Vesak Day 2022

21 May

Hello, everyone! It has been two years since BW Monastery opened for its Vesak Day physical celebrations! This year for our Vesak Day online program, we showed everyone round the Monastery and brought performances by our Arts and Culture Department and Youth Department to our audiences. The Venerables joined in to give us a discourse and let us know their daily monastic routines through a video. Venerables also led us in the bathing the Buddha on this auspicious day!

First of, we have our emcees: Sister Koh Weilin and Sister Angeline Liu greeting us in front of the Monastery’s gates where we could see visitors waiting to enter the Monastery.

Upon entering the Monastery, the emcees reminded everyone to take a Blessing Slip from the volunteer to write their aspirations and wishes.

Sister Weilin, caught sight of a young devotee, Sister Wan Yee who was writing her blessing slip and interviewed her.

After the interview, Angeline invited the Venerables to give us a discourse.

Venerable DaoCi answered our question of #1 “Who is Buddha?”, #2 “Why do I have to know about Shakyamuni Buddha?”, and #3 “If Buddha is no longer here, how can we still learn from Shakyamuni Buddha?”

Venerable BenSi then answered for the questions #4 “Our Venerables’ aspiration”, and #5 “Why do Buddhists bathe the Buddha on Vesak day?”

The next segment of the program was a look into the daily lives of the monastics.

Here we see how this year’s visitors to the monastery can bathe the Crown Prince. Due to the current situation, our organizing committee has devised a sensor-based bathing of the Crown Prince system.

Our emcees also reminded the audience to offer their blessing strips to the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva as well as the Jade Buddha before making their way down to spin the Dharma wheels. Before spinning the Dharma wheels, there is also a station to sanitize their hands as well as log in with their TraceTogether tokens or App. We also rejoice to the volunteers who clean the possible high contact areas every other hour.

In the next programme, we enjoyed the performance from our very adorable Zest Universe children from K1 and K2 with the song “The Birth of The Buddha”.

This was followed by a performance by our Youth Department with the Insightful Praise “走过千生万世”, with an MV taking us down the memory lane, celebrating BWM 20th year in Singapore.

At the Hall of the Compassionate Avalokitesvara which opened in 2021, devotees can offer flower garlands to Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. These are made available by our volunteers.

The Grand Shrine Hall displays the first 7 steps Prince Siddhartha took at birth. Here, the devotees can also shower Price Siddhartha with flower petals just as the heavenly beings did at Prince Siddhartha’s birth.

The performance lined up next was a performance by the Arts and Culture Department’s Insightful Praise Class 1 with the Insightful Praise “灯明了“.

Next, we had the Zest Universe P1, P2, P3 and P4 children who recited “弟子规”!

On the 4th floor, there were also an array of activities for all to enjoy. Sister Jolynn Chew and her entire Lamrim class came to the monastery to celebrate Vesak Day together. One of the students shared about his experience back in the monastery. This area was also screening Buddha’s stories and the various video offerings done by the Lamrim classes.

At the exhibition area, many posters were made by the Lamrim classes for the Vesak Day Offering Project.

In the exhibition, we showcased the 20 years of BWM’s Dharma propagation journey in Singapore. We also have Lecturers on duty serving as docents for the exhibition as well as to answer any questions.

Another LCD monitor was also playing all the videos that the Lamrim classes have submitted for the Vesak Day Offering project.

There is also the Buddha of the Five Directions for the visitors to circumambulate and offer Lotus Lamps.

Last but not the least, there were three traditional bathing pools for devotees to bathe Price Siddhartha.

Our BWM XinPin Chinese Orchestra also offered the Insightful Praise of “Homage to The Triple Gem and our Lineage Masters”. It has been a while since the orchestra could come together in more than a group of five to perform for the past two years.

While listening to the melody of “Homage to The Triple Gem and our Lineage Masters”, we hope that all have arisen the heart of gratitude to the Triple Gem.

As our Venerables bathe Prince Siddhartha, may our hearts be full of respect and gratitude for his kindness to us.

For those who were might not be able to come down personally to the monastery, we have on our BWM website online offerings prepared for devotees! Mega rejoice to the BWM Vesak Day Organizing Committee.