ཕ་མའ་མད intro.4

intro.4

The Chinese canon does not contain this sūtra,¹ though there are other popular sūtras in the Chinese canon that teach the importance of respecting and serving one’s parents and ancestors. Two such sūtras are yu lan pen jing (盂蘭盆經, Taishō 685)² and bao’en feng pen jing (報恩奉盆經, Taishō 686). As the textual basis for the “Ghost Festival” (yu lan pen), these two sūtras both describe the efforts of Maudgalyāyana, one of the two main disciples of the Buddha, to save his mother, who had been reborn in one of the lower realms. Though these two sūtras were almost certainly originally composed in China, a similar narrative of Maudgalyāyana locating his mother after her death in order to assist her is also found in The Chapter on Medicines in the Vinayavastu (Toh 1-6, –), which was composed in India. That account begins with Maudgalyāyana recalling a discourse of the Buddha about repaying the kindness of one’s parents.³ However, the contents of these sūtras in the Chinese canon and The Chapter on Medicines are quite different from that of this particular sūtra, which makes it a valuable addition to the Buddhist literature on what is often called “filial piety.”