July 15, for the mid-year festival, also known as the ghost festival, the legend is the day when the ghost gate is opened, it is the day of the folk ancestor worship, Taoist Jiao, Buddhism to build the Bon Festival. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

In fact, in Buddhism, this RB is not a day of universal relief for the souls of the dead, but a day of joy.

It is customary to settle in a monastery for 90 days, from April 15 to July 15, and are not allowed to move around freely. In this way, you can concentrate on cultivating the Tao, and you can avoid harming plants, trees, and insects, which is the so-called "Xia Anju".

July 15 is the day of "Summer", when monks gather together to celebrate the full year of the Dharma. In the original meaning of the Buddhist scriptures, this festival should be the happiest day for the monks, and the precepts call July 15 as "Buddha Joy Day" and "Monk Self-Restraint Day".

The earliest origin of July 15 is the day of the Han nation's ancestor worship and death, and later Taoism set this day as the festival of lonely souls and wild ghosts, and Buddhism in the process of sinicization, it also changed the pre-Bon festival on this day, and added the content of Puji souls.

Although this day has a different purpose from the original, the festival is not set by heaven and earth, but by people, and naturally it has become a day of convention. Therefore, this day has changed from the earliest ancestor worship to now it has become a day when the ghost door is wide open and the souls of the dead are helped.

After the afternoon of the fifth and sixth days of the puja, many monks and lay people in the temple began to build the altar. First of all, the open space on the right side of the second floor is all enclosed with five-colored cloth curtains, enclosing a huge space, and many fake flowers, sequins and other things are made on the outside as decorative embellishments, which looks magnificent, but there are few colorful times in the temple.

In the venue, three altars are set up, namely the Buddha altar, the Pushi altar, and the lonely soul altar, and various arrangements have been made on each altar.

Among them, there are Buddha statues and ruyi rulers on the Buddhist altar, tributes are placed on the Pushi altar, and many tablets are placed on the lonely soul altar. The tablets written by many pilgrims a few days ago are enshrined on the altar of lonely souls at this time.

On the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, after breakfast, the monks of Zhiketang rang three big bells.

As the bell rang, many monks came to the altar wearing robes, and many pilgrims were already waiting here.

At the altar, someone first used three boards to silence, and then all the participating monks and pilgrims put on clothes and utensils and entered the altar. There were also a lot of people who participated in the festival on this day, and when Fang Cai Suwen and the others went down the mountain, they saw that there were people everywhere, and after entering the festival one after another, they would occupy an area

The two people who practice virtue and practice the law as walkers hold the guide flag, the two people who practice the precepts and the wisdom of the two people sing the chime, and the eight people such as Fahai and Daoqin hold the small flag, and they are divided into two classes when they go to Suwen, and they stand on the opposite side, and they sound the chime four times...... After a series of preparations, everyone stood in place.

First, Dao Yan sang praises as Wiener, and everyone sang along with him, and the pot meeting officially began.

First of all, it is Suwen Jingtan around the scriptures, that is, around the Bon Sutra, and after three times, it is to sing praises: "Mulian enlightens the teachings, the world digits preach, the bowl and Luo Fanli survive and die, get rid of suffering and go to heaven, the joy is boundless, and filial piety is eternal." Nan no incense cloud cover Bodhisattva Mahasattva. Nan no incense cloud cover Bodhisattva Mahasattva. Nan no incense cloud cover Bodhisattva Mahasattva. ”

After chanting three times, there is a question and answer, and then Dao Yan holds the water purification cup and recites the altar: "The Bodhisattva willow head nectar water can make a drop all over the ten directions, and the fishy dirt and filth can be removed from the ......."

"It's so boring!" The girl next to Lu Pingzhi whispered in his ear. There were too many people in the venue, and although the early autumn morning had begun to cool down, everyone still felt a bit of stuffiness. Coupled with the tedious rituals, people can't wait.

Lu Pingzhi nodded. These rituals were indeed quite boring, and he was now beginning to regret that he had come early in the morning, and that he might as well have slept a little longer.

He came to the monastery every day for the past few days, but he didn't see anything he wanted to see. Except for the countless birds landing on the main hall of the temple every morning, and Shi Cha turned out to be the best tea, he didn't see too many special places.

Nothing that has been talked about by many people until now, like the last festival, has not happened.

I thought the last day of the festival would be a little different, but I didn't expect it to be so boring. He yawned at the thought of this.

There are not a few who share his thoughts, and many people have come to this festival. I didn't expect that until now, it has been no different from the puja in ordinary monasteries, at most the ceremony is slightly different. But this can't help the reputation of the Pure Heart Temple now.

When everyone in the altar began to go around and recite the "Bon Sutra", Lu Pingzhi pulled his girlfriend and slipped out quietly. When I got outside, I saw a few people stretching their waists there, and they looked at each other, and I felt that everything was in plain sight.

The people outside all have the same characteristic, that is, they are dressed in casual clothes, and they can be said to be tourists. Those believers today are dressed in dark sea blue, which is clearly distinguishable from them.

One of them was a journalist with a camera on his chest. There were a lot of things that were praised during the last Pure Heart Temple puja, so this time he came here to get some first-hand information. But as of now, there's not much to write about. If you make these things into the news, you can imagine that not many people will care.

I knew that it would be better to cover the township demolition that happened yesterday, and I could still get first-hand news, so I had something to hand in.

The puja inside was held for a short time, and more and more people slipped out of it, and there were hundreds.

"What's going on inside?" Someone asked.

"I guess it'll be a while." The man replied, then took out a box of cigarettes from his pocket, looked left and right to see if there were no monks, and lit the cigarette.

When he came out, he was being fed inside, that is, the food that was given by many lay people in the morning was divided evenly, from the monks to the pilgrims who participated in the puja.

It didn't take long for the people to think of the sound of prayers, and someone heard the sound and went in to take a look, and after a while came out and said, "It's all done inside, it's all chanting in the afternoon, and there are other activities after seven o'clock in the evening." ”

Not long after saying this, people began to flow out of the altar that the curtain did not know, and each of them had something in his hand, or an apple, a banana, or something else.

Some of the people who came out of it were pilgrims, just like them, and as soon as they came out, they went to the side to stretch their waists, and the puja was finally over, it was so boring. And standing all morning also made many people feel that their legs were sore, and they made up their minds that they would definitely not come to chant in the afternoon.

If you want to come, you will come back at night.

"Let's go, go back and make up for sleep." Lu Pingzhi took his girlfriend and walked out, he was really not interested in staying any longer. If you have this time, you might as well go back and have a good meal and rest, it took a lot of energy last night.

Many of them had the same idea, and in the afternoon the venue dropped from more than 5,000 to more than 3,000, so that the crowded venue in the morning could finally see a little vacancy. (To be continued.) )