THE ULLAMBANA SUTRA

Translator’s Introduction It has been widely accepted tradition that the Ullambana Sutra (Yulanpen jing) was translated into Chinese by the monk-scholar Dharmarakṣa between 266 and 313 C.E., during the Western Jin dynasty. Recent scholarship, however, generally acknowledges that this sutra was not originally composed in India but in China in the mid-sixth century. The Sanskrit term ullambana, which literally means “tray,” was known in China as early as the sixth century. The term, as reconstructed from the Chinese by the late Wogihara Unrai, has never been traced to any of the extant Sanskrit literature. It is now considered by some scholars to be derived from the Iranian urvan, meaning the soul of the deceased. Worship of the urvan was central in the Zoroastrian festival called Fravardigan. At this festival, celebrants burned pine twigs, believing the fragrance would attract the souls of their ancestors. The descendants would then urge their ancestors to return to their homes and receive offerings. This rite is similar to the Japanese urabon ceremony, which traces its roots to this sutra: both are occasions for showing reverence to one’s ancestors. The earliest record of the urabon festival, better known as the obon or bon festival, is found in volume twenty-two of the Chronicles of Japan (Nihonshoki), dating from the fourteenth year of the Suiko era (606 C.E.). In the fifth year of the Tempyō era (733 C.E.), the obon festival was designated one of the official annual functions of the imperial household, and it is still widely celebrated in Japan. The Ullambana Sutra tells of how the Buddha’s disciple Mahāmaudgalyā- yana, distressed about the fate of his mother, who had been reborn in a lower realm, questioned the Buddha on how he might liberate her. The Buddha advised him to make offerings of a variety of delicious foods on trays to the holy monks on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, at the completion of the three-month summer retreat. Through the merit of this offering Mahāmaudgalyāyana would liberate from unfortunate rebirth not only his just-deceased mother but all his ancestors going back seven generations.

THE ULLAMBANA SUTRA Translated into Chinese by Zhu Fahu (Dharmarakṣa), Tripiṭaka Master from Gandhāra in the Western Jin Dynasty

Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was staying at Anāthapiṇḍika’s Jetavana Monastery in Śrāvastī, when Mahāmaudgalyāyana attained the six supernatural powers. He desired to deliver his deceased parents from an evil 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 śrā- vakas and pratyekabuddhas with the six supernatural powers, or bodhisattvas

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 suffering 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 parents 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 heavenly 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 wasfreed from the suffering in the realm of hungry ghosts [in which she had been living] for a kalpa. Then Mahāmaudgalyāyana again addressed the Buddha, “My parents who raised me have received the power of the virtues of the Three Jewels (i.e, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha), thanks to the spiritual power of the monks. If all future disciples of the Buddha are filial to their parents and uphold this Ullambana Sutra, then they will be able to deliver their present parents and their parents of the past seven generations. Is this not so?” The Buddha replied, “Very well, that is a good question. I will certainly speak on this, since you have now asked the question. O son of good family, if there are bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, kings, crown princes, ministers, prime ministers, head officials, various civil servants, or tens of thousands of commoners who are filial to their present parents and their parents of the past seven generations, they should, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, a joyous day for the

Buddha and a day after the retreat, offer a meal of various tastes on a tray to the monks who participated in the retreat. They should then ask [the monks] to pray that their present parents will have a lifespan of one hundred years, free of illness and all kinds of suffering, and that their parents of the past seven generations may be free from the suffering of the realm of hungry ghosts and be born in the realm of heavenly beings (devas) which is accompanied by infinite happiness and pleasure.” The Buddha enjoined men and women of good families, “Disciples of the Buddha who practice filial piety should constantly think of their parents and make offerings to their parents of the past seven generations. Every fifteenth day of the seventh month, out of filial piety recall your parents of the past seven generations and prepare a tray of offerings for the Buddha and the monks in order to repay your debt to your parents. All disciples of the Buddha should uphold this teaching.” Upon hearing this discourse of the Buddha, Bhikṣu Mahāmaudgalyāyana and the four groups of followers (monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen) were delighted and paid reverence to him.