241 Holbrook Ave
Wheeling IL 60090
Please join us to celebrate Buddha’s birthday assembly!
Please join us to celebrate Buddha’s birthday assembly!
We will chant Shakyamuni Buddha’s name followed by each of us taking turns to bathe the baby Buddha statue. Children are welcome to come and bath the Buddha, too. Every mother will be presented a flower to celebrate Mother’s Day. After the ceremony, there will be a potluck party where participants will enjoy a variety of delicious vegetarian meals…!
In the afternoon, Venerable Guo Dong Fashi will hold a “Taking Refugee to the Three Jewels” ceremony. If you would like to take refuge, receive a Dharma name and thereby formally become a Buddhist then please fill out this online registration form and bring it with you 30 minutes before the ceremony starts.
Buddha’s Birthday, also known as the Festival of Bathing of Buddha, Vesak Day or simply Buddha Day is traditionally observed on the 8th day of the 4th month of the lunar calendar in China.
Shakyamuni Buddha was born 565 BCE as the prince of the Kapilavastu kingdom in ancient India (in today’s Nepal). “Bathing of Buddha” is an ancient and important ceremony since India’s Buddhist time, and can be traced back to historical narratives of Gautama Buddha’s birth. According to the legend, when Gautama Buddha was born, he pointed one hand toward the sky and the other toward the earth; the earth trembled, and there were nine dragons spewing water to bathe him. Nowadays, Buddhists in many countries observe Buddha Day by bathing the Buddha.
Venerable Guo Dong was born in Keelung, Taiwan, in 1955, and was ordained in 1993 under Master Sheng Yen, founder of Dharma Drum Mountain, and given the Dharma name Guo-Dong Zheng-Jiao （果東正皎）. The venerable was recognized as one of the Master’s Dharma heirs in 2005. He has served as the second, third, fourth, and fifth abbot president of DDM between 2006 and 2018.