(E25)-01-Chinese-Tradition

OK, tonight I think I'll start with this longer talk, which is on Chinese traditions and Buddhism. Or another way you could say is talk about Chinese Buddhism. Because what I want to talk about this is that a lot of people cannot distinguish between Buddhism and Chinese custom or Taoism which sometimes has crept into Buddhism. And also a lot of people cannot distinguish between a Buddhist temple and a Chinese temple or a Taoist temple. Why? Because sometimes you go into a Buddhist temple and you go into a Taoist temple, you find the same gods are there. Kuan Yim is there, Kuan Kung is there. So, in fact, this topic, I think, interests a lot of Chinese, Hua Chiao, all these Chinese, like in Indonesia, in a few. Very soon, I'll be going to Indonesia, and I'll be giving this talk also. So first, to understand this, we have to know a bit about Chinese custom and tradition. In Chinese culture, the family is the most important thing. Family. This one thing is different, makes us a bit different from Japanese. You look at Chinese and at Japanese, you can't tell the difference. But Japanese, their country comes first. you'll die for that country. But for Chinese, the family comes first. We are always concerned about the family. So the individual is not important. So sometimes you have to sacrifice, sometimes a person has to sacrifice his wants, his preferences for the family's sake. For example, arranged marriage. That's more common during our parents' and grandparents' time. Sometimes they don't like to get married, but the parents arrange for them, and they just follow. Now, because of the Chinese tradition culture, the family is also responsible for all the family members. And the head of the family is always the male, the man. It's a patriarchal family system. Woman is less important. So because the family is responsible for all the family members, that's why the children, the upbringing, et cetera, is the responsibility of the parents. When I was young, sometimes, you know, a child goes to school and there's something wrong. He's kicked by the teacher. When he goes home, the news comes back to the parents. Parents kick him again. So last time, people were quite strict. Now, completely different. Sometimes the teacher kicks the teacher. The teacher kicks the student. The parents go to the school and create a big fuss, sometimes slap the teacher. So now since the family is responsible for all the family members, sometimes when one member of the family does something wrong, some serious crime, sometimes the whole family has to pay for it. To the extent sometimes like the emperor, somebody does wrong, the emperor orders that person to be executed. Not only he is executed, the whole family is executed. You all see Chinese shows now. So from here, I can understand why our Chinese always talk about zhong ye, isn't it? Group karma. This is a Chinese concept. Actually, it's scrapped into Buddhism. But Buddhism, we don't talk about group karma. We talk about individual karma. Whatever you do, you are responsible for it. So, later you find that this concept, this Chinese concept of group kamma, when it comes into Buddhism, they call it group kamma, also crept into Taoism. How it crept into Taoism? In Taoism, they say that you do something good, It benefits the whole family to the extent that your later generations also benefit. You do something good, later generations will benefit. This is not what the Buddha taught. It is not a Buddhist concept. Maybe it's a Taoist concept. So that's why you have to know some of these things because sometimes it has come into Buddhism and we think the Buddha taught joint kamma and all this. Also in Chinese culture, they pray to a lot of gods also. Shang Di, Ma Chu, Cheng Huang, Tu Di Gong, Cai Shen, Guan Gong, that kitchen god also. So they always pray for help, that the gods will give them what they want. And also in Chinese culture, you have mediums also, just like we have Bomos. They also have mediums and will go into a trance and all these things. Also another thing about Chinese culture is ancestor worship is very important. Occasionally we say Fai Kong Ma. So this ancestor worship, in the olden days, every family, they would have a tablet in the house, an altar. They put this spirit tablet, Sanjipai, Sinchupai, and they always worship this spirit tablet as though the ancestors live in that tablet. They'll offer food, they'll pray, and all these things. Sometimes talk to the tablet also, ask for some help. Actually, Talking about this, sometimes people worship these things too much, sometimes. Spirits also go inside there because they like to be bowed to, offered food and all that. That's what I hear of some people's experience. So, three days in a year, this ancestor