Book 69 - Household
Feng-Shui
- Book 69: Household Feng-Shui
- Appendix 12 : The Dharma Ceremony in Vancouver
- Written by : Master Sheng-yen Lu
- Translated by : Janny Chow
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At 1:00 p.m., on June 28th, the Dharma Ceremony officially began.
His Holiness and the other masters walked into the venue and took
seats on the stage. There was a great turnout in the audience and
everyone sat quietly and reverently to hear His Holiness teach.
His Holiness first gave an introduction to the True Buddha School
and its guiding principles of, "Revering the Guru, Cherishing the
Dharma, and Engaging in Actual Practice." Then His Holiness encouraged
everyone to practice diligently in order to reach realization and
Buddhahood.
During the ceremony, His Holiness asked the Dharma brothers who
had seen the rainbow-colored dragon the day before to raise their
hands. Right away, seven people raised their hands.
After His Holiness gave everyone a blessing, the ceremony concluded
auspiciously.
Before the ceremony the next day, His Holiness stood with everyone
outside the entrance of the venue for pictures. When the pictures
were developed later, one of them showed a great patch of white
light over the area where His Holiness and everyone had been standing
under a red banner-but everyone had had disappeared. This photograph
became one of several dozens of light photographs demonstrating
the miraculous powers of His Holiness. His Holiness later included
this picture in his new book, Yuen Ting Ti Shen Su (Reflections
on Renouncing the Home Life.)
At the second day's ceremony, in order to arouse people's interest
and facilitate the dissemination of the Dharma, His Holiness transmitted
a simple Wealth God Practice to everyone.
When His Holiness was giving everyone the empowerment for the practice,
I saw shi-mu and their children (Fo-ching and Fo-chi) waiting at
the end of the line. When they came up, the prostrated reverently
to His Holiness and, after receiving the empowerment, they respectfully
placed their prepared offerings into the offering box. This mad
me feel extremely moved and ashamed, because the group of masters
on stage (including me) had not prepared any offerings to give to
His Holiness for the empowerment. Shi-mu's genuine guru devotion,
despite being the guru's wife for all these years, had put us to
shame.
After the successful completion of the two day's Dharma Ceremonies,
we went with His Holiness on June 30th to visit the World Expo.
The theme of the Expo was "transportation" and there were throngs
of visitors everywhere. His Holiness was totally free and natural
in our company. He talked and laughed cheerfully with us as we walked
around, visiting a total of nine exhibition pavilions that day.
That evening, I said good-bye to His Holiness and shi-mu because
I was going to Calgary by myself the next morning. My four days
stay at Vancouver had created extra work for the Dharma brothers
at Pootee Tang. Apart from organizing the business related issues
for the Dharma Ceremonies, they also took the time to arrange our
room, board, and transportation. I was very grateful for the sincere
warmth they extended to me.
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