Author Topic: Donate coffins to collect huge amount of merits - true or fable ?  (Read 30583 times)

fruven

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Re: Donate coffins to collect huge amount of merits - true or fable ?
« Reply #15 on: December 02, 2012, 09:30:52 AM »
I agreed on when the reason of donating coffin is to help the poor because they couldn't afford it. Helping the poor in any way is always meritorious but we can help the best way possible. If it calms the mind of the families and relatives then it is good. Due to land scarcity burial ground can be costly. Cremation is an alternative option where it is cheaper and the ashes can be recover after the process to be taken back home or to be placed in temple.

Ensapa

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Re: Donate coffins to collect huge amount of merits - true or fable ?
« Reply #16 on: December 04, 2012, 12:35:06 PM »
I dont think donating coffins will gather a huge amount of merit. they will gather merits but to a certain extent because donating with the intention to gain something back like in this instance, merits shows that the donor themselves are not sincere in practicing generosity. If they were sincere, they would just donate and not make a big fuss out of it. Also, why only coffins? what about food or medicines, wouldnt that give more merits as logically, those are meant to keep people alive?

Superstitions sometimes can be so odd.

ilikeshugden

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Re: Donate coffins to collect huge amount of merits - true or fable ?
« Reply #17 on: December 21, 2012, 07:53:57 AM »
I think this is mainly superstition. However, the act of donating an item is good, especially with a good motivation. If you have the motivation to comfort the family members and give the corpse a good burial, then you will create merit as there is a virtuous motivation. Thus, there are huge amount of merits. However, this is only with a pure thought.

DSFriend

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Re: Donate coffins to collect huge amount of merits - true or fable ?
« Reply #18 on: December 22, 2012, 08:38:57 AM »
Here's an article where you might find some answers to in regards to how thai people view death and making merits in relation to the coffin.

http://www.buddhanet.net/bfuneral.htm

Buddhist Funeral Rites in Thailand & other South East Asian Countries
Funeral rites are the most elaborate of all the life-cycle ceremonies and the ones entered into most fully by the monks. It is a basic teaching of Buddhism that existence is suffering, whether birth, daily living, old age or dying. This teaching is never in a stronger position than when death enters a home. Indeed Buddhism may have won its way the more easily in Thailand because it had more to say about death and the hereafter than had animism.

The people rely upon monks to chant the sutras that will benefit the deceased, and to conduct all funeral rites and memorial services. To conduct the rites for the dead may be considered the one indispensable service rendered the community by the monks. For this reason the crematory in each large temple has no rival in secular society.

The idea that death is suffering, relieved only by the knowledge that it is universal, gives an underlying mood of resignation to funerals: Among a choice few, there is the hope of Nibbana with the extinction of personal striving; among the vast majority there is the expectation of rebirth either in this world, in the heaven of Indra or some other, or in another plane of existence, possibly as a spirit. Over the basic mood of gloom there has grown up a feeling that meritorious acts can aid the condition of the departed. Not all the teaching of Anatta (not self) can quite eradicate anxiety lest the deceased exist as pretas or as beings suffering torment. For this reason relatives do what they can to ameliorate their condition.

According to tradition, when a person is dying an effort should be made to fix his mind upon the Buddhist scriptures or to get him to repeat one of the names of Buddha, such as Phra Arahant. The name may be whispered in his ear if the person is far gone. Sometimes four syllables which are considered the heart of the Abhidharma, ci, ce, ru, and ni, representing "heart, mental concepts, form and Nibbana" are written on a piece of paper and put in the mouth of the dying man. It is hoped that if the last thoughts of the patient are directed to Buddha and the precepts, that the fruit of this meritorious act will bring good to the deceased in his new existence. In a village, at the moment of death, the relatives may set up a wailing both to express sorrow and to notify the neighbours who will then come to be of help.

After death a bathing ceremony takes place in which relatives and friends pour water over one hand of the deceased. The body is then placed in a coffin and surrounded with wreaths, candles and sticks of incense. If possible a photograph of the deceased is placed alongside, and coloured lights are suspended about the coffin: Sometimes the cremation is deferred for a week to allow distant relatives to attend or to show special honour to the dead. In this case a chapter of monks comes to the house one or more times each day to chant from the Abhidharma, sometimes holding the bhusa yong, a broad ribbon, attached to the coffin. Food is offered to the officiating monks as part of the merit-making for the deceased.

The food offered in the name of the dead is known as Matakabhatta from mataka ("one who is dead"). The formula of presentation is:

Reverend Sirs, we humbly beg to present this mataka food and these various gifts to the Sangha. May the Sangha receive this food and these gifts of ours in order that benefits and happiness may come to us to the end of time.

At an ordinary funeral in northern Thailand the cremation takes place within three days. The neighbours gather nightly to feast, visit, attend the services and play games with cards and huge dominoes. The final night is the one following the cremation. On the day of the funeral or orchestra is employed and every effort is made to banish sorrow, loneliness and the fear of spirits by means of music and fellowship. Before the funeral procession begins the monks chant a service at the home and then precede the coffin down the steps of the house, - stairs which are sometimes carpeted with banana leaves. It is felt that the body should not leave the house by the usual route, but instead of removing the coffin through a hole in the wall or floor, which is sometimes done, the front stairs are covered with green leaves to make that route unusual.

