The Festival of Bathing Both Buddha and Heart - 浴佛節與浴心 from Collection of Rain Blossoms

The true festival is not outside but within the heart. Image: Shutterstock.

The Buddha is really our own mind. So when we talk about bathing the Buddha, we are also talking about cleansing the heart. Long ago during the Bathing the Buddha Festival, people practiced something called “revealing the heart.” They would look back on the mistakes they made over the year, speak honestly before the Buddha, and make a promise not to repeat them. The real meaning of the festival was not only washing a statue but washing the heart first.

My way of teaching is simple. I start with what is easy to understand and then slowly move into what is deeper. I do not ask people to follow strict rules. I only hope they understand the teaching with a clear and honest mind. That is what it means to truly be a student on the Buddha’s path.

Where the Heart Must Turn

We cannot understand the Buddha’s way by reading scriptures alone, and we cannot expect to find the whole truth just by staying inside temples. After all, the Hall of the Great Heroes (大雄寶殿) is only the outer shell of Buddhism. The living spirit of the practice must be found in many places: in quiet reflection, in real-life experience, in our daily choices, in lessons from history, in the way we test ourselves through action, and in seeing for ourselves how cause and effect unfold.

Only by learning through all these parts of life do we begin to understand the deeper meaning of awakening. If someone only recites the Buddha’s name with their mouth or looks at verses with their eyes and never uses the heart to understand, then that is not real learning. It becomes only an imitation of the path, not the path itself.

浴佛節與浴心

 雨花集

濟公活佛 

所謂佛，即是心。浴佛者浴心而已。以前舉行浴佛節典禮，要有向佛明心之禮節，將自己一年來所有錯處，向佛表明，並誓以後不得再犯，此之謂明心，浴佛節要先浴自己之心。

我之教導作風，祇求淺入，由淺而深；祇求領悟，不加嚴制，如此方算是真學佛。

學佛是不能單靠經典而得到佛理，不能在廟堂中得到登佛法之堂奧。大雄寶殿不過是佛教之驅殼。佛教之精神，要從哲理上之深思，經驗上之細味，生活中之尋求，歷史上之考究，行為上之測驗，因果上之反證，始能得到佛理之深意。如此學佛，方是正道。祇知口誦如來，眼觀佛偈，全不用心靈來領略，學假佛耳。

This translated text is a chapter from Collection of Rain Blossoms, a scripture written by JiGong Living Buddha in the 1900s through spirit writing. Here the link to the original Chinese source.

If you are interested in other chapters of this book, here is the link to the table of contents.