Venerable Master Hsing Yun presided over the annual Sangha Day celebration at Hsi Lai Temple Sunday. About a thousand devotees from as far as Boston, Toronto, Vancouver, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Southern California attended the offering ceremony in the Main Shrine where monastics of the Fo Guang Shan Order from North and South America participated. Organized by BLIA Los Angeles, special vegetarian dishes were prepared and offered to the monastics by various groups of devotees and volunteers in different costumes. Followers were provided lunch boxes and took the meal at the same time as the monastics. Performances including singing, poetry recitation, and drumming were presented by the Hsi Lai Boy Scouts, BLIA YAD, children from Hsi Lai Chinese School, and the Buddha’s Light Drummers.

     The Venerable Master spoke on the meaning of the monastic practice of begging for alms that the Buddha established more than 2,500 years ago. In accord with the Dharma, monastics should beg or accept offering without any discrimination and treat everyone with equality. In making offering on Sangha Day, devotees are cultivating merits that benefit their parents of this lifetime as well as previous seven lifetimes. Everyone who participates in and supports the offering ceremony also gains merits. He expressed his heartfelt gratitude to all the followers for their generosity and devotion.

     The monastics, led by the Venerable Master, re-enacted the Buddhist tradition of an alms-round with their bowls on the temple ground. Followers lined up along the verandahs and joyfully made donation to each passing monastic. In the afternoon, more than thirty monastics conducted a Yogacara Flaming Mouth Ceremony (Yen-Ko), ending the celebration for Sangha Day with offering to all sentient beings.