3. Who can attend the occasion?

Importance of Wesak Festival:

Many thousands of years ago, there arose the need for one of the Adepts to become the world Teacher of the fourth root race, for the time had come when humanity should be able to supply its own Buddhas. At this time in the remote past two brothers stood equal in occult development - one being He, whom we now call the Lord Gautama Buddha, and the other our present World Teacher the Lord Maitreya. Out of His great love for humanity the Lord Gautama instantly offered to make Himself ready to undertake whatever additional effort might be neccessary to attain the required development. We learn from tradition that life after life He practiced special virtues, each life showing out some great quality achieved. He spent thousands of years in order to qualify Himself to be the first of mankind who should help his brethren by teaching them the wisdom which is life eternal.

Whatever may be these manifold activities of a Dhyani Buddha, they do not bring Him again into birth or death, because of the peculiar circumstances surrounding the life of Lord Gautama. He has remained sufficiently in touch with this world to be reached by the invocation of His successor when necessary. He also undertook to return to the world once every year on the anniversary of his death, shed upon it a flood of blessing. The Lord Buddha has His own special type of force which He outpours when He gives His blessing to the world, and this benediction is a unique and very marvellous thing.

The Wesak Festival:


The occation selected for this wonderful outpouring is the Full Moon Day of the Indian Months Vaisak, corresponding to the bull or Taurus, the anniversary of all the momentous occurrences of His last earthly life - His Birth, His attainment of Buddhahood, and His departure from the physical body. The place chosen for this occasion is North-East of the Himalayas known as the sacred valley of Wesak.

The highlight of the appearance of the Lord Buddha is to shed an outpouring of Blessing of forces from higher planes, by His authority and position, only the Buddha can draw down to our level the forces peculiar to those planes. The affects of this outpouring are the expansion of consciousness and awareness for those who are prepared for this occasion.

Procedure:

Buddha Poornima is celebrated on the Vaisakha Full Moon day all over world. The following is the procedure of how it is done: an inner core group of 21 people are needed to conduct the ceremony. The 21 are divided into five innermost persons forming a five pointed star, seven people forming a circle around the first five and then nine people encircling the seven and the five. An audience may be present in addition to the 21. All those attending should wear clothing that is preferably white or light coloured. Everyone must face east during the festival including the audience.

The innermost group composed of five people forming a five pointed star have the responsibility of visualizing the five pointed star throughout the entire cere mony. The person at the apex(no.1) of the star shall hold an authentic Tibetan Dorje in his right hand. The Dorje shall be first cleansed (sweeping and incense) then consecrated by invoking Master Choa and Holy Master Mei Ling and blessing the object for 5 - 10 continuous minutes. Other Arhatic Yogis can complete the seven and nine person circles. All participants should be standing and facing East throughout the ceremony. It is suggested that an accurate compass be brought to determine which direction is East. The audience should also be standing and facing East throughout the ceremony. They shall position themselves in straight lines behind the 21 people.

The ceremony consists of three phases.

Phase one: shall be he Great Invocation, intoned in the following manner: First, the innermost group of 5 persons connect their Forehead Chakras with each other using golden metallic light. They then visualize the golden rays of light, to and from each other, forming the five pointed star. The seven persons forming the circle of seven also connect their Forehead Chakras with golden light and then visualize a golden circle linking all seven. Similarly those in circle of nine also visualize themselves forming a golden circle. Then everyone chants OM three times. Everyone prays the Great Invocation three times. Then repeat chanting of OM three times.

Phase Two: shall be the Meditation on Twin hearts, conducted in the following manner. First everybody chants the OM three times. Then, during the activation of the Heart Chakra, the innermost group of 5 persons connect the Heart Chakras with each other using the golden metalic light. Then they visualize the five pointed star being formed by the golden rays of light connecting them with each other. The same thing is done with the Crown Chakra during Crown activation portion of the meditation. Likewise with both the heart and Crown Chakras during that portion of the meditation. During the meditation, the circle of seven and nine also connect themselves in a similar manner as mentioned above, this time visualizing themselves being connected with a golden light and forming a golden circle. Everyone else does the meditation on Twin Hearts the usual way. Then everyone chants the OM three times.

Phase Three: shall be the observance of silence for a period of not less than three minutes. A timekeeper/timer should be appointed for this purpose. The innermost group of 5 people should practice the ceremony mentioned above, specially the visualization of the five pointed star during the Great Invocation and Meditation on Twin Hearts, atleast two or three times before doing the actual ceremony.

It is suggested that everyone interested in helping to heal the world and to lessen the effects of the coming catastrophies will participants in the above ceremony.

Who can attend the occasion?

Qualifications to be able to attend the occasion:

1. One must be able to step out of his mental consciousness through the help of his inner guide. This means he can enter into the intuitional plane.

2. One must have done the needed meditation and disciplining of this life., he has purified his heart and truly, sincerely wants to serve humanity and to sacrifice for humanity.

3. If man has done well, if he has disciplined his tongue, his body, his emotions and mind, if he has cleared his karmas which means he has paid his debts and that he owes no debts to others on three levels, then he is granted entrance.

If one is not qualified, how can he draw some benefits from it?

On our level of development, it is not too important to be in the valley. It may even harm us if we force ourselves and we may develop psychological and physical problems as a result of over stimulation. The wisest thing for aspirants and disciples of future to do is to set aside these seven days of Wesak as among the most holy days of their lives and use them to work upon themselves. These seven days are the three days before the day of Wesak, the Wesak Day and the three days following the Wesak.

The three days preceeding the Wesak must be dedicated to holy living purification, sublimation and transformation. On Wesak Day total orientation towards beauty, goodness and truth must be maintained. This is the day of contact. First you contact your own soul; next the eyes of your Master are focussed upon you for a second and then you feel the great energies penetrating into your system, causing some degree of transfiguration, after which you will make great decisions to change your life into higher levels of living.

During the next three days, you will bless others, you will radiate your love, your compassion to all living beings, to the whole humanity accepting as a great Brotherhood. As the beloved child of God, if you do this year after year, you will see yourself going towards the sunny mountain of achievement and you will become a life giver a health, love and beauty.