Repentance Celebration on May 14th Goat year

Thousands of Buddhists gathered at Hoang Phap pagoda to join the repentance celebration in the evening of June 29th, 2015 (May 15th Goat year).

As usual, before the repentance celebration is a dharma talk by the pagoda’s monks. In this repentance, Venerable Thich Tam Manh had a lecture on “Eight ways to have a holy lifestyle”.

People always determine to escape the sufferings and look for happiness. However, they do not know its real essence. Therefore, they cannot find out the right way out. Sometimes, the more they look for happiness, the more they are stuck in sufferings. Buddha was born and he showed the truth of suffering, the causes and the ways avoiding from it. This way includes noble paths of liberation of 37 supporting part and summarized in “8 ways of holy lifestyle” or called the eight noble paths. They are:

1/  Samyagdrsti (right view)

2/  Samyaksamkalpa 

3/  Samyagvak â€“(right speech) 

4/  Samyakkarmanta (right action)

5/  Samyak-ajiva (right livelihood)

6/  Samyagvyayama (right effort)

7/  Sammasati (right mindfulness)

8/  Samyaksamadhi (right concentration)

Eight of holy lifestyle is the popular practical method being suitable for Buddhists at home and Pravraj in any situation or environment.  Ones who practice cultivation follow as the eight noble paths will fix all the unrighteous from the vague notions, shifty words, wrong behaviors, to indifferent lives. When these matters are improved, life of each person will be true, blessing and joy, and beauty etc. If everyone in this life practice as Asta-marga (the eight noble paths), the world will be in peace, there is no wars or killing each other. If we practice daily, it is not only getting a lot of useful in the present but also cultivating bodhi tree seeds so that we can get highest fruits in Nirvana.

Ending the talk, Buddhists kept going on chanting the Buddhas’ names for repentance.

These are the photos of the talk as below: