7th lunar month Prayers and My Meditation

 On the first day of the 7th lunar month, Buddhists here pray for the welfare and happiness of the denizens of Hell. Buddhists are encouraged to offer alms food to the Sangha as well as recite Buddhist Sutras. during this 7th month.  It is the Ullambana festival. For Mahayana people, the Ksitigarbha Sutra is commonly recited. The Flaming Mouth Puja is also commonly performed. In the Theravada tradition, it coincides with the Vassa 3-month rains retreat. Lots of dana being offered to the Sangha and the merits transferred to departed ones. 

What I do on this day is to offer my meditation practice to those beings. I did almost an hour of meditation, consisting of half-an-hour of walking and then proceeding to sitting session. It is true that walking meditation will produce a positive effect on sitting meditation, if done properly. If done with concentration, each step of walking should produce some kind of blissful feeling. What I say is correct as people could enter the first Jhana during walking meditation. I just had almost an hour of concentrated awesome meditation. What's different with this session is that an image of Kuan Yin Bodhisattva appeared during my sitting session. It was the standing Kuan Yin in white robes and holding a vase with a short willow leaf. It appeared for a few seconds and I noted that image with vipassana. And then it vanishes. Namo Kuan Shih Yin Pu Sa. I regard it as auspicious. Pu Sa, thank you for dropping by!

#ullambana #hungryghostfestival #KuanYin

If you wish to read other posts on ghosts, you may refer to this one https://buddha-and-me.blogspot.com/2010/05/liberating-spirits-and-ghosts-pt2.html