佛說報恩奉盆經(亦云報像功德經)
The Buddha Speaks the Sutra on Repaying Kindness by Offering to the Bowl
闕譯附東晉錄
Anonymous Translation, Attached to the Eastern Jin Record
聞如是：
Thus have I heard:
一時，佛在舍衛國祇樹給孤獨園。大目揵連始得六通，欲度父母報乳哺之恩，即以道眼觀視世界，見其亡母生餓鬼中，不見飲食，皮骨相連柱。目連悲哀，即鉢盛飯，往餉其母。母得鉢飯，便以左手障飯、右手摶食，食未入口化成火炭，遂不得食。
Once, the Buddha was at the Jetavana Grove in the kingdom of Shravasti. Mahamaudgalyayana had just attained the six supernormal powers and wished to save his parents and repay the kindness of their nursing and care. He gazed upon the world with his divine eye and saw his deceased mother, who had been reborn among the hungry ghosts. She could find no food or drink, and her skin clung so tightly to her bones that she looked like a bare pillar. Maudgalyayana was grief-stricken. He filled a bowl with rice and went to offer it to his mother. When she received the bowl of rice, she shielded it with her left hand and scooped up the food with her right, but before it could reach her mouth, it turned into burning coals, and she could not eat it.
目連馳還白佛，具陳如此。佛告目連：「汝母罪根深結，非汝一人力所奈何；當須眾僧威神之力，乃得解脫。吾今當說救濟之法，令一切難皆離憂苦。」
Maudgalyayana hurried back and reported everything to the Buddha. The Buddha told Maudgalyayana: "Your mother's roots of wrongdoing are deeply tangled. Your strength alone cannot free her. Only the collective spiritual power of the monastic community can bring her liberation. I will now teach a method of deliverance that will free all those in difficulty from sorrow and suffering."
佛告目連：「七月十五日，當為七世父母在厄難中者，具麨飯、五果、汲灌瓫器、香油、庭燭、床榻、臥具，盡世甘美以供養眾僧。當此之日，一切聖眾，或在山間禪定、或得四道果、或樹下經行、或得六通飛行，教化聲聞、緣覺。菩薩大人權示比丘在大眾中，皆共同心受鉢和羅。具清淨戒聖眾之道，其德汪洋，其有供養此等之眾，七世父母、五種親屬得出三塗，應時解脫衣食自然。」
The Buddha told Maudgalyayana: "On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, for the sake of parents of seven past lives who are in distress and hardship, prepare meals, the five fruits, vessels for washing and filling, fragrant oil, courtyard lamps, beds, and bedding—all the finest things in the world—to make offerings to the community of monks. On that day, all the noble ones—whether in the mountains practicing meditation, or having attained the four fruits of the path, or walking in mindfulness beneath the trees, or possessing the six spiritual powers and flying through the air, teaching hearers and solitary realizers—and great bodhisattvas who skillfully appear as monks among the assembly, all unite with one heart in accepting the offerings. The path of the noble ones who uphold pure precepts—their virtue is vast as the ocean. Those who make offerings to such an assembly will free their parents of seven past lives and their five kinds of relatives from the three lower realms. In due time they will attain liberation, and clothing and food will come naturally."
佛勅眾僧：「當為施主家七世父母，行禪定意，然後食此供。」
The Buddha instructed the monks: "Before eating this offering, you should practice meditation on behalf of the donor's family and their ancestors going back seven generations."
目連、比丘及一切眾，歡喜奉行。
Maudgalyayana, the monks, and everyone present joyfully accepted and followed these teachings.
佛說報恩奉盆經
The Buddha Speaks the Sutra on Repaying Kindness by Offering Bowls