The birthday of Shakyamuni Buddha, also known as the Buddha Bathing Festival, falls on May 26 (the eighth day of the fourth lunar month) this year. Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou held a solemn Dharma assembly in the early morning to celebrate the birthday of Shakyamuni Buddha and pray for world peace and wellbeing for people. It was also wished that the Dharma Wheel turns perpetually and the Buddha enlightens brightly.
With the chanting of mantras and the Buddha’s name in the Mahavira Hall, the fourfold assembly of disciples put their palms together and expressed their gratitude to Shakyamuni Buddha for his birth to the Saha World. Offer a light before Buddha so that the guiding light of wisdom will shine in the darkness; Chant to Buddha with sincerity so that incredible abundance will be received in the bitter world.
While the Buddha’s name was loudly chanted, the Buddhist master hosting the ritual ladled fragrant water three times over the golden statue of baby Prince Siddhartha, followed by other Buddhist masters and believers successively pouring fragrant water to bathe the statue. They all sincerely prayed for a prosperous nation and alleviation of sufferings for all sentient beings. As recorded in Buddhist texts, there were extraordinary and auspicious signs at Prince Siddhartha’s birth. Seven lotus flowers sprang up beneath his feet as he took seven steps in each of the four directions. Pointing his right hand to the sky and ground, he proclaimed, “In heaven above and on earth below, I alone am the honored one. The three realms are all suffering, and I shall be resigned to the situation.” At that moment, the sky was clearing with brilliant sunshine, flowers blooming and birds singing, as heavenly beings and people of this world paid reverence to him. Dragons also appeared in the sky spurting two streams of pleasant water that gently cascaded down to bathe him. To bring benefits to all sentient beings, Shakyamuni Buddha then founded Buddhism and achieved enlightenment to begin a grand discourse for the teaching of the dharma, to pour the great rain of the dharma, to make resound the great drum of the dharma, to blow the great conch trumpet of the dharma, and to raise the great banner of the dharma.
Since ancient times, Buddhists all over the world celebrate Buddha’s birthday each year on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month by using fragrant water to bathe the image of the infant Buddha to commemorate the ultimate preacher of Buddhism.
