So yes, am just mentioning this to differentiate 施食法 from the
burning of paper offerings. The burning of paper offerings gives
ghosts beings comforts, but not liberation.
yea, burning of paper money does not
liberate.
don't do so if family members request for pure
Buddhist funeral. like my grandma funeral, we had Buddhist funeral
as i requested, at first without burning money. we are to liberate
her to PL or higher realm, so no need to burn paper money as she
will not be needing them. but they burned a few as some relative
wanted to. no choice, suit them. thinking perhaps as a backup plan,
in case the merit was not good enough(wrong thinking). my grandpa,
unfortunately did not have a Buddhist funeral. during the period,
my aunty dream of her in nice clothing(meaning either in heaven or
became a pusa in PL), while my cousin dream of my grandpa standing
beside my grandma's tomb(meaning grandma no more in lower
realm). the Buddhist funeral help influence a lot of our
relatives toward Buddhism.
according to the earlier ghost stories, i'm still confuse
whether they(ghosts) literally "use" the burned money, house, etcs.
"use" as in really buying, selling things, as in literally got a
house for them to live or got a car to drive in the ghost realm.
i'm still thinking they don't.? they will still walk about
aimlessly, i imagine like u see in zombie movies??
maybe just show a bit of filial piety, like thinking "wah my
children burn so many things for me, (even though i cannot use),
i'm proud that they still care for me. and so those who spend
little, it will think, hmm, this son/daughter no use, spend so
little on me." this kind of stuff. hehe :).
i wonder how 变食真言/甘露水真言 (施食法) food and drink offering to ghosts
came about. perhaps a great bodhisattva can come out with money
(luring) "offering" with mantra for liberating
ghosts. temperory 满众生愿 fulfill beings wish then liberate them
if they accept. plausible.
anyway, following is on :-
/\
SIGNIFICANCE OF SMOKE
OFFERING
It is commonly practiced by Tibetans in appeasing the deceased
and repaying Karmic debtors in this and previous lives. The
commonly practiced Smoke Offerings are the Morning and Evening
sessions respectively, in Tibetan it is called Sur Puja. This
method of mind training further reduces the defilement of the mind
and is a practice performed throughout the 3 year 3 Month and 3
Forthnight retreats of a Lama on a daily basis.
Morning sessions: O ffering of Food that was burned to
create smoke and offered to the Buddhas, Bodhissatvas and other
realized beings. This is done in order to accumulate mass merits
and also to practice generosity.
Evening sessions: In similar manner as above morning
session, and medicinal herbs and pills were added in addition to
the food. This offering is made to wandering souls trapped within
this Samsara that are unable to take rebirth. It was said the
reason these souls that are trapped is mainly due to strong
attachment of their previous life prior death. The food were
blessed through a series of auspicious prayers chanted with pure
motivation and intention to benefit. The tempting smell of smoke
attract these souls and thus satisfied their desires and the
medicinal pills/herbs tuned their mind so that they realize that
they are already dead and thus make their way to another rebirth.
Depending on the aspiration and wish of the participants during the
ritual, it can also be a practice to repay karmic debt accumulated
since beginningless time. In a effective practice and offering,
one's practice and daily live will be obstacle free and
prospher.
Family members of the deceased normally engage monks to perform
the Smoke Puja for a duration of 49 days.
Similarly the hearders of yaks or sheeps in Tibet perform this
practice to dispel untoward obstacles and sickness of their herds.
They perform both the morning and evening smoke offerings and
inbetween sessions they recite the Chenrezig and Guru Rinpoche
mantras. This is still actively practice by most Tibetans.
Similarly the offering of the body of the deceased commonly known
as "Sky Burial". Rather than wasting fuel cremating the body or
wasting the edible flesh by burying, they offered it to the
birds.
Some even perform other meritorious deeds and dedicate it to the
deceased in order to close the doors of the rebirth into the lower
realms. There are those who offered everything they possess such as
house, animals, food, money to the monastery and then proceed on a
pilgrimage journey. Once they return from the pilgrimage trip
(normally taking months), they restart their lives anew from
scratch. All the merits accumulated throughout the journey and all
the good deeds were transfered to the deceased.
Minam Rinpoche highly recommend this practice before one proceed
to offer one's own body in the practice of Chöd. This method of
offering material goods is to train one's mind towards authentic
generosity. Rinpoche also told of some funny stories of Chödpas in
Tibet.
Ratnashri Dharma Centre in Malaysia is organizing weekly Smoke
Offering on every Sunday 8:30pm. All participants are welcome to
bring along family and friends and are advise to bring own food
offerings which will be combined with offerings by others. Food
such as medicinal herbs, honey, yogurt, biscuits and other edible
snacks is recommended. Please do not make meat base offerings as
this will inadverntly invite wrathful devas and other spirits that
causes obstacles and terror to the vicinity. Normally meat base
offerings were done in powerful places such as places where great
adepts had the Dharma Wheel were turned or attained
enlightenment.
by Ven. Minam Rinpoche