English Buddhist Monk live from Asia

(English Buddhist Monk) English Buddhist Monk is LIVE

Dogma or Freedom?

Buddhism thrived outside Brahminical India

(Natasha Yehenara) Why Buddhism survived in Southeast Asia

(Natasha Yehenara) How Old Vedic Religion created the terrible by birth caste system

• Kshatriyas: warrior rulers
• Brahmins: temple priest elites
• Śhramaṇa: wandering ascetic movement
• Vaishya: traders, merchants, farmers
• Shudras: servants, slaves, laborers
• Untouchables: outcastes, pariahs
• Varna (Hinduism): caste system

Dalit B. R. Ambedkar, an Indian social reformer and politician who came from a social group that was considered "untouchable," theorized that untouchability originated because of the deliberate policy of the elitist Brahmins (brahmanas).

According to him, the Brahmins despised the people who gave up Brahmanism (the Brahminical religion) in favor of Buddhism or Jainism (shramana, "wandering ascetic" shamanic traditions).

Later scholars such as Vivekanand Jha have refuted this theory [10]. Professor of History Nripendra Kumar Dutt theorized that the concept of untouchability originated from the "pariah"-like treatment accorded to the indigenous people of India by the early Dravidians, and that the concept was borrowed by the Indo-Aryans from the Dravidians.

Scholars such as R. S. Sharma have rejected this theory, arguing that there is no evidence that Dravidians practiced untouchability before coming into contact with the Indo-Aryans [10]. Austrian ethnologist Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf theorized that untouchability originated as class stratification in urban areas of the Indus Valley Civilization. According to this theory, the poorer workers involved in "unclean" occupations such as sweeping or leather work were historically segregated and banished outside the city limits. Over time, personal cleanliness came to be identified with "purity," and the concept of untouchability eventually spread to rural areas as well. After the decline of the Indus Valley towns, these "untouchables" probably spread to other parts of India [11].

Scholars such as Suvira Jaiswal reject this theory, arguing that it lacks evidence and does not explain why the concept of untouchability is more pronounced in rural areas [12].

American scholar George L. Hart, based on his interpretation of Old Tamil texts such as Purananuru, traced the origin of untouchability to ancient Tamil society. According to him, in this society, certain occupational groups were thought to be involved in controlling the malevolent supernatural forces; as an example, Hart mentions the Paraiyars, who played the drums during battles and solemn events such as births and deaths. People from these occupational groups came to be avoided by others, who believed that they were "dangerous and had the power to pollute the others" [13].

Jaiswal dismisses the evidence produced by Hart as "extremely weak" and contradictory. Jaiswal points out that the authors of the ancient Tamil texts included several Brahmanas (a fact accepted by Hart); thus, the society described in these texts was already under Brahmanical influence and could have borrowed the concept of untouchability from Brahmins [14]. More

Buddhist X-mas: VESAK (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

(Sergey Roy) Vesak Day: Short Documentary

• 

  Saffron Days in Los Angeles

  Massive 2026 Vesak Day celebration in the suburbs of Los Angeles: Vesak Celebration, Saturday, May 2, 2026 | අසිරිමත් වෙසක්... (Mindfulness Meditation Center, Covina, Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara) | FB
• Biggest gathering in LA (SGV) with 200+ monastics from all traditions: Vesak (Visakha) Day 2026: Celebration of the Buddha at Thai temple Dhammakaya, Azusa, Sunday, May 31  •  6:00-8:45 PM
• FREE TICKETS, Sunday, May 31, 2026,  6:00 PM (Eventbrite)
• Also later in the heart of Los Angeles (Saturday, May 30, 2026): Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Temple, THE TEMPLE OF THE VICTORY OF TRUTH. DVBV was founded in April 1980, supported by a group of Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhists. Since its inception, the monastery (vihara) has been maintained by Sri Lankan, East Asian, and Western Buddhists, with non-Buddhist friends of diverse national and cultural backgrounds. Local American and Asian communities continue to support it. Venerable monastics from Sri Lanka conduct daily activities and give guidance to those seeking services under the Abbot Walpola Piyananda. DATE: Dharma Vijaya Temple Calendar
• The holy Vesak Full Moon Poya Day (May 1, 2026) was celebrated with great devotion and reverence by Buddhists in Sri Lanka and across the world (FINN TV USA)
• Women in Buddhism thanks to full ordination in L.A. by Ven. Piyananda
• Thus We Heard: Recollections of the Life of the Buddha

Celebrants dress all in white as lay Buddhists did at the time of the historical Buddha in India.

What is "Vesak"?

(Religion for Breakfast) Vesak: the most important Buddhist holiday?

Bhikkhu Bodhi at the U.N. for Vesak

American Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi Vesak 2017, United Nations, NY

 

The best time to meditate at many celebrations

VESAK (Pali Vesākha), also called Wesak, Vesaka, Buddha Jayanti [12], Buddha Purnima [13], Visak Bochea, and Buddha Day, is the most significant religious holiday on the Buddhist calendar.

According to American Theravada Buddhist and Theosophist Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907), it's a kind of "Buddhist Christmas" for celebrated around the world.

The Bodhi Tree Grows in L.A.

It is traditionally observed by Buddhists in the West, South Asia, Southeast Asia, as well as in Tibet and Mongolia [14].

It is among the most important Buddhist festivals, for it marks three remarkable events that all took place on the same full moon day of the Indian month of Vesak (Vesakha). That moon is visible above the USA tonight, the full moon day in May 2026.

• Socially Engaged Buddhism

The full moon day in May

What is a Vesak Festival and what does it mean to Sri Lanka Buddhists? (Behind the News)

There is a "New Buddhism"

The festival commemorates the birth, enlightenment (Pali maha-bodhi, "great awakening"), and final nirvana (parinibbana) of Prince Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha Shakyamuni in Theravada Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Navayana [15].

The name Vesak is derived from the Pali term Vesākha (Sanskrit Vaiśākha) for the lunar month of Vaisakha, which is the month the Bodhisatta (Sanskrit Bodhisattva) was born [16].

In Mahayana Buddhist traditions, the holiday is known by its Sanskrit name (Vaiśākha) and variations of it. East Asian traditions celebrate the Buddha's birthday, typically occurring around the traditional timing of Vesak.

But the Buddha's great awakening and passing away are celebrated as separate holidays at other times on the Buddhist calendar, called Bodhi Day and Nirvana Day.

South Asian traditions celebrate Vesak on the full moon day of the Vaisakha month, marking all three marvelous events: birth, enlightenment, and final reclining into nirvana [17, 18, 19, 20]. More

• The Buddha transformed into "Cosmic Buddhas" like Medicine Buddha, Liuli Crystal Art Piece Compass (BuddhaStoneShop)

(AI reenactment in East Asia?) Buddhist Parade California 2026: The Grand

Vesak Celebration of Buddha Day in the USA | FULL PARADE

Solo female travel: Russia, India, Sri Lanka

(Eli from Russia) How journey on Russia's Trans-Siberian Railway (USSR) changed my life

• Original "Israel" in Russia: Jewish Autonomous Oblast
• USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics): Soviet Union

• (Isha Branderhorst) What I learned from living in holy Rishikesh, India, for yoga and meditation practice in the Himalayas as a solo female traveler.

Is Sri Lanka the new Thailand?

• Isha Branderhorst; Eli from Russia; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

How one woman changed Buddhism

Sanghamitta Day Celebrations

Sanghamitta and the Bodhi Tree

Saṅghamittā (Sanskrit Saṅghamitrā, "Friend of the Sangha") with the nun's name Ven. Ayapali Theri [1], who lived from 282 BC–203 BC [1].

 

She was a fully enlightened (arhat, arahant) Indian Buddhist nun and the eldest daughter (as recounted in Sri Lankan tradition as recorded in the Dīpavaṃsa) of Indian Buddhist Emperor Ashoka (304 BC–232 BC) with his first wife Queen Devi (302 BCE–242 BCE).

Together with her monastic brother, Ven. Mahinda Thero, she entered the order of Buddhist monastics. The two siblings later went as Buddhist missionaries to the island of Sri Lanka to spread the Dhamma, the teachings of the Buddha, at the request of Sri Lankan King Devanampiya Tissa (250 BC–210 BC), who was a contemporary of King Ashoka.

• (Theravada) Buddhism in Sri Lanka
• Buddhism was first missionary faith

Emperor Asoka at Nava Jetavana Temple, Shravasti, for the Third Buddhist Council

 

From Emperor Ashoka's India to Sri Lanka

Ashoka was initially reluctant to send his daughter (according to the Sri Lankan tradition) on an overseas mission, even one of only 35 miles, the distance between the subcontinent (India) and the island (dipa or dvipa).

However, because of the insistence of Ven. Sangamitta herself, he finally agreed. She was sent to Sri Lanka together with several other nuns to start the Buddhist nun's lineage of (Bhikkhuni Sangha or order of fully ordained female Buddhist monastics) at the request of King Tissa.

