佛說盂蘭盆經 1.4

1.4

realm of rebirth in order to repay his debt to them for raising and nurturing him. As he viewed the world of transmigration with his supernatural eyes, he discovered that his deceased mother had been reborn in the realm of hungry ghosts ( pretas), and as there was nothing to eat there she had wasted away to skin and bones. Stricken with grief, Mahāmaudgalyāyana filled a bowl with rice and approached his mother to offer it. His mother held the bowl in her left hand and took some rice with her right hand, but before the rice reached her mouth it turned into a piece of burning charcoal, and she could not eat it at all. Crying loudly in anguish, Mahāmaudgalyāyana hurriedly returned to the presence of the Buddha and related to him in detail what had happened.

The Buddha said to him, “Your mother’s evil karma is so deep-rooted that it is beyond your individual power [to alleviate it]. Although you are filled with filial piety and your cries shake heaven and earth, even the gods of heaven and earth, evil spirits, brahmans, bodhisattvas, and the Four Gate Guardians can do nothing about it. But she can be delivered through the divine power of [all] the monks in the ten directions.

“Now I shall teach you the way of deliverance. I shall enable all suffering beings to be freed from pain and anxiety and from the consequences of their evil karma.”

The Buddha said to Mahāmaudgalyāyana, “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when the monks end the summer retreat, for the sake of your parents of the past seven generations and your present suffering parents, you should fill a tray with the world’s finest delicacies, together with foods of rich variety and taste and five kinds of greens and cereals, and offer it to the monks in the ten directions. You should also offer them ladles, kettles, basins, perfumed oil, lamps, carpets, and bedding.

“On this day the monks of great virtue may be those who contemplate on a mountain, or those who have attained the fourfold fruits, or those who engage in walking meditation under a tree, or those who freely instruct śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas with the six supernatural powers, or bodhisattvas

The Ullambana Sutra

in the tenth stage (bhūmi) who have transformed themselves into bhikṣus.

Those monks who [live] among people receive the meal offered after the

retreat with the same mind. They all keep the pure precepts, and their virtues,

worthy of enlightened ones, are profound and all-pervasive. Those who make

offerings to the monks after the retreat will enable their present parents, their

parents of the past seven generations, and their six close relatives (i.e., fathers,

mothers, brothers, sisters, wives, and children) to be delivered from the suf-

fering of the three evil realms of rebirth (i.e., the realms of hell, hungry

ghosts, and animals). Their relatives will in due course be liberated—food

and clothing will be given to them spontaneously. If their parents are still

alive, they will enjoy the blissful lifespan of one hundred years. If their par-

ents are deceased, their parents of the past seven generations will be born in

heaven. They will freely transform themselves to be born in the light of heav-

enly flowers and receive infinite pleasure.”

Then the Buddha enjoined the monks in the ten directions, “First of all,

for the sake of the donors, you must pray for their parents of the past seven

generations. You should practice contemplation and then, with a settled mind,

receive the food. When you first receive the food, you should place it in front

of a stupa. After you finish your prayers, you may help yourselves to the food.”

Thereupon, Bhikṣu Mahāmaudgalyāyana along with all the bodhisattvas

in the great assembly greatly rejoiced, and his painful cries ceased once and for

all. On that very day, Mahāmaudgalyāyana’s mother was freed from the suf-