Venerable Guo Jing Venerable Guo Guang V Popular Books

Venerable Guo Jing Venerable Guo Guang V Biography & Facts

Mulian Rescues His Mother or Mulian Saves His Mother From Hell is a popular Chinese Buddhist tale first attested in a Dunhuang manuscript dating to the early 9th century CE. It is an elaboration of the canonical Yulanpen Sutra which was translated from Indic sources by Dharmarakṣa sometime between 265 and 311 CE. Maudgalyayana (Pali: Moggallāna), whose abbreviated Chinese transliteration is Mulian, seeks the help of the Buddha to rescue his mother, who has been reborn in the preta world (in canonical sutra) or in the Avici Hell (in elaborated tale), the karmic retribution for her transgressions. Mulian cannot rescue her by his individual effort, however, but is instructed by the Buddha to offer food and gifts to monks and monasteries on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, which established the Ghost Festival (Chinese: 鬼節; pinyin: guǐjié). While Mulian's devotion to his mother reassured East Asians that Buddhism did not undermine the Confucian value of filial piety and helped to make Buddhism into a Chinese religion, it also reflected strong undercurrents of filial piety that existed throughout Indian Buddhism as evidenced through its canonical texts and epigraphical remains. The story developed many variations and appeared in many forms. Tang dynasty texts discovered early in the twentieth century at Dunhuang in Gansu revealed rich stories in the form of chuanqi ('transmissions of the strange') or bianwen ('transformation tales'). Mulian and his mother appeared onstage in operas, especially folk-opera, and have been the subject of films and television series. The story became a standard part of Buddhist funeral services, especially in the countryside, until the end of the twentieth century. The legend spread quickly to other parts of East Asia, and was one of the earliest to be written down in the literature of Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. Another canonical version similar to the Yulanpen Sutra, has Sāriputta as the chief protagonist and is recorded in the Theravāda Petavatthu. It is the basis of the custom of offering foods to the hungry ghosts and the Ghost Festival in the cultures of Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Laos. Stages in the popularization of a canonical sutra Possible Indic precursors of canonical text and early history The Indian ancient classic epic, the Mahabharata, includes the story of an ascetic, Jaratkaru who sees his ancestors hanging upside down in purgatory because he has not married. His parents begged him to get married so they could be reborn in Heaven. This is based on the Tang Dynasty Sanskrit etymology of the Chinese word 'Yulanpen' said to be derived from Sanskrit 'avalambana' or 'hanging upside down'. Recent studies by Karashima has cast doubts on this and other old etymologies and have affirmed the connection of the Yulanpen holiday with the Pravarana holiday. The Petavatthu No. 14 – The Story of the Mother of Sariputta, a Theravadan scripture in the Pali Canon, contains an account of the disciple Sāriputta rescuing his deceased mother from his previous fifth life as an act of filial piety. Like other accounts in the Petavatthu, it also records the reasons for her rebirth into the preta world. The first reference to the Petavatthu is in the Mahavamsa's account of Venerable Mahinda using it to teach Sri Lankans ca. 3rd century BCE. This may be the earliest Indic precursor to the Yulanpen Sutra. Another canonical account can be found in Avadanasataka which is also very similar to the Yulanpen Sutra, Maudgalyayana communicates on the behalf of five hundred pretas with their respective relatives who in turn make offerings on the pretas' behalf to the monastic community. Once the transference of merit is completed, the former pretas are reborn and release from their suffering. The Yulanpen Sutra or Ullambana Sutra is an Indic text translated into Chinese in the 3rd to 4th century CE, which records the time when Maudgalyayana achieves abhijñā and uses his newfound powers to search for his deceased parents. Maudgalyayana discovers that his deceased mother was reborn into the preta or hungry ghost realm. She was in a wasted condition and Maudgalyayana tried to help her by offering her a bowl of rice. Unfortunately as a preta, she was unable to eat the rice as it was transformed into burning coal. Maudgalyayana then asks the Buddha to help him; whereupon Buddha explains how one is able to assist one's current parents and deceased parents in this life and in one's past seven lives by willingly offering food, etc., to the sangha or monastic community during Pravarana (the end of the monsoon season or vassa), which usually occurs on the 15th day of the seventh month whereby the monastic community transfers the merits to the deceased parents, etc., The earliest attested celebration of the festival appears in much later sources, such as the early 7th-century Record of the Seasons of Jingchu (which is a revision of an earlier text with same title from the mid 6th century CE that is no longer extant); however based on references in various literary sources, it may have been celebrated even as early as the late 5th century CE. The sutra was in part translated and promoted to help reconcile Buddhism with the Confucian ideals of filial piety;however there was already a concept of filial piety within Indian Buddhism which had a large overlap with the Chinese version but also significant differences. (c.f. Anantarika-karma). Tang dynasty tales of karmic punishment and redemption In the Tang dynasty, Mulian was a popular topic of sutra lectures by monks. They often used pictures and songs to amuse their audiences, enriching the Mulian story with many variations and making it thoroughly Chinese. The story-tellers shaped their stories to meet the charge that Buddhism undermined filial piety because it took believers away from their families and prevented them from attending to their ancestors. The written versions of these stories were bianwen, of which a large number were preserved in the library cave at Dunhuang, and was not rediscovered until the twentieth century. The fullest and most important of these Dunhuang texts is "Maudgalyāyana: Transformation Text on Mahamaudgalyāyana Rescuing His Mother from the Underworld, With Pictures, One Scroll, With Preface." In this text, Mulian's original name is "Radish", or "Turnip," typical Chinese nicknames, and his mother is Liu Qingti. Before Radish became a Buddhist, he went abroad on business and gave his mother money for feeding monks and beggars. She stingily hides it away, and soon after Radish returns, dies and the Jade Emperor judges that she should be turned over to Yama, ruler of the underworld, and dropped to the lowest order of hell for her selfish deception. Mulian becomes a Buddhist and uses his new powers to travel to heaven. There his father informs him that his mother is suffering extremely in the Avīci Hell, the cruelest of the purgatories. Mulian descends and meets ox-hea.... Discover the Venerable Guo Jing Venerable Guo Guang V popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Venerable Guo Jing Venerable Guo Guang V books.