DDM Global News
2018 DDM Water and Land Dharma Service completes successfully
On November 25, at 3 pm, the 12th DDM Water and Land Dharma Service started after the sprinkling ceremony. Thousands of followers and volunteers gathered at DDM World Center for Buddhist Education. Real-time connections were available at DDM's 34 branch monasteries and practice centers at home and aboard, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Vancouver. With 11 separate Halls installed at different venues, the eight-day Dharma service saw participants, some from other parts of the world, engaged in sutra recitation, repentance prostration, making pure offerings, and volunteering. It is hoped that the accrued merit and good wishes can benefit themselves and others, and also help resolve enmity and eliminate karmic obstructions throughout the world. At 2 pm on December 2, as the service approached its conclusion, participants and tens of thousands of on-line practitioners joined their palms and followed the solemn pace of the two-hour-long monastic procession for sending off the sages, devotedly reciting Amitabha Buddha's name. In joyful gratitude, participants also made sincere wishes. Sentient beings from the Four Sage Realms and the Six Ordinary Realms that had been invited to the Dharma service were reverently seen off.
"By purifying our minds, we will perceive that the pure land is everywhere." (您我心清淨, 處處是淨土); "A single thought in accordance with the Buddha's mind is a single present moment when we see a pure land emerging." In his Dharma talk, DDM abbot president, Ven. Guo Huei (果暉法師), encouraged the public to act in line with Buddha's mind at all time, reflecting compassion and wisdom. He also urged everyone to apply and experience Buddhist teachings in daily life, share the benefit of Buddhist practice with society by starting with our own mind, and realize the bodhisattva spirit by benefitting self and others, thereby helping to build a pure land on earth.The venerable also shared DDM's annual theme of blessing for 2019, A Good Wish for the World. (好願在人間) The year 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of Dharma Drum Mountain, and the 40th anniversary of DDM's Chan Meditation Center in New York, as well as the 70th anniversary of Humanity Magazine . More significantly, it is the 10th anniversary of Master Sheng Yen's passing. Therefore, to reflect late Master Sheng Yen's expectation for DDM, a series of activities under the guideline of "Thus I Do" (如是我願) will be organized, and the Passing on the Lamp of Wisdom Ceremony and Dharma Service (法鼓傳燈日暨傳燈法會) will start on February 16, 2019, to invite the general public to make good wishes and put them into action, as an effort to contribute to society.
Wu Qifeng (吳啟鳳) from Hong Kong praised the magnificence of the service, She said that she experienced wondrous spiritual responses, especially during Yogic Rite of Food Bestowal to Flaming-Mouths and the Transmission of Precepts for the Deceased.
Guo Qifan (郭啟帆), who served as a volunteer for the Dharma Service three years ago, traveled all the way from Thailand this year to attend the Wish-Fulfilling Hall. She shared how the practice of repentance prostration and making a vow at the Hall helped her reconfirm her faith in the Dharma and gain positive energy all the more, further inspiring her to constantly emulate and act like Guanyin Bodhisattva.
According to DDM, more than 290,000 people from altogether 46 countries attended the 12th DDM Water and Land Dharma Service via the Internet, in addition to some 50,000 on-site participants. Around 15,000 people joined the "The Hall of Infinite Practices", serving as volunteers to facilitate a smooth operation of the service. These numbers of people represented numerous individuals' wishes to realize "Make a good wish and make it come true; put your wish into action and bring fortune to the world," as an effort to help establish a pure land on earth.Texts: Chang, Tian-Pei (張田沛)
Photos: Lee Fan (李東陽); Lin, Ya-Ying (林雅櫻); Chang, Tian-Pei (張田沛)
Translation: Elenda Huang
Editor: DDM Editorial Team; Chang, Chia-Cheng (張家誠)