Saturday, January 30, 2010

Great Ordination Time in Plum Village



Thanks to Phap Khong Nguyen who posted the following pictures on his Facebook page.

2010 Jan 12-19 "Daffodil ordination"
and Lamp Transmission,plus others!









Plum Village in January is the location of our Tradition's Great Ordination Ceremonies. Over a span of approximately two weeks new monks and nuns are ordained and already ordained brothers and sisters receive other teachings such as the "great precepts." Yet this is not an event just for monastics! We are a four-fold community and being so, monks, nuns, lay sisters and brothers also receive lamp transmission during this auspicious time of year. Lamp transmission is the process by which a person becomes a Dharma Teacher.
Phap Man wrote on the Wake Up web site ( http://wkup.org/ ) :

"The Daffodil Great Ordination Ceremony will begin this Tuesday, Jan. 12! Well I'm into it because our family, the Papaya family, will receive our great precepts this year (on Jan. 14). I just wrote this poem and letter to family and friends, and thought you might enjoy!"

Going Forth

Going forth on the path,
I say goodbye to loved ones,
Letting go of illusory bonds,
Tears of release may fall --
I know you have always been there.
Countless rivers of feeling flow in me in every moment --
You are my voice...

I carry thousands of seeds in every cell of my body --
This wondrous body, more vast than space, transmitted again and again.
There are seeds of love, seeds of joy --
You have brought them to me, put them into me time after time.
I promise night and day to care for them,
To plant them everywhere and to help them grow,
To collect them, new and beautiful, everywhere,
To sow them into the Earth with every step, every breath, every smile.
Even in midst of this quiet cold winter stillness,
Flowers of joy, of hope, of peace,
Continue in us to bloom:
Healing us,
Guiding us,
Renewing us.

May we be fresh and free --
As the new-formed flakes of snow,
Falling gently now, all around.

Phap Khong Nguyen wrote the following about this picture:
"You notice that there are the " famous" Br Phap Si and Br Phap Quan from Bat Nha temple and Phuoc Hue temples. He is alive, smiling and well in Upper Hamlet, Plum Village and we all got the Lamp transmission."He also had this picture and comented "one is called Venerable when one has practiced over 40 years of annual rain retreat after being ordained as a Bhikshu/bhikshuni."

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