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Compassion and Mong Son Tea in the Offering Ceremony
*After the Sutra on Happiness and the Heart Sutra, we enter the offering ritual of food called the Little Mengshan Ceremony—different from the Great Mengshan Ceremony in larger memorial services—with two practices created by Zen Master Budong on Mount Mengshan (Sichuan) during the Song Dynasty. Mengshan tea, picked by monkeys, is famous for its fragrance and taste, offered to the king, symbolizing “purity and clarity” as in the verse:
The water from the heart of the Yangtze River, the tea from the summit of Mengshan.
*The offering is directed toward hungry spirits—those wandering souls without refuge, and also the “living hungry spirits” of the 20th and 21st centuries, young people who do not recognize themselves as belonging to a blood or spiritual family, who feel deeply lonely. The seed of the hungry spirit can arise within ourselves, making us want to leave our Sangha; therefore, we need mindfulness, bringing love and patience to “open the throat” (Khai yết hầu) so that they may receive the Dharma nectar.
*The ceremony begins with “Homage to the Buddha and Bodhisattvas in the Avatamsaka Assembly,” based on the teaching of interdependent origination. Next:
- The mantra for opening the throat to restore the capacity to receive love and understanding.
- Recitation of the Three Jewels, the Avatamsaka Dharma, and the names of King Face of Flame, Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, and Ananda.
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Repentance of body, speech, and mind, and the invocation of the Four Great Vows:
- Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them all
- Afflictions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them all
- Dharma doors are boundless, I vow to master them all
- The Buddha Way is unsurpassable, I vow to attain it
With a stable mind and patient compassion, the hungry spirits—suffering like “big bellies, small throats”—are guided, breaking free from the hell created by their own minds, turning toward the Pure Land of peace and joy.
Part of the following collection
The Ever-Present Three Jewels and Kṣitigarbha, the Radiant Earth Store – The Bell that Connects Heaven and Hell