History of the Buddhist Lent Day
At the beginning of the Buddha Time, the Buddhist Lent was not appointed, so each monk could teach the congregations throughout the year. Whenever a monk determined that he would like to teach his congregations and he was available, he went to do. Sometimes, some monks did not go out to teach anyone, but they saw some places suitable to meditate, they went to do so. The most places for them were in the forests or on the faraway hills which they had to past the country.
Because of the monks’ traveling and farmers worked in their farms in the rainy season, the monks damaged the farmers’ rice sprouts unintentionally because they misunderstood that the rice sprouts were grass. So, the farmers went to sue the Lord Buddha that the monks damaged their rice sprouts, why the monks did not stay in the temples during the rainy season like birds.
To solve this problem, the Lord Buddha determined that the monks had to stay in the temples during the rainy season, from the first waning moon day of the 8th Lunar month to the 15th waxing moon day of the 11th Lunar month, called the Buddhist Lent. So, the monks have not gone anywhere to practice meditation or to teach anyone. If someone wants to listen to the sermon, he/she has to go to the temple instead of inviting the monk(s) to visit his/her place.
The monastic routines during the Buddhist Lent are as same as other days except going out of the temples, so the monks have a good chance to do many things such as meditation. Moreover, the monks can improve their teaching and have more time to study the Pali Cannon as well.
If you have a chance to visit many temples, you will see that Thai Buddhist guys prefer to be ordained during the Buddhist Lent. When they are monks and the senior monks have to stay in the temples, so the new monks and the senior monks are in the same places, the senior monks will teach what they are expert to the new monks.
What the Buddhists should do during the Buddhist Lent
During the Buddhist Lent, both senior and junior monks stay in the same places, so it is a good chance for the congregations to make merit with a lot of merit fields. Our forebears never let the monks to have the special time only, they did too. Our forebears had this special time by making a pledge to do some special things during the Buddhist Lent.
Three Dhamma Principles in Buddhism
They are
1. Stop doing bad deeds
2. Do only good deed
3. Purify his/her mind