Beginning on the New Road

In the morning on October 16, 2011, at Đông Hưng Temple, we invited Buddha’s statues to the new site and settled the deceased at the new Buddha’s hall.

It has been 5 months since the closing day, and monks and lay people have continued working hard in order to build a new temporary Buddha’s hall. It is small space, but it is solemnly established, as we see today.

Many people still remember the first day we bought the land. It had a lot of thorn bushes, vines, and two old houses which had been deserted for over 70 years. Nevertheless, when coming back today they witnessed a new building in which the Triple Gems were honored earnestly! We can clearly see that, “with human effort, everything is possible”.

There were many Buddhist followers who joined the ceremony. Everyone wore smiles on their faces. And even though we did not have a parking lot, cars were parked beautifully in three lines on the green grass.

New Buddha Hall

The ceremony started in a happy atmosphere in which the sound of the Compassion Mantra calmed the assembly while the blessing water spread around the new site. We invited the Triple Gems blessings three times.

After that, the monks performed the ceremony to invite the deceased to the ancestor alter. This is a small space but we have done our best to make it beautiful!

Furthermore, Thầy Chúc Độ, on behalf of the Sangha, spearheaded the whole process of planning, organizing and working. We had to fix the garage that is now the Buddha hall and many other things related to the temple. We have already spent $22,500 on the new temple. We still have many projects in the near future such as parking lot, Avalokitesattva site, reclining Buddha’s site and etc that need to be completed.

After the service everyone enjoyed lunch with many dishes outside because we do not have a dining room yet.

We would like to mention that we have “vegetarian dishes for fundraising” twice a month, in which Buddhist followers cook dishes at home and bring them to the temple for fundraising.

We would like to express our deep gratitude to all who have helped the temple for years. We also ask for your help both physically, intellectually and monetarily so that we can develop a temple which is a place for everyone!

May all of us be well and happy! May we have peace and joy!

By Thích Chúc Độ

Oct 17, 2011

Dong Hung Temple Relocation