Kaṭhina Celebration in IBC, 2021

Reported by Ven. Zhen Yuan
On 30-10-2022, after three months of intensive practice during the rainy session, the International Buddhist College celebrated the Kaṭhina Celebration to help preserve spiritual cultivation and becoming enlightened like the Enlightened One.
According to the Chinese Buddhist traditions, the reason for holding the Kaṭhina celebrations is to show our respect to the Saṅgha members who took part in the retreat. Mahā Moggallāna, one of the two chief disciples of the Buddha, is the model who gained the highest supernatural power after the Rains retreat. It is joyful to see the learned Saṅgha have such a highly respected outcome from their practice.
For Mahā Moggallāna, after attaining such distinction, the first person he remembered was his late mother. He was sad and felt grief to see his mother’s suffering in the realms of the hungry ghosts. He wanted to know, “How is my mother doing?” With the supernatural power he had now developed, after a long search, he finally found his mother.
No matter how hard Mahā Moggallāna tried to help his mother by giving her food, even though he had gained the highest supernatural power in his meditation retreat, he could not help his mother relieve her suffering. He only saw the food he offered would turn into a fire before reaching his mother’s mouth. He felt so helpless and sad and continued to search for solutions.
At last, Mahā Moggallāna visited the Awakened One and told the Lord what he had done in terms of wanting to help his poor mother, who was suffering in the hungry ghost realms. Then, the Awakened One explained to Mahā Moggallāna that with his power, he might not be able to do it unless he invites the Saṅgha to gather together to dedicate merits to his mother, then it might be possible.
After hearing this Mahā Moggallāna invited many Saṅgha members to come together to do the chanting and offering, dedicating merits to his mother. Mahā Moggallāna was so pleased and happy with this act of helping his mother. After the Dhamma assembly, Mahā Moggallāna’s mother finally got reborn in a blissful land.
Moreover, after this auspicious Dhamma assembly ended, he asked the Awakened One what we can do to help in the future?
The Awakened One said: It is a good question, Mahā Moggallāna! In the future, in the lunar calendar on July full moon day, this same auspicious Dhamma can be held annually to dedicate merits to our ancestors, and to sentient beings in the ghost realms, to help them get a blissful rebirth.
After hearing this Mahā Moggallāna was very happy and after respecting the Awakened One, he left.
According to the teaching of the Awakened One, observing the celebration of Kaṭhina means paying gratitude to one’s teachers or elders out of respect.
The aim is to encourage Saṅgha members to be more energetic and learned in their practice, in order to help reach the goal of enlightenment. The outcome is to attain ultimate happiness.