Setting Boundaries at the Water, Land, and Air Dharma Assembly: Initiating the Reconciliation of Life

September 13, 2025, marks the day of setting the boundaries of the Inner Shrine for the Water, Land, and Air Dharma Assembly. We are deeply grateful for everyone’s presence this evening, sowing the seeds of liberation and Buddhahood both for ourselves and for beings across the six realms. The Dharma Assembly is endowed with inconceivable power and the capacity to liberate. It is a vast collective cultivation dedicated to the reconciliation of life and a swift pathway leading to the buddha-field. It activates the “Bodhisattva DNA” within us, enabling entry into the Bodhisattva path of awakening oneself and awakening others, benefiting oneself and benefiting others.

Tonight’s ritual of initiating the Inner Shrine formally proclaims the commencement of this great undertaking of reconciliation and purification that connects to the dharmadhatu in all ten directions. Each participant is enjoined to relinquish worldly burdens and distractions, and, with a single sincere thought, give rise to boundless virtuous and positive connections. In this way, we enter into resonance with Buddhas and beings, with all ancestors and parents throughout past lifetimes, and with all sentient and inanimate beings of the dharmadhatu, establishing our minds firmly upon the auspicious arising of this Dharma Assembly.

The ritual of setting the boundaries for the mandala serves to construct a vajra protection, pure ritual arena, safeguarding the Dharma activities from interference by demonic forces. We must focus and collect the mind with utmost reverence, supplicating to the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Dharmapalas to bestow blessings. Through this, body, speech, and mind are purified; the three karmic activities become immaculate, the mind basis becomes luminous, and one attunes to the wisdom of emptiness—non-abidance and unattainable, uncovering one’s original face. From this arises the innate great compassion. Compassion and wisdom operate in union, pervading the dharmadhatu and suffusing the entire mandala of the Water, Land, and Air Dharma Assembly. All participants with karmic connection thus open their hearts and understanding, receiving the profound Dharma of the tathagata, attaining liberation from all suffering and the perfection of all virtues.

To attend the Water, Land, and Air Dharma Assembly is to transform our mind of grasping and attachment into pure bodhicitta. Within the Emperor Liang Hall, we perform contrition to purify karmic defilements and eradicate the five poisons—greed, aversion, ignorance, pride, and doubt—so as to return to our original state and resonate with emptiness. In the Flaming-mouth Food Offering, we extend compassion toward beings suffering in the three lower realms, offering food with equanimity that is impartial so that they may be freed from the ocean of suffering and directed toward the Pure Land. In the Sutra Shrines, we receive the Dharma with deep devotion, allowing the innate luminosity of awareness to be cultivated and uncovered. We vow to emulate the wisdom and compassion of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, generating the great bodhicitta that aspires to awaken all beings and to liberate them without remainder. Only in this way can we enter the Inner Shrine with a mind that is unattainable, a heart of joy, and engage in selfless dedication, generosity, and offering.

Next, we visualize the temporal-spatial field of the Water, Land, and Air Dharma Assembly transformed into the vajra mandala of our primordial purity. With this intrinsic purity of mind, we unionize emptiness and compassion, joyfully making offerings of giving limitlessly with equanimity. To the Buddhas and noble beings of the ten directions we make offerings; to all sentient beings we extend giving, ensuring that beings across the six destinies equally receive the benefit of Dharma. By performing the Dharma rituals in accord with the prescribed liturgy, we resonate with the energy of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. The qualities of the Dharma Assembly then infuses all, purifying both sentient and inanimate beings, transforming karmic obstacles into unimpeded vows, and transforming the five poisons into pure wisdom. In this way, the time and space of the Water-Land Dharma Assembly become the pure land of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

The mandala of the Water, Air, and Land Dharma Assembly is a field formed through the spiritual confluence of all beings, sentient and inanimate. Thus, the very temporal-spatial sphere of the Dharma Assembly constitutes a “spiritual-ecological” bodhimanda. The intention and activity of protecting and rescuing all forms of life within the Dharma Assembly must also be extended into the protection of Earth’s ecology. In this sense, we must construct an “ecological boundary” for the Earth, safeguarding all inhabitants upon it.

At present, the ecological crisis of our planet is grave, having reached the threshold of survival and extinction. Its root lies in humanity’s failure to recognize its primordial spiritual purity and to experience the interconnectedness of all life. Bound by the five poisons, fettered by desire and attachment, humanity has ceaselessly damaged and destroyed the natural world.

What I advocate as “spiritual ecology” is a call to spiritual awakening. Through contemplative self-examination, we let go of the fetters of the five poisons, return to the clarity of awareness, and transform the defiled consciousness into purity—turning consciousness into wisdom. One thereby comes to recognize that all beings share the same spiritual essence, that all life is an interdependent entity. Only then can we respect the intrinsic value of all beings, embrace the space for coexistence, and together build a world of shared fulfillment. Thus, we return to an ecological harmony of co-existence and mutual flourishing with all beings.

The world is impermanent, lands are fragile and at risks, all phenomena arise, cease, and change, and misconceptions serve as the root of evil. We must therefore transform misconceptions into true mind, engendering the aspirations of bodhicitta and compassion, to universally benefit both sentient and inanimate beings. In the coming days, let us cherish this rare and precious condition, lay down our grasping thoughts, abide in right mindfulness, and contemplate our minds. In so doing, we may decode the deeply rooted karmic causes and effects, transform ignorance and affliction into bodhicitta.

Finally, with utmost sincerity, let us dedicate all the merit of this Dharma Assembly to the pacification and resolution of conflicts throughout the world. May there be peace on Earth, ecological harmony, and lasting peace for our planet.