THE MEANING OF HOLIDAY HOLIDAYS.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.

 

Every year until the full moon day of the seventh lunar month, all of our Vietnamese Buddhists and Buddhists all over the five continents hold a solemn Vu Lan ceremony, making offerings to the Buddha and the Sangha, based on the power and morality of the Buddha. and Sangha, pray for their parents who are still alive, to be in peace and that the deceased parents are promoted to the Pure Land.

Vu Lan is abbreviated, if fully said, it is Vu Lan Bon. Vu Lan Bon means salvation from hanging up, the word Sanskrit is Ulambana, or Avalamba meaning "hanging upside down". An author said that the word Bon is a Chinese word meaning pots, which means pots containing offerings to the Buddha and monks.

Venerable Muc Kien Lien is a great disciple of the Buddha, and is revered as the first supernatural being. After attaining Arhat. He used his divine eyes to observe all the living realms and found that his mother was tormented by famine in the hungry ghost realm. The false religion then took the rice bowl to the hungry devil realm and gave it to his mother. Mom took the bowl of rice and brought it to her mouth, the rice turned into red burning embers and could not eat. The false religious Muc Kien Lien did not know how to do it, so he returned and asked the Buddha to help. Buddha said: "Your mother has many miserable lives, so she suffers from suffering and is a hungry devil, you alone cannot save her. On the full moon day of the seventh month, make offerings to the Buddha and the saints. Thanks to the power of the Buddha's ten directions, thanks to the power of the Buddha's aspirations and the Tenfold Sangha, then his mother can transcend ".

Venerable Muc Kien Lien obeyed the Buddha's teachings, until the full moon day of the seventh month is the day when the monks go to the summer, bringing food, lamps, wax, incense ... to put in a large pot, offering offerings to the Sangha. The mother of Venerable Muc Lien Lien relied on the power of the Precepts and the blessings of the monks of the ten directions, and also relied on the alms-giving merit and the devotion of the Venerable Muc Kien Lien, which soon got out of the way. the misery of the hungry devil, the suffering is like the suffering of the person hanging upside down, being promoted to the good realms.

In that way, Buddha Shakyamuni taught the Venerable Shakyamuni that: "As a Buddhist disciple with filial piety, we must constantly take note of the merit of this life to parents for seven generations. on the full moon day of the seventh month, should celebrate the Vu Lan Bon ceremony, make offerings to the Buddha and the Sangha, to repay the parents' birth and foster care, pray for parents to live a hundred years and after the common life is born in the good realm ".

The Vu Lan Bon Sutra is widely circulated mainly in Asian Buddhist countries, where there is a deep tradition of reverence for parents and ancestor worship. Vu Lan Day is celebrated by the people of these countries as a major celebration of the year and throughout the country, a holiday of gratitude to parents, grandparents, and patriarchs, as well as for all worthy people. to be grateful, but first of all to parents and grandparents for seven generations.

In Vietnam, China, Japan, Korea and many other countries in Southeast Asia, Vu Lan's holiday is widely accepted by the masses. It can be said that everyone including non-Buddhists, Confucian families or Taoist families also celebrate Vu Lan, on that holiday commemorating grandparents, parents for seven generations, thanks to teachers. teaching, the national merit as well as the merit of all sentient beings.

In the Pāli scriptures of Theravada Buddhism, we can read that the Buddha's teachings on the word Hieu are complete, vivid and specific, words that only the Buddha is a great wisdom can. say it.

"Bhikkhus, there are two classes of people, I say can not repay. What is two? That is mother and father. If one shoulder carry mother, one shoulder carry father, do so for a hundred years." until the parents are one hundred years old. inconvenience, urination, even so, bhikkhus, have not done enough to repay mother and father ... 

The Beijing Sutras talk about filial piety also a lot. vital, as vivid as in the Primitive Sutras. As the Sutra for Tolerance says: "Compassion is extreme, nothing is more than filial; extreme evil, nothing more than filial piety". The Four-Tenth Nhi Chuong Sutras say: "Humans worship demons and gods, not equal to worshiping their parents. Parents are the ultimate gods". The Sutras said: "If in life there is no Buddha, then be wise to worship your parents. Being wicked to worship your parents is like being able to worship Buddha".

Thus, the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism as well as Tonkin both speak of filial piety and respect filial piety. Previously and now, there are still some people who do not fully understand the teachings of liberation of the Buddha, claiming that the monks do not have a wife and children so they have no children to follow the lineage, they consider filial piety. Because they misunderstand the ideal of Buddhism. Being ordained is not about renouncing parents and relatives. To leave home just means to give up worldly advantage, renounce all feelings of narrow selfishness, renounce the three poisons, hatred and delusion. Buddhist books often talk about renunciation and renunciation. Shaving hair, wearing robes in the temple is just the ordination. Giving up narrow-minded love, renouncing a mediocre worldly advantage, renouncing all vile desires for eating, money and talent, resting, renouncing joining the yard is called a renunciation.

