20150814戒慎虔誠弭災難Being Sincere and Vigilant to Reduce Disaster
Seventh month in the lunar calendar is called the auspicious month in Buddhism because in the lunar calendar the weather is very hot during the three months of the 15th day of the fourth month to the 15th day of the seventh month. The Buddha was concerned that when the monks were out on the alms round, they might accidentally step on insects or snakes.
Therefore, with the Buddha’s compassion, he designated those three months, the summer period, as a retreat for monks to gather together and focus on listening to the Dharma. Meals were provided by kings, officials or members of the society to feed the monks. In this period of three months, monks settled down to listen and learn the Dharma.
On the 15th days of the lunar seventh month, all the monks achieved personal growth. Every one of the Buddha’s disciples was asked to share their insights into the Dharma and other reflection. Hearing these made the Buddha very happy. Therefore, the 15th day of the lunar seventh month was a joyous day for the Buddha. This means that from the lunar fourth month to the lunar seventh month, people were very peaceful and joyful.
The lunar seventh month brings a satisfactory end to the retreat and is called the auspicious month. There are many stories about the lunar seventh month. The most famous one is the story of Ven. Maudgalyayana saving his mother. In the summer retreat months, while he was mediating, he suddenly thought of his mother whom, while she was alive, committed negative karma of speech, killed many animals and did wrong deeds, as well as harbored unwholesome thoughts.
Ven. Maudgalyayana was very worried about the karmic retribution of his mother and wondered which realm his mother was reborn into. With this thought, he saw scenes of suffering in hell. He also saw his mother had fallen into the hungry ghost realm. He quickly brought a bowl of rice to her. When his mother opened her mouth to eat, heat, as hot as fire, came out from her mouth and burned the whole bowl of rice into black ashes.
Seeing this, Ven. Maudgalyayana felt very helpless. Even if he was number one in supernatural powers, his power could not overturn his mother’s karmic retribution. So, he went to the Buddha for help. The Buddha said, “She had accumulated negative karma as vast as Himalayas. You cannot rely on your supernatural power alone to save your mother. What she needs is help from many people.
On the last day of the summer retreat, the 15th day of the lunar seventh month, gather together all the monastic cultivators who have strictly adhered to precepts and attained high level of Samadhi with boundless wisdom. With their collective pure hearts have them pray for your mother.”
Ven. Maudgalyayana then arranged to make offering to the cultivators. With everyone’s sincere prayer, not only was his mother saved on that day, all the beings in the hungry ghost realm with her mother were also saved. This is the story of the Buddha’s compassion in saving living beings on the 15th day of the lunar seventh month.
However, as this story was passed down, it was erroneously turned into a folk tradition, a ritual of making offerings to ancestors and spirits with animal sacrifices in the name of worshiping spirits, people actually use this occasion to satisfy their craving for meat. In fact, the only way for peace and safety is to live a vegetarian and disciplined lifestyle and not be superstitious. We need to have correct belief. We see this little boy who has been a vegetarian since kindergarten.
If we eat one chicken, its friend would miss the slaughtered chicken. Both of them will end up being very miserable. When eating chicken, people should show first that nowadays, these chickens received shots for them to grow very big. Such practice is bad for the chicken if we mankind eat the chickens, it will bring harm to us.
He further said, “Stop burning the paper money.
Our ancestors are unlikely to punish us if we stop burning the paper money or the incense. As long as we, with great respect, help others with compassion, our ancestors would be very pleased with us.
So, in our daily lives, if we give of ourselves and put our good and kind intention to practice, we will create blessings for the world. Likewise, being a vegetarian is a better and healthy option. To give of oneself to help others in action is more significant than the practice of ritual worship and making offerings. Take Typhoon Soudelor for instance, Sanxia District, Guishan Li in Xindian District and Wulai District in northern Taiwan are all badly damaged by the typhoon.
Tzu Chi volunteers in Sanxia quickly mobilized to provide emergency relief. Some volunteers in Sanxia have also suffered some typhoon damage themselves. They put aside their personal needs to join the team and give of themselves to help clean up the community. In Guishan Li, the relief work continued for four or five days and was just finished yesterday. Hot meals have been served to the impacted residents daily. Volunteers gather to clean the disaster area every day.
Today, more than a thousand people join up to go further inside the Wulai District. However, I am much worried about their safety. Because it rained heavily again yesterday causing mudslide and road closure in the area. Today, they’ve planned to go there again. We should remain sincerely pious, in hope that the weather can be favorable to us. I hope everyone can be safe and well.
However, volunteers have worked many days and their physical strength is limited. I hope the young and capable people in our society can join in to help the mud-out operation to reduce some of the work load for these elderly volunteers, many of whom are in their 80s, 70s and 60s. They keep working nonstop. My heart really goes out to them. I am also very concerned for them.
However, thinking about those disaster survivors pains me even more. Therefore, I hope every member of the society, especially the young and the capable ones can join in to help the cleanup operation. This shows true sincerity from the bottom of everyone’s heart and will lead the society to an auspicious future. Otherwise, I am truly very worry about this.
We truly see many disasters in the world. Massive explosions in Tianjin, China left at least 50 people dead. As of today, the cumulative number of injured people is 701. More than 6,000 people are displaced because windows in houses were shattered by the blast as far away as 10 kilometers.
Indeed, there are many disasters in the world. People have to be sincere and vigilant at heart to prevent the many disasters in the world. The only way to do this is for everyone to be sincere and be vigilantly disciplined. Therefore, I look forward to all of you encouraging each other in this endeavor.
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