Chan Meditation Center Qingming Repaying Kindness Dharma Assembly Concludes Successfully to Pray for World Peace

From April 4 to 5, 2026, Chan Meditation Center held a two-day Qingming Repaying Kindness Dharma Assembly. The program included the "Compassionate Samadhi Water Repentance Service" and the "Recitation Ritual of Amitabha Sutra in Three-Sessions." Over 130 participants attended across the two days, and the atmosphere was solemn and deeply moving. This year, the causes and conditions for holding the Dharma assembly were especially auspicious, as all resident nuns from Dharma Drum Mountain's branch monasteries on the East Coast of North America gathered together, jointly bringing this dignified Qingming Buddhist service to completion. In addition to expressing deep remembrance and blessings for their ancestors, participants also hoped to bring a stabilizing and peaceful force to the world through their spiritual practice, and prayed for world peace.

For this year's "Recitation Ritual of Amitabha Sutra in Three-Sessions," Venerable Guo Goang (果廣法師), Vice Abbot of Dharma Drum Mountain, was specially invited to preside. In her Dharma talk, Venerable Guo Goang indicated that the Pure Land is free from suffering and filled only with joy, where both one's environment (Dependent Retribution) and one's body and mind (Direct Retribution) are pure and complete. Ordinary sentient beings, however, tend to seek favorable external conditions, longing for better environments, healthier bodies, and pleasing appearances. Driven by attachment to pleasure and aversion to suffering, they act through body, speech, and mind in ways aligned with greed and anger, thus leading to clinging to both Dependent and Direct retributions. All of this mainly arises from delusion and ignorance.
When the mind encounters external conditions, a single thought can give rise to wholesome or unwholesome intentions, thereby leading us to perpetuate the cycle of rebirth. Therefore, we must clearly observe causes and conditions and the law of cause and effect, practice wholesome deeds, and refrain from unwholesome ones through body, speech, and mind, by cultivating the Ten Wholesome Actions: not killing, not stealing, not engaging in sexual misconduct; not lying, not engaging in divisive speech, not using harsh words, and not indulging in frivolous talk; and freeing the mind from greed, anger, and ignorance. This forms the most fundamental basis of practice.

The Venerable Guo Goang emphasized that the key to practice lies in the mind. Whenever feelings arise—whether pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral—we should train ourselves to be aware of them as they truly are. Practices such as the Buddha's name recitation and meditation cultivate mindfulness. When the six sense faculties come into contact with the six objects, and unwholesome thoughts arise, we must learn to refrain from following them. Instead, we must continually incline toward goodness, diligently cultivating precepts, concentration, and wisdom to extinguish greed, anger, and ignorance. By practicing the Ten Wholesome Actions, one may become a person of great virtue, free from suffering and experiencing only joy. After listening to the teaching, participants were filled with Dharma joy, as if nourished by the rain of Dharma, enriching their hearts.

During the assembly, Venerable Chang Yih (常懿法師), a resident monastic at Chan Meditation Center, led kitchen volunteers in carefully preparing lunches and refreshments as offerings for all attendees. The two-day event concluded amid the pure and sincere chanting of the Buddha's name. The merit generated from this collective practice was dedicated to all sentient beings throughout the Dharma realm, with prayers for world peace, happiness, and well-being for all. Participants also aspired to carry this mindfulness and compassion into daily life. In this way, repaying kindness extends beyond Qingming Festival, into every moment.



Original text in Chinese: Chan Meditation Center
Photos: Yin Ting, Liu Guiru (劉桂如)
Translation: Patricia Yang 
Editing: Keith Brown