Magha Puja Day

So we have been planing since our meditation retreat to go back to our temple for Magha Puja day in Pathum Thani just outside of Bangkok. We had the day off at school and it fell on a Friday. Perfect!

Dhammakaya Symbol

The day commemorates the first sermon Buddha preached. Apparently, they all reach enlightenment - I think that's right. I'm sure there is more to the story, but that's the bare basic summery.

Anyway, Brian and I caught a mini bus to Victory Monument around 11a.m. for 100 baht each. Within an hour and a half we were in BKK. SCORE! We wondered around the mall until it was time to meet up with our friends. In this spare time, I took the liberty of getting my nails done! After all, it was my birthday the next day :)

We met our friends eventually at 5 p.m. at Mochit BTS station. I thought the ceremony started at 4, but they thought it started at 6. Trying to coordinate everyone was a nightmare. Needless to say, we were running late. Four of us took a taxi while the other two came a little later. Wouldn't you know the other two actually beat us to the temple. Our taxi driver was lost. ERG! At the time we were all freaking out, but we didn't miss much. More importantly, we didn't miss the actual ceremony. We didn't get our own individual candle for the ceremony because we were in the back :( But that's okay, it was still an amazing experience.

Victory Monument

Waiting for the BTS. We hauled those bags around with us for 2 days. Good practice :)

Riding the BTS home AFTER the ceremony. Love the white :)

I think there were over a million people there. It is the biggest gathering in Thailand. The pictures don't really do it justice.

Masses. A complete circle. This is only part of the circle too!!! Each candle represents at least one person. There are way more than one individual around a candle however.

Brian getting the shot! We snuck upstairs so we could have a birds eye view ;)

Why you ask do they have this huge compound? Because just like Buddha they are hoping to enlighten everyone. How you ask? Well, they are trying to get enough monks to reach enlightenment... I think the goal is 1,000? Enough to encompass the UFO shaped thing anyway. So once this magic number is reached, you can throw in 1 million people at a time to meditate with the enlightened monks. Apparently, meditating with enlightened individuals helps the process. Buddha was able to enlighten everyone with his first sermon, so their thought process is sort of the same. Why the UFO shape? I have no idea. I feel like they addressed this at the retreat, but I forget.

Right after the lighting

Of course there was tons of fireworks too!

Some of the many lantern thingys

Close up

The never ending line of fire

Top of the main temple

Its comprised of thousands of gold Buddha statues. Suppose to enhance meditation by merit :)

 These are our glamour shots.

 

After the ceremony we went out to dinner. It was really nice meeting up with everyone from the retreat. Brian and I didn't stay out to party. We were tired. I know technically it was my birthday at midnight, but this granny was tired :) All in all Magha Puja day and my birthday were very busy days filled with traveling, friends, and fun.

Meditation gals.

All of us. 'merica and teachers represent!

<3

Walking the empty grounds to the "spaceship" temple in the center.

Sip'n on some nam (water). Good thing about this temple - Free beverages :)

Another UFO temple at entrance to the Temple grounds. This is the one I went inside after Brian fainted. It is only opened on certain days... the day he fainted being one of them. I had to leave his bedside lol. It's very pretty inside. A beautiful fountain in the middle with a huge circular area around it to meditate on. Very peaceful.