Venerable Maudgalyayana Rescues his Mother - by Venerable Master Miao-Lien
The Ullambana Ceremony originates from the
time when the Venerable Maudgalyayana rescued his mother from the Realm
of the Hungry Ghosts.
Venerable Maudgalyayana was born into a wealth family in India, but his mother was mean and lacked compassion. She guarded the family wealth well and did not make any donations, big or small.
She would rather let surplus supplies go to waste than donate any of them to the needy. When anyone begged alms at her door, she
might even drive them away with a broom. During famines, she would store up all the grain and would not help those who were starving. How can a greedy and mean person of such a magnitude avoid severe negative retribution? That's why she was reborn into
the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts immediately upon her death.
What does a Hungry Ghost look like? Its stomach is as big as the ocean but its esophagus is as small as a needle. Even though food is consumed, hunger is never satisfied. In the Realm of the Hungry
Ghosts, even if you have a large esophagus, foods cannot ever pass through it due to the karma of the realm! Food that reaches
your hand or mouth would turn into flames. That is the karmic retribution for hungry ghosts: not a taste of nutritious sustenance
for millenniums.
Maudgalyayana was following a different spiritual doctrine before becoming a Buddhist. Later, he followed the Buddha, took
up the monastic life, and eventually attained Arhatship. He became one of the ten most eminent disciples of the Buddha and was foremost in spiritual power.
Maudgalyayana, having become a Buddhist monk, knew that his mother would regress to one of the lower realms after death because she was greedy and mean. However, before he had attained enlightenment, he did not have the power to know which realm his
mother had fallen to exactly. After attaining Arhatship, he used his spiritual power to search through the universe and located his mother in the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts, where she was suffering from burning
hunger.
Seeing his mother's sufering, Maudgalyayana used his extraordinary powers to reach the
Realm of the Hungry Ghosts, wanting to give alms of food to his mother. She, driven by her nature of greediness and meanness, accepted the food with one hand and immediately covered the bowl with the other to stop other ghosts from robbing the food. Being in that dire situation, she still didn't have the slightest compassion for others. However, the moment the alms reached her hand, the food turned into flames. This is the
inconceivable effect of karma.
The food might not have burst into flames, if knowing the suffering of hungry ghosts, she had some remorse and was willing to share the food with others. Maudgalyayana, who came all the way to offer relief to his mother, had never thought that the alms of food would burst into flames. He was so concerned that he burst into tears. He rushed to the Jatavana Monastery to ask the Buddha
for a solution to save his mother. The Buddha replied, "The negative karma created by your mother's selfishness and greediness runs so deep that it cannotbe undone by you, acting
alone, with your extraordinary powers."
Maudgalyayana asked, "What should I do then?" The Buddha replied,
"You must rescue your mother through the power of the Sangha(1) ,which collectively is as powerful as the ocean that can quash a mountainous fire. You must wait until the fifteenth day of the seventh month (of the lunar calendar), the day when the Sangha finish their summer retreat (Sangha's prararana) and offer all kinds of delicious foods to the Buddha and the Sangha. The merits cumulated from this act can then be used to erase the negative karma of your mother. It not only helps to save the parents of your present life, but also delivers those from your past seven lives."
"Ullambana" is Sanskrit. Translated, "Ullam" means hanging upside down and is used to describe the suffering that beings in the Hell realm have to endure, which is Iike being hung upside down. "Bana" is literally a basin, which from its Indian roots, is symbolic of rescue and protection. Hence, "Ullambana" means to alleviate the pain from being hung upside down.
The Hell of Scorching is immersed in flames while the Hell of Freezing is full of frozen ice. (Translator's note: there are many realms of hell.) What is the Hell of Scorching like? Let's say we take a boulder measuring forty-kilometers square falling down from the Tusita Heaven, it will turn into molten fluid within a minute of landing in this hell. The heat is so strong that the temperature is immeasurable.
What about the Hell of Freezing? lt is not tens, or hundreds of degrees below zero; it is much lower. All materials shatter when
reaching this hell. When human beings get to the Hell of Freezing, not only does their flesh crack from freezing, but also their bones.
The pain is unbearable!
Let's think about it. If Maudgalyayana's mother did not have a son who turned monastic, or even if he did, had not attained Arhatship, could she have been rescued from being a hungry ghost? It would have been impossible!
In the secular world, people take care of their parents by meeting their physical needs and attending to them when they are sick. Does that make one filial? Surely it does, but it is not ultimate. True flialness is when you help your parents to be free from defilement. When Venerable Maudgalyayana rescued his mother from the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts, he showed true filialness. This is attainable only when one takes the monastic life; because how can you rescue your parents when you are bound by turbid karma yourself?
Venerable Maudgalyayana's rescue of his mother from the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts is the origin of the Ullambana Ceremony.
According to the Ullambana Sutra, this Ceremony enables people to bring salvation to parents from their previous seven lives. It has been passed along to the present and will continue in the future. As long as Buddhism exists, Buddhists will, on the fifteenth of the seventh month, perform this ceremony of offering to the Sangha, and therein accumulate merits to save their parents of the past seven lives.
However, this is limited to saving our parents from the previous seven lives. If, through Buddha-recitation, we end up being reborn
in the Western Pure Land, we not only can rescue our parents of infinite past lives, but also the parents of unlimited sentient beings.
Let's practice Buddha-recitation diligently.
Note:
1.Sangha: a Sanskrit word meaning 'community' and in Buddhism refers to
the monastic community of monks and nuns. They are the transmitters of the tradition and the teachers of the lay community.
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