Ghost? Christianity vs. Buddhism (Part 4)

Ghost? A dialog among Buddhist, Catholic and Christian (Buddhist point of view, author's comment)

-This is a post in response to the talk by Buddhism representatives-

After listening to the speech given by Venerable Hui Xian and Venerable Chang Hui, they are many good points for us to ponder.


#1 Ghost are one of the sentient beings in the six domains of the desire realm

In Buddhism, it is viewed that all sentient beings possesses the seed to Buddhahood. It is just a matter of acheiving enlightenment.
杨次公云：‘爱不重，不生娑婆，念不一，不生极乐。’
Yang CiGong: "Without desire, will not I be born in desire realm; without enlightened mind, will not I achieve Nirvana'

I would like to be given the opportunity to talk about the Six Domains of the Desire Realm. In the desire realm, we have Heavenly realm, Asura realm, Human realm, Animal realm, Preta (hungry ghost) realm and Hell realm.
To be reborn into one of these realms, it follows one's karma.

Heavenly realm - able to hold firm to the ten precepts
Asura realm - able to hold firm to the ten precepts but with mindful of anger and jealousy
Human realm - able to hold firm to the five precepts
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Precepts)
Animal realm - dominated by ignorance
Preta realm - dominated by greed
Hell realm - dominated by hatred
(http://buddhismteacher.com/three_poisons.php)


#2 Spreading the gospel to ghost?

As mentioned above, ghost in Buddhism, is one of the sentient beings in the Preta Realm. It is mentioned by the two representatives of Buddhism in the dialog that we should treat them with compassion and lending them a helping to leave the realm.

The question is how?
By virtue and kind conduct with the recitation of the sutra and counseling, merits can be transferred and becomes a helping force to deliver the ghost from its suffering.

The problem lies with, it is easier said than done.

Similar to prayers, reciting sutras may generate a good merits. However, without proper understanding of the recitation as well as without a pure kind heart and virtues, those merit will not formulate. Reciting sutra will be just like reading any other books/magazines/newspapers if its recited with a superstitious mind or craving for merits.

It is by their sin for they fall into the lower realm. Spreading gospel to the ghost is similar compared to spreading gospel to other human beings. It is to preach repentance.

I would suggest the repentance is defined as the following:
i) To know of a sin
ii) To confess the sin
iii) To refrain from commiting again
忏悔即是不二过
All these three must be present. If you know not a sin, you may not confess it. If you confess not a sin, you may not refrain from commiting it. If you refrain not from sinning, it becomes pointless to knowing or confessing it.

#3 It's from the heart

In Buddhism, it preaches that we change not the environment but our heart and precepts.
"What you think you become" -Buddha-

By cultivating unholy thoughts, we invite unholy incident. In this sense, it is also psychological work.

For example, staying in a eerie place, if you fear of paranormal activities, your mind will play tricks on you.

Pastor Enoch Lam gave a good example to explain this point. "If you are afraid of ghost, there is only one solution, invite Lord JesusChrist into your life."

In Christian and Buddhist point of view, Pastor Enoch Lam is right.
Rather than filling your heart and mind with fear and ghostly images, creating a loophole for the demon to invade your heart to lead you astray, you invite God into your life and fill your heart with the glory of God. Thus, it leaves not even a crack for the demon to ambush our soul and mind.


#4 Muslim ghost??

As mentioned in my previous post, Venerable Chang Hui apologized if there are any Malays attending the talk before expressing about the fasting ghost.

There many things that we should clarify.

a) Almost every Malay in Malaysia is of Islamic faith but there are also Chinese and Indians who are muslims.

b) The Ramadhan is a month whereby Muslims refrain themselves from eating, drinking and sexual relations from dawn until dusk. It is a holy month intended for Muslim to cultivate patience, humility and spirituality.

Bear in mind, most of ghost-feeding ceremony (放蒙山) is done in the evening. Even if there are Muslim ghosts (which there are not supposed to be any) going after your earthly food, they are allowed to eat. It is halal to break fast after Magrhib (sun-set prayers).

c) Muslim believe that the present life is a trial in preparation for the next realm of existence

And they say, "There is not but our worldly life; we die and live (i.e. some people die and others live, replacing them) and nothing destroys us except time." And they have of that no knowledge; they are only assuming. And when Our verses are recited to them as clear evidences, their argument is only that they say, "Bring [back] our forefathers, if you should be truthful." Say, "God causes you to live, then causes you to die; then He will assemble you for the Day of Resurrection, about which there is no doubt," but most of the people do not know.
-Quran, 45:24-26-

Surely God will raise all the dead. But God has His own plan of things. A day will come when the whole universe will be destroyed and then the dead will be resurrected to stand before God. The day will be the beginning of a life that will never end, and on that day every person will be rewarded by God according to his or her good or evil deeds

(http://www.islam-guide.com/life-after-death-by-wamy.htm)

d) When you claim that you saw Muslim ghost eating/fasting for your food (or even any ghost), was it a claim made with evidence where there are eye-witnesses?




#5 Ullambana vs. Chinese Ghost Festival

This is something that every Buddhist, especially Chinese should know of the difference between Ullambana (盂兰盆会) and Chinese Ghost Festival.

