Happy Wesak Day to all Buddhists !!!  :D  It is the commemoration of the birth, enlightenment (Nirvana), and passing away (Parinirvana) of Gautama Buddha.

This year,  SiewPeng and I will not participate in the Wesak day parade, but I will be taking a lot of photos of the events this coming evening.  This year, we will have the opportunity to see how other teams perform.  You will be expecting photos of the Wesak day parade here in the coming days.

Last year, I asked a friend (a foreigner who is not a Buddhist) to watch the parade, but he missed it because he thought the parade finished at 10 pm like other Chinese temple parade.    The next day, he asked me why there was no parade, and we had a whole afternoon chat about religion.  He is a Doctor in sociology, and asked me a lot of questions on Buddhism.  I have learned a lot about his religion as well.  Some points we both agreed is that good religions have been bringing good value to human beings, and different religions are from the same root where the good value began.  … … This year he has gone back to his country.

Since today is the greatest day for Buddhists, I have great things to share with you as well.  We have the opportunity to see the Buddha’s relics, and you too.  I am going to show you the photos of the Buddha’s relics.

This is not the first time I saw the Buddha’s relics.  I have seen other relics as well years ago.  But these relics are very special to us, because SiewPeng and I were very lucky to meet a monk when we were in Ipoh end of last year.

The story started here.  I met a friend in Ipoh, and we had a chat about random topics.  Suddenly our topic shifted to Buddhism, he said that a monk from Myanmar was going to visit a private temple that he usually goes to.  He brought us to that private temple.  Although we had a long wait there but finally the monk came.  The monk gave everyone there a little bottle, guess what’s inside…  :D It was the Buddha’s relics.

SiewPeng and I have one set each, we keep them in a dual layer glass stupa.  We might give the relics to a temple or Shifu (reverend), or someone who treasures the value of the relics at a good timing and good place (may be after they grow more).

If we traveled too early or too late to Ipoh, we would have missed this opportunity.  I really want to thank the friend who brought this opportunity to us.

One thing special about the relics - it can grow bigger and grow many smaller relics if the relics have been given high respect because it represents the Buddha.

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Buddhism can be easily misunderstood by most people (including some of those who called themselves Buddhists).  It can be easily mixed with Chinese traditional believes / or other cultural elements which are not the teaching of pure Buddhism.  Those who believe Buddha or any statue can make them richer or healthier or safer without knowing the theory of karma (causes and effects), do not actually get the benefit of the main objective of Buddhism - awakening / having awareness about the universe.  The reason is because many people are more interested in earning money than reading books to understand what the Buddhism is about.

Happy Wesak day!!!