My name is Phramaha Bhatsakorn Piyobhaso.
I would like to welcome you to the Buddhapadipa Temple, as a part of a 360 video.
The main temple was completed in 1981, and we started in 1979.
The building was designed by the national Thai architect, in a Thai style.
We wanted to show the western people that this is the Thai architecture.
At the moment there are seven resident monks.
The head monk is pretty old – 92 years old.
Quite often we have a visitor – like a visiting monk.
But, there are seven resident monks, and all of us are living in the big house.
In the Buddha shrine room, we have 4 basic things.
Buddha statue, candles, incense sticks and flowers.
For Buddhists, Buddha statues are not regarded as a worshipping idol.
When you pay respect to the Buddha, or the Buddha statue, the Buddha statue can remind
us
of the Buddha.
So it is used as an object to remind us of the teacher.
We use three incense stick to pay respect to the Buddha.
Candles to pay respect or homage to the dharma, teaching.
And then flowers to pay homage to the Sangha.
We have Buddha, the father of Buddhism, the dharma for teaching, Sangha; the holy order.
We call them Triple Gem.
We celebrate Magha Puja.
On that occasion, the Buddha has laid down three admonitions, or the conclusion of his
teaching: not to do all evil, to cultivate goodness and to refine one’s own mind.
We normally walk around the main temple, or even the pagoda, for three times.
After that we proceed to the basement, to do the group chanting, and after the group
chanting we listen to a dharma talk by the monks, and then after the talk we have the
alms-giving ceremony by putting the non-perishable food into the monk’s bowl.
So we have dāna, giving, sīla; being moral and then bhāvanā, mental development through
listening to the chanting and sometimes we even do a short meditation
We offer meditation class to English speaking adults, followed by a short dharma talk.
After that, meditation will take place.
Beginners will be instructed and guided.
Advanced meditators will be practising on their own.
We call it a day retreat.
We just meditate on your own, no instruction, we just do whatever meditation you prefer.
Mainly, they want a bit of fresh air, the meditators can go to that part of the temple
ground to meditate on their own, to do walking mediation, to do sitting under the tree.
So that no-one will go and disturb them.
Not all Buddhists practise meditation.
Because there are three basic practises – dāna; giving, sīla; being moral, and then bhāvanā;
mental development or meditation.
Many Buddhists simply like to do dāna; giving.
They enjoy giving, they enjoy sharing.
But, they don’t want to meditate.
So meditation is not a must, but it is an option.
In Buddhism, the people are not forced.
If they want to develop themselves, meditation is a choice.
The black Buddha statue was donated to the temple by the late king of Thailand.
Even the name was given by the late king of Thailand – Buddhapadipa.
When the late king died, we had a service for him.
And when we had the new king, we also had the blessing and chanting for his health,
and also for his long life as well.
This memory service, so when you would like to do the service for your beloved one that
died a long time ago, like on the date that they die.
So you can invite the monks to perform a chanting.
We call it mātikā chanting.
And then you offer a set of robe as an offering, and you offer a set of gifts and also a donation
to the monks in order to dedicate merit to those departed friends or relative.
We call it the blessed string.
When we do the normal blessing chanting, we link the white string from the Buddha statue,
because we are going to perform the chanting and we believe their energy will go through
the string, and we make holy water
On Sunday, we are always busy.
We have visitors, because as I said before, we also have the Buddhism day school.
The young children come to the temple to learn about Buddhism, Thai culture and Thai language.
Their parents would come here to do chanting, meditate also, and even to have a chat with
their friends and with their colleagues.
Most visitors are Thai, and they are Buddhists.
I thought most of them live in London, some of them may travel quite far – like two
or three hours to the temple.
I am proud of being a monk because I can help many people, and our job is to help people.
Help the people who suffer.
As a monk we are not married, so we don’t have family.
So we have time for the benefits of other people.