Sharing Merits With Our Ancestors | 11 Oct 2024

Wan Saad Thai is a merit-making festival for the deceased,

And it falls on the new moon,

The 15th lunar day of the 10th lunar month,

Which is 15 more days till the end of the Vassa,

The three-month rains retreat.

In nature,

Crops will be flowering and fruiting,

And will be harvested.

In the old days,

They would harvest the rice and wheat crops,

And take it to make rice and milk porridge and rice pudding to offer to the Brahmins of the past.

During the time of the Buddha's dispensation,

Those who changed from Brahmin to being Buddhist would undertake similar practices.

They would take the rice from the crops and take it to offer and make merit with,

And this merit could be done for those who have passed away.

In Chinese tradition,

They have the ghost festival,

Where things are put out in baskets.

It is for the deceased relatives,

And for those breta,

Hungry ghosts,

Who have no relatives.

So they come to receive this merit.

And sometimes there are people who see during the ghost festival,

Where things are put out,

And they see various spirits come to take all the things.

It's full of them fighting over these things.

In our dimension,

We see people competing for things.

In another dimension,

It is the ghosts and spirits coming to take merit and goodness.

And there are many of them.

So it comes to the day of Sathay,

The merit-making festival,

And we think to make merit for our ancestors.

And there is a story in the time of the Buddha,

Where King Bimbisara had made offerings to the Sama Sambuddha,

The perfectly self-awakened Buddha.

And on that night,

The king heard eerie cries and wailing,

And was very frightened by it.

In the morning,

The king's mind wasn't in a good state,

So he went to see the Sama Sambuddha,

And asked what was that noise he had heard.

The Buddha comforted him to not be afraid,

As it wasn't anything bad to his throne.

That sound was the sound of one group of hungry ghosts called Paradatta Upajjivi Bretta.

It is a hungry ghost that lives on the fruits of merit of their relatives.

When their relatives make merit for them,

They can receive it as their fruits of merit.

They can take it as food.

If their relatives dedicate it to them,

Then they can know of the merit.

They are aware of it,

And Anumodana rejoice in that merit.

Then their starvation,

Destitution,

And suffering will be lightened.

So the hungry ghosts of the Paradatta Upajjivi Bretta were relatives of King Bimbisara,

And had waited for the merit from him for a long time.

They had been destitute,

Thirsty and hungry for a long time,

Ever since a past era of a Buddha.

So King Bimbisara in this life had offered Veluvana Park to the Sama Sambuddha and the Maha Sangha,

But didn't dedicate merit to all his relatives.

All those relatives had suffered for a long time,

Had been waiting a long time for the span of one Buddha to the next Buddha,

From way back of a past era of a Buddha.

In this Buddha's era,

They still hadn't received the merit,

So they made sounds of wailing,

Meaning they wanted merit.

So what's to do here?

King Bimbisara had got advice from the Buddha,

And offered robes,

Lower and upper robes,

To the Sangha,

And dedicated this merit to the hungry ghosts who were his relatives.

And there was an amazing occurrence,

Where divine clothing and bedding could appear in that realm instantly.

The hungry ghosts were free from their starving and destitute state at once.

So offering a set of triple robes,

And dedicating it to our relatives who have passed away,

Or to those who have no relatives who can receive it,

Are able to lift up their state and realm higher.

And King Bimbisara had the good results from giving dana,

And dedicating it to his relatives,

Gaining more confidence in giving dana.

Here he had faith and offered dana for seven more days.

The Sammasambuddha gave his anumodana,

That making merit to dedicate it to those hungry ghosts is giving the highest respects to them.

It is sending the fruits of merit to one who has died.

So whether it is our relatives in the blissful realms,

Or in the realms of suffering,

They all want merit.

It is similar to humans in this world who want money and wealth for their livelihood.

But in another world,

They want merit.

So we have done this,

And accumulated merit in this regard.

Our building of merit then promotes and brings us to meet with true happiness in life.

And there is another story of Lompoc Charan of Wat Amphawan,

Who wrote down an incident that happened.

In the past they were going to extend the kitchen of the monastery,

So he bought one house and was three thousand baht short.

No one wanted to buy this house for sale.

When he walked in the house,

The house could shake and wobble.

There were sounds,

Kop kap kop kap,

And this was having gone in the daytime.

This was considered to be strongly cursed to that extent.

He said out loud,

All right,

I'm going to buy this house.

Whoever lives here can come to live with me in Wat Amphawan.

Lompoc Charan said for them to stay in the monastery and practice kamatthana bhavana,

Developing meditation.

So it was agreed.

Lompoc Charan didn't know much about the history of this house,

But he knew there was something not normal.

He had goosebumps,

Even though he wasn't scared of ghosts or anything.

Later on they extended and did up the kitchen nicely.

And here it was natural that villagers helped the monastery to do this.

