Special Topics
The Ullambana Assembly
Repaying the Kindness of Parents Through Meritorious Deeds
The Ullambana Assembly (Yulanpen Hui) is a Buddhist liturgical service in Chinese Buddhism based on the Ullambana Sutra (Foshuo Yulanpen Jing). Held annually on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, it is dedicated to liberating and delivering ancestors across generations to repay the profound kindness and labors of one's parents.
"Yulanpen" is a phonetic transliteration of the Sanskrit term Ullambana, which embodies the meanings of filial piety, making offerings, repaying gratitude, delivering beings from extreme torment, and relieving intense suffering. If parents of past lives are suffering in the realm of hungry ghosts (pretas), preparing food and drink as offerings to the Three Jewels (Triratna) allows the merits generated to rescue them from the agony of starvation and being suspended upside down.
Origin and Background
According to the Ullambana Sutra, Venerable Maudgalyāyana, one of the Buddha’s foremost disciples, attained great spiritual penetrations and wished to deliver his parents from their karmic retribution to repay their nurturing kindness. Employing his divine eye (divyacakṣus), he searched throughout the realms and discovered his deceased mother in the realm of hungry ghosts—emaciated down to skin and bones and unable to partake in food or drink.
Venerable Maudgalyāyana immediately filled a bowl with rice and used his spiritual powers to offer the food to his mother. However, due to the severe fruit of her negative karma, the food turned into burning coals of fire before it could even enter her mouth. Deeply grieved, Venerable Maudgalyāyana beseeched the Buddha for instructions on how to save his mother from such torment.
The Buddha told Maudgalyāyana that his mother’s karmic obstacles were too profound to be relieved by the power of a single person. He instructed that on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month—the day marking the completion of the monastics' summer retreat (varṣā)—he should make offerings of diverse, exquisite delicacies to the Sangha of the ten directions. By relying on the collective spiritual cultivation of the Sangha and the merits gained from making offerings to the monastic community, he could rescue not only his present parents, but also his parents of the past seven lifetimes and close kin from the sufferings of the three lower realms (durgati).
Venerable Maudgalyāyana followed the Buddha’s instructions, and his mother was indeed liberated from the torment of the hungry ghost realm. He then asked the Buddha whether future Buddhist disciples wishing to practice filial piety could also make the Ullambana offerings to deliver their present parents and ancestors of past seven lifetimes. The Buddha replied:
"Those who practice filial piety and compassion should, for the sake of their present parents and parents of past seven lifetimes, on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month—the Buddha’s Happy Day and the Sangha’s Pravaraṇā Day—offer fine delicacies and beverages...to the Sangha of the ten directions. They may pray that their present parents live to a hundred years in good health, free from suffering and sorrow, and that their parents of past seven lifetimes be liberated from the misery of hungry ghosts and reborn among heavenly and human realms to enjoy boundless bliss."
Ritual Procedures
The Ullambana Assembly consists of three primary parts:
1. Purifying the Altar and Chanting the Sutra: Circumambulating the altar while chanting the Ullambana Sutra.
2. Presenting the Ullambana Offerings: Making formal offerings at the altar.
3. The Sangha Receiving Offerings: The monastic community accepting the meal offerings.
The core practice of the Ullambana Dharma Service is making offerings to the Sangha, for making offerings to the Sangha is equivalent to making offerings to the Buddha. Typically, the hosting monastery or center prepares the collective offerings prior to the ceremony, so individual participants need not bring their own food items. However, devotees are encouraged to cultivate generosity by sponsoring meals or making meritorious donations in accordance with to the monastery’s guidelines.
Following the Ullambana Assembly, the Flaming Mouth Rite is often conducted. Through this ritual of feeding hungry ghosts, the merits of the Sangha's spiritual practice and the act of making Sangha offerings are transferred to liberate deceased beings. Among the twelve beautifully composed invocation texts, the ritual not only invokes the Flaming-Mouth Hungry Ghosts but also includes the spirits of the deceased in this world. After the presiding Venerable invokes them, sprinkles sweet dew (amṛta), and offers consecrated food, the departed ancestors and spirits receive deliverance. Finally, all the ancestral memorial tablets are carried before the altar of the Flaming-Faced Ghost King (Jiaomian Dashi / Pretarāja) and cremated amidst sacred chanting, bringing the merits to a complete and auspicious conclusion.
During the service, participants should refrain from eating and drinking—even drinking water. This practice arises from compassion for the hungry ghosts who suffer ceaseless hunger and thirst; to them, food turns into fire or cannot pass through their needle-thin throats. Eating or drinking in their presence during the feeding ritual may arouse resentment and anger in the spirits as well as diminish the spirit of selfless compassion that the ritual seeks to embody.
The primary purpose of the Ullambana Assembly is to repay the kindness of our parents. In the Ullambana Sutra, the Buddha taught Maudgalyāyana:
"Disciples of the Buddha who cultivate filial devotion should, in thought after thought, constantly remember and make offerings to their parents, extending to their parents of past seven lifetimes. Annually on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, they should always remember with filial compassion the parents who gave them life, as well as those of past seven lifetimes, making the Ullambana offering to the Buddha and the Sangha to repay the grace of their loving care and upbringing. All Buddhist disciples ought to uphold this teaching."
The Ullambana Assembly harmoniously unites the Buddhist practice of merit-making through generosity (dāna) with the traditional virtue of filial piety, extending boundless compassion from our own parents across seven lifetimes to all sentient beings.
(Compiled by Yang Renhui 楊仁惠)
Resource: Issue 240 of Humanity Magazine, Dharma Drum Publishing Corporation
Photo: 李東陽
Translation: 小熊
Editing: Keith Brown, Patricia Yang
Resource: Issue 240 of Humanity Magazine, Dharma Drum Publishing Corporation
Photo: 李東陽
Translation: 小熊
Editing: Keith Brown, Patricia Yang