On Jul. 12, 2015 The Root Guru of True Buddha School H.H. Living Buddha Lian-sheng Sheng-yen Lu presided over a consecration ceremony in the True Buddha Seattle Chapter. He was also interviewed by AAT TV.

H.H. Jigdal Dagchen Sakya Visited TBS Dragon Fest Booth

【Reported by Shi Lianyou, Translated by TBTTs】
On the morning of July 12, 2015, all levels of True Buddha School dharma promotion personnel, disciples, and virtuous devotees gathered at the True Buddha Seattle Chapter located in Seattle's Chinatown. They were waiting for Root Guru Living Buddha Liang-sheng to consecrate the brand new buddha statues of the Chapter.

The painted statues on the shrine presented a colorful atmosphere. The carving was exquisite, remarkably perfect and true to life. The main deity of the shrine is Padmakumara. Above Padmakumara is Golden Mother of the Jade Pond. The golden statues of the Seven Buddhas are on the top level with the rest of the deities arranged row by row. In addition, tall and formidable Acala and Ucchusma stand at each side of the shrine. A large happy-faced fortune god is enshrined in the Fortune God shrine. These pleasant statues were donated by disciples of the Hong Kong Lotus Light Charity Society (LLCS) which is led by Master Changren.

When it was time to begin the consecration, the weather changed to sunny from an originally a cool day. Following Grand Master Living Buddha Lian-sheng's invocation, mantra chanting, and blessing, the eyes of each golden statues were opened one by one and consecrated as Grand Master firmly and powerfully moved his talisman pen up and down and in the ten directions. The resounding ringing of a vajra bell soared and shook the dharma realm. Instantly the shrine was full of spiritual energy. All shrine deities descended joyfully. Grand Master continued with more chanting as he performed a body mudra by turning his body, making ritual steps and vigorously brandishing his hand sword pointing toward the sky. This formed the protective boundary of the shrine.

After the consecration, AAT TV of Chinese American Media in Seattle was on site and conducted an impromptu interview of Living Buddha Lian-sheng. Living Buddha Lian-sheng mentioned that the golden buddha statues donated by disciples of the Hong Kong LLCS, led by Master Changren, were very stately.

Concerning the compassionate and charitable work of the True Buddha School, whenever disasters or calamities strike Taiwan, the three branches of the True Buddha LLCS in the northern, central or southern regions are always there on site to provide in-time disaster relief, material aid and support, help with reconstruction of bridges and roads, social services, monetary funds, donations of security cars and fire trucks, etc., whatever other help and support activity is needed.

Last year, In Seattle, the Seattle Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple (LSCTT) donated $8,000 to the Southeast Asian Library of the University of Washington to sponsor the Taiwan Resource Center for Chinese Studies, which was the second largest donation. In addition, LSCTT has been sponsoring the annual Walk for Rice charitable event for years. This year LSCTT donated $30,000 to this event which was the highest amount raised by either group or individual category.

From 2008-2014 the Sheng-yen Lu Foundation provided material aid and support to hospitals, education, the Lotus Scholarship, earthquake relief etc. in the amount of $1.5 million. The Foundation has given about $250 thousand annually in charitable donations. The contributions made this year for reconstruction following the disaster in Nepal are already in excess of $130 thousand.

As a drop of water can mean a life, the True Buddha LLCS of Hong Kong has already constructed 40,000 water vaults in the Chinese province of Gansu to enable these remote areas to have sufficient water to drink. The LLCS provides on the spot and in-time aid and support to anyplace in China where there has been a disaster.

Grand Master Living Buddha Lu Sheng-yen says: Wherever there are difficulties we will be there. This is bodhicitta.

At the conclusion of the interview Grand Master and Shimu took a group picture with disciples in front of the shrine. Grand Master also closely appreciated every golden statue in the shrine, called the name of every deity, and praised them all as incredibly stately.

As a group of disciples followed Grand master and Shimu out of the True Buddha Seattle Chapter, a large number of pigeons circled around three times in the sky above as if they were circumambulating the buddha three times. In a place where a great adept appears there is a mutual spiritual response and interaction between heaven, earth and humans.

The Dragon Fest is an annual summer carnival held by the Chinese community in the greater Seattle area. As usual, The LSCTT established a very solemn shrine in a designated booth in Chinatown where everyone could come to worship the buddha, draw divination sticks, and make prayers. The booth also prepared Buddhist literature and various beautiful buddha statues for sale to the public.

When Grand Master got to the LSCTT booth for blessing and taking a tour around, people along the road all enthusiastically and joyously greeted him.

Grand master and Shimu also made a special trip to the scene and led everyone in offering flowers to the buddha and blessed everything to be auspicious and perfect for everybody. To make a memento of the event, all levels of the promotional personnel got together for a group picture in front of the shrine at the LSCTT booth.

Afterwards, Grand Master and Shimu visited the booths of AAT TV, Tibetan Thangkas, Buddhist statues, etc.. Before departing for dinner, they also paid a visit to the famous Tea House of Tenren's Tea Time in Chinatown and had a tea break with Mr. and Mrs. Xu Zhouxuan. This concluded this wonderful festive day.

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