When they had finished helping,

There was some shrimp paste,

Some fish sauce,

Some salt,

And so they helped themselves to take home a bit.

The hungry ghost there was disturbed and entered the dreams of the villagers and haunted them.

You make merit in the monastery,

Then take the shrimp paste and fish sauce back without permission.

Don't do that.

Or when you die,

You'll be a hungry ghost like me.

I'm a hungry ghost in the monastery.

The villagers were shocked by this,

And after that there was no one who would even take a little bit of things back home.

And later this hungry ghost received merit,

Sat meditation continuously.

She said her name was Ka Long.

Sometimes relatives of Ka Long died and she would come to take leave of Long Po Jaran or Wat Ampa Wan in order to help them out with their event.

He said it's strange that the ghost in the monastery comes to take leave of me to go help with their event.

He asked,

What is the event of a ghost like?

Miss Ka Long had a younger relative who had recently fell into the water and died.

So she had to go help with that event.

So this happens as well in regards to spirits.

There was Long Po Si who said before that once while he walked meditation and there were spirits who clutched on to his legs and so he had to walk together with them like that.

So it can be like this as well.

So when the spirit in the monastery chanted and meditated,

They raised up their level from a hungry ghost to be higher until being a Deva.

And it would tell the villagers who helped in the kitchen,

Don't just only do the kitchen.

By making food you get one merit,

But why not chant and meditate?

Why not listen to Dhamma as well?

Then it's a lot of merit.

So the hungry ghost Ka Long helped Long Po Charan's work a lot.

So I tell this story for you to know that hungry ghost,

Spirits are real.

So on the 15th lunar day we make merit and dedicate it to our relatives,

Which could be relatives from any era long ago who haven't been reborn.

May this merit go to our relatives.

Making merit and dedicating the merit to those who have deceased,

We gain more merit too.

The ones who Anumodana get merit from rejoicing in that merit and goodness as well.

So Dana,

Sila,

Bawana is in the Noble Eightfold Path.

And we have taken the good opportunities and made merit by ourselves.

We have minds that are humans and Devas.

So we practice doing merit and goodness of all types.

We do it a lot,

Develop it a lot.

And some lay people have made merit in the Katina ceremony every year.

Every year they offer one portion of money in the Katina and have done it for many years of the Katina that have passed.

And this year the donations are gathered to build the Chedi,

The Chedia.

Specifically to build the centerpiece of the Chedi,

Which will be made exquisitely with marble,

Granite,

Gold material and crystal.

It will be approximately three meters in diameter placed in the center of the Chedi.

So we gather many small contributions taken as making merit and goodness and offer it as a homage to the Buddha.

And we don't just offer to the centerpiece,

But we intend to offer to the whole Chedi.

Some may offer to just the pillars of the Chedi and they will get results of merit from that,

But just the pillars.

If we offer to the whole Chedi,

Then we get the whole of the fruits from it.

So it is in our good intentions that we are determined to do as well.

And when we make merit from offerings in this life,

We gain the merit already.

When we make merit,

It is in our hearts.

It is our wealth.

We change the wealth that is coarse that we use in this human world and which can't be taken with us and we change it to be a refined wealth in our heart.

And we do it without being burdened.

We do it so that we have happiness,

Contentment and joy in the heart.

And we have merit and we spread the merit with goodwill to our relatives and to the devas to rejoice with us as well.

So today is the anniversary of the merit-making for departed friends and relatives.

In the northeast of Thailand,

They call it Khao Pradabdin,

Rice decorating the dirt.

When I stayed in the northeast,

I didn't really know what Khao Pradabdin was.

They said it was making merit for relatives.

And in central Thailand,

It would be similar to one Sat.

So what is Sat?

Sat is to recollect the festival that we will make merit for relatives that have passed away or for spirits that have no relatives.

We dedicate it to them as well.

We give it to all.

So this is about merit.

And in this regards,

The more we give,

The more we get.

May you build and train in goodness and meditate on Buddho,

Chanting constantly in the heart.

So our merit will be greater.

And having made merit,

Then recollect the merit every day.

Today,

What merit did I do?

Tomorrow,

What will I do?

In the past year,

What merit did I do?

So we think of merit before we sleep.

Thinking of merit and goodness,

The mind is at ease.

So what does merit arise from?

The Buddha taught us to make merit.

And in short,

It is Buddho,

Dhammo,

Sangho.

We Buddho.

We make the mind peaceful.

We develop the mind in metta bhavana,

Meditation on goodwill.

May all living beings be happy.

We have mindfulness together with sleep.

We wake and have mindfulness again.

We know the breath and make the knowing continuous.

So this is taken as our sleep is sleeping in jhana,

Mental absorption.

May you be determined to practice like this every day and not be heedless.

May you meet with happiness and growth in the Dhamma.

May you grow in blessings.