<< Venerable Dagpo Lama Rinpoche

You are aware that Waisak corresponds to several major events in the life of Lord Buddha Shakymuni, the foremost being his attainment of Enlightenment. There are many possible ways of celebrating Waisak but perhaps of them all the most important is to recall Lord Buddha's extraordinary good qualities: his unlimited wisdom, compassion and activity.

His major activity was turning the wheel of the law or teaching for it was in that way that He gave sentient beings the means to free themselves from suffering and create their happiness. It is by relying on the methods explained in his discourses that they can in effect end suffering and attain peace.

Lord Buddha taught extensively over the forty-five year period between his Enlightenment and his parinirvana. However, all the key elements of his teaching are included in the comprehensive instruction called The Stages of the Path of the three kinds of practitioners.

He taught the stages of the path of lesser beings' to enable practitioners to avoid the sufferings of the lower realms; he explained the stages of the path of intermediate beings' so that they might free themselves from the misery of samsara as a whole; finally he elucidated the stages of the path of great beings' to allow them to free themselves from the fault of self-cherishing and to attain Buddhahood.

In this way, Lord Buddha manifested his immeasurable compassion for us. Since the methods he taught are now available to us, to repay his kindness and to fulfill his aspirations regarding each and every one of us, we should reflect upon these methods well, practice them and pray fervently to attain Buddhahood as quickly as we can for the benefit of all sentient beings, our dear mothers.

Please pray too that all beings in this world may find the favourable conditions to do the same and that they may soon find the peace to which they aspire.