Tuesday, 04/21/2026
Impressed night of Amitabha Buddha's Birthday
Update: 01/01/2021
This flower candle light Ceremony has become a traditional event for years at Hoang Phap Pagoda. This is the opportunity for Buddhists, especially the Pure Land practitioners to honor the great merits of Amitabha Buddha and follow his example on the path to enlightenment.
In the reverent and quiet atmosphere, at 6 pm, two lanes of Buddhists were laid out to welcome the presence of the reverent high ranking monks and nuns. Three times Prajnà bells grumbly. Having been quiet sitting, people calm their minds to listen to the open chanting from Junior Ven. Thich Tam Quy. The mindful energy covers and spreads everywhere in the joy of all.
After giving the reason for the ceremony, Junior Ven. Thich Tam Dong on behalf of the monk addresses the opening speech. Then people direct their minds to the statue of Amitabha Buddha and chanting.
The most important moment is the light-transferring. Senior Ven. Thich Chan Tinh lit his candle then transferred to the monk and moved to the Buddhists. It represents the Buddhist wisdom which can eliminate the darkness of ignorance, hatred, selfish, stingy. The light shining in each person brings people back to their gentle nature, displaying the pure nature and reducing worldly afflictions. The night of Amitabha flower candle light is to pay homage to Amitabha Buddha, each person with a good mind will have together to build a beautiful and prosperous country, a peaceful world, and good humanity.
After addressing some words to praise the Buddha, Senior Ven. Thich Chan Tinh delivers “Praise the Buddha to follow Him” and people all make a vow to follow the Buddha under his guide.
The next, people all spent some quiet sitting to spread their merit to all living beings in the three worlds as well as the six realms.
The next part is giving the speech of the ceremony done by Senior Ven. Thich Chan Tinh. With a moment of silence, Master and the public have prayed, sending peaceful energy to the victims of the epidemic going on in the world, who have suffered from natural disasters and floods recently. After that, the Master Ven. talked about three karma of body, speech and mind of human beings by a poem. The verse is what a practitioner needs to follow in order to correct the three karma of unwholesome become the good ones. When we change our mind to be clean and pure, our words and actions will be good following.
Every day, we should be mindful, always remember the Buddha then it is a good mind, we will not commit evil karma, not fall into the three evil ways. We practice hoping to go to the Pure Land realm, a pure, blissful world. In order to return to that place, we must plant the corresponding seeds. Secondly, happiness or suffering, liberation or bondage is not given by anyone, but we will decide our life, our destiny.
To lift up the ceremony is the atmosphere of a music show with the taking part of singers as Quang Ha, Kim Linh.
The ceremony ends with miraculous and sparkling candlelight in devotion towards Buddha Amitabha. Thereby, every Pure Land practitioner will have more motivation, remind himself to diligently practice, bring the Buddha's name to life, contribute to promoting the Dharma, and benefit sentient beings.
After the ceremony, there was a small dharma gift that was sent to all the participants.
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