Monks, novices and lay Buddhists from all over Thailand
and overseas join forces to create “global-cooling effects” on the Earth Day 22 April 2015
PATHUM THANI 22 APRIL 2015 - More than 200,000 monks and novices from every region of Thailand as well as and monk visitors from 12 countries and lay Buddhists from Thailand and overseas travelled to the Dhammakaya Temple in Pathum Thani province for a historic gathering to create “global-cooling effects” with prayer, meditation, and giving on the Earth Day 22 April 2015.
“The Earth Day is a day in which people around the world are giving special attention to protecting the external environment. While that is necessary, it is even more necessary to protect the internal environment – the human mind – from all kinds of unwholesomeness,” Ven. Sanitwong Wuttiwangso, spokesman of the Dhammakaya Temple, said. “That’s because everything begins inside the mind. Whether the external environment - a community, a country, or the world society - is going to be livable or intolerable, polluted or pristine, peaceful or turbulent, all has to do human hearts and minds.”
Today’s historic gathering coincided with the 71st birthday anniversary of Ven. Dhammajayo, international peace prize laureate and abbot of the Dhammakaya Temple. In the mid-morning and also in the early afternoon, all the monks, novices and lay Buddhists from Thailand and overseas meditated together and spread their inner peace and loving-kindness to all fellow human beings regardless of nationality, race, and religion, and whether they are families, friends, strangers or detractors. The global-cooling effects – however temporary – were sparks of hope for a more peaceful and compassionate global society in which people develop inner peace and continually look for the good in each other.
“The primary goal of the Dhammakaya Temple’s every project and activity has always been to promote ‘world peace through inner peace’ because we believe that for any society to experience external peace, people there need to develop inner peace first,” Ven. Sanitwong said. “On top of that, doing good is not always easy, popular, convenient, or even safe. That’s why we encourage people to meditate daily to keep refilling their inner peace and emotional support tanks so that they maintain the drive to carry on doing what is right even when the going gets tough.”
In the afternoon, all the monks and novices from over 30,000 temples in Thailand, including those from the four restive southern border provinces (Yala, Pattanai, Narathiwat, and Songkhla), joined the rhythmic Pali-language recitation of stories of how the Buddha won the hearts and minds of his detractors and attackers with virtue and turned them into followers and moral supporters.
A series of these stories, originally recounted by the Buddha himself, are traditionally recited to remind monks and lay followers to triumph over malice and misunderstanding with virtue such as compassion, empathy and tolerance, which often take longer than verbal or physical violence but produce no losing side, no loss of face, and no enemies.
This was followed by the traditional “Sangkha Dana” ceremony of presenting essentials such as saffron robes, sustenance and medicine to monks as a group without specifying recipients. Today, the Dhammakaya Temple and lay Buddhists had the honor to welcome foreign monk visitors who also participated in this historic giving ceremony. They represented various Buddhist sects from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Laos, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.
The Dhammakaya Temple and lay followers also had the honor to welcome visiting monks from four southern border provinces who, for eleven years, have been risking their lives to protect, preserve, and defend Buddhism in the violence-prone region with peace and bare hands.
“As they gather here in a spirit of peaceful solidarity with fellow monks from every sect and every other part of Thailand, they are sending a message that peace is free while violence is costly and painful to all,” Ven. Sanitwong said. “No amount of differences will ever lead to conflict if everyone meditates and sees everybody else with the eyes of compassion. Instead, we will instantly create cooling effects in our immediate environment.”
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