A man carrying a white banner on a long pole often leads the procession to the crematorium grounds. He is followed by some elderly men carrying flowers in silver bowls and then by a group of eight to ten monks walking ahead of the coffin and holding a broad ribbon (bhusa yong) which extend to the deceased. Often one of the monks repeats portions of the Abhidharma en route. The coffin may be carried by pall bearers or conveyed in a funeral car drawn by a large number of friends and relatives who feel that they are performing their last service for the deceased and engaged in a meritorious act while doing so. If the procession is accompanied by music the players may ride in ox carts or in a motor truck at the rear. During the service at the cemetery the monks sit facing the coffin on which rest the Pangsukula robes. After the chanting the coffin is placed on a pyre made of brick; the people then come up with lighted torches of candles, incense and fragrant wood and toss them beneath the coffin so that the actual cremation takes place at once. Later the ashes may be collected and kept in an urn.

Frequently the bodies of prominent or wealthy persons are kept for a year or more in a special building at a temple. Cremations are deferred this long to show love and respect for the deceased and to perform religious rites which will benefit the departed. In such cases a series of memorial services are held on the seventh, fiftieth, and hundredth days after the death. In one instance a wealthy merchant did not cremate the body of his daughter until he had spent all her inheritance in merit-making services for her. Another merchant spent the ten thousand baht insurance money received on the death of his small son entirely for religious ceremonies.

As along as the body is present the spirit can benefit by the gifts presented, the sermons preached and the chants uttered before it. This thought lies behind the use of the bhusa yhong ribbon which extends from the body within the coffin to the chanting monks before it. The dead may thus have contact with the holy sutras. When the body is cremated the spirit is more definitely cut off from the world, it is best therefore not to force that spirit to enter the preta world finally and irrevocably until it has had the benefit of a number of religious services designed to improve its status.

At cremations it is quite common for wealthy people to have printed for distribution books and pamphlets setting forth Buddhist teachings in the form of essays, translation of the sutras, historical sketches and explanations of ceremonies. Such books, numbering in the thousands, are not only a tribute to the dead and a means of making merit but they have practical value as well.

diablo1974

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Re: Donate coffins to collect huge amount of merits - true or fable ?
« Reply #19 on: January 02, 2013, 08:19:25 AM »
Any donations arises by the thought of benefiting someone is considered virtuous out of compassion and kindness. With regards to generating merits there's no answer to that in this subject as i personally think that its part of a civilisation and/or culture in different country.

There's definitely some form of good karma generated for this aspect and with the blessing of the triple gems in particularly. Merits are generated due to the actions of paring respect and venerations to the triple gems in the form of body, speech and mind.

Big Uncle

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Re: Donate coffins to collect huge amount of merits - true or fable ?
« Reply #20 on: January 02, 2013, 10:56:31 AM »
I don't know if donating coffins to the needy collects a lot of merits but I do know that the Thais do have a special ritual of sleeping in a coffin to rid a person of negativities and bad luck and it seemed to have evolved from donating coffins of the needy. I am not really an expert on this but I do know that the Buddha did recommend death meditation for those who are very attached and that may be the factor in which we create merits. However, how much merits would be determined by one's motivation and transformation through this process.

Anyway, here's a little article about this ritual along with some interesting pictures for your perusal:-

Deeply Bizarre Thai Coffin Ritual For the Living
http://funstuffcafe.com/the-thai-coffin-ritual-for-the-living

Buddhist temple Wat Proman in Thailand is offering a deeply bizarre ritual of death and rebirth in order to help believers to solve their life’s torments – they just have to lie in a coffin, ”die” and be born again as a new persons, free of bad karma.

Thai ritual of lying in coffins to get rid of bad luck and prolong life, reflect some morbid tendencies of Thai society.   Just think of relaxing in a coffin as a remedy.  The ritual involves participants lying in coffins while of monks perform death rites on them as if they are already dead. This is then followed by a chant of new life. Many participants had said they felt as if they were reborn after the ritual – with all their bad karma buried behind them. Some claimed that the ritual helped fool the spirits that they’re already dead so they could start their new lives afresh like newborns.

There are also others who reported that they’ve met with the spirits of their dead loved ones while lying in the coffins. Or is it just a bad omen to lie in a coffin as a living? This “death rite for the living” is not without its detractors. Some brand it as an occult practice while many feel it’s bad omen to lie in coffins when they’re still alive. Some went as far as saying that this ritual is nothing but a case of commercialism entering the sacred religious domain. The critics, however, have not stopped more and more Thai people to voluntarily go through this death ritual for the living.

In Thailand, one may request for the ritual to be performed on him or her at a number of temples across the country. A few temples publicize and conduct mass “non loeng sadorcro” on a regular basis. Usually no fee is charged, but participants normally give donations to the temples in return for having the ritual performed on them. It’s speculated that the ritual in its current form is an evolved version of what started out as a simple act of donating coffins to the poor and those who died without relatives. Actually, some of those coffins look rather comfy!







« Last Edit: January 02, 2013, 06:08:42 PM by Big Uncle »

Rihanna

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Re: Donate coffins to collect huge amount of merits - true or fable ?
« Reply #21 on: January 06, 2013, 01:41:07 AM »
I agree with you totally. How can donating a coffin create merits? The dead does not even need it to begin with. He has taken a rebirth! This practice is also prevalent in Taiwan. As a child I remember hearing my grandparents talking about donating coffins or burial grounds for the poor. They did that whenever they could. There were several occasions when I heard their passing remark that so and so were fighting with another person to be the donor. How odd i thought...

If I should ever donate one, it would be more to comfort the mind of the living relative than any other reason.