While the Buddha was still alive, he set a rule for the monks:VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.

Every year, during the 3 rainy months (summer in India), monks and nuns are not allowed to travel outside, but must stay at a monastery to actively study. If something is needed, only be allowed to leave the hospital within 7 days, then have to return to the temple.

That is the origin of "Settling in the Lower World". According to the Indian calendar, that time starts from the 16th of the sixth lunar month, until the full moon day of the 9th lunar month. This period of retreat is still respected by the monks of Nam Tong (Thai, Mien, Burmese, Laos, and Sri Lanka) to this day.

But when Buddhism passed to China, according to the Four-part law and the Chinese calendar, the Settling season was set to be from April 16 of the lunar calendar (ie after Buddha's birthday) until the 15th of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. That is the tradition of Tonkin (Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Cao Ly).

On the last day of the Settling season, the monks gathered together, reviewed the results, and chanted confession if there were any mistakes during the Summer 3 months - the ceremony of Tu Tu ceremony, then parted, was discharged from the hospital to go public. France everywhere. This is the general law of the monks; Nam Tong (September full moon) and Bac Tong (July full moon) both have this Tu Tu Ceremony.

The Vu Lan ceremony is based on the legend of the Vu Lan Bon Sutra (transcription of the Ullambana word  ) in the Han organ of Northern Buddhism. Muc Lien Lien, a great disciple of the Buddha, had many divine powers, flew to find his mother and found her in hell of misery, as a result of her negative karma. The Buddha taught that if you want to save her, you must pray for the power of all the monks on the day of the Tu Tu together to chant prayers and dedicate merit to her.

Based on this story, Bac Tong lay people often go to the pagoda on Tu Tu day - that is, the full moon day of the seventh lunar month, make offerings, and ask monks to help recite and dedicate merit to their parents, parents, eternal lost his soul, loved ones have passed away. That is the origin of the Vu Lan Feast.

Today, for us Vietnamese, mostly influenced by the Chinese Buddhist scriptures, the Vu Lan ceremony on the full moon day of the seventh lunar year each year has become the traditional ceremony of filial piety of filial children. sincerely commemorating the nurturing merits of Parents - both alive and dead - and working hard to repay that merit, by caring for your parents and practicing good deeds.

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In the Original Pali Sutta, there are also many teachings of the Buddha to the disciples, to help them maintain family harmony, to grow together in the Dharma. Here, we would like to take the liberty to present a few short passages in the Pali canon, about the word Hieu taught by the Buddha to his disciples.

In the Samyutta, the Buddha explains that breastmilk has passed through many lives and many lives, so it is vast and wider than the sea:

"O bhikkhus, the breastmilk you have been drinking, while you have been in reincarnation for a long time, is more than water in the four seas. Why? Because samsara is stubborn, it's okay." The flow of samsara of sentient beings coincides with the same message, so it is impossible to state the starting point. Because ignorance covers up, because craving binds all the karmic actions of sentient beings. "

In the Sangha, the Buddha also likened parents to venerable flames, for parents are the ones who give life and growth to their children, as well as the fire that gives life and energy to the species. people:

"Behold the Brahmins, your parents are the revered flames. Why is that? For from which life is made, the existence. Hence, your parents are like sacred flames. respectable, worthy of respect, worthy of offerings, and will bring righteous bliss "

Because of such great merit from parents, the Buddha also said that there are two classes of people that we can never pay off in full, namely, mother and father, as recorded in the Sangha:

"There are two classes of people, Bhikkhus, I say that I cannot repay all the grace. That is Father and Mother. If one shoulder carries mother, the other shoulder carries father, doing so for a hundred years to a hundred years old." If you have taken care of your parents with all the treasures on this earth, you will not pay the full amount. when I grow up, and lead them into this life. "

Serving parents is one of the three virtues that are praised by a kind person and a good person. The three virtues are: Almsgiving, Renunciation, and Parenting. " Renunciation "  (pabbajjà)  here means the minimum education, the escape of busy afflictions, the legal life without harm, living tame, tame and harmony. In the Sangha, Chapter Three Dharma, the Buddha taught:

"The Bhikkhu-khưu, there are three dharma s are declared by the Hien, declared by the Chan human. They are: Almsgiving, renunciation, and Servant of parents."

