The Great Buddhist Ceremony for the Spirit
of the Dead Superintended by Buddha
The Buddhist Ceremony for the Spirit of the Dead
Is the Topmost Filial Piety
The Buddhist ceremony for the spirit of the dead
is the topmost filial piety to deliver the spirits of the parents
and ancestors who are under great affliction in hell
and in the realm of animals.
Hyeonjisa Temple of the Vulture Peak Buddhism,
the Holy Precinct of Buddha
The Posthumous World of the Vulture Peak Buddhism:
the Realms of Transmigration and Enlightenment
the former life (the substance of soul)
birth (present life): human
death (the posthumous life): to whither?
unable to enter bypass the Hades
the Hades
the realm the realm of
between enlightenment
heaven (Buddha &
& Bodhisattva)
hell
(the wandering
lonely spirit
of the dead)
the ceremony
for the dead
the nether world (Hades)
〈the realm of transmigration〉 〈the realm of enlightenment〉 the realm
heaven: Arhat (6-27 stages) the heaven of Arhat of nirvana
the realm of desire (1-5 stages)
desire 6
(1-54 stages)
Arhat
the utmost bliss
of pure land
〈the triple way (27 stages)
of good the pure land the pure land
conduct〉 asura of of
Tushita heaven Bodhisattva
human
the pure land the pure land of heavenly Healing
angels Buddha
(27 stages)
the pure land
of
ceremony Bodhisattva
for the
spirit
of
the dead
the realm
of
ultimate
reality
(the realm
of lotus
treasury)
Buddha
〈the triple way
of
evil conduct animals
hungry ghost
hell (5 stages)
*the ceremony for the spirit
of the deceased
(an example) in the realm
of the intermediate state
of the dead spirit
between heaven and hell →
the intermediate hell →
the bottommost hell →
standing by hell → heaven (54 stages)
The Buddhist Ceremony for the Spirit of the Dead
Is the Topmost Filial Piety
If we summarize the essence of the discourses the Buddha expounded for 45 years into five important categories, the first is the filial piety. Such was the filial duty the Buddha regarded to be so momentous and substantial.
The Buddhist ceremony for the lonely spirits of the parents and ancestors wandering in a kind of limbo between heaven and hell, who are not even allowed to enter the nether world to be tried for their karmic deeds is to deliver them to the pleasant heavenly realm where it is free of affliction. This is the reason why the ceremony for the spirit of the dead is regarded as the topmost filial piety.
The Table of Contents
The Great Master Jajae Manhyeon, Venerable Ananda, the Founder
of the Vulture Peak Buddhism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
I. The Buddhist Filial piety and the Ceremony for the Spirit
of the Dead. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
II. Whither Do We Go from Here When We Die? The Truth
of the Substance of Soul. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
III. The True Meaning and Importance of the Buddhist Ceremony
for the Spirit of the Dead. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
IV. The Current Buddhist Ceremony for the Spirit of the Dead
in the Buddhist Circle: What Is the Problem? . . . . . . . . . . .
V. The Ceremony for the Spirit of the Dead Is Superintended by
Buddha at Hyeonjisa Temple. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VI. Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Great Master Jajae Manhyeon, Venerable Ananda,
the Founder of the Vulture Peak Buddhism.
The Great Master Jajae Manhyeon, the incarnation of Venerable Ananda at the time of the Vulture Peak congregation, was born at Hampyeong, South Cheolla Province, Republic of Korea in 1937.
The Great Master renounced the lay life and became a monastic under the guidance of the Master Seokam at Seonamsa Temple in Busan City, and then attained enlightenment after practicing Hawadu or Key-word meditation for ten years at Tongdosa Temple, one of the five Great Halls of Sublime Equanimity in Korea, where Buddha's genuine sarira is enshrined instead of a Buddha image, and also where the great enlightened spiritual master Gyeongbong was abiding at that time.
And then the Master served as a permanent missionary at Jogyesa Temple in Seoul, the Head Temple of the Jogye Order and the largest Buddhist order in Korea. The Master also sought the true Way visiting great masters just as young priestling Sudhana visited 53 great enlightened masters in quest of Truth at the time of Sakyamuni Buddha.
Through the study of the Flower Garland Sutra and the Sutra of the Lotus of the Wonderful Dharma, the Great Master realized that the only way to attain the Buddhahood is to practice Buddha chanting, and changed resolutely from studying the sutras to the practitioner of Buddha chanting.
This zealous practice of life or death continued for thirty years, and then finally attained the lifelong wish of attaining the Buddhahood through realization of the prediction of enlightenment discoursed in the Lotus Sutra in the year 2000.
After attaining the Buddhahood, the Great Master established Hyeonjisa Temple with the help of the Great Master Gwangmyeong Mandeok, Venerable Kasyapa, and then founded the Order of Yeongsan (Vulture Peak) Buddhism.
I. The Buddhist Filial Piety and the Ceremony
for the Spirit of the Dead
1 The Filial Piety Is the Primal Principle of Buddhism
Buddhism is the religion that regards the filial piety more earnestly than any other religion. The filial duty is the virtue that consists the substance of love of the country and neighbors. It is also the principle of Buddhism, which Buddha always championed.
The filial piety in Buddhism is beyond the concept of morality of the mundane world. It is the cosmic concept of law remunerating the favor we owe not only to the deceased parents but also to all the ancestors passed away before us, with whose cause and conditions we are here now.
Buddha himself demonstrated as a good dutiful son. For His deceased mother, who passed away three days after boring the Buddha, the World-honored went to Tushita Heaven to discours the Sutra of the Original Vow of the Earth Treasury King of Great Bodhisattva. And in the Lotus Sutra, we find the Buddha giving a prediction of enlightenment to the Lord's stepmother (the younger sister of Buddha's mother) who raised the World-honored One.
When the Buddha was renouncing the world, in compliance with the King's request, bore the King a son to succeed the Kingdom, and after attaining enlightenment, the Lord returned to the native home to lead the King Suddhodana to the Buddha-way.
The Lord also delivered through the Buddhist ritual to help the spirit of the deceased mother of the Lord's great disciple Maudgalyayana and some other mothers of His disciples who were all devout to their mothers, which eventually became a good example of the filial piety. That is not all. The Lord also discoursed the importance of the filial piety in many other sutrases.
In the Samyutta-nikaya, or the United Collection, the Lord expounds how to obey and serve the parents with great devotion in five ways. In the section of Requital of Kindness in the Sutra of the View of Mind-ground of the Mahayana Jataka, it says there are four favors to recompense in the mundane and the supra-mundane worlds.
They are the favors of the parents, the favors of King, the favors of the sentient beings, the favors of the Tri-gem, or the Holy trinity: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, which is the Buddhist way of filial ethics to repay the favors received from the parents, the country, the sentient beings, and the masters.
In the Sutra of Buddha's Discourse on the Uninterrupted Karma, the management of home economics is classified into three categories: the upper assets, the intermediate assets, and the lower assets, and then the management of assets mainly for the filial piety for the parents, the deference toward elders, compassion and the practice for others' benefit are called the upper assets and regarded as the top management, and the Sutra of the Importance of Filial Piety for the Parents and the Sutra of Maudgalyayana are entirely on the filial piety.
The Vulture Peak Buddhism regards the filial piety as the top virtue of practice, and regards the love of country, neighbors, and the difference toward elders as the concept of filial piety.
2. Filial Devotion: the Origination of the Buddhist Ceremony
for the Spirit of the Dead
The concept of the Buddhist filial piety is not emphasized only in ideology. It has a definite practical means. That is the characteristic of the Buddhist ceremony for the spirit of the dead for the deliverance of soul.
According to the Sutra of Maudgalyayana, the Buddhist ceremony for the spirit of the dead was originated by the occasion of Maudgalyayana's1 ardent entreaty to Buddha to save his mother who is being punished in hell.
Buddha was greatly moved by the great disciple's ardent entreaty to save his mother, and delivered her through four repeated rituals, from the realms of hungry ghosts and animals in hell to be reborn in the Tushita Heaven.
1One of the Buddha's ten great disciples, known as foremost in transcendental power.
