Scotland Buddhist Vihara celebrates its 9th anniversary on the 26th of June 2010. We have organised a special anniversary pooja at the Vihara on Saturday the 26th June at 04:00 p.m. to mark this special day.
Programme for this day is as follows;
03:00 p.m. - 04:00 p.m. - Dhamma School and Sinhala class
04:00 p.m. - 05:00 p.m. - Special Pooja to celebrate 9th anniversary of the Vihara
2010 Rain Retreat invitation ceremony will be held on the Esala Full Moon day, Sunday the 25th July at the Vihara following the monthly Sil programme. Day’s programme is as follows;
09:00 a.m. – 03:00 p.m. – Sil programme
03:30 p.m. – 04:00 p.m. – Rain Retreat invitation
04:00 p.m. – 04:30 p.m. – Dhammacakkapawattana Sutta
05:00 p.m. - 06:00 p.m - Special Sermon By
The Most Venerable Muruththettuve Ananada Nayaka Thero of Abhayaramaya-Narahenpita- Colombo
From Saturday the 26th June a weekly pooja is organised at Vihara on every Saturday.
Our usual Dhamma school will be moved to Saturday afternoon (from Sunday afternoon) to fit in our schedules. The school will be held prior to the Buddha pooja.
Weekly Dhamma discussion is coordinated and hosted by Mr P. Weerathunga, visiting lecturer from the University of Sri Jayawardhanapura, Sri Lanka. Those who have participated in the Poson Full Moon Sil programme in June have witnessed how interesting the session was and it is something not to be missed by everyone. We thank Mr Weerathunga for his valuable input and knowledge sharing for the benefit of our devotees.
Programme for every Saturday is as follows;
03:00 p.m. – 04:00 p.m. – Dhamma School and Sinhala class
04:00 p.m. – 05:00 p.m. – Buddha pooja followed by Dhamma discussion
There will be 2 monks visiting the Scotland Buddhist Vihara from Sri Lanka starting from June. Our devotees have the opportunity to offer Dana for visiting and resident monks starting now.
Devotees may take a whole week to offer Dana and prepared Dana may offer once or more during the week taken. For the rest of the week they may provide raw materials allowing monks to prepare Dana their own.
If you wish to offer prepared Dana or raw materials, kindly contact the Vihara to reserve the day or week of your choice.
Pictures By Malitha Yatiwella
This year’s Wesak theme was “Bodhi” . Even though it was a holiday weekend, there were over 300 people visiting throughout the day. The day started with Buddhist chanting and the offering of flowers to the Bodhi Tree . The opening ceremony was held at the Tramway Stable 3, which was beautifully decorated with Buddhist flags and Wesak lanterns prepared by the Sunday School children of Scotland’s Buddhist Vihara.
There were three meditation sessions led by Venerable K Rewatha Thero and Silaketu. Every one enjoyed the metta meditation and in particular, the walking meditation by the beautiful water feature of the Hidden Garden. Meanwhile, the children were enjoying their drumming and story telling inside the yurt. Our thanks to the story teller and the drummer Eric, who comes every year with his drums.
The Dansela ( free food stall)was well attended and every one enjoyed the free food traditionally offered by the devotees of the Vihara as generosity in practice on the day of Wesak. This year’s delicious food was prepared by Mrs Sandya Ranasinghe and her family, with support from Janaka, Alex and the Gandhi family. All the devotees of the Vihara supported them by offering 52 items of dry food and Ice Cream.
This year, instead of having a symposium we invited Smutirathne, who is an Anigarika living in the forest, to be our key speaker. His topic was ‘Bodhi’ which was a well constructed sermon about the Enlightenment of Buddha.
The closing ceremony was held at the Bodhi tree by chanting the Metta Sutta in English, offering incense and wishing and radiating metta to all living being.
This year as in previous years, Wesak was celebrated with the Glasgow Buddhist Centre, Rokpa Glasgow and Scotland’s Buddhist Vihara. We are very grateful to the Hidden Garden and the Tramway for their support in making space available for the celebration of the festival. Wesak has become one of the main events in the Hidden Garden’s annual calendar of events.
Pictures By Malitha Yativella
