Ghost? Christianity vs. Buddhism (Part 3)

Ghost? A dialog among Buddhist, Catholic and Christian (Buddhist point of view as heard by the author)

-As posted in my previous updates, I attended the talk about "ghost" hosted at Sin Chew Jit Poh-

(I will try my best to recall the whole talk with the help of notes taken)

The dialog started with Venerable Hui Xuan

Ghost. In the Buddhism view, ghosts are one of the sentient beings in the Preta Realm. We treat all sentient beings with compassion, especially those who fell into the three lower realm. Rather than exorcising them, as a Buddhist, we try to spread the gospel of Buddha to them, guiding them to the path of enlightenment. By preaching to ghost, with a compassionate heart, we are able to help them to lighten their suffering and encourage them to leave their current state to be reborn to a higher realm.

Thus, we should not discriminate ghost for they are just like us. Due to their sins and bad karma, they are reborn into the lower realm.

However, in most cases, your encounter what you think. Everything is from your preception and thinking. With evil thoughts and cultivation, we attract evil spirits. We shall practice the noble path (修行) in order to avoid interference from the evil spirits.

After Venerable Hui Xuan, Father Huang DaHua continued, follwed by Pastor Enoch Lam and then Venerable Chang Hui
(Christian and Catholic point of view will be posted in the next post)

Venerable Chang Hui expressed that she felt pressured after a very interesting yet informative speech given by Pastor Enoch Lam. She added on to the speech given by Venerable Xuan Hui, emphasizing on the quality of compassion. She stated that the compassionate intention of relieve suffering beings will able to touch the heart the ghost and enable them to repent their sin and return the proper path, thus leaving the Preta Realm.

She mentioned that in the engraved memories (Alaya- eight consciousnesses) of the deceased, the souls which are not able to be reborn will linger in our living dimension as ghost, retaining their living habits.

Before continuing, she apologized if there are any Malays attending the talk. She expressed that during Ullambana** (she actually meant the Chinese Ghost Festival), during the feeding of the hungry ghost ceremony, those who has gifted eyes are able to see that the ghosts rushed to fight for the food. She also pointed out that, those ghosts do not consist of only Chinese but also other races. Those who are Malay, in cases of the fasting month clashes with the Chinese Ghost Festival, they will refrain themselves from eating while observing their fellow "ghost-friends" enjoying the food. Even as ghost, they carry the habit that they practiced in the past.

(Comments by the Proper faith will be given in the next post)

-Proper faith-