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For the celebration of Buddha’s birthday and Fo Guang Day, Hsi Lai Temple held the nine days event - Buddha’s birthday “Fo Guang Members Come Home”. On May 16th, over 600 people participated online Bathing the Buddha Celebration and Fo Guang Shan 55th Anniversary Global Buddha’s Light Simultaneous Sutra Transcription.
Celebrate Buddha’s Birthday through Bathing the Buddha Dharma Service
“Do good deeds, speak good words, and think good thoughts” was the main topic for Bathing the Buddha Dharma Service. It was led by the Abbot of Hsi Lai Temple Venerable Hui Dong. During the service, Venerable Hui Dong also led the participants to make the vow of “Practice the Three Acts of Goodness”. Venerable Hui Dong explained that through the Bathing The Buddha service we can purify our karma of body, speak and thought, and our internal Buddha.
Venerable Hui Dong also encourages everyone to practice The Six Perfections, which are “giving can eliminate the internal greed; morality can get rid of bad habits; patience can remedy the self-attachment and pride; perseverance can eliminate laxity and laziness; meditative concentration can remedy distraction; wisdom can remedy kinds of delusion and the wrong understandings”. Through the Six Perfections practice, we can let our mind at ease, and we should make a vow of practicing the three acts of goodness and four givings daily.
To celebrate Buddha’s Birthday, Fo Guang Shan Hsi Lai Temple held virtual Bathing the Buddha Dharma Service and promoted the Online Bathing Buddha website to the public. The decoration and the Bathing Pond were set up in front of the Main Shrine at Hsi Lai Temple. The surrounding diagrams, Eight Stages of Buddha’s Progress, are used to demonstrate Buddha’s life stages from birth to nirvana, and from ordinary people to the enlightened one. From May 15th to 23rd of 2021, Hsi Lai Temple is open to the public for the “Fo Guang Member come home” Bathing the Buddha Event. The public can make reservations online for different time slots to Bath the Buddha in person at the temple with masks and social distance required.
The Celebration of Fo Guang Shan 55th Anniversary Sutra Transcription
On May 16th, North America Fo Guang Members and their family participated in the Online Global Buddha’s Light Simultaneous Heart Sutra Transcription. Through the Celebration of Fo Guang Shan 55th Anniversary, happiness and gratitudes were spread out.
Through both events, Hsi Lai Temple delivered gratitude, love, and blessing to every corner around the world; like what has been stated in Gatha for Bathing the Buddha “I now sincerely bathe all Tathagatas, gaining merits of pure wisdom and majesty; may beings be free from defilements in all, thereby attain Tathagata's pure Dharma body”.
