Tomorrow is the Buddha's day. How much do you know about the Buddha's day? It is said that the Buddha's Day was set up because of the birth of Sakyamuni. People celebrate the birth of saints in the world. The following small series will tell you about the importance of the establishment of the bathing Buddha Festival and the significance of the bathing Buddha festival culture.
Why the Buddha Bathing Festival
1. Bathing Buddha is a pure Dharma body that cleanses our inner dust through external Buddha, makes self nature manifest and testifies to the Tathagata.
2. In addition to remembering the Buddha, we need to purify our hearts and use the merits and virtues of the Buddha to get rid of the seven generations' parents and their families, so that all living beings in the six Dharma realms can leave the sea of misery.
3. In today's society, people's minds are very old. We can wash our bodies with water and our clothes with water when we are dirty. However, the filthy and dark hearts need to be washed with Buddha's Dharma water. Therefore, holding a Buddhist bath meeting is actually a way to wash our hearts.
4. Bathing Buddha reminds us to keep a pure heart all the time and observe whether we are pure or not through bathing Buddha Festival.
Cultural significance of Buddha Bathing Festival
In 565 BC, Sakyamuni Buddha was born in the garden of Lumbini in northern India. It is said that all flowers bloom together. There are nine dragons in the sky. The perfume is spun out by the dragon mouth for the baby. According to the records of the Buddhist Scripture collection of the line of Buddha, the birth product under the tree: "when you are born, there is no one to support you. That is to say, you can walk in all directions, walk in seven steps, raise your feet step by step, and come out of the lotus flower. That is to say, shortly after the birth of the prince of Gautama Siddhartha (Pali: Gotama Siddhartha; Sanskrit: siddh ā rtha Gautama), he walked seven steps in all directions, and each step produced a lotus. And pointing to the sky and the earth, he said: 'the sky and the world are my own. '
April 8 is a day of universal celebration and commemoration. Because the sage was born on this day. On this day, the Buddha was born. His wisdom and compassion enable us to see light from ignorance and darkness. We ordinary people are ordinary people, ordinary people just follow ordinary people's mentality, turn disorderly, endless troubles, boundless suffering. When the Buddha turned the wheel of Dharma, he wanted to spread the truth of life and wisdom to all living beings who were upset on the earth. He wanted to straighten their thinking and ideas and guide them to have a very positive and bright road. This is the salvation spirit of Buddha, the spirit of caring for and saving all living beings. On this day more than 2500 years ago, with this great wisdom born in the world, we will have today's inspection, know the life value of life, and know how to turn the chaotic heart into a pure and bright heart, and return to the right consciousness. Therefore, we should be full of gratitude.
April 8, the day in Japan, known as the 'Chinese festival', is also very grand, with all kinds of flowers for Buddha. In China, it is called "Buddha Bathing Festival". On this day, all Buddhists hold Buddha Bathing ceremonies in temples. Why do you want to bathe in Buddha? To celebrate, just go to the temple to worship Buddha. Why do you want to bathe in Buddha? In fact, the Buddha is pure and pure, where it needs to bathe? It's just a symbol. When the Buddha was born, this day is the eighth day of April. When the sage was born, the awakened one came into the world. When people were born, they always had to bathe, not to mention spitting water in Jiulong. This is to commemorate that day. When Sakyamuni was born, he had to bathe his body, so it's called celebrating his birthday to commemorate the birth of the sages.
The true meaning of bathing Buddha is still on a higher level: the birth of Sakyamuni Buddha brings cool Buddhism to the world, and finds a way to extricate the lost beings. Therefore, we hope that through the ceremony of bathing Buddha, we can purify ourselves, wash our worries and delusions, and get rid of our obsession. We can always inherit the wisdom of Buddhism, so that the light of Buddha will shine on the world forever. The meaning of bathing Buddha is not only to remember the Buddha, but also to purify our mind. Bathing Buddha is to cleanse our dust and let our self nature manifest and to be the pure Dharma body of the Tathagata. Therefore, the significance of bathing Buddha is not only to wash the statue of crown prince, but also to wash our inner body and mind, so that our body and mind can be clean and safe. So that we can obtain the supreme merit.
During the Buddha Bathing Festival, we should sing chanting verses. Among them, Yun: "I am now pouring all kinds of Tathagata, pure wisdom and solemn Gong De Hai", that is to say, when we use water to bathe the Buddha, we should use our sincere heart to bath with pure perfume, and more importantly, to celebrate the wisdom of the net. Although we don't use much water to bathe in Buddha, we can imagine pure wisdom, solemn wisdom and virtue. On both sides of the Changjiang River, the pure perfume bathes the Buddha, and bathes the human soul. At the same time, it also places a pious expectation on us, that is, "the five turbid beings leave the dust and dirt, and the same evidence is that the Tathagata purifies the Dharma body.". When we bathe in the Buddha, we should have this piety in our hearts. We are mortals. In the five turbid evil world, mortals are grateful for the Buddha's coming to the world. His Dharma can wash away the ignorance troubles of all living beings and increase their wisdom. Therefore, we can say 'five turbid living beings leave the dust' and reach the lofty realm of 'the same evidence Buddha comes to purify the Dharma body'. That's what we're looking forward to.
Can we have the same evidence? We are bathing in the Buddha body, and we are purifying ourselves. May we also purify the Tathagata body. The Tathagata body is the Dharma body. The Dharma body of the Tathagata, the pure body and all living beings are originally one. All living beings have Buddha nature and are equal to Buddha. As long as we get rid of the five turbid and unclean stains, we will naturally have the same heart with the Buddha and achieve the pure Dharma body.
Bathing Buddha reminds us to keep a pure heart all the time. To celebrate bathing Buddha Festival, we should consider whether our heart is pure or not. This is the most important truth.