In Buddhism birth is regarded as the origin of suffering and impurity, whereas it also forms the physical basis indispensible for seeking and attaining awakening. Birth is both the starting points of incuring defilement and achieving sanctity.
Generally there are no specific birth rites or rituals that are performed across the Buddhist world. Although birth rites and practices vary from one country and culture to another, Buddhist celebration of a birth may involve three primary rituals, which include Blessing, Naming Ceremony, and Dedication Ceremony.
4 Types of Birth: Womb, Egg, Moisture / Heat, Apparitional / Miraculous.
Other scriptures relate how Siddhartha's mother was on her way to visit her parents and stopped at the Lumbini Gardens to bathe in a pond. There, her child was born in an unusual manner: from under her right arm. “It was a form of virgin birth,” Larson said. “He was so pure he couldn't emerge through the usual route.”
Birth: Lumbinī, Nepal
The Buddha emerged from his mother's side, as she stood leaning against a tree, in a painless and pure birth. He took seven steps and lotus flowers sprang up in his footsteps. A wise man predicted that this child would be either a great secular ruler or a great religious leader.
Buddhists recognise that there is a continuous cycle of life, death and rebirth. This cycle is known as samsara.
Our birthdays are anniversary days of when we were reborn, of when we returned to Samsara due to the Three Poisons (as the causes of rebirth). Thus, they offer no cause for congratulation, but for regret. With the coming of another (re)birthday, it also means we are one year closer to our death and next rebirth.
To clarify this complex movement of spiritual and religious thought and religious practice, it may help to understand the three main classifications of Buddhism to date: Theravada (also known as Hinayana, the vehicle of the Hearers), Mahayana, and Vajrayana.
Generally, Buddhist teaching views life and death as a continuum, believing that consciousness (the spirit) continues after death and may be reborn. Death can be an opportunity for liberation from the cycle of life, death and rebirth.
Buddhism is one of the world's largest religions and originated 2,500 years ago in India. Buddhists believe that the human life is one of suffering, and that meditation, spiritual and physical labor, and good behavior are the ways to achieve enlightenment, or nirvana.
Within the teachings on the Four Noble Truths, jāti refers to physical birth, and is qualified as dukkha (suffering): "Now this, monks, is the noble truth of dukkha: birth (jati) is dukkha, aging is dukkha, death is dukkha."
1st Birthday
Perhaps the most significant birthday milestone for many parents is the first one. At this age, your child has officially made it through their first year of life and is on the path to independence and learning.
So, as instructed, I start my every birthday by sitting down in front of my Buddhist shrine, ringing the gong three times to start the day, lighting candles and incense, and chanting out the Sadhana (the details of which are all about remembering the preciousness of this short, brilliant life—check the actual text, ...
There are no injunctions in Buddhism for or against organ donation. The death process of an individual is viewed as a very important time that should be treated with the greatest care and respect.
Although cremation is the most common choice among Buddhists, burial is also permissible. Individual traditions or sects do have specific funeral practices that practitioners usually follow but unlike Christianity, none of these would have any impact on the soul or eternal destiny of the practitioner.
Many Buddhists believe that a person's body can receive gifts and messages after they pass away, so they gather around them to pray and bestow presents. Buddhist mourning periods last up to 100 days, with services traditionally held on the third, seventh, 49th, and 100th day.
The rarest birthday of the 365 annual calendar days is Christmas Day, Dec. 25. If your birthday is New Year's Day or Christmas Eve, you also have uncommon birthdays.
We pray that, under the illumination of your Buddha light: May the child grow up to be well-behaved, and to live securely; May the child not be blinded and confused by vanity; May the child not be misled by temptation of the senses.
Not killing any living being.
The Four Noble Truths comprise the essence of Buddha's teachings, though they leave much left unexplained. They are the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering, and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering.