Buddhist Purification Days And Months 佛教斋日与月

The Six Purification Days (六斋日) are every lunar month’s 8th, 14th, 15th, 23rd, 29th and 30th days (or 28th day for minor months [小月] without the 30th day in major months [大月]). There are also the Three Purification Months (三斋月), which are the 1st, 5th and 9th lunar months.

For the more diligent, the (extended) Ten Purification Days (十斋日) are every lunar month’s 1st, 8th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 23rd, 24th, 28th, 29th and 30th day (or 27th day for minor months without the 30th day).

On these ‘days’, for one day and night (一日一夜), there are practices of eating as veg(etari)ans (吃素), also observing the Eight Precepts (八戒) of abstaining from (i) killing lives (不杀生), (ii) stealing (不偷盗), (iii) sexual conduct (不淫), (iv) false speech (不妄语), (v) drinking alcohol (i.e. consuming intoxicants) (不饮酒),

(vi) wearing perfumes, flowers and garlands, applying fragrant oils on the body (不着香花鬘，不香油涂身), (vii) sitting and lying on high, broad and big (seats and) beds (不坐卧高广大床), singing, dancing, having entertainment, going to see or hear such (不歌舞倡伎，不往观听), and (viii) untimely eating (不非时食) after noon.

On the first (8th) and fourth (23rd) of the Six Purification Days, the Heavenly Emperor Śakra (天帝释) will order the Four Great Heavenly Kings (四大天王) to survey their four cardinal directions’ (i.e. East, South, West and East) four great continents (四大州), who will then send their ministers to observe humans’ good and evil done.

On the second (14th) and fifth (29th of major months or 28th of minor months) of the Six Purification Days, the Four Great Heavenly Kings will send their Princes to travel to their continents to observe humans’ good and evil done.

On the third (15th) and sixth (30th of major months or 29th of minor months) of the Six Purification Days, the Four Great Heavenly Kings will personally travel to their continents to observe (and record) humans’ good and evil done, (with them and other gods rejoicing for good done, bestowing blessings; worried and sad for evil done, descending with the inauspicious to admonish).

In the Three Purification Months, (1st, 5th and 9th), the Heavenly Emperor Śakra, with his great treasure mirror (大宝镜), will reflect upon the Southern Jambudvīpa Continent (南赡部洲), which is this part of the Sahā World (娑婆世界), to observe humans’ good and evil done. The Northern Vaiśravaṇa Heavenly King (北方毗沙门天王) will also patrol all four continents to do likewise.

(Whether the gods will definitely ‘reward the good and punish the evil’ or not, directly or indirectly, their observation reflects the truth that with all our good and evil karmas created and not created, everything is consequential.)

The Buddha used the above practices of the gods concerned about our moral welfare as a skilful means to further urge us to practise avoiding of evil and doing of good more diligently on these days and in these months, with the Eight Precepts, on top of existing (Five Precepts and/or Bodhisattva) Precepts (菩萨戒) already upheld every day.

Ideally, this periodical and extended breaking of bad living habits will lead to overflowing of bettered habits beyond these purification days and months, thus furthering our spiritual purification.

相关教理
Related Teachings:

三皈五戒
Threefold Refuge And Five Precepts
https://purelanders.com/2025/03/04/rites-for-threefold-refuge-and-five-precepts

《十善业道经》
Sūtra Of Ten Good Karmas’ Path
https://purelanders.com/shishan

八关斋戒
Eightfold Retreat’s Purification Precepts
https://purelanders.com/2018/06/29/eight-precepts-ceremony

《梵网经菩萨戒本》
Brahma Net Sūtra’s Bodhisattva Precepts’ Text
https://purelanders.com/pusa

《梵网经卢舍那佛说菩萨十重四十八轻戒》:
[2] Brahma Net Sūtra’s Rocana Buddha’s Spoken Bodhisattvas’ Ten Heavy And Forty-Eight Light Precepts:
十重波罗提木叉：十重禁戒
Ten Heavy Prātimokṣas: Ten Heavy Prohibitive Precepts
https://purelanders.com/2024/06/28/brahma-net-sutra-bodhisattva-precepts-text-ten-heavy-pratimok%e1%b9%a3a-precepts-ten-heavy-prohibitive-precepts