly eye to look at all of us. Although she is just a hooker, she is more clean and saint than any of us. In this cold and dirty society, w hat she gave to the students are human's 'Great Love'.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Hi all, sorry for quite sometimes i din update my blog. These a few weeks really busy with my work. Today i tried to get a hour for me to update my blog and suprise Ah Hoon had a tag for me. I felt this is interesting and just tried it out.

What Hainankia Means

You are very charming... dangerously so. You have the potential to break a lot of hearts. You know how what you want, how to get it, and that you will get it. You have the power to rule the world. Let's hope you're a benevolent dictator! You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life. You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you. At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are deeply philosophical and thoughtful. You tend to analyze every aspect of your life. You are intuitive, brilliant, and quite introverted. You value your time alone. Often times, you are grumpy with other people. You don't appreciate them trying to interfere in your affairs. You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong. You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know. You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are loving, compassionate, and ruled by your feelings. You are able to be a foundation for other people... but you still know how to have fun. Sometimes your emotions weigh you down, but you generally feel free from them.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

I would like to tag some friends of mine, I'm sure would love to do it.
They are My sister blog, Wildcatlady29, Kikey, Kacang Puteh. Enjoy learning about your name. Anyone who would like to do it, you are welcome to it.

10 things that made me happy, recently

Ah Hoon - almanacqueen tagged me to do a post about 10 recent things that made me happy. Recently i have a lot of pressure about my work, so i dunno do i have 10 things made me happy or not. Try to figure it now.

10 things that made me happy, recently

1. I just brought a micro hi-fi for my room so that we can enjoy music while reading and sleep.

2. I just brought 2 pcs DVD for my son which was his favourite - Mickey Mouse Playhouse Disney
3. Every saturday go to Starbuck having a coffee latte and online while wait for my wife after work. Nobody disturb me.
4. My Television can be repaired so i no need buy a new 1
5. Have a nice dinner with my wife at Sakae Teppanyaki at Autocity (we have been there quite a few times)
6. My son getting well from Fever and getting better from the cough ( i no need to wake up every hour check his temperature)
7. I manage find and install HID light for my car with high and low dim light which is 4300K.
8. My mother in law went back to Cameron Highland. (not said i dun respect her but she screw up my living style and most i hate is she mess up my whole kitchen and keep eating overnite dish which are not healthy)
9. My favourite football team keep won the match and hope they will win the league.
10. The most happiness is my son can speak a few new words which make us very surprise.

I would like to pass on this happy tag to Jepunlauyeeeeeee, Kacang Puteh, Laksa Gien, Nancy

World Wide Link Love for All

I received this tag from Caramelcorn . Let's hope this World Wide link will keep going on and on and on so that we can make more friends and just make this community bigger and bigger.

~start copy here ~

Join the Worldwide Link Love!Benefits of Worldwide Link Love!1. Make new friends around the world.2. Feel the Link Love.3. Gain new readers and subscribers.
Rules:

1. Copy from ~start copying here ~ to ~ end copying here ~ and paste it on your blog.2. At the end of the list, put your name and the country you are in, it doesn’t matter what’s your nationality just put the country where you are publishing your blog. Don’t forget to put links at your name.3. If u have many blogs, you can link all of it, just make sure you post the same on each blog.4. Tag eight (8) or more of your blog friends.5. Tip for blogspot users: make sure you copy and paste the code in Compose mode.

Wanna join, and you can’t find your name on the list? Just leave a comment here.Worldwide Link Love! Participants:
1. Julia (Philippines) 2. Catherine (Malaysia) 3. shimumsy(u.s.a) 4. Mitch (Philippines) 5. Hailey (Philippines)6. Sexymom (USA) 7. Liza (Philippines) 8. Geng (Philippines) 9. SunnySideUp Foodie (Singapore) 10. Caramelcorn (Singapore) 11. Constance (Singapore) 12. Hainankia (Malaysia)

~ end copying here ~


Here, I shall tag my blogger buddies - Lor Mee, Nancy, Amy Ong, Kikey, HNKP, Wildcatlady29

Pilot or Priest

Pilot or Priest

A priest dies and is waiting in line at the Pearly Gates. Ahead of him is a guy who's dressed in sunglasses, a loud shirt, leathher jacket and jeans.

Saint Peter addresses this cool guy, "Who are you, so that I may know whether or not to admit you to the Kingdom of Heaven ?"

The guy replies, "I'm Peter Pilot, retired American Airlines Pilot from Dallas."

Saint Peter consults his list. He smiles and says to the pilot, "Take this silken robe and golden staff and enter the Kingdom." The pilot goes into Heaven with his robe and staff.

Next it's the priest's turn. He stands erect and booms out, "I am Father Joe, pastor of Saint Mary's in Pasadena for the last 43 years."

Saint Peter consults his list. He says to the priest, "Take this cotton robe and wooden staff and enter the Kingdom.

" Just a minute," says the good father, "that man was a pilot and he gets a silken robe and golden staff, and I get only cotton and wood. How can this be?"

"Up here ... we go by results," says Saint Peter, "when you preached - - people slept; when he flew - - people prayed!"

Lawyer, Farmer and a Duck

Lawyer, Farmer, and a Duck

A big city lawyer went duck hunting in rural Virginia. He shot and dropped a bird, but it fell into a farmer's field
on the other side of a fence.

As the lawyer climbed over the fence, an elderly farmer drove up on his tractor and asked him what he was doing.

The litigator responded, "I shot a duck and it fell in this field, and now I'm going to retrieve it."

The old farmer replied, "This is my property, and you are not coming over here."
The indignant lawyer said, "I am one of the best trial attorneys in the United States and, if you don't let me get
that duck, I'll sue you and take everything you own."

The old farmer smiled and said, "Apparently, you don't know how we settle disputes in Virginia.

We settle small disagreements with the 'Three Kick Rule'."

The lawyer asked, "What is the 'Three Kick Rule'?"


The Farmer replied, "Well, because the dispute occurs on my land, I get to go first. I kick you three times and then you kick me three times and so on back and forth until someone gives up."
The attorney quickly thought about the proposed contest and decided that he could easily take the old codger. He agreed to abide by the local custom.
The old farmer slowly climbed down from the tractor and walked up to the attorney.

His first kick planted the toe of his heavy steel toed work boot intothe lawyer's groin and dropped him to his knees.

His second kick to the midriff sent the lawyer's last meal gushing from his mouth.

&nbs p; The lawyer was on all fours when the farmer's third kick to his rear end, sent him face-first into a fresh cow pie.
The lawyer summoned every bit of his will and managed to get to his feet.

Wiping his face with the arm of his jacket, he said, "Okay, you old fart. Now it's my turn."

(I love this part)

The old farmer smiled and said, "Nah, I give up. You can have the duck."

A STUPID LAWYER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahahahahahaha