Vesak is the celebration of the Buddha’s birth, liberation, and death, falling this year on the late May full moon. We took a break from the social justice series we’re in the middle of to chant and hear stories remembering the life and insight of Siddhartha Gotama (mostly from the Lalitavistara Sūtra), who became the Buddha of our age, 2500 years ago.
Meditation: a full Refuge & Precepts Pūja, plus chanting om mani padme hum, then some silence, then chanting the Mettā Sutta. (5.29.18)
Talk: Gotama’s birth and childhood, reflections on privilege and being sheltered from contact with reality, and the insistence on escaping from his gilded cage that brought him into the life-changing contact with old age, sickness, and death that kicked him onto his path. (5.29.18)