Inviting all faiths to contribute to ending COVID-19, the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity (HCHF) jointly formed by the Vatican and the United Arab Emirates encouraged people around the world to pray and fast both at home and at work on May 14. By invitation from the Vatican to join the World Day of Prayer as a religious leader, Dharma Master Hsin Tao as the Founding Abbot of the Ling Jiou Mountain Buddhist Society (LJM) led all his disciples and followers around the world to practice veganism, chant mantras, and meditate for their participation in a global prayer for blessings to end the pandemics and bring peace to people.

Already soon after the pandemic broke out, Dharma Master Hsin Tao instructed for all of LJM around the world to practice the chanting of the Heart of Shurangama Mantra, and the campaign's digital implementation for dedicated mantra-chantings and accumulated meditation-minutes reached a total of 104, 090,825 chants as an integral part of the LJM pledge to its long-term commitment of “Loving the Earth”, which boils down to nine lifestyle principles, i.e. tranquility, compassion, dialogue, veganism, recycle, energy conservation, minimal carbon footprint, water conservation, and go green. The merits were then dedicated to the benefit of all humankind on April 22 to help mitigate the severity of the pandemic.

Dharma Master Hsin Tao says that “practicing mantra-chanting and keeping a good heart is our Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and sanitizing mechanism. You chant the mantra and the heart calms down and peace follows. The world is at peace when the heart is at peace.” The Master emphasized “peace” and “a good heart” in particular for people to remember when faced with COVID-19. We need to believe that positive karma is the best possible sanctuary, and a good heart will bring luck and fortune along. LJM followers and associates are more often in touch with positive karmas by way of prayer sessions in the morning and in the evening, reciting sutras, chanting mantras, and consuming more vegetables for good karmas. At LJM we are encouraged to open up and chant the mantra with good hearts and positive thoughts, and adding strengths via mindfulness to the frequencies of the resonance that positively impacts the Earth’s magnetic field. By doing so, all of LJM guard against the pandemic with hearts at peace, and fend off calamities in united ways.

HCHF was initially established as a concrete response to the document on Human Fraternity for World Peace & Living Together signed by Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar during the Pope’s visit to the United Arab Emirates in February 2019. For 2020 and because of the pandemic, it was proposed to be a World Day of Prayer for people "to pray, fast, and do good deeds" on May 14. 

People around the world were encouraged to join the global prayer in line with their respective religions, faiths, and doctrines and practice penance, fasting, doing good deeds for compassion, and for the pandemic to end and for people to keep away from sufferings. People also prayed for scientists to beat the virus by developing vaccines that save people from infections and further spread out of the pandemic. As such, the World Day of Prayer was the single largest assembly to-date of people coming together to pray in their own respective religious ways.

► Chinese 中文