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In the Thought of Thought-Ca-la-la-Viet, Truong Bo, one morning when the Buddha went to meditate alms in the royal city, he saw the young poet of Psalms get up early, leave the house and accept. hand prostrating to the six directions: East, West, South, North, Upper, and Lower as traditionally taught by parents without understanding the meaning of that action. The Buddha said that such prostrations are not enough, but it is necessary to sincerely visualize the behavior of people around: the East is the relationship between parents and children, the West is the relationship between the wife. husband, the south is the teacher-student relationship, the north is the friend relationship, the upper direction is the relationship between the monk and the layman, the lower direction is the relationship between the owner and the maid.

Regarding the relationship between parents and children, the Buddha said:

"There are five duties children have to do: nurture parents, fulfill all children's duties, keep the family with tradition, protect inherited property, and mourn the funeral when the parents die."

In addition, the Buddha also said:

"There are five responsibilities that parents need to fulfill: stopping their children from doing evil, encouraging them to do good things, teaching them to have a good career, finding a good spouse for them, and giving their inheritance to the right child. at."

Clearly this is a message of responsibility, a mutual responsibility between parents and children. Children have five duties to their parents, and parents also have five responsibilities to their children. When parents and children fulfill all these things, the family is happy, and the East, in this figurative sense, can be at peace. At that time, the prostration toward the East is really meaningful.

It is not enough to return filial piety by offering material possessions, but to aim at the ultimate goal of growing together in the Dharma, towards the liberation from all samsaric suffering. Want for parents to achieve s? ultimate peace and happiness, the son must help parents to renounce negative actions and realize good deeds, renounce their ignorance and practice generosity, ignorance of ignorance and attain wisdom. In the Sangha, the Buddha theorized:

"Those who pay their favor by nurturing and offering their parents with wealth, material, money are never enough to repay their parents' gratitude. Bhikkhus, those who do not trust their parents. to encourage, guide and allow parents to dwell in the goodness of the Dharma; for unruly parents, to encourage, guide, and allow them to dwell in almsgiving; for parents according to malice it is recommended and directed. leading, for parents to settle in righteous thoughts; thus, they do enough and repay the full favor of mother and father. "

It is when caring and nurturing parents, children will enjoy the merits and good results brought about by filial piety. The Buddha said in the Sangha as follows:

"A good man, a man and a woman, with assets obtained by diligent efforts, created by his own hard work, a respectful offering and care for his parents. His parents, who are given provision Such respect and care will arouse love and prayer: 'May my child live a long life! May my child be protected, and have a safe life!'. Having such a fondness for parents, will surely grow in the Dharma. "

In the Sangha, the Buddha explained that if a family has children who can take care of their parents, that family has merit, deserving of respect and respect, worthy of being considered equal to Pham Thien. Pham Thien are the highest gods in the Sex Realm and the Realm. He said:

"Bhikkhus, those families whose children respect their parents in the house, these families are accepted as equal to Pham Thien, accepted as equal to the family of Masters, deserve respect and make offerings.

Pham Thien is synonymous with parents. The Masters are synonymous with parents. Those who deserve to offer are synonymous with parents. Why is that? Because parents help their children a lot, because parents raise their children to their adulthood, training them to bring them into life. "

In the Samyutta, the Buddha taught layman Mataposaka that whoever practices according to the Dharma, has filial piety towards his parents, he will be praised by the holy gentlemen; and upon death, will be reborn in the blissful heavens. The Buddha also said that De Thich, the king of the Heaven of the Three decades, through the merit of supporting his parents, he was born king in that heaven in the next life.

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I groan this is just a summary of the Buddha's teaching, recorded in the original scriptures, about the word Hieu. The Buddha talked a lot about the blessings of the heaven and the sea, talking about the responsibility of children to repay that great merit. The form of the ritual is not the main, but it is the practical actions of nurturing and making offerings to the parents. Taking care of my parents will create many blessings for myself - in the present and in the next life, and for the happiness of my family.

The Buddha also taught that the best and most complete way of repaying gratitude is to firmly believe in the Dharma together with parents, step into the path of goodness, abandon evil world, give up evil, follow the moral life, practice almsgiving, leave the dark ignorance path and turn towards the light of lucid wisdom, to get rid of the cycle of birth and death suffering. END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.29/8/2020.