Traveled to San Jose to attend the Hanamatsuri service at Myokakuji Betsuin. The flower festival celebrating the birth of Sakyamuni is one of my favorite services and this year, as coincidence would have it, I was able to see two different versions of the tradition.
Recited during the ceremony:
The Coming of the Buddha
(From Chapter II Expedients)The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to open [the gate to] the insight of the Buddha, and to cause them to purify themselves. They appear in the worlds in order to show the insight of the Buddha to all living beings. They appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to obtain the insight of the Buddha. They appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to enter the Way to the insight of the Buddha. Sariputra! This is the one great purpose for which the Buddhas appear in the worlds.