Asalha Puja, Monsoon Season

Asalha Puja, the major Buddhist observance during this last Full Moon, is a big deal in Thailand, an extended public holiday. 

It is a celebration of the Buddha’s First Discourse after his Awakening.  He teaches his five old fellow ascetics who had formerly practiced with him in extreme renunciation and hardship.  Buddha declared the Middle Way between the extremes of self-mortification and gluttony, and he taught the practical way to enlightenment:  the Four “Noble Truths” and the Eightfold “Noble” Path. 

Stephen Batchelor has reanalyzed the Four “truths” in his Secular Buddhism project, emphasizing them as tasks to be practiced rather than truths to be believed as dogma.  After 50 years with Buddhism, this key discourse finally makes sense to me and integrates well with what I’ve always practiced as a heretical Dharma Bum. 

The day after Asalha Puja also marks the start of the Rains Retreat in Theravada lands, when monks stay close to their home temples for three months until the Rainy Season ends.  The monsoons blowing in from the Indian Ocean dump a lot of water on us this time of year. 

-Zenwind.
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