Vu Lan. Question: Which sutra does the Vu Lan ceremony originate from? Answer: The Vu Lan ceremony originates from the Buddhist sutra of Vu Lan Bon. According to this sutra, the Buddha taught Maudgalyayana: “As a disciple of the Buddha practicing filial piety, you must always remember and make offerings to your parents. Every year on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, you must show filial piety to your parents in this life as well as your parents in the past seven lives, and hold the Vu Lan ceremony, making offerings to the Buddhas and Sangha to repay the kindness of your parents who raised you.” Maudgalyayana obeyed the Buddha's words, set up a fast to make offerings to the Sangha of the ten directions, and dedicated the merits to his mother in hell, so that she could escape the realm of hungry ghosts and be reborn in the Pure Land. Question: What is the meaning of the word Vu Lan Bon? Answer: Vu Lan Bon is a transliteration of the Sanskrit word Ullambana. The translation means to save the mysterious island. According to Master Zong Mi, Vu Lan means upside down, referring to the torture of being hung upside down (hanging) of sentient beings in hell. Bon means a basin, a basin, symbolizing the object that saves those sentient beings. Therefore, the common translation of the Vu Lan ceremony is the ceremony of "Saving upside down, relieving suffering" . Question: How to save sentient beings, nine generations and seven ancestors, in the lower world? Answer: The sutra tells that Master Maudgalyayana used his own supernatural power to try to save his mother in hell but failed. Therefore, to save sentient beings in hell and hungry ghosts, we need to rely on the spiritual power of the Sangha, those who truly practice. In the past, on the full moon of the fourth month, the Buddha and the Sangha observed the summer retreat (meaning staying in one place to practice, not going out to beg for food to avoid stepping on insects and worms that breed abundantly during the rainy season). On the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, the last day of summer, the Buddha and the monks gather to recite the precepts and preach the Dharma. At that time, the monks will use their pure spiritual power to dedicate to the suffering beings in the lower realms. Question: How should offerings be made during the Vu Lan ceremony? Answer: According to the Buddha's teachings, those who want to show filial piety to their parents of seven generations must bring the best food and drink and place it in a basin (or container) to make offerings to the monks in the ten directions. The reason for using a large basin or container is to imply that all offerings are for the Sangha as a whole and not reserved for any particular monk. All offerings will be distributed equally to all monks and nuns. Question: The Vu Lan ceremony is organized differently in each country and each locality. So how should it be organized to be relatively consistent with the spirit of the Buddha's teachings? Answer: Emperor Wu of the Wu Dynasty in the fourth year of the Dai Dong era (538 AD) once went to Dong Thai Temple to hold a ceremony to feed monks and make offerings. After that, every year, it became a custom for kings and emperors to attach great importance to the Vu Lan ceremony. During the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Dai Tong also organized it extremely solemnly, by inviting monks and nuns to set up an offering bowl in the royal palace. Later, the tradition spread throughout the world, with many colorful worldly nuances (such as burning gold, silver, paper money, making offerings...), as well as folk customs (singing and dancing) being added, which were completely not the truth taught by Buddha.Later, during the Qing Dynasty, many monks advocated holding the Vu Lan Bon worship ceremony, making offerings to the Triple Gem during the day, and making offerings to wandering souls and delivering hungry ghosts at night. For lay people, the most fundamental spirit that the Vu Lan ceremony aims to express lies in three aspects: 1. On the fundamental aspect of being human, the Vu Lan ceremony is an opportunity for us to reflect: to know how to be filial to our living parents and to know our duty to rescue our parents of seven previous generations as well as to rescue all hungry ghosts and hell beings. 2. On the aspect of cultivating blessings and wisdom, the Vu Lan ceremony is an opportunity for us to cultivate a sincere heart: we must know how to respectfully make offerings to the Sangha and serve the Triple Gem. 3. On the aspect of liberation, the Vu Lan ceremony is an opportunity for us to cultivate a heart of great compassion: we must see the suffering of all living beings as our own. Because the content of delivering souls is a very solemn and serious task. Therefore, all forms of entertainment and extroversion do not bring true benefits and certainly will not bring merit, if not to say will sow the seeds of suffering for the future.END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).GOLDEN ZEN BUDDHIST MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN= THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.5/8/2024.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.