• 

  Sangha incomplete without women

  THERE ARE MANY GREAT WOMEN IN BUDDHISM: Many come to mind like the Buddha's enlightened wife (Bimba Devi, Yasodhara, Rāhulamātā, Bhadda Kaccana, Subhaddakā, and called by many other names to dilute her magnificence and prominence in the Bhikkhuni Sangha, as if she were the "Mary" so often mentioned in Christianity); Ven. Mahā Pajāpatī Gotami, the Buddha's mother and history's first Buddhist nun; Western German Jewish Buddhist nun Ayya Khema, who restarted full ordination in Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka; Khema Theri, foremost in wisdom; Uppalavanna, foremost in psychic powers; Ven. Sundarī Nanda, the Buddha's fully enlightened sister (possibly the same as the "Belle of the Land," the most beautiful Janapada Kalyani); Kwan Yin Bodhisattva, Goddess of Compassion; Prajnaparamita, Goddess of Wisdom (Buddhism's Sophia); the various colored Taras; Ambapali the Wise Courtesan; Ven. Kisa Gotami; Dipa Ma; modern American greats like Tara Brach, Ven. Tathālokā Bhikkhunī, Sharon Salzberg, Sylvia Boorstein, Shaila Catherine, Tina Rasmussen; and the many advanced ones like Beth Upton, Sayalay Susila, Sayalay Dipankara, and so on.

There she ordained Queen Anulā and other women in King Tissa's court at Anuradhapura who desired to be ordained as nuns after Mahinda converted them to Buddhism [2, 3, 4, 5, 6].

After Sanghamittā’s contribution to the propagation of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and her establishing the Bhikkhunī Sangha or Meheini Sasna ("Order of Buddhist Nuns") there, her name became synonymous with "Buddhist Female Monastic Order of Theravāda Buddhism" that was established Sri Lanka, Burma, China, and Thailand, in particular.

The day she brought the most revered Bodhi tree as a sapling to Sri Lanka and planted it in Anuradhapura, where it still survives, is still celebrated annually on the Full Moon Day of December as Uduvapa Poya or Uposatha Poya and "Sanghamittā Day" by Sri Lankan Theravāda Buddhists [3, 5, 7]. More

• Venerable Gotami (video), Dec. 22, 2025; Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

'Buddhist Lent' ends w/ Kathina (10/25-26)

FREE. All welcome. (N. Hollywood)

For the entire month following the Rains Retreat or Vassa, the super meritorious Kathina ceremony is performed at Theravada Buddhist temples (viharas) across Buddhist countries. Los Angeles has countless Buddhist temples from all parts of the world -- on par with the most concentrated number of different Buddhist temples on earth, Bodh Gaya ("Enlightenment Grove"), Bihar, India. But that is an anomaly with spiritual embassies sent from around the Buddhist world (Buddhadom) and only tiny communities to look after them or receive visitors during the high season when weather allows. Los Angeles, however, has Buddhist communities from all over the world and not all of them with their own temples yet built. This week, beginning Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, the Sarathchandra Buddhist Vihara of North Hollywood, has all night paritta chanting. This is with its Mexican American monk (bhikkhu), Ven. Los Angeles Sanatha Vihari Bhikkhu. Their larger Kathina ceremony is on Sunday, with hundreds in attendance, providing free food and dana (charitable support) to the resident and visiting Theravada Buddhist monks. FREE. Wear white as is the Sri Lankan island custom. Lunch and refreshments served. There is also a big Burmese celebration in the San Gabriel Valley on Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025:

Burmese Theravada tradition: Pa Auk Tawya, L.A.

The most meritorious giving for lay Buddhists

Buddhism and dana made it to ancient Greece in Gandhara, Bactria, and other outposts.

.

Kathina is a Theravada Buddhist festival that comes at the end of the Rains Retreat or "Buddhist Lent" (Vas or Vassa), the three-month rainy season intensive practice period for Theravada Buddhists in South and Southeast Asia:

• Burma (Myanmar)
• Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
• Thailand (Siam)
• India
• Bangladesh (where it is known as Kaṭhina Cībar Dān)
• Cambodia
• Laos
• Vietnam
• Malaysia
• Singapore [2][3].

The Rainy Season during which a monastery may hold its culminating Kathina ceremony is one month long, beginning after the full moon of the 11th month on the Lunar calendar (usually October).

