The Uposatha is the Buddhist sabbath day, in
existence from the Buddha's time (500 BC), and still being kept today in Theravada Buddhists
countries.[1] The Buddha taught that the Uposatha day is
for "the cleansing of the defiled mind," resulting in inner calm and joy.[2] On this day, disciples and monks
intensify their practice, deepen their knowledge and express communal commitment through millennia-old acts of lay-monastic
reciprocity.
In general, Uposatha is observed about once a week[3] in
accordance with the four phases of the moon: the new moon,
the full moon, and the two quarter moons in between.[4] In some communities, only the new moon and full moon are observed as uposatha
days.[5] For a calendar of uposatha days, see John
Bullitt's "Calendar of Uposatha Days."
History
The word "uposatha" is derived from the Sanskrit word "upavasatha," which refers to the
pre-Buddhistic fast day that preceded Vedic sacrifices.[6][7]
In the Buddha's time, some ascetics used the new and full moon as opportunities to present their teachings. The Uposatha Day
was instituted by the Buddha at the request of King Bimbisara, and the Buddha instructed the monks to give teachings to the laypeople on this day, and told the
monks to recite the Patimokkha every second Uposatha day.[8]
Practice
Lay practice
On each uposatha day, lay people practice the Eight Precepts.[9][10]
For lay practitioners who live near a monastery, the uposatha is an opportunity for them to
visit a local monastery, make offerings, listen to Dhamma talks by monks and participate in
meditation sessions.
For lay practitioners unable to participate in the events of a local monastery, the uposatha is a time to intensify ones own
meditation and Dhamma practice,[11] for instance,
meditating an extra session or for a longer time,[12]
reading or chanting special suttas,[13] recollecting[14] or giving in some special way.[15]
Monastic practice
On the new-moon and full-moon uposatha, in monasteries where there are four or more bhikkhus,[16] the local Sangha will
recite the Patimokkha. Before the recitation starts, the monks will confess any violations of
the disciplinary rules to another monk or to the Sangha.[17] Depending on the speed of the Patimokkha chanter (one of the monks), the
recitation may take from 30 minutes to over an hour. Depending on the monastery, lay people may or may not be allowed to attend.
[18]
Communal reciprocity
Describing his experience of Uposatha day in Thailand, Khantipalo (1982a) writes:
- "Early in the morning lay people give almsfood to the bhikkhus who may be walking on almsround, invited to a layman's house,
or the lay people may take the food to the monastery. Usually lay people do not eat before serving their food to the bhikkhus and
they may eat only once that day.... Before the meal the laity request the Eight Precepts [from the bhikkhus] ..., which they
promise to undertake for a day and night. It is usual for lay people to go to the local monastery and to spend all day and night
there.... [In monasteries where] there is more study, [lay people] will hear as many as three or four discourses on Dhamma
delivered by senior bhikkhus and they will have books to read and perhaps classes on Abhidhamma to attend.... In a meditation
monastery ..., most of their time will be spent mindfully employed — walking and seated meditation with some time given to
helping the bhikkhus with their daily duties. So the whole of this day and night (and enthusiastic lay people restrict their
sleep) is given over to Dhamma...."
Special uposatha days
There are five full-moon uposatha days of special significance:[19]
- Visakah Puja[20] or Vesak ("Buddha Day"):
- the most sacred Buddhist holiday, anniversary of the Buddha's birth, awakening and parinibbana.[21]
- anniversary of the Buddha's delivering his first discourse, "Dhammacakka
Sutta." The three-month-long Rains Retreat residence starts the following day.
- the end of the Rains Retreat residence during which time each monk atones before the Sangha for any offense they may have
committed.[24]
- anniversary of the Buddha's delivering the "Anapanasati Sutta."[26]
- Magha Puja[27] ("Sangha Day"):
- anniversary of the assembling of 1250 monks in the Buddha's presence during which time he delivered the "Ovada-Patimokkha
Gatha."[28]
See also
References
- Buddhadatta Mahathera, A.P. (2002). Concise Pali-English Dictionary. Delhi:Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN
81-208-0605-0.
