windhorse:scrapbook: 2012 ARCHIVE - Celebrating the Buddha's Enlightenment

Monday, 7 May 2012

2012 ARCHIVE - Celebrating the Buddha's Enlightenment

TOUCHING THE EARTH

Celebrating the Buddha's Enlightenment at Windhorse

Friday 4th May 2012

Photo by Vidyavajra

For the third year Windhorse devoted a whole morning to devotional practice, to mark the Buddha's Enlightenment. This years theme Touching the Earth, had its starting point in the traditional story of the Buddha calling on the Earth Goddess Drdha to be a witness to his virtues and attainments, to combat an assertion from Mara, that he was unworthy of sitting on the Vajrasana.

Vajrasana shrine before the ritual
Photo by Vidyavajra

In our ritual, this appearance of the Earth Goddess, led on to a recounting of six Jataka Stories connected with the Buddha's past lives and attainment of the 6 Perfections, of Dana, Sila, Kshanti,Virya, Dhyana, Prajna. Each story exemplified a quality required in order to attain each perfection. Our morning opened with a suitably evocative video created by Pedro. This was followed by a search to find six hidden vases directed by Samudraghosha, each vase contained earth and a story. The earth from each was spilled at specific points around the warehouse, and the stories told during a procession. Eventually reaching the Stupa Area, where panels that had been collected,each representing a Perfection ,were placed beneath the Vajrasana Shrine.

The Earth Vase awaits
Photo by Vidyavajra

This was followed by celebratory offerings to the completed shrine, followed by a substantial meditaion/visualisation of the Buddha on the Vajrasana, led by Arthapriya. The morning's ritual finished with a Sevenfold Puja, led by our Managing Director ~ Keturaja. The morning concluded as usual with a Shared Lunch.