Magha Puja Day

In the buddhist cultures of Lao, Thailand and Cambodia, the 3rd full moon of the lunar calendar is a holy day full of celebration, and a national holiday in Thailand and Lao. The day is called the Magha Puja Day, and it happened yesterday here. I was blessed to participate in the Thai ceremony at a local temple to honor the Buddha, so I wanted to share a little about this auspicious day.

About 2500 years ago in a city called Rajagaha in the Bihar state of India, 1,250 disciples of the Buddha gathered spontaneously on the 3rd full moon of the lunar calendar. At this spontaneous gathering, the Buddha gave a teaching which became the basic principles and foundation of Buddhism. This fundamental teaching is called the Ovadha Patimokkha and has 3 principle components: to do no bad action (speech or act), to do and maintain good in all action, and to purify the mind through meditation. Lord Buddha further described the ways to a peaceful life. His disciples were to take and teach this fundamental principles.

The ceremony began with a blessing by the monk at the local temple (not a tourist place at all). It was in Thai, but it was beautiful to hear nonetheless. Then the whole temple took flowers, candles and incense and walked clockwise outside around the Stupa (a shrine of sorts) 3 times then said our own blessing and offered the flowers and candles. It was stunning and very powerful and I am so honored to have been able to participate, not to mention the full moon energy that had flowed with us all during the day (there were many tears shed and a fair amount of chaos all around!). Our teacher talked to the head monk at the temple, and he is going to teach a meditation session for us tomorrow evening. Straight from the source...I am thrilled!