- Nyanaponika Thera and Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.
and ed.) (1999). Numerical Discourses of the Buddha: An Anthology of Suttas from the Anguttara Nikaya. Walnut Creek, CA:
Altamira Press. ISBN 0-7425-0405-0.
Notes
- ^ For examples of published Pali-English dictionaries that define "Uposatha"
as "Sabbath," see Buddhadatta (2002), p. 63, and, PTS (1921-25), p. 151. For an example of the Uposatha being equated with the
Sabbath by a modern Buddhist master, see Mahasi (undated), p. 2, where he writes: "For lay people, these rules [of
discipline] comprise the eight precepts which Buddhist devotees observe on the Sabbath
days (uposatha) and during periods of meditation." For a description of the contemporary practice of the Uposatha in Thailand,
see Khantipalo (1982a), which is also excerpted in this article below.
- ^ Thanissaro (1997b); Anguttara Nikaya 3.70: Muluposatha Sutta.
- ^ As indicated further below, each lunar month has eight days after two
uposatha days (after the new moon and after the full moon) and then either six or seven days after the other two uposatha days
(after the quarter moons). Thus, in relation to the Gregorian calendar's seven-day
week, sometimes there are two uposatha days that week (such as occurred the week of August 17, 2006, when uposatha days fell on
August 17 and August 23, 2006) and sometimes there are none (such as occurred the week of January 15, 2006, which fell between
uposatha days on January 14 and January 22, 2006). Nonetheless, there are four uposatha days a month and the average solar
month's week has one uposatha day.
- ^ More specifically, using a Buddhist
lunar calendar, Uposatha is observed on the following four days of the lunar month (PTS, 1921-25, pp. 151-2):
- first (new moon)
- eighth (first quarter or waxing moon)
- fifteenth (full moon)
- twenty-third (last quarter or waning moon)
According to PTS (1921-25), pp. 16, 152, the lunar month's eighth day (that is, the eighth day after the new moon) and
twenty-third day (which is the eighth day after the full moon) are called in Pali atthama, which literally means the
"eighth," that is, the eighth day of the lunar half-month.
- ^ Nyanaponika & Bodhi (1999), pp. 24, 307 n. 26. Nyanaponika &
Bodhi refer to the quarter-moon days as "semi-Uposatha."
- ^ Khantipalo (1982a); Ñanavara (1993), question #1[1]; and,
PTS (1921-25), p. 151.
- ^ Khantipalo (1982a) also translates "uposatha" as literally meaning
"entering [a monastery] to stay" but no other source supports this.
- ^ Rhys Davids & Oldenberg (1881), pp. 240-41. Also see Khantipalo (1982a)
and PTS (1921-25), p. 152.
- ^ See, for instance, Khantipalo (1982b), Ñanavara & Kantasilo (1993) and
Thanissaro (1997b).
- ^ Perhaps echoing the Buddha's teaching that laypeople should "imitate"
arahants on Uposatha days (see, for instance, "The Uposatha Observance Discourse" in Nyanaponika & Bodhi, 1999, pp. 216-18
or, using comparable wording, in Nanavara & Khantasilo, 1993), Nyanaponika & Bodhi (1999), p. 307, n. 26, mention:
"... The Eight Precepts are modelled after the Ten Precepts observed by
novice monks, except that the seventh and eighth precepts for the novices are combined, the
ninth novice precept becomes the eighth, and the tenth novice precept (non-acceptance of gold and silver, use of money) is
excluded as being impracticable for a lay person."
- ^ Bullitt (2005); and, Khantipalo (1982a).
- ^ Khantipalo (1982a).
- ^ Khantipalo (1982a), for instance, suggests reading one of the following:
- Visakhuposatha Sutta ("Discourse to Visakha on the Uposatha with the Eight Practices," AN 8.43) (Khantipalo, 1982b).
