In keeping with the tradition, Dari Rulai Temple conducts this daily prayer ceremony from New Moon to Full Moon of the 7th Lunar Month, traditionally known as the Ghost Month. Honoring your parents, living and deceased, and the parents of your past seven lives by participating in these Dharma Rites brings blessings to you and your descendants.

The rituals performed during this two-week Prayer Ceremony will help to maintain your connection to and receive blessings from your ancestors who may have attained high spiritual realms, known as ‘ancestral deities’ in some cultures, as well as help extinguish disasters brought about by your deceased relatives who passed away bearing heavy karmas and who are ‘plundering the merits of their descendants’.

Any who wish to render homage to ancestors can make an offering of $32, $72, $108, $300, $600, $900 etc. Your name will remain on an altar at the Dari Rulai Temple during 2 weeks of daily rites to benefit and pay homage to living and deceased parents, the parents of the past 7 lives, and ancestors in general

Modern western society does not teach people to respect and honour parents, nor to take care of them in their old age. If you wish to practice according to the strict discipline outlined in the Ullambana sutra, bring food (not necessary to offer money) offerings to the temple on the last day of the “Homage to Ancestors” Rite and…

“They should vow to cause the length of life of the present father and mother to reach a hundred years without illness, without suffering, afflictions, or worries, and also vow to cause seven generations of fathers and mothers to leave the sufferings of the hungry ghosts, to be born among men and gods, and to have blessings and bliss without limit. “

“those disciples of the Buddha who cultivate filial conduct should in thought after thought, constantly recall their present fathers and mothers when making offerings, as well as the fathers and mothers of seven lives past. Every year, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, they should always, out of filial compassion, recall their parents who bore them and those of seven lives past, and for their sakes perform the offering of the Ullambana basin to the Buddha and the Sangha and thus repay the loving kindness of the parents who raised and nourished them….”

Contact Mary ( corkhanmi@gmail.com) to participate in person / and Zoom in these ceremonies at your local Hanmi Shrine

Registrations accepted until 12:00PM on Friday, August 12, 2022

Please submit your offering for the total amount, after you’ve finished placing your request

The Ghost Festival, also known as the Zhongyuan Festival (traditional Chinese: 中元節; simplified Chinese: 中元节) in Taoism and Yulanpen Festival (traditional Chinese: 盂蘭盆節; simplified Chinese: 盂兰盆节; pinyin: Yúlánpénjié) 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)

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 (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm.[which?] 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.

Wikkipedia link:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Festival

In China the 7th lunar month is a time when people traditionally perform prayers, rituals, and ceremonies to honor and benefit deceased ancestors and relatives.

It is said that this tradition originated when Maudgalyayana asked Shakyamuni Buddha’s help in liberating his deceased mother from suffering(In his meditation he saw that his deceased mother was suffering).

As part of Shakyamuni’s discourse on filial piety(showing proper respect to one’s parents), he said that one’s parents, ancestors, and parents of seven past lives will receive blessing if one offers food to the Buddha and Sangha (monks) on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month.

The following is a transcript from Living Buddha Dechan Jueren’s (Master Yu’s) lecture:

As human beings, every one of us has roots. We all come from somewhere. What are these roots? To put it simply, our roots are our bloodline. We come from our parents, they come from their parents, there is a bloodline.

Let me give you an example: look at a big tree. The root of that tree is deep. The deeper the roots grow, the taller the tree gets, and bigger the leaves. If the root of the tree becomes damaged, if it becomes severed, the tree may not die.

Although the root is damaged, but there still may be other, lesser, smaller roots and the tree may live on. But you will know something is happening to the tree. It is not dead, but something is happening to it. You may see the leaves changing colors and withering. Certain branches may be drying up.

What has happened to people today? I have said over the years, modern people think they have become more knowledgeable, they have so much knowledge. But this knowledge is all braches of knowledge. The knowledge is incomplete. As people advance their knowledge, they are parting ways with their culture at the same time. There are many ancient cultures, but gradually they are lost or forgotten by their people.

In the old days, the nobility of the west also considered bloodlines to be an important matter.

Although you have never met your ancestors from generations ago, the bloodline is still there. Your ancestors continue to look after you.

For example: Any woman who has become a mother has this experience. No matter how old her child gets and no matter how good or how bad her child treats her, as a mother, her heart is always worried about her baby. Unfortunately when a child is happy, he may forget his parents, but the parents never forget their children. Even if a child is 80 years old, so its mother is 100 years old. She’s a 100 year old, she may be lying in bed, and cannot move, but she is still thinking of her child. What’s happening there? This is a symptom of the bloodline.

End of transcript from Living Buddha Dechan Jueren

What Is Ancestral Merit?

The following is a transcript from Living Buddha Dechan Jueren’s (Master Yu’s) lecture:

On Ancestral Merit, UK 2008.

Think of ancestral merit as this big reservoir. As long as you continue to perform the act of paying respect to your ancestors, go to their burial place, put out flowers, talk nonsense, bow to them, it doesn’t matter what you do, this reservoir will continue to supply you with water through the pipeline. If you have long forgotten them, you don’t even know where they are anymore, you are not able to find the reservoir, there is no more pipeline, no water coming to you.

Water as an element, is the first element. It is the source of origin of every life we know. If we want to be living a really good life, if we want to be prosperous, the bloodline is water to us. You cannot live without the water element. If you don’t have the reservoir, your whole destiny depends on the rain, upon the heavens. If it rains, you have water. If there is a drought, there is no water.

Here is another example: There is a person who is extremely talented, very capable. He is able to do things well and is a smart person. He is like a plant. If there is no water source for the plant, the plant depends on its livelihood from the rain. When the rain is abundant, this plant grows strong. Some days later, if no rain comes and there is a drought, the plant’s leaves will wither. A few days later, rain comes again. Suddenly the plant comes alive again and starts to grow.

What would happen if there is a pipeline from a reservoir supplying the plant with water? If there is a drought, there is still water coming from the reservoir. If there is too much rain, it will fill the reservoir. When someone is linked to that reservoir, he will always have plenty of water.

If this person is no longer looked after by his ancestral merit, his link is severed. No matter how intelligent this person is and no matter how capable he is, his luck will go up and down like a roller coaster. When days are good, things will be good. When days are running thin, he’ll just crash. There will be no smooth journey for someone whose ancestral merit link is severed.

End of transcript from Living Buddha Dechan

  Lunar Prayer Service

For The Benefit of All Sentient Beings(each list re-sets every 30 days).