At 10 A.M today (May 18,
2551/2008) the Prime Minister Mr. Samak Sundaravej and the Minister of Defence Affairs
opened the meeting of international Buddhist leaders on Visakhapuja Day, the
internationally important day of the United Nations at the United Nations ESCAP
Hall (UNESCAP) in Bangkok.
On this occasion, the Prime Minister Mr. Samak Sundaravej gave a speech both in
English and Thai and a part of it states, “Visakhapuja is believed to be one of
the most internationally important days and so it has been promoted to be an
internationally important day of the United Nations. It
is the day when there occurred three important events: the birth of the Buddha,
his enlightenment and his passing away. Thus at this moment I want Thai people to recall the teaching of
the Buddha especially the four noble truths – that is the truth of suffering,
the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering and the
truth of the way to the end of suffering and personally use the noble doctrine in
daily life as well as in politics by analyzing the cause of any kind of problem
and trying to solve it in a reasonable way and then encourage the world
populace to know about the Buddha and embrace his teaching especially, the
teaching with which the Buddha got enlightenment and the love of observing the
five precepts.”
Mr. Choosak Sirinil, Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office, also delivered a
speech on this Visakhapuja day. He says that it is the most important day of
the nation that has been declared as the world’s internationally important day
and the government has thus arranged a week of promoting Buddhism on
Visakhapuja day between 15-19 May, 2551/2008 in Putthamonthon and invited the
people to participate in this. There is an arrangement of exhibition of the
biography of the Buddha, that of the king and the show related to Thai Buddhist
culture. Whatever, we must accept that in the present society, children and
young people keeps away from Buddhism to a great extent. The government tries
to bring children and young people to stay close to Buddhism by cooperating
with the department and agencies concerned such as giving training to the monks
to become better preachers on radio and television with regard to the Buddha’s
teachings in solving the social problems.
