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The True Nature of the Pure Land Beyond Time
*The true nature of the Pure Land and Nirvana transcends space and time; they are not products of imagination or illusory belief, but are transcendent realities that can be touched and experienced through our daily life. Pure Land and Nirvana are timeless (akāliko) and placeless; within our own mind there already exists the “mind-only Pure Land”—“The Western Land is not far away, the Western Land is right in front of you.” Practicing walking meditation with mindfulness, engaging in the Dharma door of touching the Earth, or contemplating the non-local and non-temporal nature of quantum matter—all these help us to touch the ultimate dimension, to play and roam in the “outer realm” beyond all limitations of space and time.
*The Winter Retreat at Cam Lo Temple is proposed to last ten days (each frame is one day, five days on this side, five days on the other side) with the following schedule:
- 23rd of the twelfth lunar month: Ceremony of sending off the Kitchen Gods with sticky rice and sweet soup.
- 24th (January 11th, Western calendar): Ordination ceremony for the young papaya aspirants.
- 25th–26th (12th–13th, Western calendar): Cleaning the houses and monks’ quarters, preparing to cook banh chung and banh tet (traditional New Year rice cakes).
- 27th–29th: Visiting the hamlets (Thuong, Moi, Ha, Son Ha).
- Afternoon of the 30th: Welcoming the New Year’s Eve.
- 1st–3rd days of Tet: Ceremony of bowing and divining with the Tale of Kieu (the main ceremony and final divination with Kieu on the 3rd day).
