THE RAINS RETREAT (AN CƯ KIẾT HẠ) — AN AGE-OLD TRADITION IN BUDDHIST CULTURE
Each year, when the retreat season arrives, monks and nuns set aside their busy Buddhist duties to devote themselves diligently to chanting sutras, performing repentance rituals, practicing mindfulness of the Buddha, and meditating — cultivating a healthy body, a dignified bearing, virtuous conduct, and a pure, liberated mind, so as to be truly worthy as a field of merit for lay Buddhists.
THE RAINS RETREAT (AN CƯ KIẾT HẠ)
"Within the retreat grounds of the Rains Retreat,
Monks, nuns, and the fourfold assembly gather from every direction,
Guiding and encouraging one another with gentle care,
Step by step toward the shore of awakening, leaving delusion far behind."
Each year, when the retreat season arrives, monks and nuns set aside their busy Buddhist duties to devote themselves diligently to chanting sutras, performing repentance rituals, practicing mindfulness of the Buddha, and meditating — cultivating a healthy body, a dignified bearing, virtuous conduct, and a pure, liberated mind, so as to be truly worthy as a field of merit for lay Buddhists.
ACTIVITIES DURING THE RAINS RETREAT SEASON
At the same time, this season offers lay Buddhists an opportunity to cultivate merit by making offerings, providing support, and creating favorable conditions for monks and nuns to practice and study during the retreat.
For lay Buddhists who are unable to join a retreat community for collective practice, they may instead arrange a solemn and properly appointed worship space at home, enshrining a Buddha statue there so that, day by day, they may diligently cultivate virtue, study and recite the sutras, refine their body and mind, and live in accordance with the Buddha's teachings.
