Renunciant Ceremony on Jan 17, 2017 (Dec 20 lunar calendar)

No gratitude is higher than teacher-student relationship. No purity is clearer than sangha harmonization. No magnanimity is nobler than the renunciant’s footprint! Today, Jan 17, 2017 (Dec 20, lunar calendar), Hoang Phap pagoda solemnly holds the renunciant ceremony for the aspirants with the witness and approval of abbot Senior Venerable Thich Chan Tinh and Hoang Phap sangha.

To be ordained at the pagoda, it takes the practitioner at least 6 months of probation without any violation of 32 precepts for clergyman. Besides, the practitioner should know by heart the contents of prayers in the day for morning course, afternoon course, at noon course, before meal praying and mastering the usage of worship accessories. To be eligible for the ceremony, the practitioner has to pass the rehearsals of sutras and moral test.

At the ceremony, after the sangha offers incense to Triratna, representative of the aspirants humbly asks for the ordainment rite. In response to the request, abbot Venerable Thich Chan Tinh gives them the lecture regarding the life of Prince Siddhartha who renounces his royal life to become recluse Gautama overcoming all the obstacles to reach the ultimate Attainment. From this meaning, the aspirants should acknowledge and diligently practice the Threefold Training (sikkhā) in which precept is the foremost. The abbot Venerable emphasizes the importance and benefits of precepts and morality in the life of clergymen in the Path to the Enlightenment:” Morality generates concentration, concentration generates wisdom”. The Venerable also reminds the quarter-key grace that Buddha teaches us, especially the Buddha’s grace and parents’ merit. Thanks to parents’ merit that we can get the current situation. Thanks to Buddha teachings that we can see the right Path to follow and practice to liberation.

Practitioner following the Path that Buddha teaches us in twenty-five conservative centuries should cultivate the morality and knowledge, show the vitality of Dharma via his pure life to be eligible as Buddha’s disciple spreading Tathagata’s network in the world. Clergyman should live as an expected precious guest bringing respect, ease and liberation to wherever he comes, whosoever he meets.

Besides, the Venerable also reminds the practitioners trying the best to become the true monk instead of wearing the clergy title only.

After the Dharma talk, on behalf of the sangha, the Senior Venerable carries out the ordainment rite to the aspirants.

Following are the recorded photographs:

BBT Website