Chinese Ghost Month falls on the seventh month of the lunar calender. The fesitval is held on the 14th day of the month. During this month, it is said that the hell gates open and unleashed all the deceased to go back to the living for food and offerings, revenge etc. During this month, it is claimed (although no formal statistic by any institution, especially the bureau of statistic) that many supernatural and ghost encounters happen. During this unholy month, Chinese burn offerings and refrain from staying out at night. Buddhism which caught into this local practice too offers food to the deceased and holds many ceremony for the dead, whether to deliver them from hell/Preta realm or to feed them.

Ullambana should never be mistaken nor be explained parallel with the Ghost Festival. Although the Ullambana Sutra was preached by the Buddha during the seventh month to instruct his disciple Mahamauggalyayana on how to obtain liberation for his mother in the lower realm, it is different from the Chinese practice.

Ullambana is in the rainy season of summer, whereby Buddha disciples who were sent out to preach, comes back to the forest to be united with the sangha to celebrate the completion of their meditation, reporting their progress to the Buddha as well as Q&A session for the difficulties they encounter while preaching.

The reason Ullambana was set to be during the rainy season comes from the compassionate nature of Buddha towards the living beings who comes out of the earth after the rain. As people of that time travel on foot, it is advisable for the travelling disciples to stay at one place to avoid stepping (accidental kill) on those little living creatures.

Number of monks who attained enlightenment during that period was high and thus it is a joyful day for Buddhist. In Buddhism point of view, the seventh month can be consider the month of joy, contrary to a eerie feeling that Chinese gives it.





To attend such inter-faith dialogs, one should be well prepared and well educated in their own religious study as well as doing sufficient research in other religion (e.g. the Holy Bible, the Holy Quran, the Puranas etc) in order to effectively deliver the message through.

Poor preparation will give others a poor impression on your side as you are chosen to be representing the whole of your community. A very good example of a good inter-faith dialog speaker, Ahmed Deedat. Google up.


-Proper faith-

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-

Blind Faith?

After watching the clip, I actually find it hillarious that there are lost sheep out there who are mislead by these false prophet. I would like to clarify that this does not apply to Christendom, it also applied to other faith as well.

At the last part of the video, about Benny Hinn (the most influential person in Evangelical Christendom), it seems that he was able to heal in the name of Lord Jesus Christ. You can google about it.
Matthew 7:22, Jesus had warned us about evil false prophets who preys on those who are gullible.

However, I was not able to embed this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVG1x-rh6FE) which shows a wonderful miracle of God. It exposed the fraud of Benny Hinn but at the same time shows the miracle and divine plan God has for us.

Miracles are not something like healing the blind, curing cancers etc. I personally love the scene from Bruce Almighty where "God" (Morgan Freeman) explains about miracle.

"A single mom who is working two jobs and still finds time to take her kids to soccer practice. That's a miracle."

"You wanna see the miracle, son? Be the miracle."

To believe blindly without proper knowledge about it, no matter which religion you are in, it is called superstition. Whether you are a new convert or a coptic believer, always read the holy teachings to avoid being lead astray.



-Proper faith-

Converting faith

Referring to the video in the link above, Cat Steven, one of the greatest singer and song writer in the 70's converted to Islam.

We have heard from the news that Islam is a religion of destruction and a chaos. Muslims kill people from other faith, execute barbaric laws (amputation punishment), oppress the women and suicide bombing.

Firstly, we have to understand that in every religion, there are many who are spiritual and uphold high ethical values. However, there are also black sheep. These black sheep does not represent the group.

Ok, why do people convert while each religion claims that they are the ONLY way and solution to their problems?

My humble opinion is COMPATIBILITY.

If you prefer Christ to be your Lord and Savior, choose Christian.
If you fear Karma and sought for Enlightenment, you have Buddhism.
If you believe in the one True God (not Trinity), you have Islam.
If you think there is no god, welcome to the atheist club.

It is about what suits you best. Always remember, there is no compulsion in religion. Compulsion means force (may be economic force, political force or life threatening method) a person to take up one's faith.

In this democratic age, we all have the free choice in religion. It is important that we respect everyone's believe, as long as their religious activity obeys the law of the country.


-Properfaith-

Input

I'm not a person who is well verse in every religion.

I hope each one of you can post some religion thoughts and some teachings from your religion.
I will try to compile them together and come up new posts.

Comments are welcomed.

If you have a long story to tell or a gospel to share, email it to properfaith@gmail.com

It would be easy for me to work and save time of research if you have include some verse or quotes as backup.

Please support Proper faith!


-Proper faith-

Introduction

I have a simple dream. Yet, an impossible dream.

World peace.

To achieve world peace, one would think that we might need laws, arms, power etc.

To those who are enlightened, those who had been touched by God, they know.
The only way to peace and harmony... LOVE.

This love does not come from lust, affection nor compatibility.
It comes from mutual understanding and sincerity.

Therefore, there will never be mutual understanding, until we open our hearts and accept our differences.

The day Obama sits on US presidency, it marks the end of racism in America. Americans had shown the world that we are all the same. (not going to drill into politics)

Let's look at our modern culture. We have inter-cultural programs which enable us to venture into other people's culture. Learning the difference and enjoying the tradition.

However,

We do not (rarely) have inter-religion forums. I have been surfing for jokes about Christians, Buddhists, Muslims etc.

We have more than enough websites to create misunderstanding and making fun our other faiths, rather than getting together and understand each others' differences, and also search the noble truth within.

I would like this blog, to be a little plot in cyberspace, where everyone from different faith, comes to gather to spread their gospel and strengthen their own faith by understanding other believes.


Regards,
Proper faith