Sutra Adaptation Performance

Sutra adaptation performance is a unique way for Tzu Chi volunteers to study the Buddhist scriptures. After a long period of cultivation through Dharma group study, observing precepts, adopting a plant-based diet as a way to respect and protect all lives, practising singing and signing of Dharma performance songs, the Sutra adaptation is presented to the public in the form of a musical sign language performance.

The original text of the Buddhist scriptures taught by Master Cheng Yen was adapted into verses and accompanied by solemn and beautiful melodies, making it easier for people to better understand the meaning of the scriptures through captivating music and lyrics.

Taiwan Tzu Chi Commissioner, Lu Xiuying (Dharma name: Ci Yue) then compiled and directed these Buddhist songs into a musical sign language adaptation. Musical sign language adaptation performed by Tzu Chi over the years include “The Filial Piety Sutra”, "The Twenty Difficulties in Spiritual Cultivation", "Compassionate Samadhi Water Repentance Sutra" and "The Sutra of Infinite Meanings", etc.

Cultivating body, speech and mind through Sutra Adaptation Performance

Buddhist scriptures guide us to apply Dharma into our daily lives. The musical sign language adapted from Buddhist scriptures, through humanistic and artistic presentation, is a contemporary way to attract people to delve deeper into the scriptures.

What the Sutra Adaptation Performance focuses on is not the result, but the participants' experience of taking in the Dharma during the process. Hence, it is called "Entering the Sutra Collection".

In 2011, Tzu Chi started the process of adapting the "Compassionate Samadhi Water Repentance - Dharma Is Like Water" Sutra in Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and around the region, inviting people from the local communities to participate. Through study groups and countless practice of singing and sign language lasting one to two years, volunteers in the "Sutra Collection" gained a deeper understanding of the meaning of the scriptures, reflected on themselves and changed their negative habitual tendencies. During the process, they went through 108 days of plant-based diet for the love of all beings, observed Tzu Chi’s Ten Precepts and became “Dharma speakers” to the audience with a body, speech and mind that is pure and pious.

In December 2013, Tzu Chi Singapore volunteers, who had been practising diligently together and adopting a plant-based diet, presented "Compassionate Samadhi Water Repentance - Dharma Is Like Water" Sutra performance at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Four performances, over a span of three days, drew a total of 18,000 people who gathered together and immersed in the solemn Dharma assembly. The performances evoked kind thoughts throughout the audience, hoping that the Dharma ship will set sail to inspire more people along the way, and that the spiritual Dharma assembly will always go on.

Infinite Meanings · Songs of Dharma Essence

In 2023, Tzu Chi toured Taiwan to perform "Songs of Dharma Essence of Infinite Meanings — The Sutra Adaptation Performance Illuminating the World with Kindness and Love". It is an adaptation where the Wondrous Lotus Sutra served as the main theme and the Sutra of Infinite Meanings as the essence.

Besides incorporating Buddhist scriptures, the Sutra Adaptation performance also included Buddha’s life stories and Tzu Chi’s good deeds, to illustrate Buddhism principles and demonstrate the application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives. In December 2021, December 2022 and October 2023, Tzu Chi Singapore volunteers watched the performances livestreamed from Taiwan and delved deeply into the Sutra Treasury at the Jing Si Hall, benefitting from the Dharma together.