Buddha's birthday, the season of gratitude!
(Baonghean) -These days, Buddhist monks and nuns throughout the province are looking forward to the 2010 Buddha's Birthday, Buddhist year 2554, with many meaningful and diverse activities. This is also an opportunity for Buddhists to remember everyone, remember unfortunate families and unfortunate fates in life...
This year's Buddha's Birthday is celebrated in the joyful excitement of all classes of people who are striving to achieve results to celebrate many important national holidays. With such noble and important meaning, Buddha's Birthday is an occasion to honor the wisdom, morality, culture, ideology, peace, and solidarity of Buddha and to reaffirm the motto of Vietnamese Buddhism, which is "Dharma - Nation and Socialism".
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On this occasion, thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns of Nghe An came to An Pagoda (Nghi Duc Commune, Nghi Loc), Can Linh Pagoda (Cua Nam Ward, Vinh City), Lo Son Pagoda (Nghi Tan Ward, Cua Lo Town), Dai Tue Pagoda (Nam Anh Commune, Nam Dan) to offer incense, flowers and participate in Buddha's Birthday activities. Here, from May 21 to 28, the pagodas will simultaneously ring three bells, drums, and chant sutras to celebrate the week of Buddha's Birthday. At the same time, there will be activities such as offering incense and flowers in front of Uncle Ho's Statue at Ho Chi Minh Square and organizing a flower car parade to welcome Buddha's Birthday to Uncle Ho's paternal and maternal hometowns in Kim Lien, Nam Dan. In addition, at Can Linh Pagoda, the Tran Huu Trang Theater troupe - Ho Chi Minh City will perform the play "The Life of Buddha" - recreating the four periods of birth, enlightenment, preaching and nirvana of Buddha Shakyamuni, helping the audience better understand the profound perception of Buddha that made him abandon the emotions of sadness, joy, happiness and suffering of ordinary people to decide to choose the path of practicing Buddhism, saving people and helping the world. This play had caused a stir at the 2008 United Nations Vesak Festival.
Although not the main activity, fundraising and gift giving to help families in difficult circumstances are also focused on by pagodas and Buddhist monks and nuns during this holiday.
Since the beginning of the week, the Buddhist monks and nuns of An Pagoda have given 50 gifts (each worth 300,000 VND) to preschool and primary school children in Nghi Duc Commune and Hung Tan and Hung Dung Wards. Lo Son Pagoda has also given 50 gifts (each worth 200,000 VND) to students in Nghi Tan and Nghi Thuy Wards. At Can Linh Pagoda on the evening of the 27th, the pagoda will organize a charity event with the theme "Linking Hands" to call for the generosity of Buddhist monks and nuns and guests attending the ceremony. It is expected that all the money collected will be used to give gifts and support two eye surgery patients.
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With this spirit, since the beginning of the year, Buddhist monks and nuns in the whole province have had many practical and meaningful activities, including Can Linh Pagoda which has donated nearly 3,000 gifts with a total value of nearly 400 million VND, supporting the province's "For the Poor" fund with 10 million VND; Buddhists of An Pagoda have donated 110 gifts to poor families, Buddhist monks and nuns of Dai Tue Pagoda have donated millions of VND to call for investment, upgrading... and many other silent gestures. These actions, according to Buddhist nun Thich Nu Dieu Nhan (Abbot of Can Linh Pagoda), are because "Buddhist teachings always direct people towards compassion, joy and the desire to achieve happiness and justice in life".
With over 20,000 monks, nuns and Buddhists, in recent years, Nghe An Buddhists, with the motto of "good life, good religion", have together built a life of solidarity, friendliness and openness and made an important contribution to the movement "All people unite to build a cultural life in residential areas". Along with those noble values and continuing to promote the tradition of "Protecting the nation and pacifying the people" of Vietnamese Buddhism in the new era, Nghe An Buddhism will continue to have many practical activities to make achievements to welcome the 6th World Buddhist Summit held in Vietnam, to welcome the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi and the country's major holidays in 2010.
My Ha
