Calendar

2024 BZC Calendar of Events

Weekly Schedule

Bodhisattva Ceremony


Sat, Feb 4, 2023

Our monthly Bodhisattva Ceremony (or "full moon" - ryaku fusatsu - ceremony is based on practices going to back to the early days of Buddhism.  During the ceremony we bow and chant the Formless Repentance, Homage to Ancestors, the Four Vows, and the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts (printable version of the ceremony). The bowing and chanting is an offering up of ourselves to Buddha - the awakened nature within each of us.

In India at the time of Shakyamuni Buddha, the monks would congregate twice a month, at the full moon and the new moon, to make public their shortcomings with respect to the precepts, and to re-avow their intention to practice the Way. We preserve this tradition by scheduling this ceremony on the Saturday nearest the full moon.

 

View full calendar