Buddhist
festival of Vesak: Precept of love and its symbol in
Buddhism
Dr.
Lalit Kishore 18 May,
2016 Merinews
The most important day in the
Buddhist calendar, Vesak, is around the corner to be observed on
coming full moon i.e. May 21. The Buddhists around the world are
going to celebrate Vesak with devotion and gaiety. Vesak, in India
is also known as "Buddha Jayanti" or "Buddha Poornima" to
commemorate the birth, enlightenment and death of the
Buddha.
Love is an important precept of
Buddhism, which is regarded as the absence of superficial egoist
needs and living one's presence with full awareness or living one's
present moment.
In
Focus
In Buddhism, striving for that which
is outside of one's true nature is seen futile and seeking
fulfillment in another as a common worldly notion of love is seen
as an attachment based on a craving or sensual desire as a cause of
suffering.
The Buddha had once said, "If you
truly loved yourself, you could never hurt another." In other
words, love in Buddhism is seen as an experience of being whole or
realization of one's true nature perceived as love. Thus, in
Buddhism, one's true nature is love itself and seeking it outside
is strife. We need to realize within that we are already blessed
with love.
Though the Buddha had urged his
followers for being their own lamps but they invented some
auspicious symbols for love and love to draw those on religious
festivals. The auspicious symbol of love is endless knot in Tibetan
Buddhism and overlapping diamonds in Mongolian Buddhism.
Lets learn to draw Mongolian
Buddhist symbol of love in the following steps.
1. Draw two overlapping diamond
shapes.
2. Extend the adjoining sides on
each corner equally.
3. Convert these extended lines into
small diamond shapes.
The Buddha had urged people to
realize their true selves as love personified and radiate this
boundless love towards the entire world - above, below, and across - unhindered, without
ill will, without enmity.
On Vesak, the followers bring
offerings of flowers, joss-sticks and lamps to remind them the
impermanence of life. Also, the 'Bathing the Buddha' ceremony on
this day is seen as reminder to purify the mind from greed, lust
and desires and lead a noble life full of kindness, compassion and
love.
Here is a quote by the Buddha on
love: "Love is a gift of one's inner most soul to another so both
can be whole" to mull over this Vesak.