A Day to Be Joyful: The Secret of Vesak

Amid life's constant bustle, there is one day when we are allowed to set aside all sorrow to live fully in joy. That day is Vesak – a day of acceptance, silence, practice, prayer, introspection, and love.

If you had to choose the happiest day of your life, which would it be? Your wedding day? The day you passed a university entrance exam? Or perhaps an ordinary day? In his dharma talk "A Day to Be Joyful," Venerable Thich Chan Quang guided us back to one special day: Vesak. And surprisingly, it is not merely a celebration, but a day for us to learn how to be truly happy.

**A Day to Leave Sorrow Behind**

Venerable Chan Quang shared that when asked to choose their happiest day, many people select the day they took refuge or ordained. Yet, when we consider all moments, only one day truly deserves the title: Vesak. Why? Because on that day, we let go of all afflictions, accept everything without resistance or struggle. When we accept, sorrow naturally fades away.

Vesak is a profoundly happy day in our lives. Why call it a happy day? Because we leave our sorrow behind.

Consider this: you may have just lost something worth millions, or been abandoned by a loved one. If you keep holding onto that pain, you will never find happiness. But on Vesak, you understand that this is karma, a lesson, and you accept it. Acceptance is not surrender; it is embracing to overcome. When you accept everything, your heart becomes light as a cloud, and joy arises naturally.

**A Day for Silence: Reverence for the Buddha**

Vesak is also a day for silence. The silence is not for lack of words, but because some truths are too profound to be expressed in language. It represents our absolute reverence for the Buddha. When we are aware of the Buddha's greatness, we simply wish to listen to our hearts in boundless veneration.

Today is a day for silence. There are things that cannot be spoken, so we must be silent. This is our absolute reverence for the Buddha.

In the hurried pace of life, we rarely pause. Vesak offers us a chance to stop for a moment, to let our spirits rest in stillness, and to feel the Buddha's compassion and wisdom enveloping all of heaven and earth. Perhaps only in that moment can we touch true peace.

**A Day for Practice: Transforming Ourselves**

Vesak is also a day for practice. Each of us has moments of greed, hatred, selfishness, and narrow-mindedness. But upon entering this sacred day, we vow to let go of these things. We look within, see our mistakes, and resolve to correct them. Venerable Chan Quang emphasized that practice is not a distant endeavor, but the daily effort of removing one fault at a time.

Today is a day for practice. Let go of greed, let go of resentment and anger, competition, fierceness, selfishness, and narrow-mindedness. Strive to transcend greed, hatred, and delusion, and live as a different person.

If with every Vesak we take one step further, our lives will change. Practice is not about becoming a perfect person, but about being worthy of being a child of the Buddha.

**A Day for Vows: Living as Worthy Children of the Buddha**

On this day, we also make lofty vows. We vow not only for ourselves, but for the world. We vow to practice genuinely, attain enlightenment, and guide countless beings. For how many still live in darkness, unaware of the path to the shore of enlightenment.

We vow to practice genuinely and attain enlightenment in order to guide countless sentient beings. We will be the ones who go to them, uninvited, to lead them to the shore of awakening.

Vesak reminds us that we do not live solely for ourselves, but have a responsibility to all beings. Let us offer the most beautiful wish to the Buddha, and strive to fulfill it each day.

**A Day for Introspection and Love**

This day is also for introspection. We ask our hearts: how long have we lived without direction or ideals? How long have we chased only praise while remaining blind to our own faults? A day of self-reflection helps us soberly recognize our shortcomings to correct them. And most importantly, Vesak is a day for love. Loving-kindness does not arise naturally; we must compel ourselves to love each person, each being, like planting seeds of compassion in the soil of a well-tended mind.

We must compel our hearts to love all beings. It does not happen spontaneously. Allowing yourself to just naturally love everyone—don't expect that.

Try beginning with patience for the unlovable, releasing a little selfishness, or simply offering a kind word. Slowly, compassion will grow within us.

**A Day to Sit Together**

Finally, Vesak is a day to sit together. The modern world, with its mobile phones, has distanced people. Sitting side by side while each person is absorbed in their screen leaves their spirits wandering in different directions. Venerable Chan Quang called the mobile phone the "greatest enemy" of happiness, because it brings us close in space but separates us in heart.

So today, on Vesak, it is a day for us to sit together and turn off our mobile phones first. We sit together to truly see one another, to hold hands, and to speak kind words to each other.

Let us turn off our phones and return to our loved ones. We need one day to be truly present, to listen, to share. For only when we are together with our whole hearts can we end our loneliness.

Each year, as the season of Vesak returns, we have a day for joy, for silence, for practice, for vows, for introspection, for love, and for togetherness. Let us cherish that day, as the Venerable Teacher advises: "We learn to accept everything in order to overcome all sorrow. And from now on, from this Vesak, it is a day to be joyful forevermore."

May you have a Vesak season filled with peace and true joy!