One-day Retreat of Buddha Reciting

On 10th April. 2016 (4th March. Monkey Year), thousands of Buddhists from many provinces attended One-day Retreat of Buddha Reciting at Hoang Phap pagoda.

After having breakfast, Buddhists gathered to the lecture halls to listen to a dharma talk from Senior Venerable Thich Chan Tinh – abbot of Hoang Phap pagoda, head of organization board.

In this life, humans and things always change and vary: birth-aged-sickness-dead is an absolute rule. However, these changes create a new vitality for all dharmas to be developed greatly and get achievement.

 In the preaching, Senior talked about sutra number 461 in Khuddaka Nikaya 7. The sutra is Buddha teaching about 8 dharmas, After understanding it, there will be no more suffering even a little,They are achievement, losing, honor, dishonor, compliment, blame, happiness and unhappiness.

Achievement exists, so does losing. That is an essential rule.

Everything around us, from relatives to property, we have them; then we will lose them. It is existing living beings that it means an implicit vanishing. Thus, we have to be calm to face this achievement – losing in order not to be controlled.

 Honor and shame, or good and bad fame are always two categories accompanying with us. Being so proud once when being praised, honored or promoted means being abused and dishonored. In this life, accepting honor means accepting disgrace. Two worth examples for us, Buddha cultivators, are stories of German president – Hitle and Ngo Dinh Diem President.

 Compliment and blame, glorifying and reprimanding, are also two aspects covering this life. That everyone is praised and blamed in life is normal. Nevertheless, Buddhists have to recognize these matters thoroughly to benefit our cultivation. There are compliments guiding us to depravity; on the other hand, blame improves and betters us. Everybody has a right to be praised and blamed but the point is the way we absorb them to help our practicing.

 Happiness and suffering, sadness and pleasure are two dharmas existing around us in every minutes, accompanying us all the time. To be humans, we are happy, but because we have this human body un order to suffer from it. We are cheerful when we get married, have children or to be promoted, but we do not know that achievements imply unspoken sadness. Those eight dharmas make us joyful or unhappy; so we should aware calmly and be on our own initiative. Achievement should not lead to happiness, and losing is not suffering at all; we will live easily and peacefully.

 In daily life, if we just wait for advantages, our ego will prevail leading to adversity. Disadvantage gives us chance to review, better ourselves to reach an easy and peaceful mind “Mind has never changed in this changeable life”.

 After the preaching, usual praying to Buddha time was taken place.

 These are some recorded photos.