On May 19, 2021, to benefit dharma realms of the ten directions, ghosts and sentient beings of the dead and the living, China Songshan Shaolin Temple sponsored the 7-Day Land and Water Dharma Assembly to pray for world peace, good weather for the crops, the country’ s prosperity, people’ s well-being and staying away from suffering; pray for benefactors to get rid of disasters and prolong life, and families auspicious and safe; release ancestors of generations, clan relatives, karmic creditors for many generations, infant spirits and others from suffering to rebirth in the Pure Land.

Incense-Offering and Altar-Purification Ceremony of the Land and Water Dharma Assembly in Shaolin Temple in Xinchou Year was hosted at the Sutra-Keeping Pavilion (the Great Shrine) at 3 pm. Monastics and believers solemnly recited praises of sutra at the Great Shrine, with the sound of Buddhist chants lingering above the temple.

With the rising wave of incense smoke, all benefactors devoutly worshiped Buddha and invited master Yongqian, master Yongfu, master Yankang, master Yansi and master Yantang to offer incense and purify the shrine. Believers held incense with hands, came out of the Sutra-Keeping Pavilion, and passed the Dinning Hall, the Kimnara Hall (the Nengyan Shrine), the Gateway, the Sixth-Master Hall (the Lotus Shrine), the Samantabhadra Hall (the Sutra Shrine), the Manju Hall (the Pure Land Shrine), the Lixue Pavilion (the Huayan Shrine) and the inside and outside of the temple. The occasion was purified and solemn through reciting mantras and purifying the shrine while the three karmas of the public was pure and undefiled. Merits and virtues of chanting sutra and repentance were transferred to the country for its prosperity, good weather for the crops, the present for wisdom increasing and prolonging life, and the deceased to release from suffering. The whole assembly took two hours, solemn and successful. Believers attending the assembly shared dharma joys and Buddha’ s kindness.

Dharma masters of all departments of the temple gathered at the Dinning Hall and chanted the Diamond Sutra at 6: 30.

The Land and Water Dharma Assembly included the Inner and Outer shrines. The assembly centered on the Inner Shrine, decorated with aromatic flowers, lamps and kindles, solemn and grand. The Outer Shrine had six branches including the Great Shrine, worshiping the Emperor Liang Repentance; the Nengyan Shrine, chanting the Surangama Sutra; the Lotus Shrine, reciting the Lotus Sutra; the Sutra Shrine, reciting the Sutra of Golden Light, the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, the Sutra of the Merit and Virtue of the Past Vows of Medicine Master Vaidurya Light Tathagata, etc.;the Pure Land Shrine, chanting the Amitabha Sutra; the Huayan Shrine, reciting the Flower Adornment Sutra.

The Land and Water Dharma Assembly is the grandest one of repentance Buddhist activities in China with a history of more than 1500 years. The Land and Water Dharma Assembly set seven ashrams including the Inner Shrine, the Great Shrine, the Pure Land Shrine, the Huayan Shrine, the Lengyan Shrine, the Lotus Shrine and the Sura Shrine, and had Buddhist activities of sutra reciting, repentance, invitation for holy ones, worshiping the Heaven, freeing captive animals, the yoga ritual of releasing hungry ghosts, prayers to universal Buddhas, preaching the nether world precepts, seeing holy ones off and so on. During the dharma assembly, hundreds of monks chanted and recited sutras in each shrine in turn, provided offerings for Buddha and bowed in repentance and spent seven days and nights to pray for all spirits of the ten directions, to benefit the living and deceased realms. (Reported by Liu Shuaipeng, photographed by Yue Long, Wang Haitao, Liu Shengkai and Gong Wuwei and edited by Wu Xiang)