Reflections on Vesak 2025 in Bangkok

A Gathering of Wisdom and Unity

On May 12, 2025, Bangkok hosted a magnificent celebration of Vesak, bringing together Buddhist leaders, scholars, and practitioners from around the world to honor the birth, enlightenment, and passing of the Buddha. This year’s theme, "Harmony and Inclusivity for Human Dignity: Buddhist Insights for World Peace and Sustainable Development,"framed profound discussions on how Buddhist principles can actively contribute to peace and sustainability.

Among the guests, Carlo Luyckx, President of the Belgian Buddhist Union and Vice-President of the European Buddhist Union, delivered a the speech mentioned below on the significance of engaged Buddhism. He emphasized the importance of mindful action, ethical living, and interconvictional dialogue as crucial means to achieve global harmony. His reflections touched on environmental ethics, non-violence, and the need for interfaith understanding—all critical elements in shaping a more compassionate and sustainable world.

Speech on the occasion of the United Nations Vesak 2025 in Thailand

by Carlo Luyckx, president of the Belgian Buddhist Union, vice-president of the European Buddhist Union

Eminences, Venerable Members of the Sangha, Ladies and Gentlemen, dear friends,

My congratulations to the organizers of this United Nations Day of Vesak celebration in Thailand, which is auspiciously completing the successful and inspiring UN Vesak celebration held in Vietnam this week. I was very happy to hear that the declaration that came out of this included the principle of engaged Buddhism. Engaged Buddhism is an essential part of the skillful means and the wisdom needed for Buddhism to concretely contribute to the realization of World Peace and Sustainable Development.

To reach harmonious solutions for both world peace and sustainable development, to avoid conflict situations or to solve them, be it on a local or on a global level, we must be able to act with perfect equanimity. Buddhism gives us the methods and instruments to do this, individually as well as collectively. The eightfold path and the six paramitas are among these methods, for which one does not necessarily need many years of academic study, and which can be applied by everyone in daily life.

When I took refuge in 1971, my teacher told me never to work for the arms industry. This refers to the first precept, not to take life, directly or indirectly. Producing arms is indeed not the same as killing, but it involves some kind of complicity with those who are using those arms to kill people or animals.

This indirect way of taking life also applies to what we eat. To feed eight billion humans, we kill every year over sixty billion land animals and one thousand billion sea animals. These are the figures given by the FAO, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization. One fifth of the meat produced for consumption is wasted, which means that twelve billion land animals are killed for nothing. Thirty-five percent of sea animals are wasted, which means 350 billion of fish and shellfish are killed for nothing. This is without counting that every year, according to the FAO, seven million tons of fish are caught unnecessarily, as well as large numbers of marine mammals, turtles and birds caught in nets. This mass killing, unequalled in human history, poses a major ethical challenge. The countless written testimonies and covertly filmed footage in slaughterhouses are horrifying. However, the result of this cruel slaughtering is nicely wrapped up to be sold in the supermarkets. When it comes on the table nobody seems to have any consideration for or, more surprisingly, any knowledge about the suffering endured by these sentient beings that have become a “product”.

Buddhism does not believe that this world and the humans have been created by some supreme being who also created the animals to be their food, to give their skins and to serve them in many ways. Humans are gifted with a kind of intelligence different from that of animals, but this difference does not imply superiority. It does not give humans the kind of divine right to decide over life and death of other forms of life. As Buddhists, if we are not able to renounce eating meat, and if we have not yet attained the state of a Bodhisattva who can liberate the consciousness of the animal by eating its meat, then we should at least be aware and mindful of the suffering the animals we are eating have endured and thankfully make wishes for their rebirth in circumstances favorable to their enlightenment. We can in any case try to eat less meat, which is good for our health and for the environment.

From the point of view of sustainable development, the production of one kilo of beef generates fifty times more greenhouse gas emissions than the production of one kilo of wheat. Livestock farming contributes eighteen percent of greenhouse gas emissions, second only to buildings and ahead of transport.

The second thing my teacher told me when he was giving me refuge, was that as a Buddhist I should respect all religions and philosophies. Taking an interest in the beliefs of others and respecting them in no way undermines our own convictions. On the contrary, encountering other forms of thought and spiritual practice can only encourage us to reflect on the validity of our own philosophy or religion and, consequently, to deepen our understanding of it. History shows that religions and ideologies are at the source of many conflicts and even wars. Therefore, if Buddhism wants to contribute to world peace, organizing interconvictional dialogue and participating in it is certainly a skillful way to do it. Thanks to the United Nations Day of Vesak celebration since more than two decades, an intense dialogue and mutual appreciation has been possible between the many Buddhist schools of both the Pali and Sanskrit traditions. In order to reach unity, harmony and inclusivity, it is my sincere wish and prayer that through the decision to hold the 2026 United Nations Day of Vesak in China, this unique opportunity will be seized to reopen the dialogue between the Chinese authorities and the holders in exile of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions that are now flourishing all over the world.

Thank you for your attention.

Carlo Luyckx