On the 10th February 2024 is the annual celebration of Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year is known also as the Spring Festival.
It is where there's the intention to celebrate the new season of spring.
Because before spring,
There's snow in China,
And the people are unable to do any agriculture.
When the season changes to spring,
Then they can plant crops and food for their livelihood,
And greenness appears.
So Chinese people establish each year on the first day of the spring season,
When the leaves begin to sprout,
As being important,
Called Chinese New Year,
The start of the new year.
Here there's a good and beautiful tradition,
Where the night before Chinese New Year,
On the last day of the year,
Coming to the new year,
It's a day to enjoy.
And those who work outside of their hometown,
Who are able to,
Will come back to celebrate the new year.
This is the tradition.
And at night,
Each of them will sit around the dinner table,
And give blessings to one another.
This is done with happiness.
It is called Sukhasa Samaghi.
The harmony of a group,
Of relatives,
Brings up happiness.
It is complete with a happy mind and body.
There are smiles,
And the sound of laughter.
Their minds are contented.
And at midnight,
They will start to make food.
The northern people of China will make dumplings.
The southern Chinese people will make desserts,
And make noodles.
They have fun with joyful minds.
On the next day,
They will visit relatives,
And give blessings.
So this tradition is beautiful.
And there is metta,
Goodwill,
Loving-kindness towards each other.
They have love and harmony together.
And here,
When it comes to this important day,
They will express katanyugatavedita,
Gratitude.
And a grateful person is hard to find in this world.
And this quality has two aspects to it.
There is pupakarichana.
This is someone who helps others,
Without wanting anything in return.
Parents fall under this aspect.
And the other aspect of gratitude is knowing their virtues,
And thinking to repay the goodness we have received.
So this is called katanyugatavedita,
Which is an important virtue.
So we will think of the ancestors who have passed away.
And for the Chinese people,
They will prepare food,
And offerings towards the deceased ancestors.
So this is remembering those who have passed away,
Doing a ceremony to remember them,
Giving them respect,
And giving offerings to them.
This is hailed as repaying their virtue,
After they have passed away.
So this is one aspect of the tradition.
And another is of the spiritual quality of dana,
Giving things.
There is gifting of red pockets to children,
To give them encouragement,
And to bless the children to have happiness.
And the children will have respect for their elders.
They give their thanks to the adults that have helped and nurtured them.
And we probably will have heard about this since young,
If we have a close relationship with the Chinese society.
They have a very big celebration,
And eat together.
And there may be special foods they eat,
For long life,
Eating noodles,
Fish,
Special cakes,
And so on.
And these days there may have been more added to it.
So there are visits to relatives,
Siblings,
And friends.
Here we can see that this tradition is associated with dhamma.
In the 38 blessings,
One of them is to give blessings to each other.
This speech is a polite speech,
Subhasita vajra.
And there is a blessing of supporting one's parents,
And assistance to one's children,
Assistance to one's wife,
Being together by looking after each other in a family.
So these words are words that are subhasita,
Auspicious and pleasant.
They are words that have a lot of value.
And they must be true as well,
Not making it up.
They are polite words.
They are pleasant to listen to.
They aren't harsh or criticizing.
It is spoken,
And it has benefit.
The listener takes it to practice in promoting their lives to be better.
And what is important is about the heart,
That the heart is imbued with metta,
Goodwill.
We have good intentions to the one listening.
We are sincere to the ones who respect and listen to us.
But however it is,
Those who are speaking need to know the appropriate time and place.
So in the new year of each country,
It is about building encouragement in others,
And to give blessings.
There is the International New Year on the 1st of January every year,
The Thai New Year on the 13th of April,
Known as Songkran,
Where there is pouring water and expressing respect.
It is Laddan World Day on the 13th of April,
Pouring water and expressing respect.
It is Laddan with good and beautiful traditions.
And each nationality and religion has this.
And so in summary,
It's about having metta for each other.
There is generosity in sharing the things we have gained.
And for Asian people,
It strongly emphasizes on the aspect of repaying one's parents,
Because they are the ones who have given everything to their children.
If the children are able to repay their parents,
They should do it fully,
Because it may be the time that they are old already.
The parents are teachers to their children,
The Deva of their children,
The Brahma God of their children,
And the Venerable Arahant of their children.
So when it gets to the time of Chinese New Year,
The children and grandchildren gather together and give blessings and encouragement to the elderly.
And then those who are older have encouragement to live on.
This comes from encouragement,
Because we can see that people of 80 years old will tend to go and think back to what they were like as a child.
Where were we?
In what place?
This natural instinct makes us aware of the passing by and change which has arisen already.
We can notice that people who are 90 years old think of the older generation that had been together with them and they knew before,
Who is still left of them.
