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Thursday 17 September 2009

Nepean Buddhist community prepares to honour its ancestors

Cambodian group makes Nepean its home
September 16, 2009
By Ben Godby

The Mondul Ottawa Khmer Buddhist Monastery is gearing up to celebrate the annual Pchum Ben ceremony, a Cambodian festival that honours ancestral spirits.

The monastery, which is attached to the Bodhikaram Temple, is located at 1197 Deer Park Road in Nepean. It serves between 2,000 and 3,000 Buddhists, many of whom live in the Nepean and Barrhaven areas and are of Cambodian descent.

“Most of [the Cambodian Buddhist] community lives in the downtown area,” says Rivaux Lay, one of the monastery’s directors. “But the closer we are to downtown, the more expensive the rent is going to be!”Justify Full
Lay says that although the heart of Ottawa’s Cambodian Buddhist community is Somerset Street West, the Bodhikaram Temple’s location in Nepean is relatively central and has many benefits. He says that by locating the temple in Nepean, the community both saves money and has more space. This allows the temple to better serve the members of its community.

One reason the temple is trying to cut property costs is in order to provide better material support for their clergy. The monastery currently has four full-time monks, who live in the monastery and are entirely provided for by the community.

The monks have important religious roles in ceremonies like the Pchum Ben and also serve as spiritual advisors for lay Buddhists.

“A monk is like a psychologist,” says Lay. “He will not make any change; he will listen to you, then he will tell you the better way.”

Depending on the kind of problem affecting a Buddhist, a monk might perform a blessing, or counsel a plan of action that may include prayer or meditation.

“They always lead you to good things,” says Lay.

Monks are also sources of karmic merit for lay practitioners. By materially supporting the monks with food and shelter, lay Buddhists accrue merit. According to Buddhist belief, this merit will produce good results in present and future lives.

With several thousand Buddhists to care for in Nepean, the Bodhikaram monks' services are in high demand. Because of the karmic relationship between monks and lay Buddhists, the existence of a monastic community is integral to Buddhism.

Becoming a monk requires at least 10 years of training, and because of the linguistic demands of Ottawa's Khmer community, all of the monastery’s monks are from Cambodia.

Lay says that Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike – Cambodian or otherwise – are invited to partake in the Pchum Ben ceremony on Sept. 19.

Cambodian Buddhists believe that during the 15 days leading up to this ceremony, the gates that separate our world from the afterlife are opened, and the spirits of the dead come to visit the living. At the Pchum Ben ceremony, worshipers make offerings to their ancestors, spread rice outside the temple for them, and feed the monks, who act as mediators between the living and the spiritual world.

It is very important for Cambodian Buddhists to visit the temple and make an offering to their ancestors at the Pchum Ben ceremony. If they fail to do so, the gates to the afterlife will close with the spirits of their ancestors trapped on the wrong side, condemned to wander our world hungry for nine years.

The Pchum Ben ceremony will take place at the Tom Brown Arena at 141 Bayview Rd. on Saturday, Sept. 19. The ceremony begins at 9 a.m. There will also be ceremonies at the monastery itself on Friday evening at 7:30 p.m., where the monks will begin chanting parittas – protective prayers – and continue all night.

The monastery welcomes anyone who is interested in observing or partaking in the ceremony.

“We are always open to people who wish to visit and learn,” says Lay.

More information is available on the monastery's website, www.bodhikaram.com.

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