Buddhistic Art- A Grand Opera of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in Vandana Monastery
Adapted from the "Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva" multimedia in the 1980s, the story narrated the Bodhisattva practicing deeds in the Jiuhua Mountain and the tales of the Brahmin saintess during his cause of life.
“Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva” is one of the most important theatrical works. The spiritual connotation of it is profound. Participating in the production of this great work is undoubtedly delightful.
Kṣitigarbha is one of the four great bodhisattvas. In addition to Buddhism, Chinese Buddhism has four great Bodhisattvas: Wenshu represents wisdom; Puxian serves power; Guanyin saves people from suffering; the last one is the greatest, Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva which blends the spirit of Chinese Confucian filial piety. Therefore, the Original Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Sutra can be seen as the Classic of Filial Piety.
Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva indeed shows that filial piety is the most important of all virtues. The spirit of Kṣitigarbha, judging by its appearance, is not as what it seems to be; for example, people who have problems will be saved from the Hell. This is only superficial meaning. The profundity of its spirituality is what worth digging to people in the 21st century.
As foretold by the old Zen masters who had passed away, the 21st century will be a world of Amitabha; a world of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva.
You can see that in recent days, the social order has been chaotic and uneasy. I believe that when you read the newspaper, you will feel the order of the whole society being destructed. All the religionist and philosophers, or people of higher status should bring the community to a better, peaceful future.
Producing the Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva Opera is not merely launching a new musical project for Vandana Buddhistic art. Most important of all, it is a process that we hope, with the strength of everyone, will reconstruct the moral order which has been partly destroyed today. This is the real goal of our production of the Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva.
By Master Dao-Yi of Yu Garden
