Sunday, 04/19/2026
The First Penitent Ceremony of the year 2017
Update: 11/02/2017
This time, Reverend Thich Tam Dao, deputy abbot of Hoang Phap Pagoda, had a Dharma talk before the main course.
During his lecturing, the Reverend shared about the star worship to relieve bad lucks, a superstitious custom in Viet Nam, and the praying rite for peace to the living and salvation to the dead.
Vietnam has the rice and gong culture. Based on the influence of the Chinese Confucianism in Vietnam, some monks use the rite of star worship and praying for the living and dead as the skillful means to help people come to pagoda to introduce them Buddhism.
Nowadays, star worship to relieve bad lucks is no longer relevant. After reaching the moon to survey and study, science has proven that in the universe there are about 1019 stars instead of only such 9 stars controlling human destiny stated in the rite of star worship as Rahu, Ketu, the Sun, The Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, which are merely lifeless objects and cannot affect the fate of human beings. Happiness or misery is the result of our karmas instead of the favor or punishment from Gods. The worship to star or other object/God is also inconsistent with Buddha teaching about the cause and effect rule, in which we reap what we sew. Praying only cannot create sweet fruit or good achievement.
We should acknowledge that coming to pagoda to pray for the death’s salvation is an expression of gratitude and remembrance of the descendants to the deceased ones. Children are the inheritance and continuation of parents. If we live well and helpful to the family and society, then our forefathers will be able to get good fame and compounded merits driving them to the liberation. Worship to the star or praying words without sowing good merits cannot help.
We all would like to have peace to self and our beloved ones. This is a very reasonable desire. In order to attain that, we should regularly go to pagoda and listen to sutra and Dharma. From that point of view, we can understand Buddha teachings, know the right path to go, practice to develop our merits and wisdom and have peace in mind. It is the true meaning of the rite praying for the peace of the living and the dead.
We cannot have peace by merely praying to Buddha or God. To have that, we should do good things, practice to cease bad habits, follow up Buddha teachings then peace will come accordingly.
The Reverend said that there are 5 kinds of achievable wish:
1) Good health, longevity: They are the results of a healthy life with moderate diet and activities.
2) Well-to-do life: It is the result of a virtuous occupation, giving out, offering and balancing our accounts.
3) Happiness and peace in life: It is the result of harmonization, love and caring in the family with faithful members without any breaking of Buddhism precepts.
4) Affection and respect from others: To have that, we should control our speech to avoid lying, cheating, rude words or causing conflict. “Saying the floral words, not the fecal onesâ€
5) Wisdom: we should avoid or minimize the use of alcohol and kinds of intoxicant due to its bad consequences as sins, ignorance in this life and the after-lives of our own and our descendants.
Via the Dharma talk, the Reverend gave the mass the right and scientific view of stars as well as pointed out the superstitious aspect of star worship. He released the worrying mindset of the bad power from star onto human being. Simultaneously, coming to pagoda is a religious beauty of Vietnamese, not the superstition.
After that, the mass joined the main course of repentance and listened to the state of precepts as usual.
Following are the recorded photographs:
BBT Website