Persevering Through Ice and Snow｜Amitabha Winter Buddha Recitation Retreat Completed

The winter Buddha Recitation Retreat (Fo Qi) of 2025 has been the greatest logistical and environmental challenge Mituo Village has faced since the new Village Committee took over management.

This difficulty cannot simply be summarized as “karmic conditions testing us.”
From the very beginning of preparation, the weather and practical conditions continuously shifted.
Even before the retreat began, temperatures dropped sharply. Freezing rain and heavy snow followed one after another. Roads iced over and became slippery, disrupting the original preparation schedule, turning simple tasks into repeated efforts.

❄️ Preparation Amid Cold Conditions

In the days leading up to the retreat, the Village carried out the standard preparations for the Buddha Hall, dormitories, and dining hall.
As temperatures fell, heating and water supply had to be monitored much more closely.

• Buddha Hall: Ensuring heating systems operated properly to keep the environment comfortable for practice

• Dormitories: Adjusting bedding and assignments, reminding everyone to walk carefully at night

• Dining hall: Doing everything possible to maintain consistent meal service, with hot food especially important in the cold

Meanwhile, more issues surfaced as temperatures dropped.
Water pipes froze and burst, requiring urgent repairs.
Snow piled up and roads had to be shoveled repeatedly.
Some plans had to be temporarily changed based on weather.

Volunteers prepared for the retreat while simultaneously tackling new problems, adapting and responding: fix what appears first, then move to the next; solutions were not always permanent, but operations continued.
Even in the midst of these challenges, everyone held onto one clear understanding:

The retreat must not stop.
And so, the retreat began on schedule.

🌬️ A Night of Cold, Darkness, and Testing

On the afternoon of the second day, the weather worsened.
Strong winds toppled trees and snapped power lines, plunging the entire area into a blackout.
Mituo Village relies on well water; without power, water pumps stopped, heating systems shut down, and temperatures indoors dropped rapidly.

Suddenly, the Village was faced with power outage, water outage, and extreme cold.
Outdoor temperatures plunged below freezing; indoor temperatures steadily fell.
Only emergency lighting provided minimal illumination through the night.

Even under these conditions, the retreat continued.
Nianfo resounded steadily in the Buddha Hall.
Volunteers worked to stabilize the situation while preserving order.

Venerable Master Kuan-Ru, in his Dharma talk afterward, did not dwell on hardship.
He simply reminded everyone:

Modern people depend on electricity and conveniences.
Without them, anxiety quickly arises.
But for thousands of years, people lived and practiced without electricity.
True practice is not something we begin only when all conditions are comfortable.

This karmic condition helped everyone rediscover a fundamental truth:

The power of practice does not come from favorable circumstances,
but from inner stability and unwavering aspiration.

His words calmed many hearts.
In the cold and darkness, under the steady guidance of resident monastics,
the Buddha Hall remained dignified and orderly.
Each recitation of Amituofo was solid and continuous—
the more turbulent the outer world became, the more gathered and focused the inner world grew.

🙏 Perseverance, Not Convenience

The retreat continued not because difficulties vanished,
but because despite discomfort and inconvenience, everyone faithfully kept doing what needed to be done:

• Recite when it is time to recite

• Support when it is time to support

• Proceed step by step

Meanwhile, the Dharma teaching continued every day.
Master Kuan-Ru expounded the Praise of Birth in the Pure Land by Master Shandao,
reminding practitioners that Pure Land cultivation is not a matter of relying on personal strength,
but clearly understanding one’s limitations and placing trust in the Buddha’s power.

✨ New Year’s Eve Blessing

The blackout lasted through the third night, which also happened to be the final night of 2025.
When power returned at last, there was no cheering—only quiet continuity.
Lights came on; practice continued as it had been.

🌷 A Real Practice in Real Conditions

Looking back, this Fo Qi was not merely a retreat—it was practice brought into contact with real adversity.

As Master Yin Guang once wrote to a disciple, quoting Mencius:

“When Heaven intends to bestow a great mission upon someone,
it first tests their spirit with hardship,
taxes their body with labor,
starves them,
exposes them to poverty,
disrupts their undertakings—
to strengthen their resolve and ability.”

If worldly responsibilities require such trials,
how much more must those seeking liberation and guiding all beings
undergo challenges as purification?

Without facing cold to the bone,
how could plum blossoms release their fragrance?”

This retreat embodied those teachings in the most concrete way.

Snow could not stop the Fo Qi.
Blackout could not break the sound of Buddha’s Name.
Hardship only clarified a timeless truth:

A monastery is sustained not by convenience,
but by vows, hearts, and collective resolve.

Snow will melt.
Electricity returns.
But what remains from this winter retreat
is the shared experience of facing reality as it is
and continuing forward as one.

May the merits of this Fo Qi be dedicated:

• to the purity and flourishing of Amitabha Village,

• to the well-being and auspiciousness of all supporting volunteers,

• and to the firm faith and unwavering recitation of all practitioners—
  that we may together be reborn in the Land of Bliss.

Namo Amitabha Buddha