The Altar Purification Ceremony of the 2022 Water and Land Liberation Dharma Assembly (pinyin: Shuilu Fahui) was held at the Mahavira Hall of Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou on November 6 (the thirteenth day of the tenth lunar month).
As the Buddhist chanting began at the Mahavira Hall decorated with banners, flowers, lamps and candles, the 2022 Water and Land Liberation Dharma Assembly officially commenced, with Buddhist masters solemnly chanting sutras at six exterior altars – the Main Altar, Huayan Altar, Sutra Altar, Lengyan Altar, Fahua Altar, Pure Land Altar (Different sutras are recited at the six exterior altars, including Avatamsaka Sutra, Śūraṃgama Sūtra, Saddharmapundarika Sutra, etc.)
In the following seven days and nights, the Lingyin Sangha will perform such Buddhist rituals as sutra chanting, repentance, inviting the holy ones, worshiping the heaven, freeing captive animals, Yoga flaming mouth rite of releasing hungry ghosts, praying to universal Buddhas, preaching the nether world precepts, seeing holy ones off and so on. The main goal of these Buddhist activities is to invite Buddhas and Bodhisattvas as well as beings of higher realms to help all spirits of ten directions in their three lifetimes get out of their sufferings.
The Water and Land Dharma Assembly is the grandest and most solemn Dharma assembly in Chinese Buddhism. This repentance ritual finds its origin in the Emperor Wu of Liang in the Northern and Southern dynasties and became a popular Buddhist ritual in the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. It is still a Buddhist ritual commonly practiced nowadays at Chinese Buddhist temples.
