Most Venerable Bhante Walpola Piyananda's 80th Birthday Celebrating - Collected Essays

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The Thrice Blessed Day of Vesak
The full moon day of May is the most important day in the
Buddhist calendar. According to tradition the three main events
in the life of Buddha took place on this day—Birth, Enlightenment
(sambodhi) and Passing Away (parinibbana). Therefore, this day is
celebrated as the thrice-blessed day all over the Buddhist world with
great rejoicing.
The birth of Buddha is one of the greatest events of human
history. He lived in the 6 th century BCE. He was the son of King
Suddhodana and Queen Maya of Kapilavastu—a small Himalayan
kingdom. His name was Siddhartha. He was brought up with the
comforts and luxuries worthy of a prince. He was also educated in the
arts and sciences that the princes of his time studied. When Siddhartha
came of age, he was married to Princess Yasodhara.
Early in life Siddhartha gave serious thought to the universal
problem of suffering. His beloved father took every precaution to keep
him away from the unhappiness of life by keeping him surrounded by
sensual pleasures and away from the sight of any of life’s miseries.
However, the king was not successful. At last confronted by old age,
sickness and death, Siddhartha made up his mind to search for a remedy
for the suffering of humanity. Thus, at the age of 29, in his prime of
life, Siddhartha left all that was near and dear to him and became a
religious mendicant—a seeker of Truth.
He went to the well-known teachers of his day to find the
solution to this great problem of suffering. He mastered their systems
of spiritual development, but none of these provided a solution that was
satisfactory. He spent six years searching with teachers and practicing
the severest of austerities. As a result, his body was reduced to a skeleton
and he was on the verge of death. Then he realized the folly and futility
of asceticism, and the necessity of having a healthy mind in a healthy
body to achieve what he was after: a solution to suffering. So, he
avoided the two extremes of self-indulgence (kamasukha-llikanuyoga)
and self-mortification (attakilathanuyoga), and took to a middle path
that is known as the Noble Eightfold Path (ariyo atthangiko maggo).
While treading this middle path on the full moon day in the
month of May, he sat in a wooded area under a tree (known as the
Bodhi tree) at a place now known as Buddhagaya in the state of Bihar
in India. With this firm resolution: “Let my skin, sinews and bones
alone remain, and let my blood and flesh dry up, yet never will I move
from this seat without attaining full Enlightenment.” It was a resolution
that one who had fulfilled the necessary conditions (paramis) for the
attainment of enlightenment alone could make.
The moment of victory was near. At last, through his supreme
effort, Siddhartha triumphed over the forces of darkness, over ignorance.
As the sun was rising on the eastern horizon, the light of wisdom
dawned upon Siddhartha. The darkness of the night and his ignorance
disappeared simultaneously. Siddhartha became Sammasmbuddha—a
fully enlightened one. He became jina, a victorious one. The problem
of suffering was solved. And the solution is given in the Four Noble
Truths—Suffering; the Cause of Suffering; Cessation of Suffering and
the Path leading to the cessation of suffering.
Now for seven weeks the Buddha enjoyed the bliss of
emancipation and then made up his mind to share this new knowledge
with the world. He set out from Buddhagaya and went to the
Deer Park near Varanasi. There he gave his first sermon known as
Dhammacakka-pavattana-sutta or setting the wheel of Law in motion.
Thus, the Buddha started his great ministry for humanity. The sacred
scriptures record vivid accounts of how he traveled from village to
village and town to town giving the sublime message of truth, love
and peace. So great was his compassion that he would walk miles
for the sake of one person. Hence, he was known as mahakarunika,
the great compassionate one. His love was boundless. Maitri (Metta)
or universal love was one of the themes for the sermons he gave. He
would often instruct his audience with the following words: “Just as a
mother would protect her only child even at the risk of her own life, so
should one practice loving-kindness towards all beings.”
He looked upon all as his children. No life was too insignificant
for his attention. From child to aged person, from beggar to king, from
the person of piety to the person of wicked ways—all received his love
and compassion. He led them all on the path of righteousness.
After serving the world for a full 45 years, the Buddha reached
the ripe age of eighty. He had fulfilled his mission on earth. The last
days of the Buddha, as recorded in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, were
very busy. In anticipation of the great end, he was making his last
journey, visiting assemblies of his disciples and instructing them. At
last, he is lying between the twin Sala trees at Kusinara surrounded by
his disciples instructing them thus:
“Be a lamp unto yourself, be a refuge unto yourself,
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