Vu Lan season, looking back to the roots
For a long time, Vu Lan has not only been a Buddhist ritual but has become a beautiful feature in Vietnamese culture - the culture of filial piety. Although life has changed, modern people have to face many problems of the industrial pace of life, filial piety still has its meaning intact for each person. That is the respect and appreciation of the merit of birth and upbringing. Vu Lan Day is an opportunity for each of us to think about the feelings and responsibilities of children and grandchildren towards parents, grandparents and ancestors.
Filial piety has always been a noble moral value for thousands of years, the foundation for all development in life. Therefore, although Vu Lan festival originates from the story of Bodhisattva Maudgalyayana saving his mother in Buddhist legends, over time, society has changed a lot, Vu Lan is no longer simply a sacred religious ceremony, but also a festival of humanity with special meaning, guiding people to return to their ancestors, with the morality of drinking water, remembering its source.
Filial piety comes first in human conduct. Children must be filial to their parents - the ones who gave birth to and raised them to become human beings. Their merit is as high as Mount Tai; pure and deep as an endless spring. Parents always take joy in their children's success. Children who know how to maintain family traditions, respect elders, get along with siblings, and do not do bad things... are also ways to show filial piety to their parents. That is why repaying parents' kindness through daily support, taking care of them when they are sick, ill... is always considered the first criterion in evaluating children's filial piety to their parents.
Vu Lan season is not only for Buddhists to go to the temple to worship Buddha, chant sutras, pray, dedicate to the souls of grandparents, ancestors, or deceased parents, but above all, it is an occasion for each person to think about the responsibility of being a child, praying for parents who are still alive to always be healthy and happy with their children and grandchildren. Filial piety and gratitude must be done while parents are still alive, by taking care of their food and sleep; medicine, and taking care of them when they are sick or have bad weather.
The most sacred pagoda, temple is the pagoda, temple in people's hearts. The most respectable, most worshipped Bodhisattva is the Bodhisattva in each family, our father, our mother when they were alive. Therefore, Vu Lan festival also implies the meaning for people to be grateful and repay gratitude. That thought is consistent with the thinking and morality of drinking water, remembering its source, repaying gratitude... in the Vietnamese mind.
It is truly admirable that more and more people, especially the youth, participate in the Rose Pinning Festival on Vu Lan Day with all the sacred respect, so that when pinning a rose on their chest, each person has the opportunity to look back at themselves and what they have done for their parents. There are more and more examples of filial piety towards grandparents and parents, cultural families, respectful and reverent longevity celebrations, helping the elderly to be happier and live healthily in the love and filial piety of their children and grandchildren.
Showing filial piety to one's parents, each person has a different condition to express. But it is not certain that a rich man organizes a grand birthday celebration for his parents with hundreds of guests, cars inside and outside the city with a simple feast of a poor, illiterate farmer on the "Ancestor's Death Anniversary" according to the customs of the Chuc ethnic group in the mountainous districts of Quang Binh and Ha Tinh, who will be more filial to their parents! Because the elderly are often sick, their material needs are not many. What is important is the affection and care of relatives. Our people have a saying: "The beauty of a piece of betel is not in the person who wraps it, but in the person who offers it".
Therefore, going to the temple to worship Buddha and dedicate to the souls of ancestors on Vu Lan day is a good thing to do. But do not, because of the fancy formalities, have to contribute money to buy services, buy offerings, burn expensive votive paper, and then make offerings that are not in accordance with the Dharma and traditional rituals. Instead, let's do many good deeds together, help the needy and sick, and consider it a way to transform into good karma to show gratitude to ancestors and parents. Without a good heart and without doing good deeds, no matter how many high-class dishes or how much votive paper money you burn, it will all be in vain!
Society has no right to treat the elderly badly and unfairly. Children and grandchildren have no right to be indifferent and insensitive to their parents. Because no society considers the abuse and cruelty to parents as normal.
"Children do not listen to what adults say, but they will open their eyes to see what adults do and they will do it themselves."according to". Don't cry when it's too late. Especially the things that each of us can do for our parents and grandparents today./.