Chapter 551 Down the Mountain 【Subscription】
Fang Zheng smiled and said: "Master, I told you a long time ago that in China, Buddhism and Taoism, in the endless years, each other's cultures merged, communicated, and learned from each other's strengths to make up for each other's strengths, and today's Buddha and Taoism came into being. The essence of the latter is to make the world more good and less evil.
According to legend, this festival originated from Taoism, that is, the parade of the three officials in the lower realm.
Taoism believes that this day is the day when the local official Qingxu forgives sins. To put it simply, it is the day when high-ranking officials come down to understand the people's sentiments, correct those who have been wrongly judged, or vindicate unjust cases. On this day, the Taoist priests chanted scriptures to welcome the arrival of the local officials and get rid of evil spirits. Transcending the ancestors...
Corresponding to this is the folk custom of July and a half, when the ghost moon rises and the ghost gate opens.
Folks believe that the entire July is a ghost month. The ghost gate opens on the first day of the lunar new year, and the ghost gate closes on the fifteenth day. This month, ghosts can come out to move again after the silence of spring and summer, so it is called ghost gate opening. Hundreds of ghosts travel at night, and a group of ghosts run around. In order to avoid hurting people, folks hold various activities to appease the group of ghosts. Similarly, on this day, their ancestors will return from the underworld, and the descendants will welcome and worship their ancestors, which is somewhat similar to Qingming Festival.
The name of the Obon Festival comes from Buddhism. There is such a story recorded in the Buddhist scriptures "Buddha Says the Obon Sutra":
Mulian, one of Shakyamuni's top ten disciples, after obtaining the six supernatural powers, wanted to repay his parents for their kindness in nurturing, so he inspected with the Taoist Eye and saw his deceased mother suffering in the hungry ghost realm, so skinny and out of shape. Mulian was very sad, so he put rice in a bowl and wanted to give it to his mother, but the rice had just been delivered to his mother, but before he could eat it, it turned into a raging fire, burning his mother's mouth, excruciating pain.
Mu Lian was helpless, crying and begging Buddha to help save his mother. The Buddha said: "Your mother has committed a lot of sins. You can't save it alone. It depends on the power of the monks from the ten directions. You have to set up a grand ceremony on the 15th day of the seventh month when all the monks live in peace and practice. The Ullambana Basin offering, with a hundred flavors of food and drink for the monks of the ten directions, relying on their spiritual power to save your mother."
So Mulian followed the instructions of the Buddha, and his mother really left the realm of hungry ghosts.
The Buddha also said: "In the future, when all Buddhist disciples practice compassion and filial piety, they can gather on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, which is the Buddha's favorite day. Adhere to the precepts, clean up their actions, and on the last day, the monks practice the Dharma of self-indulgence, that is, ask the monks to cite their own faults, confess and repent to them in the public, and then they will be pure, and they will be happy by themselves, which is called self-indulgence. The Buddha rejoices in his peaceful and perfect practice, so it is also called the Buddha’s Rejoicing Day and the Rejoicing Day. On this day, a variety of food and beverages are prepared, and Ullambana basins are widely set up to make offerings to the monks. Doing so can add blessings and longevity to the living parents. , but also for the deceased parents to leave the sea of suffering and get happiness, in order to repay the parents for their upbringing."
So there is the Buddhist Obon Festival. It just so happens that the time of the three is on July 15th, and they all advocate worshiping ancestors and promoting the culture of filial piety.
Therefore, the so-called Hungry Ghost Festival is a Taoist saying; the Obon Festival is a Buddhist saying; Ghost Festival and July half are folk sayings.
Taoism can celebrate the Ghost Festival, and Buddhism can celebrate the Obon Festival, so what about the folks? When there are too many and complicated things in the festival, many festival methods collide on this day, some are forgotten, abandoned, and some are confused. After a long time, after merging with each other, the festival Pay attention... At least among the folks, there is not much difference anymore. "
The red boy next to him didn't say anything after hearing it. The Obon Festival is also a first-class festival in his world. In his world, it is the real gate of hell that opens, and all ghosts come out of the abyss. , Countless gods and Buddhas gather together to transcend the souls of the dead, that is the big scene! But the world is different, and he has nothing to say.
"I see, Master, what are we doing today?" Lone Wolf asked curiously.
Fangzheng said: "You will know when the time comes. Calculate the time and it will be tomorrow." Fangzheng finished his sentence, and Yang Ping, the accountant of the village, came up the mountain. After the pile, they went down the mountain in a hurry.
"Master, what is Benefactor Yang doing here?" Squirrel asked curiously.
"Explaining about the Obon Festival tomorrow, how about the little lotus that I asked you to carve?" Fangzheng asked, changing the subject.
Hearing this, the squirrel shrank its neck in embarrassment, and went to carve the lotus honestly. Seeing this, Fangzheng shook his head helplessly. Squirrels are very active by nature, so it was indeed a bit difficult for him to keep squatting there quietly doing carving. I don't know, how many days can he last for this temporary interest.
The next day, Fangzheng went down the mountain early, followed by the monkey. As for the red boy, today he is not interested in going down the mountain to join in...
After descending the mountain, Fangzheng saw that the village had already begun to set up. An altar was placed at the door of every household, and a black line was drawn behind the altar with black wood ash to separate his yard from the altar.
"Master, what is this for?" Monkey asked looking at such a scene.
Fangzheng said: "There is a folk saying that this kind of plant ashes is equivalent to the ash at the bottom of the pot, which can prevent ghosts from entering the door. Tonight, the door of ghosts will be opened. Although everyone takes this opportunity to worship ancestors, we must also guard against evil spirits from entering."
The monkey suddenly realized, scratched his head, and said, "Master, you have mentioned ghosts more than once. Are there ghosts in this world?"
Fangzheng said: "The ghost is in the heart, the body is upright, the ghost in the heart is the ancestor, and protects the whole life; the body is crooked, the ghost in the heart is the evil ghost, step by step into the abyss of evil, and there is no redemption."
The monkey looked confused, he couldn't understand...
Fangzheng didn't intend to explain clearly in a few words. Some things are understood when they should be understood, and it is useless to talk more.
There are no tributes on the villagers' altars. In this hot day, they are placed early and they will break down quickly.
The intersections of the village were also painted with white lime circles one by one, some larger, some smaller, no matter what they were, they were all concentrated at the intersections. When the two came, Sun Qiancheng and Mengmeng were drawing a circle there. The two people, one big and one small, were very serious and didn't notice Fang Zheng's arrival at all.
Mengmeng was holding a lime basin, her big eyes flickered, she tilted her head and said, "Dad, why are all the uncles drawing circles here..."
The monkey looked at Fangzheng almost at the same time. Fangzheng smiled slightly, looked ahead and let him listen.
"This circle represents the tomb of the deceased ancestors. There should be an opening in the circle, which represents the entrance of the tomb. At the same time, this opening should face the direction of the tomb. Tonight, when we burned paper money for grandma and the others, it was here Burn...Mengmeng, are grandpa and grandma treating you well?" Sun Qiancheng said.
Mengmeng still doesn't know much about life and death. After thinking about it with her head tilted, she said, "It's good for me."
"Yeah, so tonight Mengmeng is going to burn paper with dad, you know? Let grandparents see how filial their good granddaughter is." Sun Qiancheng said.
Mengmeng nodded repeatedly: "Okay, okay...Mengmeng is coming." The little girl jumped, and the lime basin in her hand shook, the limestone collapsed, and a gust of wind blew, and the limestone flew away.
The monkey was curious and got closer, but this time, Lime was coming towards him, and he was so stupid that he didn't know how to avoid it!
At this moment, a big hand blocked the monkey's eyes and kept Lime out, but Lime's face was still covered with white hair.
As soon as the news came out, Sun Qiancheng looked up, and when he saw Fangzheng, he got up quickly and said with a smile, "Master Fangzheng, how did you go down the mountain... Oops, I almost forgot, it's July and a half, you have to work hard again today. "
Fangzheng clasped his hands together and said, "Amitabha, this is what poor monks should do."
Sun Qiancheng said: "Master, I told you last time that our family moved here later. Except for our parents, grandparents are not buried here. To be honest, I don't know where they are buried. It's clear. It's July and a half..." Having said this, Sun Qiancheng looked at the white circle on the ground. The reason why he chose to ask Fangzheng was because during the Ching Ming Festival, Fangzheng helped him solve the problem of worshiping the ancestors and understood how to worship all the ancestors. Fangzheng didn't come today, so he also wanted to go up the mountain to ask. Now that he met him, he naturally had to ask for advice.
Fangzheng said: "Benefactor, this matter is easy to handle. You only need to point the entrance of the tomb to the west. As the saying goes, if you drive a crane to the west, you must face the west."
Sun Qiancheng's eyes lit up when he heard it, and he quickly thanked him: "Thank you for your guidance, Master. To be honest, this problem has troubled me for a while. I didn't expect it to be so simple..."
After finishing speaking, Sun Qiancheng quickly squatted down and drew another big circle with the gap facing the west.
After saying goodbye to Sun Qiancheng, Fangzheng took the monkey to the only small shop in the village. The small shop changed hands several times, and now it was Chen Jin who opened the small shop. Chen Jin wanted to bully Fangzheng at the beginning, but because of a fire, Fangzheng saved the whole family, and Fangzheng was very grateful to him. Later, Chen Jin’s house was rebuilt, and Chen Jin thought about it, but he didn’t want to farm anymore, so he bought the small shop, sat in the small shop every day, set up two tables, watched everyone playing cards and chatting ,Kill time.
But today, no one played cards in Chen Jin's small shop, because it was full of all kinds of paper money. Ever since Fang Zheng told them that money in the underworld only recognizes paper money and not gold ingots, no one in the village burned those things anymore. . So what Chen Jin's family brought in was all yellow grass paper money, piled up there.
Chen Jinzheng was sitting at the door playing with his mobile phone. When he heard the movement, he looked up and saw that it was Fangzheng. He stood up quickly and said with a smile, "Master Fangzheng, are you here? What do you want? Take whatever you want, no money is required."
Fangzheng shook his head and said: "The poor monk used to have no money, so he had no choice but to take it for nothing. Now that the temple is full of incense, how can he take it for nothing? The money still has to be paid."
"Master Fangzheng, you are meaningless. You saved the lives of my wife and children. What's the point of giving you something? You have to take this, take whatever you want! If you don't take it, I... will pack it all up and send it to you." Go up, whether you want it or not, anyway, I don't want it." Chen Jin immediately started to play a rogue.