After renunciation, the monk accepts all sentient beings, all people in society are his parents, brothers, and children, and loves with an indifferent love. Buddha Shakyamuni is proclaimed the Father, that is, the good father, because he loves all sentient beings as his only son. Every monk, too, imitating his good father, also considers everyone in society to be like his parents, brothers and sisters.

Moreover, the monastic fulfilled his filial piety in a different way. That is by building faith for parents who lack faith, encouraging parents to give up evil to do good, encouraging parents to give alms and practice the Dharma, to attain true wisdom. And doing so, according to the Buddha said, is to report filial piety in the most complete way.

The word filial piety does not mean that the parents do whatever they want, even if they do evil or do evil things. Even the filial piety must also have wisdom. Buddhism speaks of Nhan and Hieu as Confucianism, but with a much broader content, as can be seen from the opening sentence that exudes all of the thoughts in the folk poetry collection "Nam Hai Quan Yin", Very popular among Vietnamese people:

"The legs like Buddhism are very colored,

Center of filial piety, reciting the first word,

Hieu is a degree of duality,

Human is the salvation of all species.

...

In the time of filial piety,

During the time of saving sentient beings, Ta Ba ".

The escape of parents from the cycle of death and death is the most complete and perfect method of filial piety, but not everyone can do it. Because we have a practice of realizing results, we can free ourselves, so we can free our parents. That is the work of the Buddha Quan Am Dieu Thien in the story of Nam Hai Quan Am.

But all of us, whether ordained or at home, can fully repay our parents, if we study and practice according to the Buddha's teachings in the Buddhist Sangha I, page 75:

"Those who pay gratitude by nurturing and offering their parents with material possessions and money in the past are never enough to repay their parents' gratitude. But monks, whoever does not trust parents, then encourage parents to settle in their beliefs; for parents who follow the evil world, encourage parents to dwell in the good world; for parents who are greedy, encourage parents to dwell on almsgiving; For parents who follow evil wisdom, encourage parents to dwell in wisdom. Until then, the monks means doing enough and paying back full grace to the father and mother ".

Those teachings of the Buddha, we all Buddhists can practice.

We are all Buddha's disciples, we are Buddha's children. We have all taken the three refugees: taking refuge in the Buddha, taking refuge in the Dharma, and taking refuge in the Sangha. If our parents do not believe in the Three Jewels, we skillfully guide, encourage their parents to put their faith in the Three Jewels, and gradually move towards the Three Jewels. Refuge also has refuge and refuge. Taking refuge in the Three Jewels is just the refuge. We also have to explain to our parents clearly how the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha and taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are beneficial? If parents do evil deeds in the body or in words that say such things as murderous, religious, lewd, lying, divisive, evil, or meaningless, then we must advise our parents to abolish evil for good, encouraging parents to release birth, instead of killing; giving instead of giving away from giving; living righteous deeds instead of wrong deeds; tell the truth instead of lying; say unity instead of division; speak gentle words instead of cruelly; speak meaningful words instead of meaningless ... The teachings of the Buddha, although spoken more than two and a half years ago, are still hot news for our society today. Those words are worthy of the golden molds for our lives, for all our behaviors in the family and in society. Let us all live by the Buddha's teachings, and immediately we will be at peace and happy. If we do the opposite, we will be unhappy and miserable. Let us all live up to the Buddha's teachings, and immediately we will be peaceful and happy. If we do the opposite, we will be unhappy and miserable. Let all of us live according to the Buddha's teachings, and immediately we will be peaceful and happy. If we do the opposite, we will be unhappy and miserable.

For the benefit of everyone, of the majority, let us spread those golden teachings of the Buddha widely. Each of us, not only monks, must speak the Dharma, speak the Dharma skillfully, in that way the wheel of the Dharma will often change, the new dharma lamp is clear day and night.

The Buddha once taught: "In all forms of giving, giving is the first".

So we all have to learn to speak the Dharma, to know how to speak the Dharma, to speak well. Do not think that speaking the dharma is to post the sermon, say two or three hours in a row and refer to many new scriptures that is the sermon. In the Dhammapada, the Buddha once taught that: "Saying a hundred thousand words is not equal to saying one word, making the mind of the listener calm".

Studying the Dhamma is studying the Buddha's teachings to know what is good and what is evil; where is the root of good, of akusala. No killing, no giving, no wrong actions in the senses, no lies, no two-edged speech, no cruel words, no frivolous words, no greed, no anger, right view is good. The opposite is unwholesome. Lust is the root of akusala. The opposite is good. Studying and then applying that learning base into one's own daily life and encouraging others to apply is called the practice.

Studying the Dharma and practicing the practice is a parallel Buddhist lifestyle. That lifestyle is both consistent with the ethical ethical ethic of the Vietnamese people, and expresses the correct meaning of a Buddha who knows to live for himself. That is the best way of filial piety for each of us.END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.18/8/2020.