Friends:

How to be a Real  Buddhist through Observance?

The Bak Poya day is the full-moon of April. This holy day celebrates
that the Buddha visits Ceylon for the second time to reconcile two
local chiefs Mahodara and Cūlodara, uncle & nephew, who had fallen
into war threatening hostility about a throne beset with Jewels...
The story shows the Buddha as top diplomat & is given in full below!

On such Full-Moon Uposatha Poya Observance days:
Any Lay Buddhist simply joins the Three Refuges and undertakes the
Five Precepts like this: Newly bathed white-clothed clean bare feet,
one kneels at a shrine with a Buddha-statue, and bows first 3 times,
so that feet, hands, elbows, knees & head touch the floor. Then, with
joined palms at the heart, one recites these memorized lines in a loud,
calm & steady voice:

As long as this life lasts:
I hereby take refuge in the Buddha.  
I hereby take refuge in the Dhamma.
I hereby take refuge in the Sangha.
I hereby seek shelter in the Buddha for the 2nd time.
I hereby seek shelter in the Dhamma for the 2nd time.
I hereby seek shelter in the Sangha for the 2nd time.
I hereby request protection from the Buddha for the 3rd time.
I hereby request protection from the Dhamma for the 3rd time.
I hereby request protection from the Sangha for the 3rd time.
I will hereby respect these Three Jewels the rest of my life!

I accept to respect & undertake these 5 training rules: 
I hereby accept the training rule of avoiding all Killing.
I hereby accept the training rule of avoiding all Stealing.
I hereby accept the training rule of avoiding all Sexual Abuse.
I hereby accept the training rule of avoiding all Dishonesty.
I hereby accept the training rule of avoiding all Alcohol & Drugs.
As long as this life lasts, I am thus protected by these 5 precepts... 

Then, one keeps and protects these sacred vows better than one's
own eyes & children!, since they protect you & all other beings much
better than any army! They are the highest offer one can give in/to
this world! The journey towards Nibbāna: The Deathless is started!
This is the Noble Way to Peace, to Freedom, to Ease, to Happiness,
initiated by Morality, developed further by Dhamma-Study and
fulfilled by training of Meditation...

Today indeed is Pooya or Uposatha Observance day, where any lay
Buddhist normally keeps also the Eight Precepts from sunrise until 
next dawn. If any wish official recognition by the BhikkhuSangha,
they may easily forward the lines starting with "I hereby" signed by
name, date, town, & country to me or join here.  Public list of this new
quite rapidly growing global web Saddhamma-Sangha is set up here!

The New Noble Community of Buddha's Disciples: Saddhamma Sangha:      
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/sangha/Saddhamma_Sangha.htm

Can quite advantageously be Joined Here:
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/sangha/Sangha_Entry.htm
May your journey hereby be light, swift, and sweet. Never give up !!

Bhikkhu Samahita: what.buddha.said@gmail.com
For Details on The Origin of Uposatha Observance Days:     
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/uposatha.html

Reuniting those who are divided, by bringing harmony:
Now the most compassionate Teacher, the Conqueror, rejoicing in
the salvation of the whole world, when dwelling at Jetavana in the
fifth year of his Buddhahood, saw that war, caused by a gem beset
throne, was like to come to pass between the nagas Mahodara and
Cūlodara, uncle and nephew and their followers! The SamBuddha,
then on the Uposatha day of the dark half of the month Citta, in the
early morning, took his sacred alms bowl and his robes, and, out of
compassion for the nagas, sought the Nagadipa. At that time the
same naga Mahodara was then king, gifted with miraculous powers,
in a nagas kingdom in the ocean, that covered half a 1000 yojanas.
His younger sister had been given in marriage to the naga king on
the Kannavaddhamana mountain; her son was Cūlodara. His mothers
father had given to his mother a splendid throne of jewels, then the
naga had died and therefore was this war between nephew & uncle
threatening! The nagas of the mountains were also armed with many
miraculous powers. The deva Samiddhisumana took his rajayatana
tree standing in Jetavana, his own fair habitation, holding it like a
parasol over the Conqueror, he, with the Teachers leave, attended
him to that spot where he had formerly dwelt. That very deva had
been, in his latest birth, a man in Nagadipa. On the very spot where
thereafter the rajayatana tree stood, he had seen paccekabuddhas
taking their meal. And at the sight his heart was glad & he offered
branches to cleanse their alms bowls. Therefore he was reborn in
that very same tree in the pleasant Jetavana garden, outside of the
gate rampart. The God of all gods saw in this an advantage for that
deva, and, for the sake of the good which should spring therefrom
for Ceylon, he brought him there together with his tree. Hovering
there in midair above the battlefield, the Master, who drives away

spiritual darkness, called forth dreadful darkness over the nagas!
Then comforting those who were distressed by terror he once again
spread light abroad. When they saw the Blessed One, they joyfully
did reverence to the Masters feet. Then the Vanquisher preached

to them the Dhamma that makes concord, & both nagas gladly gave
up the throne to the Sage. When the Master, having alighted on the
earth, had taken his place on a seat there, and had been refreshed
with celestial food and drink served by the naga kings, he, the Lord,
established in the three refuges and in the 8 moral precepts eighty
kotis of snake-spirits, dwellers in the ocean and on the mainland.
The nagaking Maniakkhika of Kalyāni, maternal uncle to this naga
Mahodara, who had come there to take part in the battle, and who
before, at the Buddhas first coming, having heard the true Dhamma
preached, had become established in the 3 refuges & in the moral
duties, prayed now to the Tathagata: Great is the compassion that
you have shown us here, Master! Had you not appeared we had all
been consumed to ashes. May your compassion yet settle also and
especially on me, you who are rich in friendly loving kindness, please
peerless one come again back here to my home country. When the
Lord had consented by his silence to return, then he planted the
rajayatana tree on that very spot as a sacred memorial, & the Lord
of the Worlds gave over the rajayatana tree & the precious throne
seat to the naga kings to do homage thereto: In remembrance that
I have used these do homage to them naga kings! This, well beloved,
will bring to pass many blessings & happiness to you for a long time!
When the Blessed One had uttered this and other exhortations to
the nagas, he, the compassionate saviour of all the world, returned
to the Jetavana monastery.

Here ends the explanation of the Visit to Nagadipa.

Source: Mahavamsa I:44. The Great Chronicle of Ceylon.
Translated. By Wilhelm Geiger 1912; reprinted in 1980.
http://www.pariyatti.com/book.cgi?prod_id=130010I

Bak Poya Day!