Bodhi day will enlighten you

It is not your imagination. The end of the Gregorian calendar that predominates in the United States really is crowded with religious holidays.
There is one December holiday, Bodhi Day, which consistently falls on Dec. 8 and might have escaped your attention.

Bodhi means enlightenment, and Buddhists celebrate this as the day Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, achieved enlightenment through meditation.

For 2,500 years, the Buddha’s awakening has been the central theme and example of Buddhism.

This faith, founded in India and practiced throughout the world, has several guideposts. Buddhism’s four Noble Truths seem especially appropriate to think about in 2020, or 2563 in the Buddhist Era. The four truths are suffering, the cause of suffering, the end of suffering, and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering. Simply put, suffering exists; it has a cause; it has an end; and it has a cause to bring about its end.

The Bias Busters team has largely completed “100 Questions and Answers About American Buddhists,” and hopes to make it available this year, along with some others.

Until then, hear National Public Radio’s Scott Simon interview Takashi Miyaji of the Southern Alameda County Buddhist Church in Union City, California, about Bodhi Day.