Seven Day Dharma Assembly
‘打佛七’
In the eyes of a mother, a child is always a child. Even though her child may be of 60 years old, the mother would still adore and treat him like a child. This is how I feel as most people do.

During the formative years of my childhood at the primary school, every time when I came back from school, my mother would be at home to see that I took my meals. As I was a bit choosy with the dishes prepared by her, I might not want to take what she had cooked. It ended up most of the time that my mother would have to give in and give me ten cents to go and buy a bowl of ‘laksa’ or a mug of curry soup to eat with the plain rice.

As I grew up oftentimes when I came home from the boarding school or varsity, I still pestered my mother to fry rice with an egg and some prawns when I found that the dishes were not appetising. Her fried rice had a class of its own equal to none.

Even after I had fathered a child at the age of 31, my mother would still cut apples or oranges into slices for me to eat every time I went home to see her. We would sit side by side with a cup of coffee prepared for me by her. She would talk to me softly and gently and listened to me attentively when I had something to share with her. Likewise,she would tell me her ‘grandmother stories’ which regrettably I did not bother to remember. At times she would console me and share my grievances. I liked the feeling of being treated as a child in the care of a loving mother. Though she was not a trained counsellor, she was the best I had ever seen as she had the golden touch of motherly love.

The loss of my mother had induced an immeasurable sadness in me. She had given me so much love and yet I had repaid her reciprocally so little.

To me her departure after three months from the confirmation that she was suffering from leukemia was too sudden and too bitter for me to accept though outwardly I did not show it to my family members and friends.

As a Buddhist I thought it would be my duty as a son to do whatever I could to repent for my shortcomings and negligence towards my mother while she was still alive and at the same time to perform religious rites to transfer merits to my mother. I contemplated that I should go all out unreservedly to ‘Dǎ Fúo Qī ’ [打佛七] as soon as possible after the demise of my mother. Hopefully by such a deed I could at least help to elevate my mother to a better plane of existence, if not to help her to be reborn in the Western Paradise[西方极乐世界] instantly.

In the following year of 1985, I managed to ‘Dǎ Fúo Qī' twice as I could only do it during the school holidays. I participated in the event from July 26 to August 4, 1985 at the Malaysian Buddhist Association[马来西亚佛教总会] in Penang, and again from November 18 to November 24, 1985 at the Taiping Buddhist Association[太平佛教会].



‘Dǎ Fúo Qī' [打佛七] is a term in Mandarin. It is a seven-day Dharma Assembly[法会] in which all the participants would recite the sacred name of Amitabha Buddha[阿弥陀佛圣号] day and night throughout the seven day period. During that period, the participants had to observe the eight precepts[八关斋戒] and at the same time they had to observe strictly the rule of abstinence from talking to one other[禁语]. Apart from the normal sessions of nine hours of mass recitation of the sacred name of Amitabha Buddha in the shrine hall, participants were encouraged to make a total of not less than one thousand bows to the Buddha every day during the intervals between the sessions. Those older or weaker ones who were unable to perform the bows would instead have to recite the name of Amitabha for ten thousand times daily. Usually, by the time a participant had performed this extra task of one thousand bows, it was already past midnight. The following morning he had to wake up before five to get ready for another day of Dharma cultivation. Due to lack of sleep and strenuous exercise of one thousand bows per day, most participants found it very unbearable for the first two days. Time seemed to crawl relatively slow like a snail for the first two days. The participants would get used to the routine from the third day onwards. Since then time flew. Seven days of Dharma Assembly were over before the participants were hardly aware of it.

I had a peculiar experience in 1985 when I performed ‘Dǎ Fúo Qī' at the Taiping Buddhist Association. Entering the third day of Dharma cultivation, during the first session of mass recitation of the sacred name of Amitabha Buddha in the shrine hall, I was extremely tired and exhausted that my eye lids could hardly open. My legs, though reluctant to move, still had to carry my body to follow the rest of the participants to walk around the shrine hall reciting aloud the sacred name of Amitabha Buddha in unison. It was a real torture for my limbs to act against the will of my mind. But one peculiar thing happened against all explanations of logic and norms. From the second session onwards, I was totally transformed. I was very much afresh and energetic. Fatigue had left me completely. It was hard for anybody to believe that “intense freshness and renewed vigour were preceded by extreme tiredness”Of course there were several inconveniences faced by the participants of ‘Dǎ Fúo Qī ' pertaining to the living conditions during the Dharma cultivation [修持佛法]. As the number of participants reached two hundred and fifty, all of them had to sleep side by side in the dormitories. Sound sleep had become a mere luxury for any participant as all sorts of noises and movements were unavoidable throughout the night although most participants still observed the rules and regulations as listed by the organizing committee.

The use of the washroom presented another problem as the number of washrooms and toilets were few and limited in great contrast to the number of participants. This problem was more acute with the ladies as their number usually outnumbered that of the gentlemen by at least threefold. To overcome this, one had to use the facility at odd hours whence others were still sleeping in the early hours of the morning or during the interval just before or after meals.
In my later years I did ‘Dǎ Fúo Qī’ two more times. Once it was from November 14 to November 21, 1989 at the Taiping Buddhist Association. Another time was from December 22 to December 29, 1995 at the Buddhist Triple Wisdom Hall in Penang[槟城三慧讲堂]. As age is catching up, I think I shall not partake in ‘Dǎ Fúo Qī’ with the vigorous daily bows of one thousand times. I might opt to reciting the sacred name of Amitabha Buddha for ten thousand times instead.

‘Dǎ Fúo Qī’ requires a sound body and mind. It is a Buddhist cultivation that calls for full concentration of the mind and physical endurance of the body. It is better to perform it when one is still young and healthy. Otherwise, instead of ‘Dǎ Fúo Qī’, we would be 'beaten off' by our own age or our own health. Believe it or not, as I was told by a master, one would never die in the shrine hall while practising ‘Dǎ Fúo Qī’. If he does die then and there, he is assured of a 'Lotus Seat' in Western Paradise. Would you like to do that?


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(1)Leaving the Home Life http://zest-zipper.blogspot.com/2012/01/leaving-home-life-16-december-2011-was.html
(2)Train Journey,Train Mindfulness http://zest-zipper.blogspot.com/2013/01/train-journeytrain-mindfulness.html
(3)The Three- Steps-One-Bow Dharma Assembly http://zest-zipper.blogspot.com/2008/07/three-steps-one-bow.html
(4)The Sage Who Never Speaks http://zest-zipper.blogspot.com/2009/11/sage-who-never-speaks-as-i-see-it.html
(5)从母亲的一个心愿谈起 http://zest-zipper.blogspot.com/2012/12/blog-post.html