Buddhist Singing

Wesak – a Celebration of Buddha and Christ?

BBC’s Religion and Ethics page writes “Wesak is the most important of the Buddhist festivals and is celebrated on the full moon in May. It celebrates the Buddha's birthday, and, for some Buddhists, also marks his birth and death.”

In the Esoteric Teachings, Alice A. Bailey writes, “The day of the Festival is to be known as the "day of safeguarding" whilst the two succeeding days are called the "days of distribution."

Torkom Saraydarian has written and lectured extensively on Wesak. In the book Cosmos in Man, he writes:

“At this time, as the Full Moon is approaching, the Great Ones, the Initiates and disciples are forming a great field of energy in the Himalayas, through their meditation, contemplation, mystical and sacred rituals, and through Their great striving, invocations and contacts. This is the field which will be charged more and more by the presence of Christ, and through the blessings of the Great Lord Buddha; it will provide a chalice for cosmic energy, and a channel through which these energies can pass to the kingdoms of nature. This energy field is formed of the four cosmic ethers and, as a huge cloud formation, spreads itself all over the world.

“All those who are sensitive enough to this energy field will slowly notice that seeds of great beauty, truth, and goodness start to bloom within their hearts. All those who love their fellow man, all those who really work for the unity of mankind, who really strive beyond their physical satisfactions to reach and touch this field of energy, will be impressed by new age visions, ideas and goals.”

I decided years ago that our TSG Annual Conference would take place to coincide with Wesak. I wanted to celebrate this time with friends and family in a very special setting and special programs. I went to work to create an event that would stay in the memory of every participant and that memory would be a continuous source of joy and upliftment and we have succeeded in doing so since 2000!

Several kinds of memories and experiences helped me make this decision. One was the special energy I felt every time I attended a Wesak lecture and meditation. Whether the speaker was Torkom or another person, the energy was always electric. I have forgotten the contents of the lectures, but I have never forgotten that special feeling, that impressed inner joy.

The second was the feeling I had at every annual conference that Torkom presented. These were intense five days of lectures, meditations, and visualizations held in the summers in Sedona. I felt like every part of my nature was getting cleaned out and re-aligned. The joy of meeting old friends, sitting together hour after hour, and doing mental and spiritual work together unified me in heart and soul. The events and participants were disciplined and on a very high spiritual level. It was like a mini monastery experience with devoted disciples. The impressions and friendships have been long lasting. They were magical days and I wanted to recapture this feeling after Torkom passed away.

Another reason for my decision was to have an outer celebration of what the mysteries tell us happens on the inner planes: the symbolic joining together of two spiritual traditions. I wanted to experience what this feels like with others of like mind and heart. I did not want this time to be spent in religious or academic discussion but rather a time where an inner experience is impressed and acknowledged in our life. Wesak is not the time for intellectual curiosity, but rather a time of worship, remembrance, healing, understanding, connecting, uniting, and accepting the vastness of the universes and the vastness and beauty of the Divine Guidance received through so many Great Ones. I wanted to organize something that would resonate in the unifying heart of every participant. I wanted to focus on how to unite rather than divide in our actions, feelings, and speech and thinking. I wanted an outer reflection of the work that takes place on the inner planes.

So what happens at our annual Wesak Conferences? I usually present a series of lectures focusing on a specific topic. I try to stretch and expand our minds by the lectures and meditations and the overall experience. This year (2008), the topic is our Spiritual Legacy: what is it that lasts life after life and gives meaning and sustenance to our life? How do we build the inner mechanism that will heal us and bring us into life situations that are truly blessed and deeply meaningful? I will speak about emotional healing, about our life narrative and what it is based on, and about the spiritual education and practice that builds our true legacy. We have plenty of time to do group meditation and intense visualizations for clearing, healing, and connecting our consciousness. We discuss high-level Teachings with each other in small groups and learn how to understand the Teaching without mental posturing or personal opinions. We dig deep into the Teaching and try to understand it as a group. The group mind brings out so many hidden treasures of meaning. It is tremendously satisfying for all of us to see how we all experience the “aha” moments as light bulbs go off one by one!

