Duong Ngoc Lang
On Sunday, August 18, 2024, the 15th day of the 7th lunar month of Giap Thin, Vu Lan Festival, many Buddhists went to temples to worship, including Dai Dang Zen Monastery in San Diego County, California.
Dai Dang Zen Monastery is located on a hill overlooking Camino Del Rey in Bonsall. The main gate, meditation hall and main hall have been completed. Hundreds of Buddhists and monks and nuns celebrate Vu Lan in the main hall. There is still the chanting ritual and a monk’s lecture on the meaning of Vu Lan.
I sat outside the main hall, the sound of chanting echoed in my ears along with the cool breeze blowing over the high hills, daydreaming about the Vu Lan seasons that had passed in my life. Since I was a child, five or six years old, I followed my parents to the temple near my house, I saw a painting of hell with demons torturing sinners with boiling oil, torture instruments and the story of Venerable Maudgalyayana asking the monks to pray together during the Vu Lan season to help his mother, Thanh De, be liberated and leave hell.
Then I grew up and left my homeland to wander to Canada and the United States, attending many Vu Lan ceremonies at temples in Calgary, San Jose, and Southern California, counting dozens of ceremonies.
When my mother was alive, I wore a red rose, and now that she has passed away, I wear a white rose. A Buddhist asked me which color flower I wanted to wear, but I shook my head. My heart was no longer attached to the rose I wore on my shirt, but was filled with longing for my mother, then thoughts of my parents, grandparents, ancestors, and deceased relatives, and endless thoughts of the underworld, where the dead who have not yet been liberated do not know where they have gone.
A few years from now I will also leave this world according to the law of birth, aging, sickness and death.
After the ceremony, the Buddhists had lunch, each person received a box of rice, stir-fried dishes, a rice cake and soup. The organizers said that they made 600 lunch boxes but it was not enough – no one knew how many people would come to the temple to celebrate Vu Lan. And the kitchen continued to cook, the organizers were Buddhists I knew from far away.
Going to the temple without eating vegetarian food feels like something is missing. Some people say it is the temple’s blessing.
I sat under the shade of the garden, looking around at the trees and leaves, slowly enjoying the temple food. Remembering the chant that the bowl of rice is kindly given by the donor, I felt the delicious taste in my mouth.
Visitors come to Truc Lam Dai Dang Zen Monastery, travel long distances, attend Vu Lan ceremony, admire the beautiful temple and natural mountain scenery.
Dai Dang Pagoda, the overseas ancestral temple of the Truc Lam Yen Tu sect, has the Buddhist Emperor Tran Nhan Tong as its first patriarch. The statue of him meditating on the side of the Zen Hall has just been completed.
A monk said that the road leading to the Camino Del Rey temple – Mexican for the king’s road, explained that the king here was Tran Nhan Tong, whose great-grandson, the monk Thich Thanh Tu, came from Vietnam to America and chose this location to establish the Dai Dang Zen Monastery of the Truc Lam Yen Tu lineage. This mysterious story sounds interesting.
Venerable Thich Dang Huy suggested that I should write a song praising the Buddhist Emperor Tran Nhan Tong. I would like to add that in the song Vietnamese Buddhism on the Road, based on the poem by Phan Tan Hai, the lyrics are taken from his saying: “Keeping the homeland, not retreating even an inch of land.”
I left Dai Dang Zen Monastery and drove hundreds of kilometers to return home. The overseas temple, besides its religious significance, is also a community center, a place where Buddhists gather during traditional festivals of their homeland.
Vu Lan Festival 2024 still lingers in the soul – a gentle feeling, nostalgic memories. Everyone has a mother to remember every Vu Lan season.