Birthday the atta/jati celerbration

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
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Ben
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Re: Birthday the atta/jati celerbration

Post by Ben »

I think you're reading too much into it, Hanzze.
Its not unknown for monks to have a birthday celebration.
In fact, my friend Ajahn Dhammanando, is in Chiang Mai at the moment to celebrate the 90th birthday of his preceptor.
But if one wishes to celebrate their birthday to attend a meditation retreat and one does not have any family obligations - well and good.
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
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Hanzze
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Re: Birthday the atta/jati celerbration

Post by Hanzze »

Well I know such occations as well... crazy times aren't they.

Birthdayparties are very modern in SEAsian Wats, even with baloons, firework,... It's somehow differnt if people invite and celerbrate to their brithday and if people would take it as a possibility to pay gratitude.

Some years ago, people even did not know their birthday. It is really something special if a 90 years old monk would know his birthday, that is nothing ordinary. I guess that tratition is more a annual ritual which might got confused with birthday.
Just that! *smile*
...We Buddhists must find the courage to leave our temples and enter the temples of human experience, temples that are filled with suffering. If we listen to Buddha, Christ, or Gandhi, we can do nothing else. The refugee camps, the prisons, the ghettos, and the battlefields will become our temples. We have so much work to do. ... Peace is Possible! Step by Step. - Samtach Preah Maha Ghosananda "Step by Step" http://www.ghosananda.org/bio_book.html

BUT! it is important to become a real Buddhist first. Like Punna did: Punna Sutta Nate sante baram sokham _()_
rowyourboat
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Re: Birthday the atta/jati celerbration

Post by rowyourboat »

We sometimes give a Dane to the local temple in view of the birthday. I guess it is an 'excuse' to make the birthday boy or girl feel special- an act of generosity and mudita. We are not celebrating 'birth', more it is doing something nice for that person. We have to look at it from a conventional metta,dana perspective rather than an ultimate vipassana, yonisomanasikara perspective.

With metta

Matheesha
Ps- my birthday is coming up soon, so I maybe bit biased :D
With Metta

Karuna
Mudita
& Upekkha
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Hanzze
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Re: Birthday the atta/jati celerbration

Post by Hanzze »

Some additional thought:

Birthday form a Buddhist view, the day of birth is not really the day one leaves the mother womb. Birth, rebrith takes place with the conception. "Curiosly" in some SEAsian countries, the counting of ages starts with one. So people if you ask, would be one year older then if you count the years from the day of birth form a western view. A new born, if asking is one year old.

The brithday (leaving the physical connection with the mother) would be somehow an excellent day to pay respect and gratitude to once mother and maybe to thanks for all the generisity that was received till this day. So it would be maybe a perfect day to honor mother father an all supporters and friends.

In regard of the worship day of the preceptor, I guess that is simply a confusion. The honoring day of the preceptor, as far as I know, has long tradition. I guess it is simply mixed up with new and strange trends.

Birthday celerbration is also something new in western culture and had never this kind of dimensions (atta/jati/conceit...).

Some views to religions (wiki):
Judaism

In Judaism, the perspective on birthday celebrations is disputed by various rabbis.[15] In the Hebrew Bible, the one single mention of a celebration being held in commemoration of someone's day of birth is for the Egyptian Pharaoh which is recorded in Genesis 40:20.[16] Rabbi Moshe Feinstein always acknowledged birthdays.[17] The Lubavitcher Rebbe actually launched a campaign to encourage people to celebrate their birthdays, by gathering friends, making positive resolutions, and through various religious observances.[18] According to Rabbi Yissocher Frand, a person's birthday is a special day for that person's prayers to be accepted.[19]

The bar mitzvah of 13-year-old Jewish boys, or bat mitzvah for 12-year-old Jewish girls, is perhaps the only Jewish celebration undertaken in what is often perceived to be in coalition with a birthday. However, the essence of a bar/bat mitzvah celebration is entirely religious in origin (i.e. the attainment of religious maturity according to Jewish law) and not secular, despite modern celebrations where the secular "birthday" element often overshadows the essence of it as a religious rite. With or without the "birthday" celebration, the child nevertheless becomes a bar or bat mitzvah, and the celebration can be on that day or any date after it.

Christianity
Christianity: Early centuries

The early Christians did not celebrate Christ's birth because they considered the celebration of anyone's birth to be a pagan custom.[citation needed] For example Origen in his commentary "On Levites" writes that Christians should not only refrain from celebrating their birthdays, but should look on them with disgust.[20]

Orthodox Christianity still prefers the celebration of name days only.

