Today is Navam Pasalosvaka Poya:

Significance of Navam Pasalosvaka Poya

It was on this day that the Buddha preached a discourse known as 'Ovada Patimokkha', which established the tradition of the Sangha coming together before the rules of Vinaya

Rupa Banduwardena

After attaining enlightenment, Sakyamuni Gautama proceeded to Saranath and delivered his first sermon and subsequently the second and third sermons. The disciples listened to them with utmost faith and attained Arhantship. Realising that there were now sufficient disciples to start the pioneer movement for propagation of the Dhamma, He addressed the 60 Arhants to fulfill the Sasanic tour for the well- being of mankind.

The Buddha said: "Go forth Bhikkhus into the world taking the message to them, explain to them what I have explained for the well being of the majority." Then the Buddha himself set out for the Rajagaha where on his way he preached the doctrine to three Jatila brothers helping them to attain Arhantship together with their 1,000 disciples.

The next notable event was the arrival of the two youths - the two friends Kolitha, Upathissa who belonged to leading families of the day. They came with their retinue numbering 250. They all obtained the eye of Dhamma.

Here they got the unique opportunity of entering the Order. The Buddha assembled the 1,250 Bhikkhus to one place and pronounced them the chief disciples of the Sasana are Sariputta and Moggalana. This event occurred on the Navam Full Moon Poya day.

The Buddha explained that they received permission (Niyatha Vivasana) from a previous Buddha Anomadassi who with his divine vision and insight had predicted that they would be the next chief disciples in the Sasana.

Ever since they had fulfilled Parami Dhamma, leading a life of piety and sanctity. This supreme position was an outcome of the extremely pious lives lead throughout Sansara, by the two friends and the culmination was on the Navam Full Moon day.

The period of two decades since the enlightenment of Sakyamuni Gautama is recorded in the Sasanic history as the 'First Bodhi Period'.

The Vinaya, the code of discipline of the Sangha community is said to be par-excellent. Hence there was no necessity for enacting laws or rules and regulations.

The main reason for a well disciplined Sangha Samaja was the proper observance of Kusala Kamma throughout Sansara till they finally met Sakyamuni Gautama under whom they attained Nibbana. They responded well to the discourses of the Buddha and attained Margapala immediately.

The most important events which everyone knows in the Buddhist calendar are: Visaka Puja - birth, enlightenment and parinibbana.

Asalha Puja - Rains retreat (Vassana).

Magha Puja - the third one which falls usually in February is a reflection on the Sangha. It signifies the early period of the establishment of the Sangha. It commemorates the day when 1,250 Arhants came together to hear the teachings of the Buddha.

It was on this day that the Buddha preached a discourse known as 'Ovada Patimokkha', which established the tradition of the Sangha coming together before the rules of Vinaya. This discourse which is referred to as the basis and the foundation of the Buddha's teachings was delivered on the first Navam full moon day after the enlightenment.

It is said to have created a very disciplined and orderly Sangha Samaja to preserve the doctrine. 'Ovada Patimokkha' was the guiding principle in Sangha life covering the entire sphere of conduct and moral progress of them.

Having preached for 45 years when Sakyamuni Gautama was getting ready for his Parinibbana. This is known as 'Aayu Sanskara' Ananda Thera who would have a close watch of the Buddha failed for a moment to extend his invitation to live further.

His failure to do the needful at the correct time gave the opportunity to Mara to fulfill his objective of seeing the end of the Thathagatha.

The Buddha complied with the request of Mara with universal love and compassion towards all beings for the final deliverance from the miseries of existence, leaving behind the great doctrine. 'Aayu Sanskaraya' was determined on this Navam Poya Day in the Buddhist calendar.

In this fathom long body is the origin of suffering ...

Daya Sirisena

"Mind is the forerunner of all phenomena, mind is chief; they are all mindcreated."

"Guard therefore the mind, purify the mind, for out of intention all things come to be, Neither do you look for any external aid for, self is the master of self. What other master could there be?"

Mano - Pubbangama Dhamma,

Manosettha Manomaya

"Put aside all vain beliefs, all faith in rituals, and religious performances for these things avail not against ignorance being themselves product of ignorance. In this fathom long body O! monk, equipped with sense and sense perceptions, I declare to you is the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the way leading to that cessation".

Never before in a world bewitched by superstition and priestcraft had a such a challenging message resounded, the followers of Supreme Buddha no more resorted to the sacrifices, fires to holocausts, men and beasts to appease the personified forces of nature, no more magic. Instead they cultivated a mind of boundless loving kindness lived righteously and fearlessly and happiness hitherto unknown to them.

Gautama Buddha found craving and ignorance are the two major factors for the continuity of life and manifestation of everything, though 2551 years have gone by after the Parinibbana all the utterances of the Buddha apply today very much to our life.

Nagasaki Hiroshima Atomic bombs speak so much about the human craving and ignorance. Disaster and human suffering what was experienced by the Japanese people in 1942 were the most unfortunate, but have we learned from the gruesome mistakes? Why are we clamouring to make much bigger destructive atomic weapons for human destruction?

This is the ignorance Gautama Buddha discovered 2551 years ago inherent in all human life. He went on to say "fears are nothing more than state of mind."

"Wheresoever fear arises it in the fool, not in the wise man says the Buddha, once state of mind is subject to control and direction the negative use of thought produces our fears; the positive use realises our hopes and ideals; everything which man creates begins in the form of a thought.

