The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas (CTTB) conducted a two-week session for the recitation of Amitabha Buddha’s name beginning on December 24, 1995. Dharma Master Heng Lyu, the Abbot of CTTB, invited Dharma Master Heng Tso, one of the Venerable Master’s senior disciples currently based at the Avatamsaka Sagely Monastery in Calgary, Canada, to come to CTTB to host the session.

This year, the session differed from those of the past two years in that it reverted to the traditional schedule used in earlier years at CTTB. Moreover, after an hour of Sutra lecture in the evenings, there would be an hour during which some early disciples of the Venerable Master shared their recollections of sessions they attended in the early days. The schedule included the usual morning and evening recitations and noon meal offering, recitation of the Amitabha Sutra once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and non-stop recitation of Amitabha Buddha’s name during the rest of the day, alternating in thirty-minute periods of circumambulating, sitting, and silent recitation.

Each day the schedule started at four in the morning and ended with the Great Transference of Merit at around ten o’clock at night, with a half-hour break after lunch. People were allowed to leave the Buddha hall only during the circumambulating or sitting periods. All of the regular community work was done by “session-supporters” so that others could participate in the session full-time.

Dharma Master Heng Sure lectured on the first evening of the session, which also happened to be Christmas Eve. After lecturing on the “Transferences” chapter of the Avatamsaka Sutra, he told of how he took part in a session at Gold Mountain Monastery during Christmas vacation over twenty years ago, when he was a young graduate student (before he became a monk). He had brought with him a Christmas sock that he’d used since he was seven. On Christmas Eve of that year, he hung the sock outside his door, thinking that perhaps the Venerable Master or his fellow cultivators would help him get rid of it by throwing it away or cutting it up. The next morning, he woke up and discovered to his surprise upon opening the door that his Christmas sock was filled with presents--recitation beads, pocketsize Sutras, dumplings, and other goodies. He was even more astonished when he went to the Buddha hall and the Venerable Master greeted him with a broad smile and a “Merry Christmas.” The all-encompassing spirit of Buddhism left him deeply touched, and the memory of that Christmas Eve has been a source of strength to him in his cultivation ever since he left the home-life.

During his instructional talks during the session, Dharma Master Tso urged everyone to relax in body and mind and not to be overly intense as they recited the Buddha’s name and gathered the “provisions” for rebirth in the Pure Land. Dharma Master Tso recalled that in earlier years, everyone at the City had always cherished the opportunity to participate in the winter sessions and would make arrangements so that they could take part in and concentrate on the sessions. During the rest of the year, they would be busy teaching or doing other temple work; but during the session, they would put down everything and virtually “take a vacation.” Dharma Master Tso compared taking part in the session to eating durian (a fruit with a peculiar and strong flavor): it’s difficult in the beginning, but gradually one develops a real taste for it.

Dharma Master Heng Cheng regretted that many people went in and out of the Buddha hall during the session and didn’t concentrate. She related that in early years, many people never left the Buddha hall during the entire session: Once the Venerable Master even had to come to the hall and advise some people to go take a bath! She urged everyone to be vigorous and do a good job of reciting the Buddha’s name. Although they might not attain the Buddha-recitation samadhi, they would at least experience what a recitation session was like.