- Karaniya-metta Sutta ("Discourse on Loving-kindness," Sn 1.8) (Piyadassi, 1999a).
- Maha-mangala Sutta ("Discourse on Blessings," Sn 2.4) (Narada, 1985).
- Ratana Sutta ("Jewel Discourse," Sn 2.1) (Piyadassi, 1999b).
- Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta ("Discourse on Setting the Wheel of Dhamma
in Motion," SN 56.11) (Thanissaro, 1993).
- ^ See, for instance, the "Muluposatha Sutta" (AN 3.70) (Thanissaro, 1997b)
regarding Uposatha-specific recollections and Thanissaro (1999) for the general Buddhist practice of recollections. In the
Muluposatha Sutta, the Buddha recommends practicing recollection of the Three Jewels as
well as of ones own virtue (sila) and of the wholesome qualities that leads to rebirth
as a deva. In this sutta, if one spends the Uposatha engaged in such a recollection,
then that Uposatha acquires the name of the recollection, such as Dhamma-Uposatha or virtue-Uposatha.
- ^ Khantipalo (1982a).
- ^ Rhys Davids & Oldenberg (1881), p. 281.
- ^ See, for instance, Buddhadatta (2002), p. 63, and Bullitt (2005).
- ^ Khantipalo (1982a).
- ^ Bullitt (2005). Bullitt orders these special uposatha days in accordance
with the Gregorian calendar, where Magha Puja thus starts the calendar year. However, in accordance with Thai lunar calendars,
Visakah Puja is the first special uposatha day of the year. The lunar calendar ordering of these days is maintained in this
article for primarily two reasons: Visakah Puja is the most important of the uposatha festivals; and, ordering these uposatha
days in this manner (Visakah Puja [Buddha Day], Asalha Puja [Dhamma Day], Magha Puja [Sangha Day]) celebrates the
Triple Gem (Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha) in the order in which it is traditionally
enumerated.
- ^ "Vesākha" (Pali) is the second month of
the Buddhist lunar year, usually occurring in the Gregorian calendar's February. Puja
means "veneration" or "offering." (Pali month names are from PTS (1921-25) entry for "māsa" (moon, month) (p. 531)).
- ^ For Mahayana Buddhists, the celebration of the Buddha's birthday is independent of recognitions of his awakening and parinibbana and is celebrated on
the waxing moon of the fourth Chinese lunar month.
- ^ "Āsālha" (Pali) is the fourth lunar
month, usually around July.
- ^ Pavarana Day is in the seventh lunar month of Assayuja (Pali), usually in October.
- ^ Rhys Davids & Oldenberg (1881), pp. 329-30.
- ^ Anapanasati Day is the eighth lunar month of Kattika (Pali), usually in
November.
- ^ The Anapanasati Sutta ("Mindfulness of Breathing Discourse,"
MN 118) (Thanissaro, 2006) opens on Pavarana Day in the town of Savatthi where the
Buddha declares to an assembly of monks that he is so happy with the assembly's practice that he would stay in Savatthi another
lunar month. After that month passes, the Buddha delivers the core instructions of the Anapanasati Sutta, instructions which have
guided lay people and monastics to higher achievement for millenia. Thus, given this canonical chronology, Anapanasati Day is
celebrated a lunar month after Pavarana Day.
- ^ "Māgha" (Pali) is the eleventh lunar
month, usually around February.
- ^ The three-line Ovada-Patimokkha Gatha (Pali: "Patimokkha Exhortation
Verse") (translated in Dhammayut Order in the United States of America, 1994) includes the Buddha's famous dictum: "Not doing any
evil, doing what is skillful, purifying one's own mind, this is the Buddha's teaching." This verse is familiar to many Westerners
because it is rehashed in the widely popular Dhammapada, chapter XIV, verses 183-85 (Thanissaro,
1997a).
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