Liberation Rite of Water and Land

The Liberation Rite of Water and Land (法界聖凡水陸普度大齋勝會), also commonly known as the "Waterland Dharma Function" is a Chinese Buddhist ritual performed by temples and presided over by high monks. The service is often credited as one of the greatest rituals in Chinese Buddhism, as it is also the most elaborate and extremely rare service. The ceremony is attributed to the Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty, who was inspired one night when he had a dream which a monk advised him to organize a ceremony to help beings in the lower realms to be surfeited from their suffering. The ritual itself was compiled by the Ch'an master Bao Zhi.

The ritual combines classical Chinese operatic-like text including traditional ceremony procedure, such as circumambulating, reciting sutras, Tantric ritual and repentance. The main goal of the ceremony is to invite beings of higher realms to help the beings in the lower realms get out of their sufferings. It is said that those who participate receive great merit and blessings, even to those who do not contribute.

The Shrines

A total of seven different halls are erected for this festival. The first hall is known as the Inner Shrine, while the other six halls constitute the Outer Shrine. Each hall performs its own ceremony and serves a different purpose.

The Inner Shrine

The Inner Shrine is the most important of all the other shrines. Only high ranking and assigned monks, wealthy donors and special guests are invited to enter. This is the hall where sentient beings from the lower realms are liberated. Offering of food and incense, chanting and reciting of mantras, sutras, precepts and repentance texts are constituted in the ceremony.

The Outer Shrine

The Outer Shrine consists of six halls, all of which are open to the public. Each shrine recites different sutras, such as the Lotus Sutra, the Shurangama Sutra, the Sutra of Golden Light, and others. Emperor Wu's repentance text is also included.

In addition to these sub-rituals, a Tantric ritual is performed at night by all invited monastics to feed sentient beings from the lower realms.

Rarity

Because of the ceremony's exquisite and very detailed ritual procedure, most temples may hold it only once and possibly may not hold one again because of the cost to invite monks and for the setup of the ritual itself. The ceremony itself may also affect a temple financially. The ceremony is usually held in Mainland China, where it originated from and also where most monks have practiced have mastered procedures for this ceremony.

In the United States, this ceremony has been hosted in California and was first introduced in 1986 at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, and later again in 2000 by Hsi Lai Temple, and again and 2005 by Dharma Seal Temple.