Asatha Puja Day

My local temple in America

As most of you are probably aware in a few days Buddhist around the world will celebrate Asatha Puja, the day when the Buddha delivered his first discourse, gained his first witness to his enlightenment and the Gem of the Sangha appeared in the world.

This is an important day for me personally as having the Triple Gem (Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha) to take refuge in was enriched my life more than any other single thing I have experienced.

Here at our Wat in Northren California a small group of us will join our Abbot on Saturday night and practice meditation through out the night and on Sunday we will have our big celebration. Through out the time of the rains retreat some of us will meet every Sunday morning for chanting, meditation practice and a Dhamma talk.

The Dhamma talks should be interesting this year and I’m looking forward to them. Last year my Dhamma sister Thum, responsible for translating to me, more often than not, would look at me and laugh before giving me the readers digest condensed version. Phramaha Buasai was no better. The morning she was not there, after a long discourse in Lao to the grandmothers, he looked at me briefly, laughed, and said that he could not remember because he was being “mindful”. My standard excuse for all infractions at the Wat now! 😀

You can see some pictures of songkran at my local temple during Songkran this year on page two…