We also do something that is my favorite part of the program: we sing together, using the sacred songs that Torkom wrote and composed. I love these songs and have a passionate interest in hearing them sung with understanding. I rely on my feeling of the song, its rhythm, and the message and meaning it is trying to impart. These are not the usual sacred songs or the usual church songs. They are really different. The key to singing is to use the musical sounds and simple words to understand our relation to the greater whole in a way that is totally different from the intellectual approach. Music surpasses the intellect and goes straight to the heart and intuition. It moves us and influences us in ways that are not easily expressed. Music and sacred songs realign our bodies and clear our aura of disturbing patterns and inharmonious recordings.

I have also formulated sacred dances and movements that we do as a group. We learn how to walk in rhythm and move in rhythm and together learn a dance ritual that combines movement, songs, and candlelight to give a beautifully balanced feast for all our senses. On Wesak eve, we have a special program of songs, dance ritual, and group meditation and Holy Communion.

A participant once told me “I don’t dance Gita.” So, I said, “fine, but just humor me and walk and move with the group and you will see what happens.” He did. At first, he felt tired. The next day, he had more energy. By the third day, he was the first in line and ready to move! Both sound and movement act to move energy and, when they are specially organized and composed and sung, there is a tremendous effect in our life. You have to do it to experience it!

We have been very fortunate to have the Lutheran Retreat Center in Carefree, Arizona to hold our events. It is so beautiful and serene with special desert landscaping. The desert is a beautiful and suitable place for such expansion. It is so big, broad, and open that it begs for our minds to knock down walls and expand and broaden our consciousness. Often, as we sing and dance and listen to lectures, various desert birds entertain us with their flights and songs on the surrounding trees. You cannot be insular or limited in the desert. It forces you to open and expand. It moves the walls of separation and makes you see a much bigger picture, as far as you dare to look.

Esotericists have long believed that this special day, and more specifically, the exact time of the Taurus full moon, something very special happens to our planetary consciousness: that the Buddha arrives from higher, celestial realms and pours out blessings to a gathering of Masters. The legend says that the Lord Christ is at the head of the gathering and receives the bolt of energy and then distributes it to all the Masters present, which in turn release the energy blessings to the world.

For some people, this is about as far fetched as it gets! For me, it does not really matter how it happens. I know that on the inner planes, there is no division of religions, of Buddha or Christ or any other Great One. It is an event that is steeped in mystery but in that mystery is the truth of unity and oneness of God.

More importantly, it is a point of inner contact. This is Wesak at its foremost symbolism, the point of contact between East and West, between heart and mind, between all Great Ones and humanity, between groups and individuals, between group members, and between our daily personality life and our soul. It is a symbolic marriage in its best form, presented to us in a mysterious tale of contact between the Lord Buddha and by the Lord Christ.

This is the spiritual New Year for esotericists. It is the beginning of the Zodiacal cycles and for this reason, it is a perfect time for a spiritual retreat before we position our life in the coming New Year.

At Wesak, I encourage everyone to find time to sit quietly and contemplate on what your life means. Think about your spiritual path and what you are doing to enhance your life in its inner dimensions. Meditate on the meaning of contact and try to come into contact with your inner, core beliefs. If everything is stripped from your life, what are the core principles that operate in your life?

Think as a unified humanity. On this day, we want to take our walls down and expand out to the horizon. On this day, we want to experience the feeling of sacredness and heal our hearts and minds. We want to use the energies of goodwill and higher contact to foster greater meaning to our life. As these higher contacts filter down to our daily life, we become better men and women, better wives and husbands, better loved ones, better parents and better friends; we become better human beings and see each human being in the light of the heart and mind.

What happens on the inner planes also happens on the outer planes when dedicated human beings take the time to link and love and unite.

www.tsg-uk.org (UK)

www.tsgfoundation.org (USA)

About the Author

Gita Saraydarian is the Founder and President of TSG Foundation, and TSG University. She is the daughter of Torkom Saraydarian. Gita is a teacher and lecturer on the Ageless Wisdom Teachings and has established a worldwide audience as a creative educator for progressive ideas, transformation, and goodwill. TSG has offices in
London, Peru, Germany and USA

Read more about Gita

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