(DIMC) Kathina Chairperson Joy Muriel, Dhammakaya, Thailand

It is a time of practicing letting go, generosity, giving, sharing (dana, donating), a time for lay Buddhists to express gratitude and support to Buddhist monastics (bhikkhus and bhikkhunis) [4][5].

Lay practitioners bring donations (requisites such as robes, food, medicines, necessities) to Buddhist monasteries, nunneries, and temples, especially premade new robes or cotton cloth and dyes for monastics to sew new patchwork robes.

(Global Buddhist Stories) Kathina: A Story About Buddhist Robes

The gift of the Eight Requisites [6] (aṭṭha parikkhārā or atapirikara in Sri Lanka) is also part of the offerings [2][4][5].

Origins at the time of the Buddha

Kaṭhina (also Kaṭina) is a Pali word referring to the sturdy wooden frame used to measure the length and width by which Buddhist monastic robes are cut [7].

(Sravasti Abbey) The significance of the Kathina ceremony, 2016

As the legend goes, 30 monks were journeying with the intention of spending the Rains (Vassa) with the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) [2]. However, the Rains began before they reached their destination and they had to stop at Saketa [2][8].

According to the Buddha's guidelines for Vassa, mendicant (wandering ascetic) monastics should not travel during the rainy season, as this may cause unintentionally harm to crops and insects during the journey [9]. This is an ancient custom that preceded the Buddha but to which the Buddha agreed.

(Sasanarakkha Buddhist Sanctuary) Westerner Ven. Ariyadhammika

SBS: Sasanarakkha Buddhist Sanctuary, Taiping, Perak, Malaysia

Rains Retreat schedule 2025 (LABV)

As such, wandering Buddhist monastics had to stop [2][8]. They passed their time together without conflict, intensively practicing the Dhamma (the Buddha's Teachings). So afterwards, the Buddha rewarded them by demonstrating a way to practice sharing and generosity.

A lay Buddhist disciple had previously donated pieces of cotton cloth to the Buddha, so he gave these pieces to the group of monks and told them to make it into a sturdy outer robe then offer it as a gift to the one of them who had practiced most in line with the monastic rules.

The frame, called the Kathina, was used to hold those pieces while they were being made into one robe [2][8]. This ancient tradition continues to this day in Theravada monasteries and nunneries around the world. More

• Kathina Ceremony Oct. 18-19, 2025
• All-night paritta chanting on 18th
• Food, festivities, and procession on 19th
• Mindfulness Meditation Center
• (626) 731-8105
• Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara (LABV)
• 1023 N. Glendora Ave., Covina, CA 91724

• The Kathina Ceremony 2010: Scoop (DMC TV, Thailand)
• Wat Phra Dhammakaya, Bangkok, Thailand
• Lễ đón nhận y Kathina do Nhà vua Thái Lan dâng cúng| Giác Ngộ Online (Vietnam)
• Buddhism Reflections; DIMC; Buddhist Global Stories; Sravasti Abbey; Bhante, Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Jen B. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

The Yakkhas of Sri Lanka: Stone Agers

(EBS World) Life with the Axe: Sri Lanka's Last Vedda Tribe

Living a Stone Age existence with magic metal axes

The Yakkha or Yakshi are "ogres" -- Sasquatch, Almas, Asian Bigfoot, Orang pendek (living Indonesian Hobbit), "Wild Men" Yeti and Chinese Yeren -- in Buddhist cosmology and Hindu, Jain, and the lore of the subcontinent. It may be that known human tribes living in the wild were referred to as Yakkhas and Yakshas as well:

Yaksha (Sanskrit यक्ष, Yakṣa, Pali Yakkha, female Yakkhini or Yakshi, likely the source of Yeti) are a broad class of nature spirits, usually benevolent, but sometimes mischievous or capricious, connected with water, fertility, trees, the forest, treasure and wilderness [4][5].

• YAKKHA: A class of non-human beings (amanussā), they are mentioned with devas, rakkhasas, dānavas, gandhabbas, kinnaras, and Mahoragas (? Nāgas) (e.g., J.v.420). In other lists (e.g., PvA. 45, 55) they range immediately above the ghosts (petas); in fact, some of the happier petas are called yakkhas. Elsewhere (e.g., A.ii.38) they rank, in progressive order, between humans (manussā) and deva-messengers (gandhabbā). There are many different kinds: spirits, ogres, dryads, ghosts, spooks. In the early records, yakkha, like nāgā, as an appellative, was not depreciative. Thus, not only is Sakka, king of the devas, so referred to (M.i.252; J.iv.4; DA.i.264), but even the Buddha is spoken of as a yakkha in poetic diction (M.i.386). Many devas, such as Kakudha, are also so addressed (S.i.54). More: palikanon.com

