The Buddha Hall
The Temple
Within the hall one Buddha sits, gilt light gathered inward. The axis does not move; the incense does not scatter. Here the resident community keeps its morning and evening liturgy, and here the ceremonies of the year are held. The student who arrives sets down the burden and practices with the assembly.
Ceremony Notice
Ullambana · The Zhongyuan Ceremony
- Lunar
- 7th month, 15th day
- Gregorian
The Ullambana Sutra tells how the Venerable Maudgalyāyana, on the fifteenth of the seventh month when the sangha ends its retreat, offered food of a hundred flavors to the monks of the ten directions, and by the strength of that assembly delivered his mother from her suffering. Since then, Han-tradition monasteries have held the Ullambana offering on this day every year — merit dedicated to departed ancestors, to the parents of seven lifetimes, and to all beings. The temple holds the Ullambana ceremony accordingly, the fourfold assembly practicing together and dedicating the merit.
The Ullambana offering: merit dedicated to departed ancestors and to all beings
Please send registrations by 25 August so the tablets can be written. The offering has no set amount; give as you are able.
The Year
The Ceremonial Year
The temple keeps the traditional Han calendar of ceremonies, reckoned by the lunar calendar, with the universal Buddha service on every new and full moon. Each ceremony's Gregorian date and the manner of registration are announced here when the time comes.
| Lunar date | Ceremony | Rite |
|---|---|---|
| 1st month, 1st day | Maitreya's Birthday · New Year Universal Buddha Service | The New Year universal service: prostrations and vows, merit dedicated to the year ahead |
| 1st month, 9th day | Offering to the Buddhas and Devas | The rite of offering to the Buddhas and the protective devas |
| 1st month, 15th day | Lantern Festival · Lamps Offered to the Buddha | Lamps are lit before the Buddha with prayers for light |
| 2nd month, 8th day | The Buddha's Leaving Home | Sutra recitation |
| 2nd month, 15th day | The Buddha's Parinirvana | Recitation of the Sutra of the Bequeathed Teaching |
| 2nd month, 19th day | Avalokiteśvara's Birthday | The Universal Gate chapter and the Great Compassion Repentance |
| 2nd month, 21st day | Samantabhadra's Birthday | The Chapter on Samantabhadra's Practices and Vows |
| 4th month, 4th day | Mañjuśrī's Birthday | Recitation in celebration |
| 4th month, 8th day | The Buddha's Birthday · Bathing the Buddha | The assembly bathes the infant Buddha with fragrant water |
| 6th month, 3rd day | Skanda's Birthday | Recitation in celebration |
| 6th month, 19th day | Avalokiteśvara's Awakening | The Universal Gate chapter and the Great Compassion Repentance |
| 7th month, 13th day | Mahāsthāmaprāpta's Birthday | Communal recitation of the Buddha's name |
| 7th month, 15th day | Ullambana · The Zhongyuan CeremonyCurrent | The Ullambana offering: merit dedicated to departed ancestors and to all beings |
| 7th month, 30th day | Kṣitigarbha's Birthday | The Kṣitigarbha Sutra, merit dedicated to the departed |
| 9th month, 19th day | Avalokiteśvara's Leaving Home | The Universal Gate chapter |
| 9th month, 30th day | The Medicine Buddha's Birthday | The Medicine Buddha Sutra, for the dispelling of calamity and the lengthening of life |
| 11th month, 17th day | Amitābha's Birthday | Seven days of Amitābha recitation |
| 12th month, 8th day | The Buddha's Awakening · Laba | Laba porridge is offered; recitation in celebration |
The Daily Order
Morning bell, morning liturgy, formal meal, communal work, evening liturgy, evening drum. The order of the day is the order of practice; the resident community keeps the monastic pattern — morning and evening liturgy, unbroken day by day. A student at home may set a daily order on the same lines: one stick of incense and one sutra, morning and evening; kept constant, any place becomes a place of practice.
Courtesy of the Hall
Remove your hat, bow with joined palms, walk slowly. No loud speech; no photography that disturbs the assembly. Courtesy lies not in elaboration but in respect.
