Repentance Ceremony on Lunar April 29th , Monkey Year

On the evening of June 4th, 2016 (on Lunar April 29th, Monkey Year), a large number of Buddhists from Ho Chi Minh city and neighbouring provinces came to Hoang Phap monastery to attend the periodical Repentance Ceremony.

 Before this Repentance Ceremony, Venerable Thich Tam Trong, a monk from Hoang Phap monastery, gave Buddhists a Dharma Talk titled : “The meaning of a wedding at pagoda- the Buddhist wedding ceremony”.

 

The purpose of the Buddhist wedding ceremony which is celebrated at the pagoda is to help couples realize the importance of the moral spiritual foundation in the family life so that they can achieve true happiness and peace in their marriages.

 

In fact, we can see a lot of broken marriages that made so many people fall into suffering, especially the kids. They are not guilty, but it is the parents that are the ones who afflict them in such divorces. From the beginning, they have no sense to lay the foundation of a lifelong happy family; consequently, it causes incompatibility in marriage life and that their marriages break up is inevitable. For those reasons, couples who have their weddings held at the pagoda will get valuable advice from monks on spousal principles, the moral obligation for the parents and for the children, etc. as well as the methods to overcome the difficulties of family life.

 

Also, in the Dharma Talk, the Venerable lectured the Buddhists about the origin, content and meaning of the Buddhist wedding ceremony. Particularly, the Venerable lecturer emphasized the teachings of honored masters in this event which was also the most important part. Through the preaching, couples know what and how to establish and cultivate a happy family. As it can be seen that in the Buddhist wedding ceremonies at pagodas in general and at the Hoang Phap monastery particularly  the six dharmas, the ways to bring up children during their life are properly preached.

 

In addition, the Venerable lecturer also explained more about the three methods for cultivating a happy family including: cultivation of love, the contemplation of life impermanence and understanding each other during their married life.

 

Finally, Venerable lecturer once again emphasized  the importance of marriage in the pagoda, and encouraged the buddhists to celebrate weddings for their children at the pagoda so as to build life-long happiness. If so, all of us can practice Buddha's teachings which are useful for ourselves and others in an easy way, and everyone can be imbued with Buddha’s teachings.

 

After the preaching, the whole assembly entered the repentance ceremony as usual. A minor change was made in the holding of "the six internal bases repentance" session at Hoang Phap monastery in this repentance ceremony. So, from now on, on the day of lunar 14th each month, Buddhists recite the prayers and on the day of lunar 30th ( or on 29th) they recite the Six internal based repentance. This is an opportunity for Buddhists to look back daily karmas so as to make timely correction of their mistakes, and get advancement in their practice. 

 

Below are  the photographs recorded: