Saturday, 04/18/2026
Repentance Ceremony on January 29th, Dog Year
Update: 17/03/2018
In this period of this Repentance, Junior Venerable Thich Tam Tri and monks of Hoang Phap Pagoda shared Buddhism with Buddhists.
The practice of the Buddhists is shown by the posture of going, standing, sitting and lying but they are external forms, the core is still in the mind. The Buddha said: "Ideas lead the Dharmas; Ideas lead the actions; With bad ideas, speak or act; Deafness follows; Like cariages, legs pulled". (Dhammapada_ Twin Verses).
The Buddha compared mind is like a monkey passing from tree to tree. It grabs a branch of tree and only drops when it grasps another branch. Indeed, our thought, mind or consciousness arises and disappears constantly, unceasingly throughout the day and night. If we do not know how to look back, let the mind go free to follow the six alambanas and be led by five desires, people will easily lose themselves, and then our legs slide long on the road of samsara.
However, getting the mind out of the dominance of the five passions: money, beauty, fame, good food, sound sleep, ect. is not easy. Like a bone with little meat and blood, the dog sees and gnaws on the bone. The more the dog gnaws, the more its mouth bleeds. However, it still tries to keep, rather than releasing the bone.
Buddha taught: “If desire has a shape and we can take it to save, the world is still too small and the heavens are too low to contain them.
For ordinary people, when greed dominates, people easily lose themselves and commit more crimes. Recently, we know on the media, many events of killing each other, broken families, officials becoming criminals, ... are also derived from desires.
With the monks, because of the desire to attain magic, they fall into the heresy, superstition and go the wrong way.
Repentance is a great importance to each one of us, but it is also a difficult challenge. However, Buddhists can apply the following methods to control and subdue the mind: patience; consciousness of cause and effect; mind from the heart; living the mindfulness of awareness; having good thoughts instead of evil thoughts; staying away from the easy-to-cause distractions.
The repair of the mind and body is an urgent need and immediate matter, do not let time pass if Buddhists want to find the success of enlightenment.
After the Dharma talks, Buddhists entered the Repentance Ceremony as usual.
The following are some recorded images:
Translated into English by Cao Thanh Tuyen