Repentance ceremony on Jan. 29th, Year of the Cat

On Feb. 19th, 2023 (Jan. 29th, Year of the Cat), good men and believing women inside and outside HCMC returned to Hoang Phap pagoda to attend the periodical penitential ceremony.

 Before the rite, Junior Thich Tam Cung, monks of the pagoda gave a dharma talk named Being forgetful.

Our mind often reflects two opposing states: remember and forget subconsciously.

1. Remembering the past - Forgetting the present: we tend to remember the past regardless of good or bad, then it is easy to lose ourselves in the present moment.

2. Remembering five desires (beauty, position, property, eating, sleeping), forgetting morality (teachings): because of fame and fortune, people lose their morality in their family that have caused pain incidents up over the social network, etc.

3. Remembering grudges – Forgetting to forgive: Discord is hard to avoid in life, but we are often nostalgic about them to burn our hearts, and cause suffering for ourselves without forgiveness.

4. Remember ghosts – Forget Buddha: Buddha is an enlightened being with enough wisdom and compassion; we often forget present truths of the world, forget the love for all kinds.

Through this, the Junior points out four situations, but these have one simple thing in common: Remember to live the good, kindness, forget the unwholesome, evils.

Good: The body does not kill, does not steal, does not commit adultery; Speech does not lie, does not add more, does not speak in two ways, does not speak evil; The mind is not greedy, not angry (maybe is little), no doubting the Dharma in thought. For new learners, the Dharma is at the temple and in the scriptures taught by preachers. When cultivating well, the Dharma appears in each person. Unwholesome is the opposite of the above ten good things.

Therefore, we try to keep precepts’ rules, practice the body, speech, and mind, which means that is the true Buddha disciple.

After the Dharma talk, the mass entered the penitential ritual as usual.

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