Friday, May 7, 2010

Liberating Spirits and Ghosts Pt2

Well, this is the extract from Ven. Master Hsuan Hua's book of compilation on Q&As with his disciples ("Insights: Q&A for Every Day, exhortation and encouragement from a Buddhist Master". The answer should wake up those who think sudden death is really better than having to suffer for sometime.

Question: Is sudden death like a cow having its skin peeled while alive? Is it just as painful for someone who is shot to death, for instance? (I think he/she meant "shot to death suddenly" and someone is relaying the question to Master Hua)

Answer: The pain suffered from accidental death, such as being shot to death, is even more unbearable. The victim may not know it at that instant, but he will know it afterwards. He will undergo the same pain at the same time every day. Go and tell him that he should avoid trying to get the better end of the bargain all the time and think that there's not much pain to dying that way. That kind of pain lasts much longer than natural death.

I am not sure what does "...suffering the same pain the same time every day" means. I have seen an episode in the Twilight Zone" many years ago, which showed a convict having to relive his suffering all over again when he wakes up. He just knew whatwill happen next because he had lived it repeatedly many times. Ohhhh...this indeed is like hell!

How painful it must be for the pregnant lady who died in the car crash, and the boy who had knocked into them, and the 70 year old man and the 30-something man who had been knocked down on his motorbike, and Brendon Yeoh, Jason Ch'ng and the other Chung Ling boys who had died not too far away from the coast off Jelutong highway... and other victims who had died there. In fact, there are reports of people hearing boys crying at night from the place the Chung Ling boys had died. Someone it is difficult to believe that someone you know had not been reborn into a better place because of all the chanting done by monks and lamas and priests. But the reality is that the rebirth does not always happen as per our expectation no matter how many hundreds of monks had chanted at the funeral service. You want to know the answer? Well, it's actually not the quantity or whether the person is an expert in pujas but rather the quality of the person doing the chanting and the funeral service.

If you get one monk or even a layperson with good way-virtue and skill in the dharma, that will be enough for a happy rebirth. However, if the dead person's karma is no good, he will not be able to meet with such a master upon his/her death. Even if the person's chanting is no good or he is not an expert in death rituals, just by his very presence and blessings near your death bed will do a lot of good for you. This is serious and not speculating. Hence, we need a good dharma master to liberate the suffering "soul" who had died at or near Jelutong Highway.

Yes, I said "liberate". Perhaps "pacify and liberate" but not "catch and punish" those spirits. I know many Taoist priest would normally employ the help of wratchful spirits and gods (perhaps Kings of Ghosts too) to catch these spirits and when faced with these more powerful spirits and gods, I'm not sure what they are going to do with them, but usually these former accident victims might be taken away to be "punished". As a result, they will be even more miserable. So if you engage tantric lamas to pacify these spirits, please make sure you don't scare them unnecessarily with those wrathful spirits from Tibet that our local spirits have never seen before. You only need to persuade these spirits, if possible using peaceful means and peaceful pujas, with the ultimate aim of sending them off to Buddha's Pure Land or to a happier realm (either as a god or reborn back as human).
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P/s: Some comments have been deleted because it has links to "sexually suggestive" sites, whether intentionally or not. Sorry.

2 comments:

Winshoo said...

Interesting blog! Btw, do you go to DRBA temples often in Kuala Lumpur?

Mahabodhiyana said...

Yes, I go to one of the branches sometimes.