Yakshas appear in Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist texts (where they are cannibal humanoid ogres with telepathic shapeshifting powers of transformation, who are known to cohabitate with human women and produce hybrid offspring, suggesting they are with the same species at least to some extent, the most famous of these being the Yakkha Alavaka and his very wise questions put to the Buddha in Sn I.10 Āḷavaka Sutta, ), as well as ancient and medieval era temples of South Asia and Southeast Asia as guardian deities [5][6]. The feminine form of the word is Yakṣī [7] or Yakshini (Sanskrit यक्षिणी, Yakṣiṇī, Pali Yakkhini) [8]. More

• These are the remaining members of the Vedda Tribe: The Vedda (Sinhalese වැද්දා, Tamil வேடர் or Vēḍar, also the Wanniyalaeto [4]. They are a minority indigenous group of people in Sri Lanka who, among other sub-communities such as Coast Veddas, Anuradhapura Veddas, and Bintenne Veddas [5], are accorded "indigenous" status. The Vedda minority in Sri Lanka may become completely assimilated [6]. Most already speak the dominant Sinhalese language (Sinhala) instead of their exotic indigenous languages, which are nearing extinction. It has been hypothesized that the Vedda were likely the earliest inhabitants of the island of Sri Lanka and have lived there since before the arrival of other groups from the nearby Indian mainland [7][8]. More

It's easier to believe these are modern Sri Lankans who got lost in the woods

Kirat Yakkha in traditional dress

Yakkha or Dewan (Nepali याक्खा, Yākkhā) is an indigenous ethnic group from the Indian subcontinent, mainly in modern-day Nepal and present-day India (related to other Kirat groups, like the Limbu, Sunuwar, Rai, and more distantly all other Sino-Tibetan peoples). It is one of the descendants of Nepal's prehistoric Kirat Dynasty.

The Yakkha people are subsistence farmers who inhabit the lower Arun valley in Eastern Nepal. They number only a few thousand and their language is nearly extinct [4][5]. They are closely related to Limbu people. More

• The Herbal Highway Archives | KPFA

Hindu Ramayana in Buddhist Thailand

India's Palace of Mysore: Mysore Palace, Karnataka

The Ramayana (Sanskrit रामायणम्, Romanized Rāmāyaṇam [3]), also known as Valmiki Ramayana, as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (Sanskrit epic) from ancient proto-India (Bharata), one of the two important epics of modern Hinduism known as the Itihasas, the other being the Mahabharata [4], the story of "Great Bharata." The epic narrates the life of the god Rama, the seventh avatar of the [extraterrestrial] Hindu deity Vishnu, who is a prince of Ayodhya in the Kingdom of Kosala. The epic follows his 14-year exile

• to the forest urged by his father King Dasharatha, on the request of Rama's stepmother Kaikeyi;
• his travels across the forests on the Indian subcontinent with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana;
• the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana, the king of [Sri] Lanka, which resulted in a bloodbath; and
• Rama's eventual return to Ayodhya along with Sita to be crowned as a king amidst jubilation and celebration. More
• Angkor Wat: Buddhist/Vedic (Hindu) fusion temple
• WION; Amber Larson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

10% Happier with Beth Upton (Dan Harris)

There's happiness that does not depend on external things the Budda called piti (rapture)

Beth Upton as Brit Buddhist nun in Burma

Friends, at the beginning of the year, I made a commitment to write more. Since then, I have actually done a little writing every single day. Five gold stars!

Writers tell me it is important to keep up the habit, that practice makes progress. Obviously, it’s the same with meditation, so I am humbly practicing what I preach, trusting that if I just keep writing, eventually something good will come of it.

At the same time, it would be a huge help to know what readers actually want to read about.

Awesome enlightened teacher Pa Auk Sayadaw

My strength, if I dare say so myself, is attending and attuning to the person sitting in front of me. I’ve never been great at addressing a large or anonymous audience. It’s never quite clear what’s being requested of me with such an audience.

So when I sit down to write, I’m often left with a sense of well, What do readers want to know?

A few weeks ago, I recorded a podcast (see above) with the charming Dan Harris. As one can see, I enjoyed the conversation. He asked great questions and did a wonderful job of playing proxy for the average viewer who doesn’t know too much about the world of advanced Buddhist meditation.

• How contemplating reincarnation can upgrade your life
• Journey to Pa-Auk Forest Monastery? (Pa-Auk Tawya)

The first time Pa Auk Sayadaw came to America, he was invited to California in Napa

.

For me, it was my first real foray into addressing an audience I do not know. The same issue crops up here. Of all the precious and hidden gems the Dhamma (the Buddha’s Teaching) has to offer, which of them should I give this hour to? Again, instinct prompts me to ask, What does anyone want to know?

Podcast interview

Venerable Sayadaw Ashin Revata

Dan and I touch on past lives, absorption (jhana), science, and its relationship to the Buddha’s “Doctrine in Ultimate Terms” (Abhidhamma), eventually landing on a topic dear to my heart: the skillful and wholesome (kusala).

But the topic choice from my side was basically just a series of guesses. I don’t really have a clue what the average viewer of Dan’s podcast, or the average reader of my newsletter might want to know more about.

So please let me know at bethupton.com. Let me know in our next one-on-one meeting, or on a group call, or better still, in the comments below.

Also, if anyone would like for me to do more podcasts like this one with Dan Harris, please take a moment to like the video and leave a comment there.

Let us know in the comments which kinds of things the world would want to hear more from me in future videos.

Another successful Western female student of Pa Auk Sayadaw: Dr. Nikki

Happy Hour: Practicing Equanimity in Challenging Times (Dr. Mirghafori)

Where is the Buddhist hermitage they mention?

And for those of wondering where the button is to book one-on-one time with me, I am sending out monthly newsletters, interspersed with these ones that are just me writing about things. Open and read them all, just in case it’s the one with the button. 🌝

All of my work is done on a donation basis, which means that all of this is only possible because of generous voluntary support. Support this work at bethupton.com.

With much metta and gratitude, Beth Upton

What is the “Happiness Recipe,” Dan?

Recipe for happiness: unpacking kusala

There are two kinds of happiness, ecstatic (piti, rapture) and extended (sukha, blissfulness).

.

I feel ecstatic!

Key takeaways: Kusala states = happy states: Kusala, drawn from the Buddhist psychology of the Abhidhamma—a system that breaks down experience into its most granular mental and emotional components—refers to a constellation of virtuous, skillful mind states.

Beth Upton calls it a “Buddhist happiness cake,” made from ingredients like generosity, mindfulness, uprightness, loving-kindness, and more.

One entry point unlocks the rest: We don’t need to cultivate them all at once—because focusing on just one quality (like loving-kindness, integrity, or gratitude) invites the rest to arise. These mental states are “best friends” who tend to show up together.

Letting go feels better than giving in: Our culture glorifies small, fast pleasures—like scrolling, snacking, and checking out—but deeper, more lasting happiness comes from subtle, wholesome states.

Letting go of ego and craving isn’t a sacrifice; it’s a relief. It’s not just for monastics: We don’t need a cave or a meditation cushion. Kusala can be woven into daily life—as we parent, commute, chop vegetables, or write emails. More

• Beth Upton, July 2025, Dan Harris (podcast), Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Tonight, Siddhartha attains enlightenment

How did the phase of the moon play into it?

Tonight commemorates three (possibly four) amazing events in the life of the Buddha. It was his birthday under the month of Vesak's moon one year. Twenty-nine years later, it was the night he decided to let go and renounce it all to go on a quest for enlightenment to make an end of suffering for everyone. (This would mean that his son Rahula had the same birthday). Six years after that, under the full moon of the same month, he experienced the great awakening of a supremely enlightened teacher. Then 45 years after that, under that very same moon, he made an end of all further rebirth and suffering by reclining into final nirvana. All that happened on full moon of this night, different years, same moon. Because he was reborn, because he renounced, because he practiced without giving up, Siddhartha became the Buddha, which means "the Enlightened One." Without this full moon, without these trees (a different kind of tree being involved in each event (sal, banyan, bodhi, and twin sals), would it have happened? We can only hope it would have. The way the story (told as an allegory) of the Buddha's life gets retold, it would be safe to say that Siddhartha became the Buddha in the last watch of the night, at dawn (with the dawning of insight) after a long, dark night of struggle with Mara* and his legions of ogres (yakkhas).

Light arose, knowledge arose = enlightenment.

What does it mean that the wandering ascetic Siddhartha Gautama (Siddhattha Gotama), 35, having renounced his palace and kingdom six years earlier, at age 29, had a Great Awakening (maha-bodhi)?

