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Xinhua, May 24, 2013 KANDAL, Cambodia -- Thousands of Buddhist monks and Buddhists marched on Friday morning around Preah Reach Trap Mountain, where the relics of Buddha are housed, to celebrate the Visak Bochea's Day, or Buddha's Day. The annually religious ceremony was attended by Great Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong, leader of the Mohanikaya Buddhist sect, and Supreme Patriarch Bou Kry, head of the Thammayut Buddhist sect, as well as Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Gen. Tea Banh. Visak Bochea's Day marked the anniversary of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death, said a media statement from the National Committee for Organizing National and International Festivals. It is a public holiday in this Buddhist-dominant country, where about 90 percent of the 14.5 million populations are Buddhists. At the event, lay people prayed to the Lord Buddha by lighting candles, incense sticks and laying flowers before the Lord Buddha' s statues and reli...

By EDMUND NGO, BEH YUEN HUI and QISHIN TARIQ, The Star, May 24, 2013 KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Visitors came as early as 7am to the Buddhist Maha Vihara here to commemorate Wesak Day on Friday. << Devotees at the Buddhist Maha Vihara in Kuala Lumpur performing prayers on Wesak Day. Devotees presented flowers, lit candles, sought blessings and made offerings to the monks to commemorate the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha. Ng Chun Hoe, a 54-year-old volunteer of the Friends of the Vihara, said the spirit of giving was very important to him as he was happy seeing people smile and hungry folk fed. The manager of an insurance company recounted seeing a boy picking up unlit firecrackers during Chinese New Year some 30 years ago. "The child's family was very poor, he had no toys and barely enough food to eat, so he ended up playing with a dangerous item," said Ng, adding the episode led him to help the needy ever since. Tents selling offerings, ...

The Financial Express (Bangladesh), 24 May 2013 Dhaka, Bangladesh -- President M Abdul Hamid Advocate on Thursday urged all to be vigilant against the reactionary bigots with a view to maintaining traditional communal harmony in the country at any cost, reports UNB. "A reactionary quarter of bigots is active with ill motive to misguide the people of the country in the name of religion. Ordinary people never accept the heinous activities easily. All of us will have to remain vigilant against the quarter," he told journalists at a reception programme at Bangabhaban. The President and his wife Rashida Khanom hosted the reception for the members of the Buddhist Community on the occasion of Buddha Purnima, the biggest religious festival of the community. The President and his wife welcomed the guests and exchanged greetings with them. President Abdul Hamid said: "Bangladesh is a country of communal harmony. The country came into being with the spir...

The Jakarta Post, May 24 2013 Jakarta, Indonesia -- Different people take different paths in an effort to attain perfection. While a few people are endowed with extraordinary talent or intelligence to invent or create, most people need not worry about that and simply follow or apply what the inventors or creators have discovered for us. << Waisak offers precious momentum for Buddhists to apply - and not necessarily to simulate - what he taught and demonstrated during his lifetime. The same is true in the religious realm. While religion and religious teachings were in place hundreds or even thousands of years ago, people of the latter and present times should just put in practice what religion and religious teachings have taught and provided for them. The celebration of Waisak, or Buddha's Day of Enlightenment, on Saturday is therefore the perfect time for Indonesians, particularly Buddhists, to take a break from their daily routines and refresh their minds with n...

The Shambhala Sun is pleased to present a livestream of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche's teachings on Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's foreword to The Rain of Wisdom , a collection of songs of realization from the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhist. The teachings will take place on Friday, May 31 and Saturday, June 1 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They will be the first of the Shambhala Sun's new "Direct Dharma" series of livestreamed talks, offering access to premiere Buddhist teachers from lineages across North America. The livestream will be free to watch — information on how to access it will be made available here and on the homepage of ShambhalaSun.com on the morning of Friday, May 31. To learn more about Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, read these articles from the Shambhala Sun archives. What Changes and What Doesn't: An Interview with Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche If I'm Lucky They'll Call Me Unorthodox An Uncommon Lama You can read more...