What a Ceremony Is
A dharma ceremony is an assembly practicing together according to a liturgy. Common in Han-tradition monasteries are sutra recitation, repentance rites, the release of life, the universal Buddha service, the Ullambana offering, and the Water-Land rite — reciting a sutra, bowing through a repentance text, or offering a meal to the assembly. What matters is not scale but accordance with the dharma: following the liturgy, gathering the mind in one place. Every ceremony of this temple's year stands on this.
Daily Liturgy and Communal Practice
The daily liturgy is the fixed morning and evening practice, unbroken day by day, as indispensable as food; its merit lies in constancy, not in quantity. Communal practice is many people cultivating one method at one time and place — reciting, bowing, or sitting; its merit lies in concord, the strength of the assembly gathering a scattered mind. The two depend on each other: without daily liturgy, communal practice is a passing guest; without communal practice, daily liturgy easily becomes a solitary road.
The Pattern of Repentance Rites
To repent is to disclose past wrongs; to reform is not to repeat them. The repentance rites practiced in the Han tradition mostly follow liturgies derived from sutra and treatise — such as the Emperor Liang Repentance, the Water Repentance of Compassionate Samadhi, and the Great Compassion Repentance — each with its order of inviting the holy ones, bowing to the Buddhas, disclosing faults, and dedicating merit. Repentance is not purchase, and merit is not counted in prostrations; its effect lies in seeing one's fault and giving rise to shame, so that the three actions of body, speech, and mind turn about.
Preparing to Attend
Before attending, prepare the mind first and the body second. As to mind: set down the day's calculations; come neither to seek blessings nor to watch a spectacle, but to practice together with the assembly. As to body: dress cleanly and plainly; arrive a little early and become familiar with the order of the liturgy, so as not to be flustered when it begins. Once in the hall, rise and settle with the assembly rather than by one's own reckoning; if something is unclear, ask afterward rather than speaking in the hall. The temple is not at present open to visitors; tablets for the departed and for the living may be registered online, and the resident community places them and dedicates the recitation. On the day, a student at home does well to keep the fast, recite, and hold the Buddha's name — at the same hour, with the same mind, as the assembly.
Calendar Convention
The Fast Days
A fast day is a day set aside for keeping the precepts, restraining the mind, and doing good; it is reckoned by the lunar calendar. What is kept is simple: no eating past midday, no killing, no intoxicants, and restraint of body, speech, and mind; lay practitioners commonly receive the eight precepts on these days. These are the numbers in common Han usage, not something instituted here.
All dates below follow the lunar calendar; no correspondence to the solar calendar is drawn and no conversion is performed.
The Six Fast Days
Six days of each lunar month traditionally kept for the eight precepts and intensified practice.
| Lunar day |
|---|
| 8th |
| 14th |
| 15th |
| 23rd |
| 29th |
| 30th (in a short month, the 28th and 29th) |
The Ten Fast Days
Ten days of each lunar month for fasting and wholesome practice, as given in the Sutra of Kshitigarbha's Fundamental Vows: "such are the ten fast days."
| Lunar day |
|---|
| 1st |
| 8th |
| 14th |
| 15th |
| 18th |
| 23rd |
| 24th |
| 28th |
| 29th |
| 30th |
New Moon, Full Moon, and Holy Days
The first of the lunar month is the new moon and the fifteenth the full moon; Han-tradition monasteries commonly hold the universal Buddha service and the recitation of the precepts on these two days, the phases being plain and easy to keep in mind. The birth, awakening, and final nirvana of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas are likewise reckoned by lunar date, as the table of the ceremonial year above sets out. Observances differ somewhat between lineages, and each should follow its own transmission.
Rather Silent Than Wrong
Calendrical work turns on the reckoning of new moons and intercalary months, on differences of time zone, and on divergences between lineages; a single error and a student misses the day. The fast days listed here therefore stop at conventions commonly acknowledged in the Han tradition; the temple's ceremonies are reckoned by the lunar calendar, and each Gregorian date is written in the notice only once it has been verified. What is missing can be added; what is wrong is hard to overtake — this is what the temple holds to in matters of the calendar.