It means that after six years of struggle as a yogi learning the meditative absorptions but following the wrong path of penance through severe austerities (tapas), made a profound breakthrough to the ultimate Truth.

Having nearly died in his strenuous efforts to overcome the mental defilements, blaming the body as if it were the slave's fault that the master was all along the defiled one dragging it along, it occurred to Siddhartha to not be averse to pleasure. So long had this been his custom that it seemed wrong even to delight in the bliss of absorption (the jhanas, samma-samadhi). Realizing that such supersensual pursuits are blameless, not connected to sensuality, and followed by the wise, he pursued them and found what had eluded him for so long.

While his five wandering ascetic companions thought he had softened and given up, he set off on his own with the help of the milkmaid Sujata and her servant. They nursed him back to health, feeding him solid food. This disgusted his companions -- eating over fasting, receiving dana (donations) from the hand of a woman. Was this any way for a recluse, hermit, and wandering spiritual nomad to behave?

How did Siddhartha become "the Buddha"?

Scythians (Sakas) of Gandhara

It was! Not only did Siddhartha realize that the body was not the enemy but a potential vehicle to enlightenment, his dingy and clouded mind brightened, and he was able to think more clearly. He realized that he had been avoiding the very Path that avoids both extremes of hedonism on the one hand and severe asceticism on the other, the Middle Way.

He recalled that age 7 he had spontaneously entered such an absorption at the Spring Festival while his father, the King Suddhodana (a Scythian/Shakyian chieftain in the Saka Land called Kapilavastu or Kapilavatthu), was engaged in the ploughing ceremony.

That absorption was possible because he was left alone under the shade of tree by his nannies, who were more interested in joining the festivities. Left to his own devices, he did what he had always done in past lives -- enjoyed the serenity of samatha meditated. (It's interesting that the words samana, "wandering ascetic," and samatha, "calm meditation," are so much alike since one is primarily engaged in the other).

Mahabodhi Marvels: A Spiritual Journey Through Bihar's Sacred Grounds

This Doctrine is for the wise with eyes to see

This may have made him a "saint" (holy man, sadhu, bhagavan) in the eyes of his fellows at the time, but it in no way made him a "saint" (arahant, arhat, enlightened one) in the Buddhist sense. For that, Siddhartha used the foundation of serenity, with the temporary mental purity it provided, and added insight (vipassana or "clear seeing") practices. Namely, he entered one or more of the eight absorptions, emerged, and practiced systematic mindfulness (satipatthana) on one of four themes, today referred to as the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. This was the Dependent Origination practice he rediscovered, as other buddhas before him had found.

Asking the question, "Why is there suffering (dukkha, disappointment, pain, misery)?" he realized the answer lay in a causal chain of 12 links: Present suffering is due to... list of the 12 causes. The general realization is that ALL things arise from causes: "When this is, that comes to be. When this is not, that does not come to be." So to put it less simply:

1. Why is there aging, decay, death (dukkha, loss, woe)?
2. It is because there is rebirth. Why is there rebirth?
3. It is because there is becoming. Why is there becoming?
4. It is because there is clinging. Why is there clinging?
5. It is because there is craving (greed, desire). Why is there craving?
6. It is because there is feeling (sensation). Why is there feeling?
7. It is because there is contact. Why is there contact?
8. It is because there is sense (the six sense bases). Why is there sense?
9. It is because there is name-and-form. Why is there name-and-form?
10. It is because there is consciousness. Why is there consciousness?
11. It is because there is volitional formation [karma, fabrication, construction, intention, choices, doing]. Why is there volitional formation?
12. It is because there is ignorance (delusion, illusion, unknowing).

Therefore, IF ignorance (avijja) is the problem, what is the solution? The solution is enlightenment (clearly seeing how things really are) because this leads to letting go. Who would be interested in such a trap after seeing the danger, folly, and emptiness inherent in it? This letting go (nekkhamma, abandoning, releasing, relinquishing, internal-renunciation) at such a profoundly foundational level) is why the Truth sets one free. It is not an act of willful doing.

We cannot will ourselves to let go of everything with our heads (intellect) and expect that the heart will really follow suit. Try it. If it were so, any smart person could be free just by study and an intellectual grasp or understanding. It is because once we see Truth as it is (things as they really are), the letting go happens naturally.

• 

  Who wants a [p**p] burger?

