Today is Ullambana Day 盂蘭盆日 (15th day of the 7th lunar month)
The Ullambana Festival is an important Buddhist event, the sources of which can be traced to a story that originally came from India. In the Ullambana Sutra (盂蘭盆經), Maudgalyayana (目連), one of the Buddha’s chief disciples, achieves supernatural power and he uses his newfound power to search for his deceased parents. He discovers that his deceased mother was reborn into the realm of hungry ghosts (饿鬼法界). She could not eat because her throat was very thin and no food could pass through. The Buddha instructed Maudgalyayana to make offerings to the Sangha (community of monks and nuns) at the end of the rainy-season retreat (15th day of the 7th lunar month). The merit gained from this dana eventually liberated his mother from her misery.
The Buddha also instructed that on this day, we could also practise compassionate filial piety for our present and past parents. We should vow to cause our present parents to have long life without sufferings or afflictions and vow to cause seven generations of past parents to be freed from suffering in unwholesome realms.
The Ullambana Day is also known as The Day of Buddha’s Delight (佛欢喜日). After three months of rigorous cultivation, the monastics report to the Buddha their progress. Most of them attained a high level of cultivation during the retreat. The Buddha would rejoice from their reports, so 15th day of the 7th lunar month is also called the Day of Buddha’s Delight or the Day of the Sangha’s Pravarana (僧自恣日).
Ullambana was originally a Buddhist religious assembly for making offerings to the Buddha and Sangha. However, its scope was gradually expanded for transferring merits to ancestors and those suffering in the six realms and as an act of filial piety for one’s parents. During the 7th lunar month, Buddhists also recite the Sutra of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva (地藏菩薩本願經) for transferring the merits to our ancestors. The Ullambana festival has been popular with the folk as it accords with the spirit of great compassion and the traditional filial piety of the Chinese.
Photo taken at Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum
Source : The Buddhist Union
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