The Birth of Buddha

Written by Tâm Nghĩa (Nguyễn Đức Hiếu) on the 2009 celebration of the birth of Buddha at the Phật Quang Temple.

According to history, Siddhartha was born into a royal family. His family was in the lines of Sakya. He is the son of King Suddhodana and Queen Maya. The homeland of the Buddha is in southern Nepal, near the foot of the Himalayas.

On the full moon day in April in India in 624 BC on the western calendar, (May in Western calendar), Queen Maya was on her way home from the city of Devadaha (near the border of Nepal). She gave birth in the garden of Lumbini and underneath the tree called Asoka. Unfortunately, Queen Maya died 7 days after his birth. Prince Siddhartha was raised and brought up by his mother’s younger sister, who was also married to the King.

Wonderful events happened when the prince was a baby. All the devas came to greet and bathe the prince after he was born. After being placed on the ground, the baby prince walked 7 steps on the lotus flowers, which bloomed underneath in support of his footsteps. He had his right hand in the air and his left hand pointing to the ground as he said, “Chief am I in this world.” This foreshadows that he would become Buddha in the future.

The prince grew up in the palace and was trained rigorously to become a future good king. He was an obedient child as he was growing up. He was married to princess Yasodhara to his parents’ desire when he was 16 years old. The princess later gave birth to a son named Rāhula.

One day, the prince took a walk outside of the palace boundaries. Seeing the four strange sights in the real world – Old men, Sick people, Corpses, and Noble hermits – had a profound impact on the prince. He decided to leave his royal life in search of Truth and Eternal Peace.

Siddhartha secretly left the palace to search for Truth and Peace when he was 19 years old. After 5 years for search of the way to enlightenment, and 6 years of renunciation, he meditated 49 days underneath the Bodhi tree. He was enlightened in his 30^th year.

After his enlightenment, humans around the world took honour for his accomplishments. He directed people with compassion and wisdom. He deeply valued truth and brought happiness to others.

On the day of the celebration of Buddha’s birthday, we would like to honour The Sakyamuni Buddha with utmost respect. We would like to promise to live and practice Buddha’s teachings throughout our lives in order to bring about happiness and peace for ourselves and all live-beings.

On Vesak, we respectfully worship Buddha.

We pray to be blessed with His Halo,

To receive the Golden Light of Dharma,

And live peacefully under His Glow.