法鼓山=Dharma Drum Mountain; 大悲心=Great Compassion; 水陸法會=Water and Land Dharma Service; 水陸季=Water and Land Season; 法鼓山大悲心修行自知錄=Self-reviewing Records of Dharma Drum Mountain's Great Compassion Water and Land Dharma Service; 漢傳禪佛教=Chinese Meditative Buddhism
Today's society is full of all forms of complicated contradictions and conflicts, along with the instability of world economy, public order, climate, and environment. What, then, do we do to take care of our body and mind and not to go with the tide? Venerable Master Sheng Yen once unveiled in the Water and Land Dharma Service, 'the chaotic minds of human lead to the chaotic state of ghosts and gods and therefore result in disasters. Just by listening to dharma here in the Water and Land Dharma Service together and to arouse the aspiration for speaking good things only and doing good thing only can we stabilise the minds of human and all sentient beings of three Realms will then be peaceful and safe as well.' To participate in a Buddhist service not only can bring safety and hope for sentient beings of the past, the present, and the future, but also can find us courage and wisdom to live. The study aims mainly at discussing the features of Dharma Drum Mountain’s Water and Land Dharma Service, as well as viewing and describing the relationship between this service and the four insists that Master Sheng Yen suggested. Through the Water and Land Season activities, people could obtain guidance of how such four insists of “hearing, contemplating, cultivating, and realising” are applicable in daily life. In the narrow sense, it refers to the activities last for two to three months; while explaining in a broader way, there is not an ending date for the Water and Land Season. Through constant practicing processes of endless exercising and learning, the Water and Land Season experience shall extend into the daily life until one has accomplished Buddhahood. This text is divided into ten chapters which are summarised as follows: Chapter 1 is the introduction. It includes the research motivation, research purpose, literature review, and scope and method of research. Chapter 2 stands for the origin and aim of Dharma Drum Mountain's Great Compassion Water and Land Dharma Service. It tells of the origin, ideas, and aim of Dharma Drum Mountain's Great Compassion Water and Land Dharma Service. Chapter 3 is the Cultivation through the Internet that meets the concepts of the Great Compassion Water and Land Dharma Service. Practicing measures, cognitions and planned activities of the Cultivation through the Internet are listed in this chapter. Chapter 4 describes the Self-reviewing Records of Dharma Drum Mountain's Great Compassion Water and Land Dharma Service, which satisfies the idea of education. To be more specific, purposes and developments of these self-reviewing records, as well as details of projects of the Handbook of Sbyinbdag, the Self-reviewing Records of Great Compassion Water and Land Dharma Service, and the “Purifying Processing for Elite Improvements” will all be introduced in this chapter. Chapter 5, on the other hand, focuses on the principle of “Anti-burning” that matches eco-friendliness views. In this chapter, goals of Dharma Drum Mountain's Great Compassion Water and Land Dharma Service, obtaining environmental protec