Buddha especially picked the fifteenth day of the seventh moon in the lunar calender, the last day of the three month summer retreat in India, for the fourth and the last ceremonial day, and then ordered to serve the meal for the monks. This became the origin and tradition of the ceremony for the spirit of the dead, which is since then called "Woolanbunjae 盂蘭盆齋)".
On this day, that is, the fifteenth day of the seventh moon in the lunar calender, almost every household performs the ceremony at the temple for the spirits of the dead ancestors for their happiness in heaven.
3. The Basis of Doctrine for the Ceremony
for the Spirit of the Dead
Dogmatically, the Buddhist ceremony for the spirit of the dead is founded on the law of causality, but it is also based on the transmigration in the six realms of karmic existence: hell, the worlds of hungry ghosts, animals, asura, human, and heaven. However, the actual kernel is the Buddhist doctrine of deliverance.
The Buddhist ceremony for the spirit of the dead is to recompense the debt we owe for the favors we received from the parents, ancestors, and even friends with whom we had a close relationship. In other words, it has the characteristic of the cause and effect of the law of causality.
The ceremony is also established on the basis of the doctrines of transmigration in the six realms of karmic existence and the substance of soul. However, if the ceremony were to be established, we must not only acknowledge the posthumous world, but also the substance of self who is the master of one's life, and the existence of the substance of soul.
When we die, our substance of soul, which is also the noumenon, or the intrinsic nature of ourselves, we must live the life of transmigration in the six realms of hell, the hungry ghost, animals, human, asura, and heaven according to our karmic deeds in the former life.
This is what we call "the transmigration in the six realms of karmic existence." The problem is that most of us are destined to go to the three evil paths or realms of hell, hungry ghosts, and animals full of intolerable pains. This is the reason why there must be the Buddhist ceremony for the spirit of the dead. We also must bear in mind that the ceremony is possible only through Buddha's power of deliverance.
II. Whither Do We Go from Here When We Die?
The Truth of the Posthumous World.
1. Nucleus of the Transmigration of Life
Is the Substance of Soul.
Human beings are composed of physical body and four substances of soul. The four substances of soul are overlapped in the form of stairway. If we name the four substances of soul according to their form No. 1, 2, 3, and 4, the position of No. 4 substance of soul is the outskirt of the group and has the duty of linking the substance of soul with our physical body. The higher the number from No. 4 to No. 1, the higher is its quality.
The substance of soul No. 1, the first to be created among the four, is the noumenon of man. Death is not the end of man. When a man dies, the physical body expire, but the substance of soul slips out from the body and continues to live a new life. Of the four substances of soul, No. 1, 2, and 3 never dies and becomes a nucleus of life in the realms of transmigration and enlightenment.
The good and evil deeds committed during the life time will be stored in these substances of soul automatically. It is like storing the moving pictures, and all those karmas are the score sheets of the life of that substance of soul. The substance of soul always carry around this score sheet of life. Hence we can read the personality of a man when we only see his substance of soul.
Because of the evil deeds recorded in the score sheet of our life, we must live a hard life and then transmigrate in the triple path or realm of evil. Only the stage of Buddha could see all the transmigrations in the six realms of karmic existence.
This is the reason that no one after the great passing of Buddha could tell the realms of posthumous life for sure. Now the Vulture Peak Buddhism is going to reveal the truth of the posthumous world.
The following stories of the posthumous world, the substance of soul, and the Buddhist ceremony for the spirit of the dead are based on the actual experiences and teachings of the Great Master Jajae Manhyeon of Hyeonjisa Temple of the Vulture Peak Buddhism.
If anyone carelessly tell the stories of the world of stars and the lower heavenly realms as if he actually has seen by separation from his body or from the substance of soul as they are everything about the posthumous world, it is like a blind man groping the elephant and never be free from committing the great sin.
The posthumous world the sentient beings go after their death could largely be divided into two: the intermediate state of the dead spirit between heaven and hell, something like a limbo, and transmigration in the six realms of karmic existence.
Of course, the saint who is free of transmigration will go to the realm of enlightenment. The realm of the intermediate state of the dead spirit between heaven and hell is where the people who are not even allowed to enter the nether world abide undergoing all kinds of unimaginable afflictions.