  EXAMPLE: Imagine being a little boy. You see your older brother holding a fat burger in front of everyone craving it, begging for it, ready to fight each other to get it. You see it, want it, and are ready to beg or fight for it yourself -- you can't help it -- but you're smart. So you reason with him, "Brother, let me have it; you love me, and we're brothers, and you would do anything good to help your brother, as brothers do. So let me have it."
• "No, Dummy, get out of here!" he says to you, as older brothers like to say. He knows you. He knows you're going to beg and fight and plead like a clingy dummy like all the rest of them. So out of love, he tells you the secret, which he knows there's no possible way you're going to believe just by him telling you. So he simultaneously tells you and shows you: "It's poop in the center, look." What happens to your craving, clinging, and desire right at that instant? It evaporates, shrinks back, is replaced by disgust and letting go (of that desire), completely abandoning it. That wouldn't have happened if he had just TOLD you. But since you saw it yourself, there's no doubt. And you know he loves you and wants the best for you, and he is holding it away from everyone. "What, but, how?" you stutter, but who cares how or why or when? There's only the what. And the what is that it's poop. Where has all your desire gone for it? He has liberated you from the flesh-craving, from that clinging, from that avarice for food of any kind, until your customary delusions and hungers return.

• 

  SLIDE: Worms poke out of hamburger on lettuce

  That example is too harsh. So let's change it. Let's say, what he shows you is not directly poop between buns but a microscope slide of what's really in flesh-burger: worms, rot, traces of feces and salmonella, pus, uric acid, sweat, mucus... Now where's your craving, your clinging, your desire? You realize he really does love you and has been telling you all along, but until you saw it with your own eyes, you would've never believed it. You've been eating this cr*p the whole time. That's what flesh is; that's how the sausage (churned burger) is made. *Vomit* You feel love and gratitude for your brother for NOT giving you what you were sure you wanted and begged for and were ready to fight for. You feel love for him because instead he gave you what you didn't know you needed so desperately -- wisdom and compassion. Out of compassion for you, he shared his wisdom by giving you a "clear seeing" of what was really there all along. 

It is like dropping a feather (or a modern plastic bag) into a fire. It shrinks back, pulls away, retracts by a natural reaction. It does not will to shrink away. It just does. The heart/mind will let go of all conditioned (composite) "things." And there is only one [unconditioned element] that is not a thing and therefore does not have all the faults and attributes of things -- and that is nirvana.

I was obscured by clouds, then all became clear.

Nirvana (nibbana) is not enlightenment (bodhi) as so many scholars and ordinary people seem to loosely equate. Awakening gives a glimpse of what has never before been seen in this entire Round of Rebirths (samsara), this Wheel of Life and Death: real freedom (liberation) from any further rebirth or suffering. The dependently originated formation (fabrication, construction) of these Five Aggregates clung to as "self" is no more -- and one is completely freed. This comes in stages, which may all happen following after the other or be spread out over as many as seven more rebirths. These are the Paths and Fruits (magga-phala), the stages of enlightenment, of those who have become the "noble ones."

*The struggle with Mara

Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit

Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita Mara

Mara ("Death," "Obstacles," "Defilements") Devaputra in Buddhism is a malignant being of light (a Satan figure), a king of the ogres (yakkhas), who tried to stop Prince Siddhartha from Awakening (becoming enlightened and liberated from the Sensual Sphere) by trying to seduce him with his "daughters" (Lust, Discontent, and Passion) and an army of ogres.

In various legends, visions of beautiful women are said to be Mara's daughters [1]. In Buddhist cosmology, Mara is the personification of Death, rebirth, and sensual desire [2].

Western Buddhist monk Ven. Nyanaponika Thera has described Mara as "the personification of the forces antagonistic to enlightenment" [3].

Mara is Yama the King of the Dead's fearsome persona. And all beings associated with him, darkness and death, become forces of Mara. These forces consist of yakkhas, rakshasas, pisacas, aratis, asuras, and animals [4]. More

Vesak Day | So Sri Lanka

Ven. Sanghamitta brings Bodhi tree

(Sri Lanka Tourism) The Vesak festival commemorates three events in the Buddha’s life: his birth, his enlightenment, and his passing. It is a joyful season in Sri Lanka.

It is a festival of light that dispels the darkness of ignorance and a time to recall his teachings, the Dhamma, of wisdom, compassion, and peace.

This Vesak, let us appreciate humanity and practice peaceful coexistence that will raise us to greater heights. To good health!

#HappyVesakDay #Vesak2021 #SoSriLanka #VesakFestivalnSriLanka #VisitSriLanka #ExperienceSriLanka #ExploreSriLanka #SriLanka

• Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly