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Being a Buddhist can mean many things, depending on how you have understood the principles laid out by the Buddha himself when he set out to seek enlightenment. I am not about to go into “preaching mode” and start telling you why you should become a Buddhist and what you can do and what you cannot do as a Buddhist.

One of the things I have noticed generally is that people often confused themselves amongst cultures, superstitions, religions and philosophies. All 4 of these are in fact very different things, but are usually packaged together, especially in a multi-ethnic culture country in Malaysia, and it becomes very difficult indeed to identify which is which. Unless, of course, you happen to be writing a thesis on the subject.

With regards to the upbringing I had as a Buddhist, I would like to point out one thing which I feel strongly about, and is being practised by quite a many “Buddhist” I know. Buddhist in this sense can just simply means that you’ve had inherited the status together with your Surat Beranak (Birth Cert). The issue I would like to point out is about “Hell Bank Note”, or better explained as the tradition of burning offerings to the deceased, good brothers (ghosts without descendants) and deities.

I am totally against the “Hell Bank Note” policy practiced worldwide, not just by Buddhist, but also by any other organisations which endorses the believe that by burning something material in this dimension, it would henceforth be received by another party in another dimension, commonly known as after-life, underworld or hell. To me, this concept is as absurd as time-travel itself.

Before I continue, I would like to illustrate a story which was told to me by a friend. Here’s how he’d told me about the origin of Hell Bank Note.

Long ago, there was a town in China, before paper was made popular, people were writing stuff on bamboo sticks and animal skins. Paper was then slowly introduced and was seen as a promising replacement for the primitive writing materials used by the common people.

There was a businessman who saw the opportunities of how paper could bring him tonnes of profit once people start switching from animal skins to papyrus. So, with that insight, he took the chance and imported tonnes of paper and stocked them in his warehouse, which he believe would make him one of the wealthiest man in his province.

However, as much as he tried to educate the people on the benefits of using paper and ink, the transition from animal skins to paper seems to take little momentum, and the businessman who stocked his warehouse with tonnes of paper in on the brink of losing every penny he’d earned in his lifetime.

Of course, our shrewd Chinese Businessman would not have things going down on him without some fight, as he suddenly saw a very good opportunity to package his raw papers into something that will set the province literally on fire. He began turning his “worthless” papers into something very valuable, as we shall discover very soon.

One day, while a customer came to his shop, he asked the customer why is he looking so sad. The customer revealed to him that his father had just passed away and he has failed to take care of him and had been feeling very guilty about it. Our street smart businessman immediately grinned and pat the customer on his back, “Don’t feel bad. There’s still alot you can do to help your deceased father. Come over here and take a look!”

The bewildered customer was very curious on what else can he do. After all, his father has drawn his last breath and how could he still change anything. Upon opening a huge wooden crate, our businessman removed the lid and uncovered stacks of printed bank notes! The customer was shocked and alarmed why would the businessman show him such a big amount of money. However, after close inspection, he realized that the bank notes were actually fake bank notes, and on them was printed the Chinese caligraphy that says “Hell Bank Notes RMB 10,000,000″, which is a lot of money for any form of currency.

The businessman says, “My late father came into my dream a few days ago and told me he needs my help in the Underworld. He’s got into some trouble and he needs some money to bail himeself out and have asked me to burn him the money. After I woked up, I immediately got the Priest to help me out to find these Hell Bank Notes. And after I burnt them, my father came into my dream again and thanked me for the money. Look, you can make atonement and fulfill your responsibilities as a filial son if you burn these paper money to your father who is now penniless in the Underworld.”

Looking at how influential the businessman is in the Province, the customer eventually bought the idea, and went home with stacks of Hell Bank Notes, which he later burnt by the stacks at the funeral.

The businessman continue to “educate” his customers one by one, and words began to spread from door to door on the invention of the “Hell Bank Notes”. The practice later spread into neighbouring provinces and later on, to the entire country, where people began to purchase and burn lots of the “Hell Bank Notes” which they truly believed will be received by the deceased. The idea finally caught fire.

And to end the story, the businessman indeed made it very big after his “invention” of the Hell Bank Notes. Incidentally after his death, he was sent to Hell to meet the CEO there- The King of Hades, which he had purportedly made use of The King of Hades in his marketing gimmick. He probably did not gave the King of Hades a percentage in his profit model, but it was said that he was being punished by the King of Hades for making up false stories of burning paper money. It is because of his invention, tonnes of paper has been burnt for no other reason but for the belief that the deceased would eventually receive them.

Well, that’s the story which would have sound as fiction as Harry Potter. But if you notice the last paragraph, the King of Hades is surely one hell of an environmentalist, and the businessman definitely deserved to be punished for causing the destruction of the forest to fund his Hell Bank Note project.

