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Vesak Revisited: Bathing the Buddha
Probably, you'd be right to say that Wat Bodhiyaram, the Siamese Buddhist Temple in Taiping is just a stone throw away from the Singhalese Langkabodhi Buddhist Temple. The two temples share a common compound and while Mr.How and I were there with the Vesak crowd, we spotted a girl guide carrying out the bathing the Buddha ceremony in the Siamese temple. While at work, a colleague had talked about his friend waking up late during Vesak and having to forgo his morning bath so that he could be on time at the temple to give Buddha a bath. That made us chuckle and then arose this question on the significance of the bathing the Buddha ceremony. It is supposed to be a symbol of the getting rid of all the human defilements. That probably refers to kilesa, the Buddhist term that has been translated as defilement or poison. That also originally refers to mental states which temporarily cloud the mind and manifest in unskillful actions. With the cloud perpertually hanging over the mind, perhaps the bathing the Buddha ceremony will have to stay!
Probably, you'd be right to say that Wat Bodhiyaram, the Siamese Buddhist Temple in Taiping is just a stone throw away from the Singhalese Langkabodhi Buddhist Temple. The two temples share a common compound and while Mr.How and I were there with the Vesak crowd, we spotted a girl guide carrying out the bathing the Buddha ceremony in the Siamese temple. While at work, a colleague had talked about his friend waking up late during Vesak and having to forgo his morning bath so that he could be on time at the temple to give Buddha a bath. That made us chuckle and then arose this question on the significance of the bathing the Buddha ceremony. It is supposed to be a symbol of the getting rid of all the human defilements. That probably refers to kilesa, the Buddhist term that has been translated as defilement or poison. That also originally refers to mental states which temporarily cloud the mind and manifest in unskillful actions. With the cloud perpertually hanging over the mind, perhaps the bathing the Buddha ceremony will have to stay!
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