worship, It also turns into a big day. One is the Qingming, All Souls Day, where the whole family goes to the grave and clean the grave, and they offer food. Actually, offering food to the dead, the Indians also do. But the Indians, after they offer food to the dead, they burn it. But the Chinese, they offer food early, we take home and makan, eat. So we like to offer what we like to eat. So this generally now is on the April the 5th in Malaysia. Second one is the Ghost Festival. That is the 15th day of the 7th month, 7th lunar month. That time we believe that all the ghosts come out, so we pray. Another day is the last day of the lunar year, one day before the Chinese New Year, the 29th day or the 30th day of the 12th lunar month. We think of our ancestors and we pray. So this ancestor worship, then filial piety, respect and obedience to our parents. and to support our parents in their old age. Actually, our Chinese system is also, we respect the old man in the house, the grandfather and all that. Nowadays, it's very different. Last time, like in America also, old days, And they opened the wild west and all that. When they sit down together, grandfather, everybody sort of acknowledge him. And China also formally. But nowadays, the people don't care so much for old people. Send them to the nursing home. Now, this Chinese culture, to have descendants also is a very big thing. If a man does not get married and have children, it's one of the biggest offences that he can do. Very important to have children and grandchildren, especially sons, in the old days. I don't know about nowadays, but formerly, if sometimes the family wealth is distributed, sometimes they give only to the sons, don't give to the daughters. But funeral expenses, doctors have to pay. Not fair. So you see, this need to have descendants, very, very important. And then funerals also. In Chinese tradition, when somebody dies, all the family, this funeral rituals, everything have to be carried down.

(E25)-02-Confucianism

Now we come to Confucianism and Taoism. About 500 years BC, Confucius, Lao Tzu, he started this Confucianism. But actually, he said that he did not found a new religion. He did not start a new religion. He is only using the old Chinese customs and traditions. Of course, maybe added some things. And he taught that every person must know how to behave. And government also must be able to rule properly. So personal morality and government morality is important. and also social relationship established to pay respect to the seniors and justice is important, traditionalism, sincerity, loyalty also, the importance of rituals and ceremonies and loving kindness towards all beings, rinsing to know how to behave well towards all other beings, to be good to all other beings. Also they taught that your status in society is determined by your ability, not by your family background. Like in India, Hinduism, if you come from a low caste, you will be considered low until you die. But if you are born in the Brahmin caste or warrior caste, you are looked up to even though you don't have money. But in the Chinese system, your ability to study is also important. If you study, then you are more capable. So like in the old systems, people had to study the Confucian books and all these things. and pass government exams before you can be appointed government officers. So many levels of exams. So because Confucius followed our old Chinese culture, it is taught in Confucianism also that the man is more important than the woman.

(E25)-03-Taoism

So about the same time as Confucius, we have Lao Tzu. And Lao Tzu started this Taoism. His famous book is Tao Te Ching. So this Lao Tzu is a bit different from Confucius because Lao Tzu is a person who practices meditation. cultivates the spiritual path. And once Confucius went to meet Lao Tzu. So after he had a long chat with Lao Tzu, after that he went back. So people asked him what he thought about Lao Tzu. Then he gave a simile. He said Lao Tzu is like a dragon. You can see the head, you can see the body, but you cannot see the tail. In other words, I think that Lao Tzu is such a great fellow, like a huge dragon, you cannot see the whole length of it. So you can understand this because Lao Tzu was a meditator, spiritually advanced, whereas Confucius was just a philosopher, a thinker, not actually a holy man, but Lao Tzu was a holy man. So Lao Tzu thought about the Tao. The Tao is supposed to be a force that created the universe and created everything. Everything is born from the Tao and it governs the whole world. This Tao Te Ching is quite interesting if you read it. It says this Tao that creates the whole world cannot be described. The Tao that can be described is not the eternal Tao. So he says that Tao is basically like nature. You need to blend with the Tao, go along with the Tao, or go along with nature. So because of that, they advocate non-action, wu wei. It is actually anti-establishment, unlike this Confucianism. And it teaches a natural lifestyle. compared to Confucian stress on ethics, education, et cetera. So the ideal of this Taoism is the immortal, xian. You're supposed to cultivate yourself until you become immortal. You cannot die. So how do you become immortal? You see, through practicing morality, abstinences, alchemy. You're supposed to create a kind of pill where if you eat that pill you get eternal life. And then they taught meditation and also exercises like gymnastics. Actually a bit similar to Hinduism. Hinduism also teaches many of these things. So actually this Taoism originally is quite high religion, but unfortunately, about 650 years after Lao Tzu, one of the Taoists, his name was Chang something, in the 2nd century AD, he claimed that he meditated and met Laozi and many gods, communicated with many gods. Then he said that the gods showed him, taught him many things. And this, so later he established a system of gods for people to pray to. And the highest was what? Taishang Laokun. How do you call it? Taishang Laojin. This was supposed to be Lao Tzu, he said. So from there, Taoism deteriorated. Why? Because they teach their disciples how to communicate with these gods, go into a trance, heal people, do a lot of rituals. And then they say that abstinences, like not eating meat, is meritorious. That if your father or your mother passes away, then you want to do merit, you should eat vegetarian food. Excuse me, I listen to Dharma. I don't sit like that. From there, later, actually this practice crept into Buddhism. That's why people say when your parent, one of your parents, your relative passes away, to do merit, you abstain from eating meat. So this is, the other thing was this, from then on, these Taoist priests, Tosu, they who are vegetarians, all of them. One thing about this Taoism, unlike Confucianism, men and women are treated equally. So this Taoist priest can be man, can be woman. But these men and women priests in Taoism are vegetarians.

(E25)-04-Buddhism

So okay, then we come to Buddhism. Buddhism came to China in the first century AD. The first Indian monks started coming in the first century AD. But it did not take root until about 100 years later, in the second century AD. And it started to become popular. But still, A lot of people oppose Buddhism. Why? Because they say we already have Confucianism. We have Taoism. This is Chinese religion. Now you come with Buddhism. Buddha is not a Chinese. So they look down on Buddhism. How? We know that from a very common Chinese saying. Have you ever heard? Wu is foreigner. Foreigner is considered Wu. Wu says Eightfold Path. Patau is Eightfold Path. Our noble Eightfold Path. Actually, Wu Shuo Patau. Foreigner talking rubbish. So now you know. Don't simply say Wu Shuo Patau. So there are several things about Buddhism that Chinese found it hard to stomach. One is that in Buddhism they encourage people to renounce the home life and become monks or nuns. This goes against the grain of Chinese culture because family is very important. If somebody renounces and he leaves the home, oh, one son left already. Or one father left already in the house. It's a big thing. So this is something Chinese find it very hard to accept. Not only in the first century, second century AD, now 2,000 years later also like that. Not only in Malaysia, you go to Thailand also, they tell me, that in Thailand, a Buddhist country like Thailand or Burma, if the Thai, you know their culture in a Buddhist country, a young man has got to become a monk at least once in his lifetime. Otherwise, if you don't eat enough, you'll grow old. If you don't eat tofu, you'll die. Unlike Chinese, if you don't get married, you'll die. So for them, it has to renounce at least, say, like three months. Usually they choose like Vassa period. They renounce for three months. So Thais, their family very happy. The son wants to become a monk for Thais. Chinese family, even in Thailand, are very scared. After three months, don't know whether he come back or not. And if he doesn't come back, this room, the family will go and chase after him, try to force him to this room. A lot of pressure. And you know, in our Buddhist Vinaya, I mean, if somebody wants to become a monk, generally, he has got to ask the parents for permission. Chinese family, very hard to get permission. Even Burma also, they tell me. One Burmese I know, he told me, he's actually Chinese. Grew up in Burma. Even in Burma, a Buddhist country. But you go to Sri Lanka, anytime the son wants to become a monk, they're very happy. The whole family is very happy. So this is one thing, celibacy. Chinese find it very hard to accept. And then, you know, actually the holy life, person becomes a monk is considered as becoming homeless. Homeless, doesn't stay in the home and supposed to be like the Buddha's time, the monks renounced and they live under the tree, they live in the cave, they live in the mountains, etc. And And they beg for their food. Actually, begging for the food for a monk is one of the cornerstones of a monk's life. Because when a monk begs for his food, he's free to go anywhere like a bird. Have alms bowl will travel and go anywhere. Just the alms bowl and the rope can go anywhere. Later in China, this created problems. Firstly, when the monk goes everywhere begging for his food, he has to eat whatever is given to him. He cannot choose. He says, I want vegetarian food. And most people, most families, they don't take vegetarian food, maybe except Choy and Sap Moon, the first and the 15th day of the lunar month. But then when people saw, oh, these Buddhist monks, they eat meat. Look at our Taoist monks. They are vegetarians, so clean. It's like Bhante Suvarna, say, ha me si ku thawun jia. So they look down on Buddhist monks. And then so much so, in the year AD 511, There was an emperor called Liang Wuti. At the age of 40, he only became a Buddhist. Before that, he was a Taoist. So at the age of 40, he became a Buddhist. Then after that, he supported Buddhism. But then he didn't like the idea of monks and nuns eating meat. So he decreed, ordered that all monks and nuns must become vegetarians. So from there on, all China or Chinese monks and nuns became vegetarians. But by that stroke of the pen, they decreed that the lifestyle of monks changed. If they stay in town and they have to eat vegetarian food, they cannot go and beg for their food. So they have to buy food. Buy food means you have to have money. So they start to have to concern with money, have to carry money. So how to get money? Then slowly it evolved. They start to become like Taoist priests, do ceremonies, chanting, rituals, and all that. In fact, their chanting style is very similar to Taoists. One of our devotees told me, She's a long time Buddhist. One day, she went to Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, there's a huge Taoist temple. So she went inside there. It so happened, the Taoist monks were chanting. And she was very surprised. Very similar to Buddhism. And then from there, she realized, actually, we copycat them. They copycat us. You see, all along, Taoist priests have used musical instruments. Mahayana monks, Chinese monks, also use musical instruments. And also, in Taoism, they do this repentance. Chan way. Buddhism also. So this Emperor Liang Wuti, he got many wives. One of his wives, one of his favorite wives, died. And then he dreamt that she became a snake. And in his dream, asked him to help her. So from there, he asked the monks to do a repentance ceremony to help the wife. So from there, you get this, we call it Liang Wang Chan. Liang Wang Chan. It's one of the popular repentance ceremonies, then you have others like Sui Chan, Sui Chan, Sui Lu Chan, all these things, all the stories behind them. If you know about Mayanna Buddhism, Mayanna Buddhism has a lot of stories. So this is how our Chinese in Buddhism started to change. But there were still some Chinese monks who wanted to practice. But those who want to practice, they go up to the hills, go and live in the hills. And they have to plant their own veggie, because they cannot eat meat. They plant their own vegetables, and they eat. But these are very few. These are real cultivators who live away, who are away from society. They go up to the hills, stay in caves, even though they can't beg for their food. And they start to grow. But those who live in towns, and the majority of Chinese monks and nuns who live in towns, they start to become just like Taoist priests. You see, like during the Buddha's time, all the monks and nuns, they lived away from the towns. Their monasteries were always out of the city gates. And then you find in the Anguttara Nikaya that the Buddha warned warned that in the future there will be monks who long for fine robes, who long for good food, who long for comfortable places of stay. And because of all these longings, they go and live in towns and cities and villages. And because of that, because of associating with lay people and all that, then they become corrupted. And either they break their precepts or do something. So, or they disrobe. So the real monks and nuns who wanted to practice, they lived away from the cities and the towns. But because most of them stayed in towns, and they did a lot of chanting. And what are those types of chanting they did? Like funerals.

