Ahead of the Buddha's Birthday next Tuesday, Buddhist leaders in South Korea have unveiled celebratory sermons and speeches.

They expressed hopes for peace on the Korean Peninsula amid a reconcilliatory mood after the inter-Korean summit and adoption of the Panmunjeom Declaration. 

The Most Venerable Jinje, the supreme spiritual leader of the Jogye order, the nation’s largest Buddhist sect, said in a sermon on Friday that an era of peace and prosperity has unfolded on the Korean Peninsula. 

He said the way for South and North Korea to truly become one is for all people to get rid of conflict and distrust in their hearts through the practice of meditation and recover the homogeneity of the Korean people by understanding and caring for each other. 

The Most Venerable Seoljeong, Chief Administrator of the Jogye order, said in a celebratory speech that peace has come on the Korean Peninsula after a long winter of division. He urged the nation to rise above social classes and ideological differences to bring about peace.  

Next Tuesday marks the two-thousand-562nd birthday of the Buddha.