By Master Jingzong

Namo Amitabha Buddha! Happy New Year to all Dharma masters and householders.

Another year has passed. We are all twelve months older. I hope that your Dharma mind, loving heart and compassion have also grown. In the coming year,with the care and protection of Amitabha Buddha, may these attributes increase with the passing of the year, each month and every day.

At the turn of each year, countless living beings are slaughtered. It's hard to change that reality. But at this special time of demarcation, we should earnestly pray and wish that humankind can reduce the evil karma it accrues from killing, and that fewer lives are lost. May heaven and earth favor us with harmony, and may all sentient beings be reborn in the Pure Land, so as to enjoy everlasting peace and joy.

When a New Year comes, people are busier and more excited than usual, steeped in a festive air. Monasteries and Dharma centers are venues for practice. As Amitabha-reciters we may suitably comply with worldly customs, yet avoid being contaminated by them. We should maintain a tranquil mind and recite Namo Amitabha Buddha as a blessing for all people.

The arrival of a New Year represents the passage of time. The old year has allowed us to understand impermanence better. So the best way to mark the New Year is to be mindful of the impermanence that is death.

The past year provided a variety of causal conditions. They facilitated the growth of our body and mind, as well as the propagation of the Dharma. We should be grateful to all people and circumstances encountered, both positive and negative. This is the best way to celebrate the New Year.

As year follows year, the wheel of time never stops; the cycle of rebirth unfolds endlessly. If we want decisively to shatter the fetters of reincarnation, we must recite the name of the Buddha of Infinite Life. Amitabha-recitation is the best New Year's wish.

In the coming year, may we thrive in Amitabha's infinite light.

Namo Amitabha Buddha