Dharma Drum Vancouver Centre Connected to the DDM Great Compassion Water and Land Dharma Service for Group Practice of "Liang Emperor's Repentance Ritual"

From November 28^th to December 3^rd, Dharma Drum Vancouver Centre held Dharma Drum Mountain Great Compassion Water and Land Dharma Service for group practice of "Liang Emperor's Repentance Ritual" with Dharma Drum Mountain World Center for Buddhist Education in Taiwan through a live stream. In the brightly illuminated Grand Hall, devout followers gathered in an orderly and dignified manner. The timekeeper, Ven. Chang Wei, began by explaining that, the commonly known as "Liang Emperor's Repentance," originally titled the "Repentance Dharma of Kindness and Compassion in the Bodhimanda" (慈悲道場懺法, in Chinese), is a scripture intended for the practitioners to generate repentance and compassion. Using the editor of the Repentance Ven. Bao Zhi (寶誌禪師)'s story of being invited to watch a traditional opera, Ven. Chang Wei urged everyone to be diligent in spiritual cultivation for the sake of the momentous matter of life and death. The Venerable further indicated that delivering the deceased from suffering is performing Buddhist service, which involves speaking the words uttered by the Buddha, as well as performing the Buddha's deeds, arousing bodhi-mind, and as avoiding all evil deeds while performing good deeds. Under the guidance of the Venerable, everyone respectfully performed repentance prostrations with a peaceful state of body and mind.

The Liang Emperor's Repentance text consists of ten volumes and forty chapters. Starting from the chapters of Taking Refuge in the Three Jewels, Eliminating Doubts, and Repentance, the scripture reminds practitioners to repent of all past evil karma with utmost sincerity, thereby further arousing the bodhi-mind, as the title of following chapter indicates. In the end, all participants made vows and transferred merits together.

During the Dharma service, the participants prostrated to the Buddha over two thousand times, and stood on their knees to chant the scripture of repentance. Despite physical fatigue, everyone was filled with Dharma joy. On the last day of the repentance ritual, through the live stream of Great Compassion Water and Land Dharma Service in Taiwan, the Abbot President Ven. Guo Huei announced Dharma Drum Mountain's annual theme for 2024: "A World of Blessings - With a calm body and mind, we have peace in every moment. In harmony with ourselves and others, we have blessings everywhere," as a guidance for everyone to practice Buddhism in their daily lives during the upcoming year. 

As the Liang Emperor's Repentance Ritual concluded with attendees full of the joy of Dharma, the Venerable especially praised two over 90-year-old attendees for participating fully in the Dharma service. In addition to rejoicing their virtuous roots and merits of attending the Dharma service, everyone also fostered their faith in learning the Buddhadharma and cultivating blessings and wisdom. 



Text: Liang Bao (包亮)
Photos: Dharma Drum Vancouver Centre
Translation: Siang-ling Li
Editing: Keith Brown, YKL