Because at 90 to 100 years old,
We all know there is little chance to get to 100.
If one has the merit of a long life,
Then they can get to more than 100.
But at 90 to 100 years old,
It's like a leaf that can fall any time.
So the tradition of Chinese New Year is a gathering of relatives.
The adults and elders see the children and grandchildren and are encouraged to keep struggling to live on so they can be a refuge for the children and grandchildren.
The children have encouragement and they see the elderly and have happiness and harmony.
So this tradition has all forms of goodness imbued in it.
Especially in Thailand,
Around Chinese New Year,
This tends to be the preferred time where there is merit-making by installing the Sima stones for an Uposatha hall.
Around Chinese New Year,
Then people start to stop work for many days.
In the monasteries,
They may have ceremonies like casting Buddha statues or sticking gold leaf on the Sima stones and installing them.
Or there is the building of Uposatha halls in order to conduct Sangha transactions.
This is for new monks coming to ordain and to extend the Buddha's dispensation.
And everyone supports it with their faith.
Many come out and stick gold on the Sima stones and install them in the monasteries.
They may like to do this in nine monasteries.
Doing it in just one monastery and there is merit arising.
But doing it in many monasteries,
The mind may have more ease arising.
This comes from their effort,
Diligence and firm intentions to build goodness.
When they have got to the seventh or eighth monastery,
The mind is more cool.
They get to the ninth monastery and the mind can be peaceful.
But for someone with merit and bhārami,
Spiritual development,
Just sticking gold leaf in one monastery and the mind is peaceful and cool,
And then they can just sit practicing meditation.
But whatever our situation is,
Let us think that in the new year,
How will we have metta in our hearts?
Every day is a new day.
Every month is a new month.
So try to make our minds to be new.
This is a new day arising every day.
We will have hearts of metta and compassion.
The elderly share with the children.
The children have respect.
So this is important.
Everyone is making their minds new.
But is this mind new?
Originally,
The mind is papasara,
Bright,
Radiant.
The bright mind is the heart.
It hasn't yet received sense impingements.
The mind is still.
When you notice it,
It's like a baby that is born.
The eye is pure.
Why?
Because they are born and still innocent.
Being born and they haven't yet received any sense impingements in the world.
They have not yet received the conventional sensory input yet.
Then they get older and start to have conventions arise.
They know more languages.
And they have more sense of self arise continually.
The mind that is innocent has gradually changed.
It has more pollutants.
It is lowered.
That is,
The mental defilements come in afterwards.
And it enters the heart by way of the eye,
Ear,
Nose,
Tongue,
Body and mind.
And each time receiving this,
There is a self,
Self,
Self.
Each time.
And it makes the heart to be polluted.
Here,
If every day we re-discipline ourselves,
Then we are born anew.
And we make the heart newly radiant.
These days,
There is a preference of detoxing the body.
So have a new mind arise.
See it as a new day.
Whatever has passed,
We can't change it.
So we forgive it all.
We establish ourselves in the present anew.
Have a heart that develops metta meditation towards each other.
Share good things with each other.
Be generous to one another,
Not arguing and disputing.
Have the view that everyone wants to have happiness and doesn't want suffering all the same.
We don't harm each other.
Then life starts to have happiness and peace.
We take in less external sensory input.
Because for people,
It tends to be that being young,
We have more strength to struggle.
But getting older,
We want to have peace,
Not having too many troubles and distractions.
We want external peace and internal peace,
Which is a still mind that is radiant.
And so we learn about the mind that proliferates and understand its nature,
And it is conventions arising.
Because when we were children,
We didn't know this.
A thing enters,
Being conventional reality,
And we attach to it continually.
The mind is then polluted continually.
Then when we get older and know about the practice,
Then we know that,
Oh,
That which pollutes the mind is just the views in the mind.
When we have the wisdom and see that sense objects are simply sense objects and the mind is simply a mind,
Then we can separate them out.
We have samadhi,
Concentration,
Then we separate it out with concentration.
We have wisdom,
Then we separate it out with wisdom,
Knowing that it is not our true self.
But to say this when they are a child,
That there isn't a true self,
It won't be possible.
Because for them,
It's all about just a sense of self,
A me and them.
So here we must talk about sila-dhamma,
Morality and goodness.
So the tradition of Chinese New Year is about sila-dhamma and goodness imbued within it.
The older generations,
The parents and grandparents,
They teach future generations to have gratitude and to repay those who have virtue to them,
And to have harmony and sharing together.
May you all have dhamma as your foundation.
Have Chinese New Year each day in the heart.
Establish the systems in the mind for it to be radiant always.
May you have happiness and prosperity in your life.
May you have harmony together.
And this is a defining characteristic that Chinese families have had for a long time.
May you meet with success and prosperity.
May you grow in blessings.
