Repentance ceremony on June 14th, Year of the Dragon

On July 19th, 2024 (June 14th, Year of the Dragon), good men and believing women inside and outside HCMC returned to Hoang Phap pagoda to attend a periodical penitential ritual.

Before the rite, Junior Thich Tam Chieu, Monks of the pagoda had a dharma talk named “Being reborn in a good realm or falling into an evil one depends on ourselves” to Buddhists.

Buddha said verses 15 - 16 in the Dhammapada, Twin Verses as following:

15. Here one grieves and one grieves hereafter; in both ways does the evil-doer grieve; one grieves and is afflicted; one's own base kammas seeing.

16.Here one joys, one joys hereafter; in both ways does the merit-maker joy; one joys and one rejoices; one's own pure kammas seeing.

The monk told the number 10 "Cunda - The Pig Butcher" of Dhammapada sutra; The story of Devadatta and the real story in today's society. By that, we clearly see that no matter how the cause is, the outcome of good and evil is not wrong. People spend their whole life doing evil things, not doing good ones, not being close to saints to learn good things, they go down a dark path at the time of death.

Next, the Venerable continued with the story of the layman Hien Thien and Anāthapiṇḍika who lived a good life according to the Buddha's teachings, and left their assets to their descendants at the time of their death which were useful advice. At dying moments, we can take nothing with us except our sins and blessings. This is the noble spiritual value. Buddhists who realize this will have a happy life now and a peaceful life in the future.

Moreover, he reminds listeners that the coming moments of death are very important, the body will be in extreme pain. Therefore, we have to often accumulate good karma, comply with the precepts so that when dying, we have a peaceful mind and choose good realms. When the Buddha was still alive, He and the great Sangha would explain; Today, we rely on the Buddha name reciting team so that we can listen to His name, direct our good mind to asking-debt souls, evil souls will follow and be born in the good realm.

He reminded the mass before ending the Dharma talk must practice the Buddha's teachings like two verses the Buddha taught in the Dhammapada:

117. If one should do some evil

then do it not again and again.

Don't wish for it anew

for evil grows to dukkha.

118. If one should some merit make

do it again and again.

One should wish for it anew

for merit grows to joy.

After the Dharma talk, the mass entered the penitential ritual as usual.

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