Guest writer & Participant: Si Tao 思道 (柴玉東)
June 22, 2024, is a very important day in my life. On this day, my mom and I took refuge in Buddhism. After this ceremony, I learned a lot from Buddhism.
During the ceremony, Venerable Guan Cheng told us many interesting things. Here are a few examples:
The first is the precepts, specifically the Five Precepts. The Five Precepts include:
- Not killing: This includes not harming others and animals, including insects. Not killing also means not eating meat unless it’s not made or prepared just for you.
- No stealing: This means not stealing other people’s belongings, not stealing things from supermarkets, and not vandalizing things online.
- No sexual misconduct: This is basically respecting the bodies of others and their integrity.
- No lying: This means not lying to anyone. It also includes not swearing or yelling at other people.
- Not taking intoxicants: This means respecting our own intellect and learning to be wise, helping others to maintain clear thinking.
During the ceremony, we also prostrated to a Buddha statue multiple times. Each time, we would visualize different things: During the first prostration, we would visualize energy coming up from below the ground, forming rainbow clouds in the air. The colour can be any colour. The energy would swirl around you.
During the second prostration, we would visualize all the small clouds coming together to form a bigger cloud on top of you.
During the third prostration, we would visualize the energy coursing into your body from your head to your toes. The bad energy and bad things would form as black water that flows out of you from the soles of your feet.
Venerable Guan Cheng also said that when you help others, you are helping yourself. If you think about it, it’s actually true because when you help others, your environment will get better. When it gets better, you will live, work, and play in a better environment, which is good for you and other people.
After this ceremony, I was very happy. Just like Venerable Guan Cheng said, from this day, we would stop doing bad things, stop saying bad words, and start doing good deeds. I hope the world will become a better place.
