On May 25, 2015, the grand celebration this year for the Buddha’s birthday (the eighth day of the fourth lunar month)--also known as Buddha Bathing Festival--was held in Lingyin Temple with a solemn Buddha Bathing Dharma Assembly to commemorate the birth of Buddha Shakyamuni, the great Satta Deva Manusanam (counselor of gods and men).In the early morning, Ven. Abbot Guangquan and the Lingyin Sangha ritually invited and received the gold-guilded statue of Prince Siddhartha Gautama to the Mahavira Hall, respectfully placing it in an elaborately decorated golden bowl adorned with nine dragons. In the reciting of mantras and Buddha’s names, the Lingyin Sangha put their palms together and expressed their gratitude to the Original Master Buddha Shakyamuni for providing relief to all tormented sentient beings and for his reincarnation to the Saha World. Ven. Guangquan first poured the aromatic water made from colored flowers onto the golden statue of Prince Siddhartha Gautama. Buddhist masters and lay Buddhists then successively lifted the spoon to bathe the statue with holy water, prayed that the compassionate Buddha would bless the mortal world, eliminate all disasters and difficulties, that all sentient beings would harvest happiness, rid all sufferings, and finally reach the state of true perfection.
