Rooster New Year Eve

According to the traditional custom of Vietnam, the first day of Tet is the most sacred day of the year. When the dew covers the environment with cool air, the old year is to be over, and the new year is appearing, everyone dresses up to go to the pagoda to pray for good fortune and peace, receive “li xi” (new year money) and listen to the Dharma talk from the Senior Venerable. Everyone would like to have a new year with all the bests. With such a fine tradition, as usual, thousands of people from everywhere came to Hoang Phap pagoda to welcome the New Year of Rooster - 2017. Coming new year was taking the place of the past year. In the holy eve moment, everyone sat down in the teacher-student hood to review all the activities of the past year and look forward to the bests in the coming year for themselves, their families and society.

In that solemn moment, as per the tradition of respect-to-teacher of Vietnamese, on behalf of the four assemblies, Reverend Thich Tam Trong offered the best wish of happiness, prosperity and longevity to the Abbot Senior Venerable. In the fresh moment of the new year, “Thay” sincerely prays the Triratna sending blesses and supports to the assemblies so that clergymen can be at ease with good achievements on their Path, lay Buddhists can get happiness and peace in the family. After that, “Thay” gave a Dharma talk to the ashram for its diligence and promotion in daily practice.

Each of us has the desire(s) for New Year. This is the right aspiration wishing happiness and best lucks for all. Nevertheless, we should take action and promote things to reap sweet fruits instead of merely wishing. It is said that:” Wishing for merits cannot make things come true but practicing can"

This is the core guideline that we, Buddhists, should be aware of, otherwise, it would be easy for us to fall into the wrong way focusing in wishing and thinking while ignoring the practice and cultivation aspect. As a result, if we want to have wisdom, we should follow Buddha’s teaching. Abstaining from killing, stealing, adultery, lying, and drinking will bring us good karma, ease and happiness in life for sure. From this point of view, the Senior Venerable taught us that happiness and peace in life depend on our decision instead of wishing. Having good thoughts in the morning, afternoon and evening will make us a good day. Similarly, we can have a good month/year/life that way. Vice versa, bad thoughts will make us live in misery, anxiety and fear. The Venerable ended his talk with the story of the Greek fable "The goose that laid the golden eggs". This is a good story for us, practitioners, to draw the meaningful and precious lessons to avoid the regrettable mistakes.

Subsequently, singers Phuong My Chi and Thuy Binh offered the sangha and the mass songs welcoming beautiful spring.

In the boundless joy of the first moment of the new year, all the participants queued up to receive “li xi” from the Venerable Abbot and monks of Hoang Phap pagoda.