One More Buddha's Birthday

I just had a wonderful experience at the Dhammakaya temple in Azusa for their Buddha's birthday celebration this evening.  It's a large temple, though I didn't get a chance to go inside, with a large open yard in which the celebration was held.  At the east end of the yard was a large, golden Buddha statue with a stage in front of it that would be used later.  We monks and nuns were on chairs on the north and south side near the stage facing each other.  Then the lay community stretched back to the end of the large yard, facing the stage in chairs.  Most of the participants I saw were lay members of the temple wearing all white clothes. 

I was sitting next to three Tibetan monks of the Gelugpa lineage, one of whom speaks excellent English.  He was one of the monks that I met briefly at the first Buddha's birthday celebration I attended at Cal Poly a couple of weeks ago. 

There were some speeches and then the Chinese contingent was invited to go to the altar and do some chanting. I think next came the Vietnamese monks.  One of my classmates, Ven. Mangala who is a Theravada monk from Sri Lanka is staying at a Vietnamese temple, so he went up front with them instead of the other Theravada monks and did the chanting in Vietnamese.  Then we monks in the Tibetan tradition were invited up to chant.  I wasn't sure if I should go up with them, but the one sitting next to me said, "You come up with us, OK?"  So I did.  However, They are from the Gelugpa tradition and I don't know their chants, so for the most part I just stood there facing the altar. I was able to follow along a little, though.

After that, the largest group was of course the Theravada monks.  It took a while for them all to line up and proceed to the stage.  They sat down facing the altar, bowed, and then all turned around to face the gathered guests.  The head monk gave a short talk and then led us through their style of Dhammakaya meditation, a simple visualization/mindfulness practice.  After that, they did some chanting in Pali, and then I think the next thing we did was begin to light all the candles.

By this time, the sun was setting, so with all the candles lit, the monastics proceeded to circumambulate a smaller statue of the Buddha set up in the middle of the lay disciples, each holding a candle.  The lay disciples followed, also holding candles, and we circumambulated three times.  After taking our seats we did another short meditation I think (so much for all that Buddhist awareness--this was just yesterday and I'm already forgetting). 

When the program ended, all the monastics headed out together, so I was swept up in the tide and then couldn't find the people I had driven that night, including Shakya.  We finally met at my car.  They decided to go to dinner, but I had plans back here at the dorm, so I declined the invitation.

All the monks were offered a few items as we left, including a new blue shoulder bag, like the usually maroon bags carried by Tibetan monks, so now I have a new spiffy bag with the Dhammakaya logo on it.  They also gave us a container with some toiletries in it that will be quite useful.  I only regret that I didn't get a chance to see the inside of the temple or to really talk with any of the monks.

Other than this most recent celebration, I have nothing to report.  I have been in contact with two Western nuns I know in Korea and have started picking their brains about the monastic scene in Korea.  I'm really looking forward to moving there after graduation next summer.