Life Release Practiced by Monastics and Lay Buddhists of Jogyesa

Monstics and lay Buddhists of the Jogyesa temple practiced life release by setting loaches free into lotus flower pots on July 17, reminding the participants of the importance of life and Buddha’s teachings. 

The congregation performed the ritual of eliminating karmic wrongdoings of the lives of the loaches and taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. The abbot of Jogyesa, Ven. Jihyun, scattered pure water on the loaches located on the Buddhist alter with a pine tree branch, symbolizing repentance and purification of accumulated karmic ill deeds of the creatures.    

Ven. Jihyun also delivered a Dharma speech to allow the lives to get away from Mara and misleading evil spirits and take refuge in the three jewels of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.  

After the ritual, the abbot and participating monks brought the bottles of loaches to the outside of the Hall of the Great Hero. The monastics and lay Buddhists circumambulated the temple adorned with the pots filled with lotus flowers, while holding the bottles.

While chanting the Heart Sutra, Ven. Jihyun and President Kim Uijeong of the Jogyesa Lay Buddhists Association released loaches into a lotus flower pot. Several other monastics and lay Buddhists, too, set the loaches free into 300 flower pots.

Ven. Jihyun said, “The loaches released today will provide oxygen to lotus flowers by going down to the bottom of the plants, while also removing bugs and thereby helping the flowers grow well. It is my sincere hope that you can steadfastly carry on your spiritual practice while keeping your center upright like a lotus flower which blooms even in muddy water. Loaches and aquatic plants help each other grow further in a pond. I wish our society could achieve such mutual growth.”     

President Kim Uijeong read the letter of aspiration, “I sincerely aspire that all sentient beings could put an end to hardships and achieve supreme enlightenment, along with the living beings which gained new life today in the lotus flowers of wisdom.”

Article reference: http://news.jogyesa.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=6877