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Petavatthu
__NOTOC__ The Petavatthu () is a Theravada Buddhist scripture, included in the Minor Collection (''Khuddaka Nikaya'') of the Pali Canon's Sutta Pitaka. It ostensibly reports stories about and conversations among the Buddha and his disciples, and it dates to about 300BC at the earliest.. It is composed of 51 verse narratives describing specifically how the effects of bad acts can lead to rebirth into the unhappy world of petas (ghosts) in the doctrine of kamma. More importantly, it details how meritorious actions by the living can benefit such suffering beings. The scripture also includes stories of Maha Moggallāna's travels to the hungry ghost realm and his discussions with hungry ghosts and his understanding of the realm. It also includes a story of how Sariputta rescued his mother from hell by making offerings to the monks as a form of merit-making to increase the chance of a hungry ghost being reborn as a higher being. The scripture gave prominence to the doctrine that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghost Festival
The Ghost Festival, also known as the Zhongyuan Festival (traditional Chinese: 中元節; simplified Chinese: ) in Taoism and Yulanpen Festival () in Buddhism, is a traditional Taoist and Buddhist festival held in certain East Asian countries. According to the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh month (14th in parts of southern China).Chow 2015 In Chinese culture, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month (), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm. Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (or Tomb Sweeping Day, in spring) and Double Ninth Festival (in autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, during Ghost Festival, the deceased are believed to visit the living. On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mulian Rescues His Mother
''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: '), 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 (). 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yulanpen Sutra
The Yulanpen Sutra, also known as the Ullambana Sutra (), is a Mahayana sutra concerning filial piety. It was translated from an Indic language (see History) and is found in Taisho 685 and Taisho 686 in Volume 16, the third volume of the Collected Sutra Section. Taisho 685 was translated by Dharmarakṣa from 265-311 CE and is entitled: ‘The Buddha Speaks the Yulanpen Sutra’. Taisho 686 was translated by an unknown or lost translator during the Eastern Jin Dynasty and is entitled: ‘The Buddha Speaks the Sutra of Offering Bowls to Repay Kindness’. According to Karashima, Taisho 686 is basically a more idiomatic adaptation of Taisho 685. It records the events which followed after one of the disciples of Shakyamuni Buddha, Maudgalyayana, achieves Abhijñā and uses his newfound powers to search for his deceased parents. In the end, Maudgalyayana finds his mother in the preta (hungry ghost) world and with the assistance of the Buddha, is able to save her. The Eas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khuddaka Nikāya
The Khuddaka Nikāya () is the last of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that compose the Pali Tipitaka, the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism. This nikaya consists of fifteen (Thailand), fifteen (Sri Lanka follows Buddhaghosa's list), or eighteen books (Burma) in different editions on various topics attributed to the Buddha and his chief disciples. The word ' in the title means ‘small’ in Pali and ' is ‘collection’. The equivalent collection in the Chinese and Tibetan canons is the '' Kṣudraka Āgama'', but there is substantial variation among the collections. Historical development Hirakawa Akira has stated that the Khuddaka Nikaya represent a stage in the development of the Pali Canon / Agamas in which new material was not added any more to the rest of the Sutta Pitaka, but was added to a 'Khuddaka Pitaka' instead. Hirakawa Akira, translated and edited by Paul Groner (1993A History of Indian Buddhism Mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vimānavatthu
The Vimanavatthu (Vimāna-; abbreviated as "Vv") is a Theravada Buddhist scripture, the sixth book of the '' Khuddaka Nikaya'' in the Pali Canon. Its name in Pali means "Stories of the Vimana," usually translated as 'heavenly abodes' or 'divine mansions'. The Vimanavatthu is an anthology of 83 short stories written in verse, divided into seven chapters or ''vagga''. Each story describes the life and deeds of a character who has attained residence in a heavenly mansion, the "Vimana", due to their meritorious deeds. Overview Each of the stories in the Vimanavatthu follows the same pattern, using the frame of the Buddha's disciple Mahamoggallana asking a deva the reason for their current residence in a divine abode. The deva then relates the good deeds in their previous birth that lead to their rebirth in the divine realm. The text is generally regarded by scholars as a relatively late addition to the Pali Canon, possibly one of the last texts added to the Khuddaka Nikaya before ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Preta
Preta ( sa, प्रेत, bo, ཡི་དྭགས་ ''yi dags''), also known as hungry ghost, is the Sanskrit name for a type of supernatural being described in Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religion as undergoing suffering greater than that of humans, particularly an extreme level of hunger and thirst. They have their origins in Indian religions and have been adopted into East Asian religions via the spread of Buddhism. Preta is often translated into English as " hungry ghost" from the Chinese and East Asian adaptations. In early sources such as the '' Petavatthu'', they are much more varied. The descriptions below apply mainly in this narrower context. The development of the concept of the preta started with just thinking that it was the soul and ghost of a person once they died, but later the concept developed into a transient state between death and obtaining karmic reincarnation in accordance with the person's fate. In order to pass into the cycle of k ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theravada Buddhist
''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed Theravādins, have preserved their version of Gautama Buddha's teaching or '' Buddha Dhamma'' in the Pāli Canon for over two millennia. The Pāli Canon is the most complete Buddhist canon surviving in a classical Indian language, Pāli, which serves as the school's sacred language and ''lingua franca''.Crosby, Kate (2013), ''Theravada Buddhism: Continuity, Diversity, and Identity'', p. 2. In contrast to ''Mahāyāna'' and ''Vajrayāna'', Theravāda tends to be conservative in matters of doctrine (''pariyatti'') and monastic discipline (''vinaya''). One element of this conservatism is the fact that Theravāda rejects the authenticity of the Mahayana sutras (which appeared c. 1st century BCE onwards). Modern Theravāda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and north-west of mainland Australia. Southeast Asia is bordered to the north by East Asia, to the west by South Asia and the Bay of Bengal, to the east by Oceania and the Pacific Ocean, and to the south by Australia and the Indian Ocean. Apart from the British Indian Ocean Territory and two out of 26 atolls of Maldives in South Asia, Maritime Southeast Asia is the only other subregion of Asia that lies partly within the Southern Hemisphere. Mainland Southeast Asia is completely in the Northern Hemisphere. East Timor and the southern portion of Indonesia are the only parts that are south of the Equator. The region lies near the intersection of geological plates, with both heavy seismi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theragatha
The ''Theragatha'' (''Verses of the Elder Monks'') is a Buddhist text, a collection of short poems in Pali attributed to members of the early Buddhist sangha. It is classified as part of the Khuddaka Nikaya, the collection of minor books in the Sutta Pitaka. A similar text, the Therigatha, contains verses attributed to early Buddhist nuns. Etymology ''Theragatha'' is a Pali word, constructed from the words ''thera'' (elder, masculine) and ''gāthā'' (verse). Overview The Theragatha consists of 264 poems, organized into 21 chapters. Chapters are based on the number of verses in the poem, but beyond chapter 16 the chapter headings are only a rough guide. Various figures for the number of total verses in the collection are given- the oral tradition claimed 1360, 1294 are mentioned in summaries within the text, but a plain count of the verses gives a number of 1279. This may be because different versions of the Theragatha were combined to produce the current version of the te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sutta Nipata
The ' () is a Buddhist scripture, a sutta collection in the Khuddaka Nikaya, part of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism. Sections The ''Sutta Nipāta'' is divided into five sections: Uraga Vagga ("The Chapter on the Serpent") Cūla Vagga ("The Minor Chapter") Mahā Vagga ("The Great Chapter") Atthaka Vagga "The Chapter of Octads" Parayana Vagga ("The Chapter on the Way Beyond") Context Some scholars believe that it describes the oldest of all Buddhist practices. Others such as Bhikkhu Bodhi and K. R. Norman agree that it contains much early material. In the Chinese Buddhist canon, a version of the Aṭṭhakavagga has survived. Fragmentary materials from a Sanskrit version of the Nipata also survive. The Niddesa, a commentary in two parts on the contents of the Atthaka Vagga and portions of the Parayana Vagga, is included in the Pali Canon as a book of the Khuddaka Nikāya. This commentary is traditionally attributed to Śāriputra, and its prese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
