To commemorate Shakyamuni Buddha’s birthday, Lingyen Mountain Temple (Canada) held an Online Bathing the Buddha Ceremony and Veggie Life Vegetarian Resolution Event. Apart from Chinese New Year, the Bathing the Buddha Ceremony is the most popular annual event at the temple, with more than 2,000 participants from all over the Greater Vancouver area coming to bathe the Buddha, make their prayers, and obtain fragrant water, longevity buns and fruits. A lively Fundraising Bazaar is occasionally held as well. Starting last year, due to the pandemic, the Bathing the Buddha Ceremony has been held online, giving participants from all over the world the opportunity to participate in this festive celebration.

Before the ceremony, the ceremonial Masters led everyone in calmly reciting the Great Compassion Mantra. The service officially began by chanting the Incense Praise of Precepts and Concentration, followed by the Great Compassion Mantra, Heart Sutra and Praise of the Buddha. In the center of the Buddha Hall was a beautiful Bathing the Buddha Gazebo, with statues of the baby Buddha and the finest fragrant water. The presiding Dharma Master Tze Sung led the Sangha assembly in bathing the Buddha while chanting the Bathing the Buddha Verse in both Chinese and English. By praising the Buddha’s meritorious virtues, we hope that everyone will make the determination to realize the Buddha’s all-embracing wisdom. Through the temple’s official website, everyone was able to take in the Bathing the Buddha Ceremony. In the process of bathing the baby Buddha with fragrant water, we also unfold our own wisdom and compassion, and purify our bodies, mouths and minds. The merits of bathing the Buddha are the most extraordinary among all offerings—surpassing even the offering of as many treasures as the sands in the Ganges River.

In addition, the temple’s official website also provided an interactive Bathing the Buddha activity, using lively animations and textual explanations to guide participants to sincerely and respectfully bathe the baby Buddha with fragrant water. Afterwards, we held the Grand Offering before the Buddha, followed by the Vegetarian Resolution Ceremony. As part of the Veggie Life Vegetarian Resolution Event, starting April 1, 2021, through various social media platforms and other means, volunteers and virtuous people from all over the world set out to encourage people to be vegetarian for 1, 3, or 7 days, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, or for life. More than 2,200 people participated, including 851 who resolved to be vegetarian for life. During the ceremony, the presiding Dharma Master and the temple’s Sangha assembly recited the names of all participants.

Finally, our Venerable Abbot, Master Tze Cheng, joined us live all the way from Taiwan and led everyone in making their resolution to be vegetarian before the Buddha, and dedicating the merits in hope that everyone in the world will safely get through this pandemic and enjoy peace and happiness. At the end of the service, the Venerable Abbot gave a Dharma talk in which he explained that by bathing the Buddha and resolving to be vegetarian, we are actually demonstrating an important Buddhist concept—the equality of all sentient beings. He encouraged everyone to extend these good intentions into our daily lives, by constantly purifying our minds, and treating all sentient and insentient beings around us with gratitude. By doing so, we will be in an environment full of happiness and satisfaction. He also wished that everyone would soon realize Buddhahood.

Also in commemoration of Shakyamuni Buddha’s birthday, and to propagate the Buddha’s spirit of kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity, Lingyen Mountain Temple (Canada)’s second instalment of their Food Bank Fundraiser delivered vegetarian food items, purchased using the funds collected, to nine different food banks in the Greater Vancouver area. We thank everyone for their kindness in cultivating this field of blessings. The third instalment of the Food Bank Fundraiser begins now, and will continue until the temple’s anniversary on September 19. We ask everyone to participate together by going to our official website www.lymtcanada.com and completing the Charities in the Community donation form, or by calling the temple at 604-271-0009.