(E25)-05-Chinese-Buddhism

You know, many years ago, more than 10 years ago, I had one devotee in Penang. The neighbor passed away. And then he told me that the family spent at least $20,000 employing these Taoists to come and chant. But nowadays, you don't find Taoist priests. You find Taoist laymen doing the work of Taoist priests. In Hokkien, they call it Sai Kong. Cantonese, they say Lam O Lo. So I said this, they did a ceremony, seven days of chanting. So the first day they came, they told the family, your father is in the seventh level of hell. So they did one whole night of chanting. Tomorrow, they told the family, oh, he has come up to the sixth level already. Then that day, they do some more chanting. After that, come up to the fifth level the next day. So over a period of seven days, I say, came out of hell already. Because people like to hear that, even though you don't see. So from there, you see our Chinese monks also do something similar. Chao tu. Chao tu. Chao to. See, you can help your relative out of hell. It's not a Buddhist teaching. So in this funeral, the mourning period usually is 49 days. Why 49 days? Because they believe that the soul takes 49 days to be reborn. So during these 49 days, it is wandering around, trying to find the path for rebirth. That's what they believe. So they think that by doing merit, it will help this relative to go for a good rebirth. And the first seven days is the most important. But before I go further, I just say actually what is the Buddhist concept about these 49 days. whether a person takes rebirth immediately after death or later. Now in original Buddhism, there are five places of rebirth. The two good ones are heaven and human. And the three below are the three woeful planes, the ghost, the animal, and the hell realm. Now according to the earliest discourses of the Buddha, if a person is going to be reborn in hell, hell beings will come up and drag him down to hell. That means immediately. Cannot bargain with hell beings. In fact, one of my supporters in Kampa told me that the father, just a few days before the father died, The father saw Ngau Tau Ma Min waiting for him at the door. So I don't know whether this Ngau Tau Ma Min came from Taoism, probably. But there are such beings. What form they take, we don't know. But they actually come from hell, waiting to drag you down. So that is immediate rebirth. Ghost realm, there are some devotees who tell me about their relative. There's one old man, he told me the auntie in the temple was very bad, very nasty person. So two days before she died, when she was sleeping, the teeth came out, the Dracula teeth, two big Dracula teeth came out. And everybody could see. for two days. And then when she died, then the teeth disappeared. That means she had taken rebirth. So it looks like this one, even before dying, already turned into a ghost. So it must be the rebirth is immediate once that person dies. So for the ghost, also immediate. And then for the heavenly realm, some people who remember their past life, they said that when they died, The chariot from heaven came down, heavenly chariot, with horses, horse cart came down to bring them to heaven. So it looks like heaven also immediate. But in the Buddha's teachings, if a person is going to be reborn in the human womb, to be reborn as a human, that person has to wait for condition. condition. One is that the mother and father must come together and the mother must be in the right season. Then only that person can go into the womb. So if that is the case, going into the womb must wait. Maybe for animals also the same. Should be. Animals also must wait for the parents to come together and then only can enter the womb. So only this human and animal realm They have to wait. But for the other three rebirths, it's immediate. But I have to wait how long? I think each one is different. But probably no need to wait so long, 49 days. So that is about how long it takes to be reborn. Now, although the ceremony lasts 49 days, And this 49 days is actually for rich family if they can afford. But those who cannot afford will be shorter. 7 days already 20,000. Not cheap. So how to 49 days? So normally they keep the cops 3 nights, 3 days or 5 days or 7 days. Why? To my thinking, it's because to make sure that person doesn't wake up. There have been cases of people dying already and then suddenly waking up after two days or something. But actually, according to our Buddhist teachings, we have a surer way of knowing whether that person is going to wake up or not. How? Because the Buddha says that when a person actually dies, three things stop. One is the life force, hey, ki, vitality. It stops. The second one is the consciousness. Consciousness is the last to go. Consciousness stops. The other one is body heat. This body heat is one thing we can determine. So if you feel that the corpse is cold already, sure it won't wake up again. But it's still warm. I better wait after I wake up in the coffin. So, that's the way to... And then Taoists believe that on the seventh night, the spirit will come back. Actually, very often