Special Topics
Welcoming the New Year with the Eighty-Eight Buddhas
On New Year’s Eve, one may greet the turning of the year amid brilliant fireworks. Yet it is even more meaningful to quiet and refresh the mind from within. Entering the temple for the evening service of the Eighty-Eight Buddhas Great Repentance Text, we bow to the Eighty-Eight Buddhas, repent, and make vows, thereby allowing body and mind to gradually settle. Looking back over the past year, we reflect on our actions of body, speech, and mind: Have we created more unwholesome deed...
Encountering the Eighty-Eight Buddhas - Illuminating Our Lives Every Day
By reciting the Eighty-Eight Buddhas Great Repentance Text, we take the Buddhas—perfected in awakening and practice—as our model, and see clearly our own afflictions and habitual tendencies. Through bringing forth aspiration, taking refuge, bowing, repenting, making vows, and dedicating merit in accordance with the text, we make vows to correct our faults and purify body and mind with utmost sincerity. In doing so, we let the light of the Buddha’s wisdom shine through our e...
Majestic Virtues – The Ten Epithets of the Buddha
The ten epithets of the Buddha apply universally to all Buddhas throughout the ten directions and the three periods of time. Before paying homage to the Eighty-eight Buddhas, let us first understand the ten virtues of the Buddha, and take the Buddha’s compassion and wisdom as our guide in life. In doing so, we may revere the Buddha, pay homage to the Buddha, learn from the Buddha, and ultimately attain Buddhahood. ■Editorial Office Prostrating to the Buddha and reciting the Buddha...
Mindfully Reciting the Eighty-Eight Buddhas is a Good Spiritual Practice
Editor’s Note: The names of the Eighty-Eight Buddhas transcend time and space. Through the teachings delivered by the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas across the worlds of the ten directions, repentance liturgies transmitted over generations, chanting services, and daily recitation practices, the Eighty-Eight Buddhas continue to encounter and resonate with people of different spiritual capacities. Drawing on Buddhist scriptures and the cultivation narratives of patriarchs and eminent monk...
Q&As on the Great Repentance Text
Q1: Why is the Great Repentance Text included in the evening service? Morning and evening recitations are fundamental daily practices for Buddhists. The modern Tiantai Master Xingci (興慈法師) said, "Disobeying morning and evening recitations is like a fine horse without reins," highlighting the importance of these two practices. In his "Combined Explanation of the Two Daily Practices," the Master explained that the morning recitation is performed "before ext...
How to Practice the Great Repentance Text at Home?
The Great Repentance Text is one of the primary evening recitations in Buddhist daily practice. Usually, when reciting the 88 Buddhas, one kneels upright and chants the Buddhas’ names. Beginners can start by doing evening service to familiarize themselves with the names of the 88 Buddhas. If you are sincere in your repentance practice and wish to make the Great Repentance Text a regular practice, you can do it at home at your Buddhist shrine, similar to doing your morning and eveni...