May is the month when most Buddhists...

May is the month when most Buddhists commemorate the birth, enlightenment and death of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha. The triple holiday will be celebrated by many of the Buddhist temples in the Southland on May 26, the Sunday closest to the May 28 full moon.

But the celebration of Vaisakha, also spelled Vesak, also has become an occasion to bring together practitioners of various national origins for joint observances under the umbrella of the Buddhist Sangha Council of Southern California.

The 11th annual Vaisakha celebration and seminar will be held today at the Dharma Seal Temple in Rosemead, starting at 10 a.m. with greetings by the Venerable Yin Hai, abbot of the host Chinese temple, and the Venerable Havanpola Ratanasara, council president.

“This most holy day of the Buddhist calendar is observed with great joy and reverence,” said the Venerable Karuna Dharma, vice president of the Sangha Council and abbess of the International Meditation Center in Los Angeles.

Monks and priests of various branches will contribute their distinctive chanting and prayers during the 10:30 a.m. religious ceremony, which culminates with the “bathing of the baby Buddha.” Sweet tea and flower petals will be poured over the standing bronze figure of the young Buddha by representatives of Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Sri Lankan, Thai, Tibetan and Vietnamese temples.

Karuna Dharma, an American-born Buddhist of Anglo descent, will be the main speaker at a seminar, starting at 12:30 p.m., on the difficulties of spreading Buddhist teachings in the United States.

Panel members responding are Nguyen Long of the Vietnamese Buddhist Temple of Los Angeles, the Venerable Setthakic Samahito of Wat Thai Temple of North Hollywood, the Rev. Noriaki Ito of Higashi Hongwanji of Los Angeles and Thomas Chang of the Society for Buddhist Renaissance.

PROTEST

United Methodist Bishop Jack M. Tuell, based in Pasadena, has protested the announced plans by the Walt Disney Co. to enter the gambling business through a subsidiary, Buena Vista Television. For a nationally syndicated daily program that Disney hopes will debut in the fall 1992, Disney proposes to team with an association of 22 state lotteries to create a cash pool for millions in prizes. Tuell, who earlier opposed the creation of the California State Lottery, said he wrote Michael Eisner, the chief executive officer of the Burbank-based company, asking, “How low can you sink in pursuit of the almighty dollar?” United Methodist bishops, meeting in early May, voted 67 to 0 to condemn Disney plans as “an abysmal travesty of the standards of family entertainment.”

Disney, in a statement, responded that the company “does not sanction gambling,” adding that its game show will be “entertaining for all viewers--whether they have ever bought a lottery ticket or not.”

DATES

Theologian Marjorie Suchocki will deliver the main address during the baccalaureate service at 10:30 a.m. Sunday for the Claremont Colleges graduates at Bridges Auditorium on the Pomona College campus. Suchocki, who joined the faculty at the School of Theology at Claremont last year, has authored two books on process theology, a metaphysical philosophy that many thinkers have applied to a Christian framework.

A clergy-lay group called Orthodox People Together--representing Greek, Russian and other Eastern Orthodox churches--plans a three-hour conference for 6 p.m. Sunday in Highland Park with spokesmen for the Coptic and Armenian Orthodox Churches, two of the so-called Oriental Orthodox Churches. Historical divisions have tended to isolate the different streams of Eastern Christianity, but ecumenical activities in recent decades--including membership in the World Council of Churches--have increased their contacts. The host church is Holy Virgin Mary Coptic Orthodox Church, 4900 Cleland Ave.