On ‘Buddha Day’ BE 2568, 22 May 2024, with great joy we wish fellow Buddhists ‘Happy Buddha Day’ as we celebrate the Full-moon day of Vesakhā of the Buddhist Era 2568.  As we transition into a bright new phase leaving the dark times of the pandemic behind us, we would like to gratefully acknowledge the unwavering commitment and resilience displayed by all Nalanda members, volunteers and our kalyana mittās during those years.  Your efforts have been instrumental in helping our society navigate this unprecedented time to come out stronger and more focussed.

As in past years, Nalanda has chosen a suitably dynamic theme to unify and spearhead our Buddha Day celebration, and this year our theme is “Peace begins with Me”.  These words offer us personal and spiritual direction by emphasising inner transformation, personal responsibility and the aspiration to live life ‘from the inside out’.

By this, we mean a wise disciple should cultivate inner awareness and focus on innate qualities rather than being solely driven by the stimuli and attractions of the external world.  The Buddha taught us to be more concerned with virtues such as wisdom, patience, generosity, loving-kindness, and gratitude.  By cultivating these qualities, one can live a more meaningful and fulfilling life ‘from the inside out’, aligned with our treasured values.

The notion of ‘peace’ and its place in the Buddha’s teachings can be found in Dhammapada verse 368 :

Mettāvihārī yo bhikkhū
pasanno buddhasāsane
adhigacche padaṃ santaṃ
saṅkhārū’pasamaṃ sukhaṃ.

A Bhikkhu who meditates on love,
devoted to the Buddha’s teaching,
would realise the peaceful state,
the blissful stilling of conditions.

This verse reminds us that the Buddha greatly emphasised the practice of Loving-Kindness, which builds bridges and brings about peace in us.  A heart filled with love, mindfulness and peace would easily attain the perfect, unsurpassed stillness of Nibbāna.  Love and compassion remain the foundation of Buddhist practice to this day.

As disciples of the Buddha, we have a responsibility to embody these qualities in our daily lives.  We must strive to cultivate peace within ourselves through bhāvāna (mental cultivation) and wise reflection.  But our responsibility does not end there.  We must also work to bring peace to our community and the world around us.  We can do this by treating others with kindness and compassion, and by creating a more peaceful and harmonious society.

“Peace begins with Me” means we must take personal responsibility for cultivating peace in our lives and in the community that sustains us.  It is a call to be more mindful of our mental states, be joyful when we experience peace, and gently but firmly turn away from anger and resentment when these and other unwholesome states occupy our minds.  In this way positivity blooms all around us.

Brothers and Sisters in the Dhamma – Peace begins with Me.  And it also begins with you.  Together, we can create a world that is more caring, more compassionate and more accepting of each other, where together as a community we work energetically towards the sustained endurance of the Buddha-Sāsana. On this auspicious day, let us open our hearts to each other to begin this effort.

– By Achariya Tan Siang Chye, Chairman of Nalanda Education Committee.