2025 Ban Foo Monastery Ullambana Offering & Sutra Recitation Puja for the Benefit of the Living and the Departed

💫 Date : 06/09/2025, Saturday
💫 Venue : an Foo Agricultural Cultural & Education Centre (Ulu Tiram, Johor)
💫 Puja Schedule:
🪔 8:00–9:30am — Respectful recitation of the Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva's Fundamental Vows Sutra (Volumes I & II)
🪔 10:00–11:30am — Recitation of Volume III, Grand Offering before the Buddha, Blessing & Memorial Dedications
🪔 11:40am–12:00pm — Sangha Offering
🪔 12:00–1:30pm — Lunch Dana (Vegetarian Meal)

💫 Ullambana Festival · Buddha’s Joyful Day
The 15th day of the 7th lunar month marks the end of the monastic summer retreat. On this day, as the Sangha concludes their three-month intensive cultivation, the Buddha rejoices, making it known as Buddha’s Joyful Day. The Ullambana Festival originates from the Ullambana Sūtra, where the Buddha’s disciple, Venerable Maudgalyāyana, seeks to save his mother who had fallen into the realm of hungry ghosts. Following the Buddha’s instructions, he made offerings to the Sangha on this very day. With the meritorious power of Sangha offering, his mother was liberated from suffering. This story has since become a symbolic expression of filial piety and gratitude.

💫 Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva & the Kṣitigarbha Sutra
🌸 Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva is one of the four great Bodhisattvas in Mahāyāna Buddhism. Due to his great vow—“Not to attain Buddhahood until all hells are emptied; not to realize Bodhi until all beings are liberated”—he is also honored as the Great Vow Kṣitigarbha King Bodhisattva.
🌸 The Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva’s Fundamental Vows Sutra, commonly known as the Kṣitigarbha Sutra, is a major Mahāyāna scripture consisting of three volumes and thirteen chapters. It expounds the Bodhisattva’s great vows and compassionate activities to save sentient beings, serving as a model for Buddhist practitioners.
🌸 The Sutra states: “If one, for the sake of their parents or relatives, performs offerings and sincerely recites this Sutra after their passing, both the living and the deceased shall receive great benefit.” Therefore, the Ullambana Festival is a precious opportunity to accumulate merit and repay our parents and ancestors.

💫 Significance of the Puja:
On September 6 (Saturday), the actual Ullambana Festival day, Ban Foo Monastery will hold the Ullambana Sangha Offering & Sutra Recitation Puja, led by the Sangha in full recitation of the Kṣitigarbha Sutra (all three volumes), dedicating the merits to benefit both the living and the departed.
🌸 Special Sangha Offering Segment — participants may offer directly to the monastics, cultivating immense merit.
🌸 Grand Offering before the Buddha — Devotees collectively make offerings to the Triple Gem, seeking blessings and performing memorial dedications for loved ones. Merits are empowered through the puja and blessings from the Sangha.
🌸 Great Burning Offering — offerings to the ten-direction deities and land spirits to strengthen their protective power over the Dharma, the Sangha, and all sentient beings. This ritual also serves as a great act of generosity to karmic creditors and wandering spirits, aiming to dissolve resentment, remove obstacles, and avert disasters.
🌸 Merit Dedication: “May all donors and families be blessed with peace, good health, wisdom, and smooth progress in the Dharma practice leading swiftly to Enlightenment. May the departed attain rebirth in pure lands, receive the Dharma teachings, and realize Buddhahood.”

🔹 Online donations Deadline: Wednesday, September 3, 2025, at 9:00 PM
🔹Ban Foo Monastery reserves the right to finalize dedications if names do not conform to submission guidelines.
🔹Remaining funds from offerings will be channeled towards Ban Foo Monastery’s construction and Dharma propagation. May all merits grow boundlessly.