Easter, Songkran and Enlightenment

~ By Ajahn Amaro ~

These dates in the calendar, these events, these stories, symbolize or remind us of the fact that death can be transcended, that that is not the whole of the story and there is a way that the heart can free itself from the confines of birth and death. We can realize that which is unborn, undying, that which is unconditioned, that which is timeless, which is intrinsically transcendent, free from the limitations of birth and death. So it’s an encouraging time...

Songkran is the festival of the pouring water. The dry ground of the middle of the hot season is sprinkled, and then new life comes forth from the dry ground. So in a smilar way, it’s a recollection. These festivals at this time of the year are a way of recollecting that potential, that possibility that the heart can free itself from that dryness, that aridity, that barren quality.

We're also reminded of a T.S. Eliot's poem that begins: "April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land". April this year is cruel in other ways. In many many ways the challenge of the illness, the loss of so many loved ones, the decimation of life in society, the economies, and so many difficulties are cruel and challenging. But these festivals, these recollections that we have, Easter and Songkran, and the image of Enlightenment is reminding us that this kind of difficulties, of challenges, is not the whole story. There is a potential dimension of our being which is not limited by that, which is not confined or defined by these aspects of pain, difficulties and death.

(From 'Anger Management At Close Quarters’, a Dhamma talk with Q&A offered by Ajahn Amaro at Amaravati Monastery on 12 April 2020.

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