Quotes:Ullambana

H. P. Blavatsky

Ullambana. The festival of “all souls”, the prototype of All Souls’ Day in Christian lands. It is held in China on the seventh moon annually, when both “ Buddhist and Tauist priests read masses, to release the souls of those who died on land or sea from purgatory, scatter rice to feed Prêtas [ classes of demons ever hungry and thirsty] , consecrate domestic ancestral shrines, . . . . recite Tantras . . . accompanied by magic finger‐play (mûdra) to comfort the ancestral spirits of seven generations in Nâraka” (a kind of purgatory or Kama Loka) The author of the Sanskrit‐Chinese Dictionary thinks that this is the old Tibetan (Bhon) “ Gtorma ritual engrafted upon Confucian ancestral worship,” owing to Dhamaraksha translating the Ullambana Sûtra and introducing it into China. The said Sûtra is certainly a forgery, as it gives these rites on the authority of Sâkyamuni Buddha, and “ supports it by the alleged experiences of his principal disciples, Ânanda being said to have appeased Prêtas by food offerings ”. But as correctly stated by Mr. Eitel, “the whole theory, with the ideas of intercessory prayers, priestly litanies and requiems, and ancestral worship, is entirely foreign to ancient and Southern Buddhism ”. And to the Northern too, if we except the sects of Bhootan and Sikkim, of the Bhon or Dugpa persuasion — the red caps, in short. As the ceremonies of All Saints’ Day, or days, are known to have been introduced into China in the third century (265‐292), and as the same Roman Catholic ceremonial and ritual for the dead, held on November 2nd, did not exist in those early days of Christianity, it cannot be the Chinese who borrowed this religious custom from the Latins, but rather the latter who imitated the Mongolians and Chinese.

Source: H. P. Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary, art. Ullambana