SuttaCentral
Today is the day we celebrate the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and passing away.
To all the wonderful people here on this forum, be happy! We are all blessed to have heard the Buddha’s teachings, and to have found others to share them with. I am so proud of this community, and of all that we have done and achieved together. Let’s take a moment to celebrate the day, and each other.
May all beings be happy!
For those in Australia, the moon is putting on a special Vesak event for tonight only! Thanks to the gods Candimā and Rāhu for putting this together for us!
Happy Vesak Bhante.
Happy Vesak everybody.
Here’s a site where you can enter your location:
We are blessed that over here in NZ the totality is before midnight…
Looking forward to some walking meditation under the moon…
Wishing you all happiness and wisdom! Vesak is the most important holy day in Buddhism, commemorating the birth, enlightenment and passing away of the Buddha. These are some beautiful images by U Ba Kyi you can see the full set here:
Happy Vesakh Day, Ven.
Happy Vesak! May all be well.
Vatican urges Buddhists, Christians to a culture of care and solidarity
The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) releases a message for the Buddhist festival of Vesakh, May 26.
The Buddha was born under the Ashoka tree, attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, and died under the Sala tree. These three different trees seem to have some symbolic religious connection with the Buddha and Buddhism. 
In our time zone we were lucky able to do some walking meditation under the eclipsing moon, punctuated by retreating into the hall to warm up.
Happy Vesak!
For the First Time Ever, the White House Celebrates Vesak, the Buddha’s Birthday
Representatives from the three major Buddhist traditions gathered for prayers and candle lightin
Statement by President Biden on Vesak
Sadhu Bhante.
I would like to ask you and Ven @Akaliko where to find the verses chanted in this beautiful video.
Yes - good question, it’s not easy to find.
It is found in 2 places (that I know of) in different forms. It seems to have been stitched together and has a few later additions to an earlier text found in the suttas, which has been extracted from this sutta: Pubbaṇhasutta AN 3.155:
https://suttacentral.net/an3.155/en/sujato
But the full version appears in the MJG, the ‘Maha Jaya Mangala Gatha’ which is a Sri Lankan collection of parittas chants. I have never been able to find out the origin of this collection, but have seen several books of chanting with this title.
In the MJG, (translator unknown, I’m afraid) the verses start with “Maha Kauniko natho” and tells the story of the Buddha sitting at the root of the Bodhi tree:
Mahā-kāruṇiko nātho
Hitāya sabba-pāṇinaṁ
Pūretvā pāramī sabbā
Patto sambodhim-uttamaṁ
Etena sacca-vajjena
Hotu te jaya-maṅgalaṁ
(The Buddha), our protector, with great compassion
for the welfare of all beings,
having fulfilled all the perfections,
attained the highest self-awakening.
Through the speaking of this truth,
may you have a victory blessing.
The next two verses pick up the theme expand it, honoring the Buddha’s attainments. The line Jayanto is where the chanting in our video starts from but sometimes it starts with the preceding stanza.
Jayanto bodhiyā mūle
Sakyānaṁ nandi-vaḍḍhano
Evaṁ tvam vijayo hohi
Jayassu jaya-maṅgale
Victorious at the foot of the Bodhi tree,
was he who increased the Sakyans’ delight.
May you have the same sort of victory.
May you win victory blessings.
Aparājita-pallaṅke
Sīse paṭhavi-pokkhare
Abhiseke sabba-buddhānaṁ
Aggappatto pamodati
At the head of the lotus leaf of the world
on the undefeated seat consecrated by all the Buddhas,
he rejoiced in the utmost attainment.
Then comes the extracted text from AN 3.155. (translated here by Bhante Sujato)
A good star, a good fortune,
Sunakkhattaṁ sumaṅgalaṁ,
a good dawn, a good rising,
suppabhātaṁ suhuṭṭhitaṁ;
a good moment, a good hour:
Sukhaṇo sumuhutto ca,
these come with good gifts to spiritual practitioners.
suyiṭṭhaṁ brahmacārisu.Worthy deeds of body,
Padakkhiṇaṁ kāyakammaṁ,
verbal worthy deeds,
vācākammaṁ padakkhiṇaṁ;
worthy deeds of mind,
Padakkhiṇaṁ manokammaṁ,
worthy resolutions:
paṇīdhi te padakkhiṇe;
when your deeds have been worthy,
Padakkhiṇāni katvāna,
you get worthy benefits.
labhantatthe padakkhiṇe.
In the sutta text there follows a few more blessing verses that are regarded as special blessings. They are beautifully encouraging verses which are not usually included in the Thai paritta chanting. They can be chanted anytime, but are commonly chanted at ordinations or when someone takes the precepts for the first time.
Those happy with these benefits
Te atthaladdhā sukhitā,
flourish in the Buddha’s teaching.
viruḷhā buddhasāsane;
May you and all your relatives
Arogā sukhitā hotha,
be healthy and happy!”
saha sabbehi ñātibhī”ti.
I think with many of the parittas and the way we chant them today, there is a fair amount of latitude given to extracting and combining various chants. The Thai tradition also has several chants that are much, much later (18th/19th centuries) which are clearly not the word of the Buddha. I guess they function more as a part of a broader cultural expression, though some were said to be written by a Thai King, so perhaps it reflects an official order of service or something. I’m still not as clear about the MJG as I would like to be.
Hope this helps.
Fantastic, thanks Bhante.
This is exactly what I was looking for as once we know the meaning of the chant its power to inspire grows exponentially!
