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Greetings dear Dharma friends,
Had the great privilege to be able to make a trip back to my temple in Maryland, USA to celebrate with the sangha and the community Ullambana Festival.
Here is the origine of this very important occasion: it dates back to the Buddha time. It provides an auspicious time to remember our ancestors and honor the Three Jewels, so that pious one’s parents in this lifetime will increase their fortune . Do not miss this opportunity.
Ullambana, All Souls Day, is not only a festival to save the spirit of the departed parents, it also reminds you to repay their kindness with filial piety.
Remember that filial piety is a virtue of the asian people and a sincere expression of humanity.
After Buddha’s disciple Mahamaudgalyayana gained spiritual powers from meditation, he wanted to pay respect to his deceased parents in order to repay their nurturing grace.
He observed with his inner vision that his father had ascended to the heavens enjoying blessings, whereas his mother had fallen into the path go hangry ghosts and was not allowed to eat or drink. Seeing his mother miserably languishing in the lower realms with nothing but skin and bones deeply saddened him, so he filled his bowl used for alms with food and offered it to her, but the moment she took the bowl, owing to the hinderance from her past evil karma, the meal instantly turned into burning ashes before she took a single bite. In tears, the disciple begged Sakyamuni Buddha for a remedy to rescue his mother.
“Buddha taught him, “On Pravarana, the holy day of atonement on the fifteenth of the seventh month, that is, the day when monks conclude their summer retreat at the end of the rainy season, mortals provide the monks of great virtue with a hundred kinds of fruit and delicacies, meals, clothing and bedding.
The merit in this can be dedicated to their parents in the present and seven past lives was well as to brothers, spouses, and children, to free the from suffering and keep them from falling into the three evil pathways of hell, hungry ghosts and beasts. With it, their living parents may also increase their fortune, lifespan and blessing.”
“Upon hearing it, Mahamaudglyanaya followed Buddha’s teaching. On the following fifteenth day of the seventh month, together with other benefactors, he offered delicacies and other items to the monks on their day of Pravarana….
“Buddha ordered the monks in the ten directions to first chant mantras and pray for the benefactors providing the alms, wishing their parents in past lives to be free from misery and enjoy happiness; for their living parents to grow blessings and wisdom, and only then to accept the food in alms offered to them…
Thus, as the result, Mahamaudgalyayana’s mother was freed from the torment in the hungry ghost path on the very same day.”
Since then, all Buddhist disciples have observed Ullambana making offerings to the sangha, so they could rely on the power of the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma and Snagha to deliver their parents from afflictions.
This is how Ullambana as a festival has come to be held on the fifteenth day of the seven lunar month, every year. Inviting all of you to this auspicious celebration next year!
~Ven. Bao Co
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