This paper, part of my PhD research on contemporary Buddhist music in Taiwan, examines how Humanistic Buddhist organisations such as Foguangshan, Fagushan, and Tzu Chi use sound to express Buddhist ethics in modern society. Based on fieldwork in 2025 and participation in Tzu Chi’s 60th Anniversary Jingzang Yanyi (《經藏演繹》, “Sutra Adaptation Performance”) in 2026, the study explores how musical, visual, and bodily elements transform canonical texts into emotionally engaging and socially cohesive rituals.

Through ethnographic observation, interviews, and musical analysis, I show how Jingzang Yanyi integrates chanting, orchestral scoring, sign-language-inspired gestures, and digital scenography to create a multimodal ritual experience that merges devotion and theatricality. Rather than a religious spectacle, it functions as a form of sonic pedagogy, a performative practice of compassion that invites both performers and audiences to embody Buddhist values through sound and movement.

The presentation will introduce the concept of “ritual affect”, referring to the circulation of emotion through sound and participation that generates communal belonging. Analysing the affective dimensions of texture, gesture, and staging, I argue that Tzu Chi constructs an aural ethics of compassion that transcends linguistic and generational boundaries.

Situating Jingzang Yanyi within the broader East Asian context of musical ritualisation, this study illustrates how Humanistic Buddhism redefines the role of sacred sound in the modern world. Music here mediates between spirituality and everyday life, turning chanting into a participatory and emotionally resonant practice of ethical cultivation and collective empathy.