(10th February, 2021, Hong Kong) To celebrate the Chinese New Year, 500 Peach Blossoms are planted at Tsz Shan Monastery, hoping to share the merit of Flower Offerings to the public and pray for the wellness of Hong Kong. The Peach Blossoms are in full bloom to welcome the New Year, thanks to the devoted care of our local flower farmers. Starting from six months ago, the farmers started to plant saplings in the monastery, all the way from the Mindful Path to the back mountain of the Guan Yin statue. The poetic vibe expressed in Bai Juyi’s famous verse (Tang Dynasty) is reconstructed, “The world is full of fragrance in April, as the Peach Blossoms begin to bloom”. As the fragrance permeates the whole monastery, it symbolizes blessings spreading to every corner of the world.
Understanding the wishes of the Hong Kong people under the pandemic, Mr. Li Ka-shing initiated this peach blossom planting project half a year ago. Through the offering, Mr. Li sends his best wishes to Hong Kong citizens, and together we develop great wisdom and fortune.
Tsz Shan Monastery will reopen on the seventh day of the Chinese Lunar Calendar (18th February). To visit, the public can make reservation online. Prior to this, regular monastic practices and ritual ceremonies have been maintained. On the fifth day (16th February), the ritual ceremony “New Year Celestial Offering” will be held (with live streaming online), aspiring to enhance our self-reflection, our gratitude for the Buddhist Dharma, and our rejoice in life.
Furthermore, from the eve of the Chinese Lunar Year (11th February) to the fourth day of the new year (15th February), the public can make wishes and send their deepest prayers on our platform: www.tszshan.org/cnywish. The monastery will collect all the blessings on the fifth day and offer them to Guan Yin with our righteous will, thoughts and kindness. Tsz Shan Monastery wishes all of you a new and fruitful year ahead.
Additional Information:
Under the pandemic, Tsz Shan Monastery always promotes the Buddhist Dharma and spiritual education with innovative initiatives. Adhering to the belief of “Intrinsically self-sufficient”, from the beginning of March 2020 to the end of the year, in response to the global pandemic, Tsz Shan Monastery created an “E–learning Platform” and launched nearly 350 activities and events online, accumulating a total of approximately 3.8 million views. Among them included the mindfulness training program developed by Tsz Shan Institute that encouraged the public to practise at home so as to cultivate positive insights. The Buddhist Spiritual Counselling Centre, with the dedication of providing Buddhist spiritual counselling services, has also launched new Dharma-based professional online courses and caring activities with the implementation of modern technology, hoping to transcend time and spatial limitations, and aims to break new grounds for the betterment of our society.
On New Year’s Eve, Tsz Shan Monastery held the “New Year Bell Ringing Ceremony 2021”, presenting more than 25,000 lanterns offered by the public in front of the Guan Yin statue and ringing the bell to bring blessings to the new year. The total number of online views has exceeded 440,000 during the night. Tsz Shan Monastery, with deep gratitude to the goodwill of all the offerings, wishes to share this merit to all sentient beings, and above all, the world.
Photos of peach blossoms in Tsz Shan Monastery can be downloaded from the following link: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/19lk1ReUpsUJVsvSQgqNw0QKXoIsyJJCk