The real meaning of "Vesak" (Buddhist Xmas)

Dharmachari Seven, Wisdom Quarterly (May 5, 2012)

"Vesak," referring to the ancient Indian month of Vaisakh, has a full Moon.

The Buddhist lunar observance day it marks is the most special one of all. Three things happened under it:

1. Siddhartha was born among humans on Earth.
2. He awoke to unsurpassed enlightenment, becoming "the Buddha," a title that means supremely Awakened One.
3. And he passed into final-nirvana, bringing an otherwise endless cycle of rebirth and disappointment to an end.

These three extraordinarily rare events, which shook this entire world system, took place over a span of 80 years.

But what's so special about Vesak?

Its real significance is that it commemorates the story of how an ordinary human being reached enlightenment and nirvana. We can take the same essential path, set off on a quest for ultimate truth, and find complete freedom at the end of it.

Partial freedom awaits us from the beginning of our quest. But just ask anyone what should be a simple and straightforward question: "How did Siddhartha become enlightened?"

What is likely to come back is everything but the crucial detail. That detail is in the story yet nearly everyone focuses on the extraneous elements instead. People will speak of "Siddhartha," the title character in Herman Hesse's famous novel Siddhartha. That character did not become the Buddha; he merely met him. The world assumes the two are one in the same since the novel parallels one with the other. Watch the gorgeous movie.

The most important story ever told

It is the "most important" because it holds the instructions we can use.

Siddhartha is born under a sal tree.

Seven or so years later, he is set down under the shade of a rose apple tree.

There while others are attending a festival, he spontaneously goes into meditative "absorption," which is called by different words in different languages pronouncing the same thing: jhana, dhyana, zen, ch'an, thien, seon. That lasts part of the day, but he forgets about it. 

While unusually sensitive and kind, he is not religious. He goes to school, gets a white pony, leads a very sheltered life, is married off, has dancing girls and entertainers (as depicted above), enjoys himself with all kinds of sensual pleasures for years, then gets his wife pregnant. But he is not ready to settle down to a life of taking over his father's job. He has noticed something. His life has been an illusion -- chasing pleasures and plans that left him disappointed.

And he had it good growing up. What of the others, so many others in far worse circumstances, what will become of them? They suffer (are disappointed), he suffers. They grow old, become incapacitated, get sick, meet with many losses, store up with much bad karma (driven by attraction, aversion, and delusion), die, are reborn, experience the results of karma, and the same will happen to him.

How can he help? He must become a wandering seeker of truth and find the answer to one burning question: "What is the end of all suffering?" He renounces his great circumstances, lets go of his family ties, his position, his riches. It breaks his pony's heart, his young wife is miserable, his father clings to his grandson as his only hope of an heir, his step mom cries, and his friends are sad as he leaves their territory to wander in robes in strange lands living as a recluse (shamana) in search of a teacher. He finds one. He learns meditation.

Living a pure life far from distractions with the companionship of others on a similar quest, he follows that teacher's instruction to the apex. But the height is not the final end to all suffering. He leaves in search of another teacher. He finds one. He masters that teaching and that, too, is not the answer. He sets off with five fellow seekers convinced that if anyone is going to reach the goal, he is the most likely. They practice austerities, an ancient custom of spiritual seekers. He practices them harder than anyone ever. He ruins his body, his mind is dim, life force is leaving him, he is not meditating well, he collapses. A woman revives him, feeds him, nurtures him, and he realizes this is not "spirituality" (relating to breath, spiritus, life force, chi, prana).

He needs this body. It is a vehicle to the higher-spiritual. He had been abusing it -- first for the sake of sensual pleasures then for the sake of penitent mortification as if it were to blame for the roots of unskillful karma rather than the heart/mind. Now he used it to wisely support his goal: "What is the end of all suffering?" Rejuvenated and restored, abandoned by his disappointed companions, he finds a beautiful grove, sits under a magnificent bodhi tree, and wonders what to do. He remembers that time when he sat under the rose apple tree in childhood. He had entered that blissful absorption, which he was now inclined to avoid as "pleasure." 

But he realizes there is nothing wrong with happiness detached from sensual craving, and he wonders if this could be the path to enlightenment rather than strong effort. He lets go. It happens. It wasn't him. He progresses through the eight absorptions, which temporarily purify him. He emerges and turns his attention to Dependent Origination, that is, based on what is suffering coming to be? He has resolved not to get up from his seat until he finds the answer. He traces it back: This entire mass of suffering -- not for him alone but for everyone -- is due to a cause, which itself is due to a cause, and so on, and so on, extending into past lives.

Of all those 12 links in the causal chain, he notices that craving (grasping, clinging, desire) can be stopped right now. He can break this endless chain. It's easy. The truth will set him free. What is he craving? Base desires have disappeared from practicing the absorptions. His mind/heart is lucid and luminous, and he is mindfully contemplating. Insight dawns about the true nature of everything he craves (everything he grasps and clings to): It is of a nature to pass away, just as it is of a nature to arise. Experiencing the futility and foolishness of holding on, heart and mind spontaneously let go. He does not do it, he does not let go by an act of will but by wise attention. And it happens. They pull back. He is freed. 

Light arises, knowledge arises, he glimpses nirvana, and suffering and every "thing" resolves. But he is no ordinary arhat (fully enlightened being). He is a supremely fully awakened being (samma sam buddha). This means his great enlightenment (maha bodhi) comes with psychic powers and knowledge of the imponderable working of karma, physics, the minutiae of psychology (later compiled in the Abhidharma), past lives, the routes to all kinds of rebirth destinations, the coming to being of galaxies, the "continued wandering on" of beings driven by greed, oppressed by hatred, clouded by delusion.

This remarkable breakthrough -- hinging on not using his own effort but instead allowing the absorptions to occur without clinging to them then using their temporary power of purification to uproot gross and subtle defilements using insight generated by four kinds of mindfulness -- has not gone unnoticed by Mara (the Killer or personification of Death), upset that someone has rediscovered the route that goes beyond his grasp. There's an epic battle. But it's no use. Siddhartha, now THE BUDDHA, has broken through. Mara will stalk him for the next 45 years looking for an opening and keeping an eye on earthlings and sense sphere celestials (akasha-devas).

Nirvana

The Buddha-to-be's birthday would have been enough to make Vesak famous, a "Buddhist Xmas" worthy of grand festivals. But the Buddha is worthy of honor seeking guidance (sarana) due not to having been born. He attained to the final goal on Vesak as well.

• Buddhist temples across America will be celebrating for weeks.
• Later Buddhist schools, like Zen, sometimes celebrate the Vesak events separately.