To me, the burnings of these origamis which can range from a 3-storey bungalow to the latest Sony Ericsson handphone is a total waste of money, pollutes the enviroment, and benefits no one but the origami manufacturers, who are also the descendant marketers of the businessman in our previous folklore.

Does a true Buddhist encourages burning of these religious paraphernelias?

Source: http://buddhisminter.wordpress.com

Contrary to popular belief, the noisy, elaborate and sometimes showy or grand funeral processions costing thousands of dollars on unnecessary things and which are often regarded as normal ‘Buddhist practices,’ are in fact not Buddhist practices at all. It is a total misconception to associate all these practices with Buddhism. They are just the perpetuation of age-old customs and traditions handed down from past generations, which are being adhered to blindly. When viewing such funeral rites people of other faiths often wonder whether what they are watching is a procession celebrating some happy festival or a solemn funeral.

Quiet often a loud music instead of a solemn music is performed during a funeral procession. One would therefore gain the impression that the ceremony is designed more to make an outward show of affluence rather than to express genuine sorrow and respect for the deceased. Although Buddhism does not object to perpetuating cultural practices, so long as they are not in conflict with the teachings of the Buddha, it is felt that wasteful, uneconomical, and unnecessary practices, which are not beneficial either to the departed, or the living should be discouraged or discarded altogether. For example, the traditional practice of burning paper money, joss-paper and symbolic paper houses, designed purportedly for the benefit of a deceased person for use in the life hereafter, is definitely unBuddhistic. However, if it helps one psychologically to minimize one’s sorrow by making him think he is doing something beneficial for the departed, it is harmless, but nonetheless one should not go to extremes or believe it can help the deceased in any way.

Chia Huang Pin at the National University of Singapore, also published an interesting article dealing with Hell Bank Notes, whereby he interviewed actual individuals and did some “site surveys” on the usage of these religious paraphernelias.

For ancestors and ghosts, generally only the following items could be offered to them. These items include joss papers that were plain except for a square of silver or gold in its middle, small joss sticks, Hell bank notes, and yellow papers with intricate designs on them that resembled sutras known as tongxinzhi (通心纸). A fundamental difference between worship of ancestors and deities is also seen in the types of lighting used. Madam Lee insisted that candles could only be used for propitiating ancestors and ghosts, whom she also termed ‘our good brothers’ (好兄弟); deities had either oil wick lamps or electric lamps that were usually of a red color to symbolize auspiciousness and bring in good fortune.

Lest one should think that ancestors were treated no differently from the ‘good brothers’, my informant further clarified that while these offerings were similar for both ancestors and ghosts, one big difference between the two categories was the personalization of items for the former. Ancestors were a privileged class entitled to items like airplanes, cars, credit cards, and even houses (which although uncommon, are not unheard of), usually offered to them either on their death anniversary or the Tomb Sweeping Festival; ghosts on the other hand, defined as those who had died without proper burial and hence having no descendants to care for them, only received these items once a year, during the 7th month festival when they were believed to be released from Hell to roam the earth for a whole month (hence its other moniker ‘Hungry Ghost Festival’).

Deities on the other hand, could not be offered the above items. Their burnt offerings also included joss paper, but the joss papers had a different design from those offered to ancestors. Instead of a simple square of either plain gold or silver, they had a square of gold in the middle that was further chopped with a red stamp. These joss papers also came in different sizes, with the biggest up to 12� x 17�. In addition to that, deities were also burnt pieces of red paper imprinted with court official figurines in various poses of obeisance. These pieces of joss paper, also known as guirenzhi (贵人纸) were offered to deities in the hope that they would assist the devotee to have a prosperous and blessed life.

In Singapore, I managed to interview a cleaner, Uncle Chan who, although he does not open a shop selling paper paraphernalia, worships many Chinese deities in his home, and who not only confirmed the above, but further added that ancestors and ghosts could only be offered fruit offerings in even numbers (e.g. 2, 4 or 6) whereas deities had to have fruit offerings in odd numbers (usually 3 or 5). When asked what would happen if the order was reversed, or if we offered the wrong offerings, he answered indignantly that we had better not try, or else ‘bad things’ and ‘bad karma’ (罪孽) would happen.

Okie, I am inviting myself to probably alot of hatemails because of my stand in this. I believe everyone has the right to practice their own rituals and rites. People can continue to burn Hell Bank Notes, and it wouldn’t hurt me, but I just thought that these practices are usually more cosmetic than spiritually functional. I’ve opened this post for comments, feel free to shoot me with your piece of mind ;-)

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