Ching Ming
I have a question. Actually its a lingering question. Its not my intention to be insensitive or to poke fun at, but rather its a question I always had but never had the chance to ask. So please forgive me if it offends you, because that is not my intention.
Not sure if some of your are aware, but every once a year, the Buddhist (I suppose most of them are because the visit the temple at Sin Ming, near where I service my baby) would make a pilgrimage of sorts to Bishan to visit their deceased relatives. The festival, commonly know as "Ching Ming" is a sort of "tomb sweeping day" where living relatives would go visit the graves or niches (because Singapore is so land scarce, the "dead" also live in high rise buildings) of their deceases relatives. They would bring all sorts of items, ranging from wax candles to joss sticks to joss paper.
In addition, some families would purchase other items like cars, clothes, handphone etc, to burn, in hopes that their relatives in hell would receive them and use them. Here's the burning question that I have. The Buddhist worldview (correct me if I am wrong) is to attain enlightment so as to escape the cycle of life and death. When a person dies, he goes to hell, where there are 18 levels. The souls there would eventually be reincarnated. If a person was a bad person, he or she would return to the world either as a man or an animal depending on the deeds the person did in his previous life. The more good things he did in his previous life, the better his lot would be in his present life. So far so good yah?
Okay here comes the perplexing part. The Buddist would want to first of all escape the cycle of life, cos they believe life itself is suffering. Secondly, if they cannot escape, they would very much like to be reincarnated to have a better lot in life. But here we have relatives who are burning whatever to their relatives, sending it to hell, hoping that they are there to receive it?? Thought they would want their relatives to either have attained enlightment or at least reincarnated into a better life! Seems weird to me, I really don't understand.
Not sure if some of your are aware, but every once a year, the Buddhist (I suppose most of them are because the visit the temple at Sin Ming, near where I service my baby) would make a pilgrimage of sorts to Bishan to visit their deceased relatives. The festival, commonly know as "Ching Ming" is a sort of "tomb sweeping day" where living relatives would go visit the graves or niches (because Singapore is so land scarce, the "dead" also live in high rise buildings) of their deceases relatives. They would bring all sorts of items, ranging from wax candles to joss sticks to joss paper.
In addition, some families would purchase other items like cars, clothes, handphone etc, to burn, in hopes that their relatives in hell would receive them and use them. Here's the burning question that I have. The Buddhist worldview (correct me if I am wrong) is to attain enlightment so as to escape the cycle of life and death. When a person dies, he goes to hell, where there are 18 levels. The souls there would eventually be reincarnated. If a person was a bad person, he or she would return to the world either as a man or an animal depending on the deeds the person did in his previous life. The more good things he did in his previous life, the better his lot would be in his present life. So far so good yah?
Okay here comes the perplexing part. The Buddist would want to first of all escape the cycle of life, cos they believe life itself is suffering. Secondly, if they cannot escape, they would very much like to be reincarnated to have a better lot in life. But here we have relatives who are burning whatever to their relatives, sending it to hell, hoping that they are there to receive it?? Thought they would want their relatives to either have attained enlightment or at least reincarnated into a better life! Seems weird to me, I really don't understand.
posted by coke at
8:42 AM
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