There are two aspects to the Wesak festival. The first aspect is that it's the most important Buddhist festival because it celebrates the birth, death and enlightenment of the Buddha. Think of Christmas and Easter combined into one. The Wesak is celebrated when the sun is in Taurus and the moon is full in the constellation of Scorpio, and this usually happens on the month of May.
The second aspect is that according to tradition, in the Wesak Valley high up in the Himalayas, the Buddha appears during the Wesak festival in order to shower the assembled initiates, holy men and lamas with the spiritual energy of Shamballa to empower them further in their world service. This congregation of pilgrims would have gathered in the valley at the approach of the full moon, there to await the appearance of the Buddha and other great beings who oversee the welfare of the world.
What is so special about this year's festival, aside from the fact that it's now 2012? We all know that the full moon brings about powerful energies. Even for those not sensitive to energy, you will find in police blotters and emergency room records that the amount of stabbings and other crimes in general tend to spike just before, during and after the full moon. The word lunatic actually derives from luna, the Latin word for moon.
The thing is, the full moon during the Wesak festival is also the most powerful full moon of the year. You can just imagine the magnitude the energies will be at right now compared to other full moons. What makes this May 5 full moon even more unique is that it's going to be a supermoon.
A supermoon means that the moon will be at its perigree (closest point to the Earth) and this particular perigree will be the closest of the three perigrees of the year. This means a brighter and bigger full moon as well as higher and lower tides than usual for the coming days. It's rare for the moon to be full AND at its perigree at the same time, so this is going to be a real treat for skywatchers indeed, especially if you're on a beach. The height of the full moon will be at 11:35 a.m. here in the Philippines, but Saturday night's full moon should still be something to behold.
So let's do a recap. This May 5 is the Wesak festival, happening on the most powerful full moon of the year, a Super Moon that also happens to be the closest perigree of the year. I think there are even meteor showers expected. With all these components coming together, you can already get the idea that the energies that will be generated during this Wesak festival are going to be really intense.
What does this mean for us? In his video address about the Wesak, Master Stephen Co (one of Master Choa Kok Sui's senior disciples) says that the full moon is a time either for crisis or opportunity, most especially this particular full moon (for reasons already mentioned earlier). For people not on the spiritual path, negative situations will tend to manifest more strongly, and thus it becomes a crisis. For people on the spiritual path, this becomes an opportunity to use the magnified downpour of energies to bless Mother Earth and be of service to others.
For those who do the Meditation on Twin Hearts, you are already of service to Mother Earth and all sentient beings. But during the Wesak, you can make use of these energies to bring down even more divine energies and thus be an instrument of greater service. This not only generates good karma, but it also serves to empower us in our spiritual evolution. This chance is priceless.
Master Stephen Co adds that with all the dire predictions coming out about 2012, especially the anticipation and anxiety surrounding the end of the Mayan calendar on December 21, it's even more important to bring down divine energies to our Mother Earth. Why? He cites the example of Sodom and Gomorrah, where Abraham initially asks God if He would spare the city if there were even 50 righteous people in it (with the number eventually going down to 10 righteous people), to which God agrees. However, as we know, not even 10 righteous people were found and so Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.
The lesson we can derive from the Sodom and Gomorrah story is that even with a few righteous people, localized disasters can be averted. If we extrapolate this to the world, the more righteous and spiritual people there are, the more these dire predictions can be averted or at least mitigated. This is because every spiritual person naturally brings down intense divine energy which influences the person's surroundings through the person's aura. Think of the spiritual person as an antenna or conductor of divine energies. Imagine if millions of people around the world do this, the possibilities are endless!
For this Wesak festival, will it be crisis or opportunity for us? The choice is always ours, but if you would like to make the most out of this opportunity, I would suggest that one try to be of service during this weekend, such as healing others, visiting orphanages and handing out donations, or simply being there to help one's friends and relatives. It may not seem much, doing one little good thing, but keep in mind that millions of people around the world will also be doing these "little good things." And that's going to make all the difference.
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