Visits and New Year Wishes to the Hoang Phap Pagoda"s branches

In the period from 20th to 24th/Jan/2017 (24th to 28th/Dec in Lunar Calendar), Senior Ven.Thich Chan Tinh, the Abbot of Hoang Phap Pagoda had a trip to all Hoang Phap branches in order to visit and encourage the Abbots in their practice.

Tet is coming around the corner and everyone is eager and hurriedly prepares to welcome spring and Tet holiday everywhere in Viet Nam,but somewhere here, in the S-shape country, still there are Buddhists, monks stepping alone, continuing their preaching mission. For monks, the ideal of life is enlightenment, freedom and their joy is bringing the peace and happiness to people. However, a monk is also an ordinary person who sometimes has feeling of loneliness, because of living in a new pagoda, being away from their masters and their Buddhists, especially when Tet comes, the loneliness naturally become “greater” because they have to welcome Tet in a new place instead of their homeland. Understanding his disciples’ feeling, Senior Ven.Thich Chan Tinh paid a visit to them who are being abbots of Hoang Phap pagoda’s branches to encourage them to overcome their feeling of loneliness. The Senior Venerable taught that:

“Opening and keeping a new branch of Pagoda is a hard job, but this job is going to bring more merits, convenience to our cultivation. Until a certain period, a monk should start his preaching mission, spreading the true principles and way to freedom to people to help them move toward the enlightenment. It’s is just the way to show a monk’s gratitude to his parents, masters and all people who help him.”

He explained more about it: “However, a monk must remember that preaching should go together with cultivation. The goal of a monk is to attain wisdom and free himself from worldly affliction, defilemen tand make steady progress on the way of liberation. Do not attach great importance to building infrastructure and developing Bodhi-mandala but neglect the lofty ideal of life. Staying stable, comfortable, peaceful is the best thing to build a Pagoda and make it better.”

Besides, Senior Ven. Thich Chan Tinh also reminded all the Abbots to collect photos of their Pagodas during the construction from the beginning to completion as important data.

Images hereinafter are recorded: