Mulian Rescues His Mother from Hell
故事全文
“So hungry… I am so hungry!” Cried the hungry ghosts from hell. People who heard it felt sorry for them. Mulian was a disciple of the Buddha, and he heard the cries too. Being a kind and compassionate monk, he used his magical powers to look into hell. As he looked, he was shocked by what he saw.
“Mother? How did you end up in hell? And how did you become a hungry ghost?” Mulian saw his mother among the hungry ghosts. She was so starved and thin, Mulian had to help her. So, he prepared a bowl of food and brought it to hell for his mother to eat.
Mulian held out the bowl and said, “Mother, this food is for you.” “Oh, my son. Thank you so much!” Mulian’s mother was so hungry. She began to eat the food in the bowl. However, once the food touched her mouth ,it became fiery lumps of coal, and she could not swallow it at all.
“Hot! It is so hot!” Mulian’s mother tried many times, but she could not swallow the food that Mulian brought her. “Mother, please wait for me”, he said. “I will look for the Buddha, and ask him what to do.” Mulian was very sad and he did not know how to help his mother. So, he went to heaven to find the Buddha.
After listening to Mulian talk about his mother, Buddha sighed and told Mulian, “Your mother did not do good deeds while she was living, that is why she went to hell and became a hungry ghost after she died.” Mulian cried and asked the Buddha, “What should I do? I want to save my mother!” Buddha said, “Your mother did too many bad deeds, your magical powers alone are not enough to save her from hell. On the fifteenth day of July of the lunar calendar, you have to give alms to monks. The merit of doing so can be used to erase your mother’s bad deeds, and help the other hungry ghosts to leave hell.”
Mulian did as he was told, and freed his mother from hell. Mulian’s good deeds freed the other hungry ghosts from hell too. After that, the Buddhist custom of giving alms to monks, and the Taoist custom of giving prayer offerings to the souls of the dead, became important traditions of the Hungry Ghost Festival.