It is very difficult for human beings to learn from their mistakes because of craving, craving for power creates so much of unhappiness in the world. Nagasaki and Hiroshima is the best example why we have failed to understand the truth we need to understand the illusive self and clear our doubts about our purpose in this life.

If this life even the only one through which we have to pass, if death were the end of joy and grief alike the existence of pain would have no special significance.

The problem would be restricted to the practical means of alleviating it, so far as that might be possible at the same time there would be no place for moral values in a life which originated fortuitously and persued its course through a series of meaningless events to an equally meaningless end.

The abstract concept of good and evil, right and wrong could be discarded in favour of whatever artificial and arbitrary standards happened to suit the needs of the moment. In such circumstances it is conceivable that compassion itself would not rank very high in the scale of human values.

For logically the highest achievement would be personified by the individual who was most-successful in avoiding suffering himself, even though he did so by inflicting it on others.

But mankind on the whole has never accepted this view. It was in the light of this knowledge of the continuity of existence that Gautama Buddha looked for the origin of suffering not only in the current life but in former states of being. He discovered it in a primordial urge. The thirst (Tanha) for sentient existence.

What now is the noble truth of the cause of suffering? Truly it is that craving which gives rise to fresh rebirth, and conjoined with pleasure and lust, finds gratification now here, now there.

It is of three kinds: sensual craving (Kama Tanha) craving for existence (Bhava Tanha) and craving for self-annihilation (Vibhava Tanha).

From the first sermon to the five ascetics at Baranesa Mighadaya to the last exhortation before the Parinirvana it is one theme that runs in all the utterances; liberation to mankind.

To laymen and women who came to him Gautama Buddha gave these five simple precepts. The Buddha did not command, and didn't take upon himself authority of a creator god to punish and reward, he was greater than this, he was Supreme Peerless teacher of gods and men.

The Buddha taught us to learn by our own experience rather than accept on faith, anyone else's statement including his own.
 

Three more to enter the Sasana

K.A. Perera, Wadduwa special correspondent

Three children were ordained as Samanera Bhikkhus at Sri Lankaramaya Temple at Wadduwa under the tutelage of Ven. Wadduwe Dhammawansa Thera, the Chief Incumbent of the Temple.

The ordination ceremony was performed by the Sasthrapathi, Poojjaya Ven. Diviyagaha Gnanananda Maha Nayaka Thera, the Chief Incumbent of Jayasumanadipathi of Hakmana and Ven. Dr. Omalpe Sobitha Maha Nayaka Thera, the Chief Incumbent of Bodhi Raja Buddhist Centre of Singapore.

A.W.A. Sumith, K.H. Lalantha Shiroman and K.M. Chanuka Prabaddha are the three children who were ordained as Samanera Bhikkhus.

Correct ingredients of life

Most Westerners misunderstand the law of karma. They mistake it for fatalism, where one is doomed to suffer for some unknown crime in a forgotten past life. This is not quite so, as this story will show.

Two women were each baking a cake.

The first woman had miserable ingredients. The old white flour had to have the green mouldy bits removed first. The cholesterol-enriched butter was almost going rancid. She had to pick the brown lumps out of the white sugar (because someone had put in a spoon wet with coffee), and the only fruit she had were ancient sultanas, as hard as depleted uranium.

And her kitchen was of the style called 'pre-World War' - which World War was a matter of debate. The second woman has the very best of ingredients. The organically grown whole-wheat flour was guaranteed GM free. She had cholesterol-free margarine, raw sugar and succulent fruit grown in her own garden. And her kitchen was 'state-of-the-art', with every modern gadget.

Which woman baked the more delicious of cakes? It is often not the person with the best ingredients who bakes the better cake - there is more to baking a cake than just the ingredients. Sometimes the person with miserable ingredients puts so much effort, care and love into their baking that their cake comes out the most delicious of all. It is what we do with the ingredients that counts.

I have some friends who have had miserable ingredients to work with in this life: they were born into poverty, possibly abused as children, not clever at school, maybe disabled and unable to play sport.

But the few qualities they did have they put together so well that they baked a mightily impressive cake. I admire them greatly. Do you recognise such people?

I have other friends who have had wonderful ingredients to work with in this life. Their families were wealthy and loving, they were intelligent at school, talented at sport, good looking and popular, and yet they wasted their young lives with drugs or alcohol.

Do you recognise such a one?

Half a karma is the ingredients we have got to work with. The other half, the most crucial part, is what we make of them in this life.

Courtesy: Opening the Doors of Your Heart

The Buddha's last instruction

"Make of yourself a light," said the Buddha,
before He passed away.
I think of this every morning
as the east begins
to tear off its many clouds
of darkness, to send up the first
signal-a white fan
streaked with pink and violet,
even green.
And old man, He lay down
between two sala trees,
and he might have said anything,
knowing it was His final hour.
The light burns upward,
it thickens and settles over the fields.
Around him, the villagers gathered
and stretched forward to listen.
Even before the sun itself
hangs, disattached, in the blue air,
I am touched everywhere
by its ocean of yellow waves.
No doubt he thought of everything
that had happened in his difficult life.
And then I feel the sun itself
as it blazes over the hills,
like a million flowers on fire-
clearly I'm not needed,
yet I feel myself turning
into something of inexplicable value.
Slowly, beneath the branches,
he raised his head.
He looked into the faces of that
frightened crowd.

- Mary Oliver

The writer is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, one of the most celebrated poets in America.

From New and Selected Poems, Volume One, by Mary Oliver.