Christianity: Medieval

Ordinary folk celebrated their saint's day (the saint they were named after), but nobility celebrated birthdays. The "Squire's Tale," one of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, opens as King Cambuskan proclaims a feast to celebrate his birthday.[21]

Christianity: Modern

Jehovah's Witnesses and some Sacred Name groups refrain from celebrating birthdays, as did the early Christians of Christs era, on the basis that they are portrayed in a negative light in the Bible and have historical connections with magic, superstitions, and Paganism.[22][23][24][25][26]
Islam

Some clerics consider the celebration of a birthday to be a sin, as it is considered an "innovation" of the faith, or bi'dah while other clerics have issued statements saying that the celebration of a birthday is permissible.[27][28]

Some Muslims (and Arabian Christians) migrating to the United States adopt the custom of celebrating birthdays, especially for children, but others resist.[29]

There is also a great deal of controversy regarding celebrating Milad-ul-Nabi - the birth anniversary of Muhammad. While a section of Islam strongly favours it,[30] others decry such celebrations, terming them as out of the scope of Islam.[31]
Hindus

Hindus celebrate the birth anniversary day every year when the day that corresponds to lunar month or solar month (Sun Signs Nirayana System – Sourava Mana Masa) of birth and has the same asterism (Star / Nakshatra) as that of the date of birth. That age is reckoned whenever Janma Nakshatra of the same month passes.
Only the romans enthusiastically celebrated birthdays with hedonistic parties and generous presents, as far as my reseaches reaches. But even the Gaul use to say:

These romans are crazy! But after a while... Image

Some wage but interessting researches about the origin: Happy birthday
Just that! *smile*
...We Buddhists must find the courage to leave our temples and enter the temples of human experience, temples that are filled with suffering. If we listen to Buddha, Christ, or Gandhi, we can do nothing else. The refugee camps, the prisons, the ghettos, and the battlefields will become our temples. We have so much work to do. ... Peace is Possible! Step by Step. - Samtach Preah Maha Ghosananda "Step by Step" http://www.ghosananda.org/bio_book.html

BUT! it is important to become a real Buddhist first. Like Punna did: Punna Sutta Nate sante baram sokham _()_
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Ben
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Re: Birthday the atta/jati celerbration

Post by Ben »

Hi Hanzze,

Like many things, birthdays can be used to strengthen one's conceit, greed and ego, or it could be a tool to express one's gratitude, to develop humility and loving kindness.
kidn regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
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Hanzze
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Re: Birthday the atta/jati celerbration

Post by Hanzze »

I guess the wise can use nearly everything, but for most a good explaining is much more useful as to let it just run it's way without irritation.
Just that! *smile*
...We Buddhists must find the courage to leave our temples and enter the temples of human experience, temples that are filled with suffering. If we listen to Buddha, Christ, or Gandhi, we can do nothing else. The refugee camps, the prisons, the ghettos, and the battlefields will become our temples. We have so much work to do. ... Peace is Possible! Step by Step. - Samtach Preah Maha Ghosananda "Step by Step" http://www.ghosananda.org/bio_book.html

BUT! it is important to become a real Buddhist first. Like Punna did: Punna Sutta Nate sante baram sokham _()_
plwk
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Re: Birthday the atta/jati celerbration

Post by plwk »

Ben, I guess it's tough for some not to be a sour grape mullah or a whinning monger when others are celebrating...or not :roll: :tongue:
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Ben
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Re: Birthday the atta/jati celerbration

Post by Ben »

plwk wrote:Ben, I guess it's tough for some not to be a sour grape mullah or a whinning monger when others are celebrating...or not :roll: :tongue:
Too true, plwk!
Its good to practice a wee bit of sympathetic joy.
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
User avatar
Hanzze
Posts: 1906
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2010 12:47 pm
Location: Cambodia

Re: Birthday the atta/jati celerbration

Post by Hanzze »

Or karuna.
Just that! *smile*
...We Buddhists must find the courage to leave our temples and enter the temples of human experience, temples that are filled with suffering. If we listen to Buddha, Christ, or Gandhi, we can do nothing else. The refugee camps, the prisons, the ghettos, and the battlefields will become our temples. We have so much work to do. ... Peace is Possible! Step by Step. - Samtach Preah Maha Ghosananda "Step by Step" http://www.ghosananda.org/bio_book.html

BUT! it is important to become a real Buddhist first. Like Punna did: Punna Sutta Nate sante baram sokham _()_
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