On this very same full-moon day of the month of Vesakha (May), 2633 years ago, SiddhatthaBodhisatta was born in the LumbiniPark near Kapilavatthu ; 2598 years ago, he became a fully Enlightened One at the age of 35 under the BodhiTree at Buddha-Gaya ; 2553 years ago, the Buddha passed away at the age of 80 at Kusinara.
In fact, for Buddhists, Visak is of great significance for the above-mentioned three events of the Buddha; among those three too, the Enlightenment of the Buddha was the most important and significant event, since it did bring the light and freedom to the world, for this reason, he is called The Bringer of Light and Freedom. Accordingly indeed, his arising in this world was, is, and will be for the good, welfare and happiness of the multitude, for gods and men, and even for animals and beings in the lowest realms. It was on this very full-moon Day of Visak that it all started in this world and that the triumph of the Buddha himself and the world alike took place.
In reality, Visak is an adapted word for "Vesakha", which is a Pali month name. The month of "Vesakha" is called KaSoneLa in Myanmar, and usually coincides with May. This is the reason why it is so called Visak. Now the word "Visak" has become an international word, noted even on the United Nations calendar.
On this VisakDay, it is a common tradition for Buddhists all over the world to pour fragrant and pure water at the Bodhi Trees at the pagoda platforms or temples in commemoration of the Buddha or as a mark of honoring the Buddha, remembering his unique virtues and match-less qualities. In addition, Maha Paritta, some Suttas (Discourses) and Patthana are either individually or in groups chanted together with observing the precepts, teaching and listening to the Dhamma, cultivating loving-kindness and practicing meditation. In this way, on this full-moon Day of Visak, the followers of the Buddha all over the world spend their time rightly and wisely. It is on this very Visak-full-moon Day that the hearts of Buddhists are truly imbued with merit and virtues. What a marvelous, precious and lucrative Day for the Buddhists!
08 Mar 2009 THE four giant "Galilean" moons orbiting Jupiter are the last survivors of at least five generations of moons that once circled the gas giant.
"All the other moons - and there could have been 20 or more - were devoured by the planet in the early days of the solar system," says Robin Canup of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. The four Galilean moons have played a key role in the history of science - their discovery by Galileo 400 years ago provided irrefutable evidence that not all bodies orbited the Earth. But until recently, nobody had suspected that Jupiter had once had many more moons.
Astronomers have long been aware of a mystery thrown up by simulations of the way Jupiter and its moons formed, says Canup. These models indicate that the mass of the debris disc around Jupiter, from which the moons formed, was several tens of a per cent of the mass of giant planet. And yet only 2 per cent is enough to make the moons we see today.
Now Canup and her colleague William Ward believe they know why. The extra mass can be explained if other moons formed while the debris disc was still present (www.arxiv.org/abs/0812.4995). "A key process is therefore the interaction between the growing moons and the disc material still flowing in from the solar system," says Canup. This interaction would have caused the early moons to spiral in towards Jupiter and eventually be "eaten".
This would explain the discrepancy in the earlier simulations, says Canup: as one set of moons was swallowed, a new set immediately began to form. "There could have been five generations of moons," she says. "The current Galilean moons formed just as the inflow of material into the disc from the solar system choked off, so they escaped the fate of their unfortunate predecessors."
According to Canup and Ward, in each generation the total mass of the moons was the same, but the number of moons could have varied. "We think something similar happened around Saturn, where the last generation contained one giant moon - Titan," says Canup.
This could have implications for the solar system as a whole. Rocky planets may take as long as 10 million years to aggregate, chunk by chunk. The process continues long after the debris disc around the sun has blown away, so these planets would not have been at risk of spiralling inwards.
In contrast, the gaseous cores of gas giants like Saturn and Jupiter condense out of the solar debris disc very quickly via gas shrinkage. This means they would have had time to interact with the debris disc. John Papaloizou of the University of Cambridge says it is entirely conceivable that the sun may have swallowed numerous gas cores before the current stable configuration of the solar system emerged.
01/09/2008 YANGON - MYANMAR opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is well but has lost some weight, her lawyer said on Monday, following reports that she had refused new food supplies since Aug 15.
Mr Kyi Win, who met Ms Suu Kyi at her Yangon home where she has been under house arrest for five years, said she had not indicated whether or not she was on a hunger strike.
'I am well, but I have lost some weight. I am a little tired and I need to rest,' Mr Kyi Win quoted the 63-year-old Nobel Peace laureate as saying during their 30 minute meeting. -- REUTERS Breaking News
