As today is the actual day of the starting of the Qing Ming Festival, my family was paying respects with the usual offerings and burning of joss paper. Then i suddenly realized that, Buddhists believe in reincarnation. What if those buddhists who passed away, had reincarnated, moved on? Why do we still pay them respects? Doesn't this mean that we still hope that they have not reincarnated, and is till staying in whatever dimensions in their present form? .... Or are we paying respects to them, even if they have reincarnated? ... I think we should just pray that they do better in their present lives.. maybe our current method will invite them back into our lives again, so as to protect us? .....
I hope no one is offended by my opinion over here... :6 Please correct my facts if I am wrong. Thank you.
3 comments:
The ritual of paying respects for those who've passed on in the eyes of Buddhism is to remind oneself of our roots. It has the same function as paying respects to Buddha - we are essentially not asking for protection / blessings, etc. We pay respects to his image to remind us of his teachings and philosophies in life. So what goes through your mind as you pay respects?
phakdii
hmm...let us put it this way. In Buddhism, it is cmmonly believed in two things, that the dead would seek and attain enlightenment to be one of the Buddhas. If they are unable to do so, they would return to the mortal world to repay their sins once more and continue their search for Enlightment.
Qing Ming I would say is more of a Daoist practicse. However, over the years, due to close proximity of these two religions, many of the Daoist and Buddhist rituals have congglomerated into one whole. So it is kind of linked together. That is why in both Daosim and Buddhism we have recarnation and the existence of the Lord Dizhang.
Let us put it this way, perhaps,the practise of Qing Ming works in a way such that, we pray that out ancestors can have a better life in the otherworld when they die and have not yet been reincarnated. And if they have been reincaranted, that we are praying for them to have a better life ahead. Which means to say that, while we are praying that our reincarnated ancestors are having a better life, someone else, somewhere out in this world is doing the same for us. Now that is something to ponder about.
Recently, when i pay my respects to them, it's to ask them to pass on if they're still hanging around in the mortal world.. I thought that they would not be able to hear me if they had passed on...
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