Dharma Realm Buddhist Young Adults

The food is also vegetarian, and for those who choose, vegan as well. There are many reasons people in the monastery are vegetarian: compassion for animals, protecting the environment, and personal health and well-being. We try to minimize the amount of suffering we create through our lifestyles and eating habits. Buddhism also teaches that food has a profound connection with our thoughts and desires, and being vegetarian helps us have clearer minds and more compassionate hearts.

In Buddhism, the monastics traditionally give a Dharma talk at the end of the meal. There is a mutual relationship between laity and monastics, where the laity provides sustenance and material support (traditionally: bedding, clothing, food, and medicine), and the monastics give teachings to the laity. Depending on the monastery, there is sometimes a Dharma talk or often a taped lecture of Master Hua instead. His instructions remind everyone to practice diligently and vigorously. For many, because of the immense respect they have for the Master, his words carry special weight and have the power to inspire and encourage.

After the noon meal, there is the Great Compassion Repentance, which is a ceremony focusing on Avalokiteshvara (Chinese: Guan Shi Yin), the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion. Repentance is a central practice in Buddhism because it allows us to turn a new leaf—to recognize what we has done wrong, to repent of our mistakes, and to reform for the better. The ceremony gives a form to the very personal act of repentance. Doing this in a communal setting also adds to its power. Many people report that the ceremonies leaves them feeling cleansed in body, mouth, and mind. More specifically, the body is purified through bowing, the mouth through chanting, and the mind through positive intentions and concentration.

Evening ceremony is the next time the community gathers. The ceremony begins with the Incense Praise and is followed by either the Amitabha Sutra or the Eighty-eight Buddhas Repentance. The Amitabha Sutra is a teaching about Amitabha Buddha and his Pure Land, the Land of Ultimate Bliss. The Sutra gives a description of the radiance of the Land of Ultimate Bliss, which is adorned with many different treasures. In addition, the music and scenery causes its inhabitants to always be mindful of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. This is an ideal place for cultivation, and the people who go there are assured irreversibility on the path to Buddhahood. Then, with the steadfast resolve of a great Bodhisattva, the inhabitants can return to this world to help others awaken to the Way and let go of all greed, anger, and delusion.

Another way of approaching the Pure Land teaching is to see it applying to every thought. Every kind, compassionate, and selfless thought is like being in the Pure Land, and every greedy, angry, and deluded thought is like being stuck in the world of suffering. The Pure Land, then, exists in the present state of our minds.

In the middle of the ceremony, the entire congregation recites the Four Great Vows of the Bodhisattva. They are:

1. I vow to rescue the countless living beings.

2. I vow to eliminate the inexhaustible afflictions.

3. I vow to learn the innumerable Dharma-doors.

4. I vow to realize the unsurpassed path of the Buddha.

These Four Great Vows relate to the Four Noble Truths taught by the Buddha. The first noble truth of suffering becomes the Bodhisattva’s vow to free all beings from suffering. The second noble truth identifies ignorance and craving as the source of suffering, and accordingly, the Bodhisattva vows to transform all afflictions. The third vow of learning all the Dharma-doors (i.e. methods for ending suffering) relates to the fourth noble truth of following the Eightfold Path. And finally, the third noble truth that suffering can cease becomes the Bodhisattva’s fourth vow which is to become a Buddha, who is able to lead all beings to complete awakening.