💫 About the Grand Altar:
🌷 Seven Lapis Lazuli Medicine Buddhas – The Seven Lapis Lazuli Medicine Buddhas, also known as the Seven Medicine Buddhas, refer to Medicine Buddha of Lapis Lazuli Light and His six manifestations. Each Buddha made great vows to liberate beings from suffering, granting them peace, happiness, and auspicious blessings.
🌷 Buddha Stupa – The stupa represents the Buddha’s sacred intention and Dharma body. As stated in the sutras: “Even offering hundreds of thousands of carts of pure gold as charity is not equal to offering a single wholesome mind with fragrant flowers to a stupa.” Offering to a Buddha stupa brings the merits of dispelling disasters, removing obstacles, curing illnesses, prolonging life, and receiving blessings. When dedicated to the deceased, such an offering can help them be liberated from lower realms, be reborn in fortunate realms, and encounter the Buddha’s teachings.
🌷 Auspicious Water – Water is pure and gentle in nature, able to cleanse impurities and nourish all beings. Offering pure water to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas symbolizes the offering of a pure heart to the ocean of all merits. In front of the Buddha, water offerings can purify the three karmas of body, speech, and mind, helping one to be free from afflictions and karmic defilements.
💫 What kind of virtues do donors create:
Dedication to sponsors or those who seek blessings for calamities to be averted, to have good health and increased blessings, for supporting the monastery to propagate the Dharma to benefit all beings.
💫 Monastery will acknowledge donations by:
🪔 On behalf of each sponsor, prepare a Grand Altar to be placed before the Buddha for vast offering.
🪔 Dedication of merits from 3 continuous nights of recitation of Medicine Buddha sutra.
🪔 Sangha will venerate 1000 scrolls of Medicine Buddha repentance sutra to seek blessings and repentance.
🪔 Merits accumulated from the series Medicine Buddha Obstacle-Clearing for Blessings, Longevity Puja will be dedicated for: help all sentient beings of the 6 realms to seek repentance with a mind of refuge and Bodhicitta, eliminate enmities, make aspirations and dedications, equipping with full conditions of the 4 Powers of Confession, for all karmic obstacles, sickness, and non-human obstacles, etc., to be eliminated, smooth conditions to increase, obstacles for learning the Dharma be eliminated, immediate increase of bliss and virtues in current lifetime, abundant clothing, food and resources in future lives, receiving the protection and guidance of Triple Gem life after life.
