Celebrating Buddha's Birthday

By BARBARA SCHLICHTMAN, 2TheAdvocate.com, May 14, 2005

Advocate staff photo by BRIAN HARKIN

Venerable Thich Nguyen Hanh, the abbot of Vietnam Buddhist Center in Houston, bows Sunday in the Lumbini Garden in preparation for the bathing the Buddha portion of the Buddha's Birthday celebration. The garden is named for the birthplace of Buddha. Tam Bao Temple practitioner Nam Nguyen assists with a handbell.

Monterrey Boulevard, Baton Rouge (Louisiana) ── The Tam Bao Temple celebrated Buddha's Birthday on Sunday and prayed for the deceased with 22 Buddhist monks and nuns from around the country.

The gathering of Buddhist leaders may have been the largest in Louisiana's history, said Thich dao Quang, the abbot of Tam Bao Temple on Monterrey Boulevard.

The intent of the ceremony was to remind people to have patience, tolerance, compassion and wisdom, Quang said.

"I hope it opened minds and hearts," he said.

The ceremony for Buddha's Birthday was held on temple grounds under the trees. The monks joined in a groundbreaking for a new Buddha Hall as well as prayers for the deceased, which included five hours of chanting.

Quang organized the series of ceremonies from inviting and hosting the monks to setting schedules for chants and incense to respectfully telling people if they walked too fast or slow, he said.

He said he met many of the monks during his time at the Vietnamese Buddhist Center in Houston, and relied on his network within the Buddhist monk community to bring them to Baton Rouge.

Of the 18 visiting monks, 17 practice Mahayana Buddhism while one practices Theravada Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism incorporates Buddhist tenets into modern life while Theravada is more introspective.

For Quang, who came to Baton Rouge in 2003, the gathering of so many respected teachers was a time of motivation, he said.

"I think when I'm surrounded by so many Buddhist monks I feel solidarity," Quang said.

"I am very tired, but I have a strong motivation to continue," he said in the quiet days after taking the last visitor to the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport.

"I don't feel alone, even though I live by myself. I still have people to connect to all around the country."

Susan Huynh, a nurse at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, said that she grew up as a Buddhist, but has been practicing and studying for only two years.

Having Quang in Baton Rouge has been beneficial to her, Huynh said, because she finds his talks stimulating as well as instructive.

Huynh said she applies her Buddhist practice to her work as a nurse in that she practices mindful breathing in and out.

Quang has taught her to take time and not to be stressed, she said.

During the ceremony, which was mostly in Vietnamese, Quang offered in English: "We are grateful for the love and mindful prayers of the many visiting monks and nuns from distant places who have come here to pray for all of us to live in peace and enlightenment from the Buddha with infinite love."

source: http://2theadvocate.com/stories/051405/rel_rel001.shtml