it comes back. But if it comes back, it will show signs. You can hear the footsteps. or the door opened by itself, you cannot see anybody, the window opened, sometimes the fridge also opened. These things happen. But if he shows signs that he has come back, quite definitely he has become a ghost. And why he wants you to know, because now that person is suffering, the ghost family is suffering. That's why he wants you to know. And then they also say, because the spirit comes back, I have to be very careful. At night, I don't go near the coffin, especially 11 p.m. until 2 or 3 a.m. Even if it comes to you also, don't go. But somebody told me, he was actually called by his friends to go and help one lady. The boyfriend's father passed away. So we went to the house. So you know many people, they said, at night, don't come out 11 to 2 AM. You want to go, go and go to the bathroom first, the toilet first. But a lot of people don't believe. So in the middle of the night, I come to Europe. So I wanted to go to urine. So she went to the toilet. Came back, something entered her. Became possessed. Chong deuk liao. And they had to go and call all the Taoists to come and help. So this person who told me, he knows a Taoist master. Taoist master also called him to come along. So he said, five of them, they caught the girl. Five of them also don't have the strength to hold her down so strong. But finally they put something on her and slowly she come down. What do you call that? Fu. So, these things... The other thing about funerals, the old Chinese custom, when they take out the coffin from the house, and they're going to nail the coffin, they ask the family, don't look, turn away, So the family are very obedient, turn around and look. But one old monk, Bhante Suvarno, says, actually, what's the real reason? The olden days, when a person is going to be buried, if the family is very rich, they put gold and all that inside there. They ask you to turn away, they quickly pocket some of the gold. before they nail down the coffin. So maybe it's true. Otherwise, why ask you to look away? The other thing is that every night, you know, our Chinese, they will burn the paper money. Why? Why? Have you ever asked? You see, they believe 49 days, that dead spirit will be wandering around, trying to find his way out for rebirth. So when he's wandering around, a lot of spirits, other spirits, will come and catch up with him. So they burn this paper money, hoping that all the paper money will go into the other world. Then the greedy spirits all trying to pick up the paper money, they have no time to disturb your relative. And the relative can look for the good road to rebirth. So this is a funny belief. But nowadays, they not only burn the paper money, they burn so many other things, the house, car, everything. Of course, to us, as Buddhists, it's no use. Even if you get the paper money, the other side, they don't use. paper money. They burn the house so they don't stay in the paper house. You burn paper house, of course they get paper house. They're not going to get a brick house. Now this Chong, this Pantang, that the spirit will enter you and all this, actually is quite true. The only thing is in Buddhism, The Buddha is supposed to be the best physician in the world, the best doctor in the world. And he's teaching us a path of preventive medicine. You know, when you get cancer already, it's very hard to get a cure. But if you are a smart person, you will live your lifestyle in such a way that you won't get cancer. We know cancer comes from too much stress, eating the wrong type of food, processed food and all that. and then never exercising, and not getting enough rest. So you know some of these things. So if you live your lifestyle in such a way, you have a healthy lifestyle, you'll never get cancer. So in the same way, the Buddha's teaching is to teach us to walk the path so that we have a lot of merit, a lot of blessings. And when you have a lot of blessings, Da kuai kun si kuan. Wan so ko, always wan so ko. So if you're wan so ko, nothing will disturb you. Even the spirit come near you also is scared of you. Because you have a lot of this kuai yan, this wu fat san, bo qi. So we are truly a good person with dou da, Then you have this Hui Jin, different types of Hui Jin. After all, we have a lot of relatives in the spirit world. So if you are good, your relatives also will protect you, even your mother, father, grandparents. So, OK. The other thing about this Chinese Buddhism is this Xin Zhu Bai, San Chi Bai, these ancestral tablets. You know, from a long time ago, Chinese like to pray to this. But nowadays, our Buddhists also, sometimes they don't keep it in the house. But then, when their relative passes away, maybe they go and cremate. And then they take the ashes, put in the temple. Let's pay a lot of money, you know, not cheap, you know, for a small hole like that. They put the ashes, and then put the Sanjipa in there also. So this is not Buddhism. Why do you want to keep the ashes for? Your relatives are already gone for rebirth. They're not going to stay in that ash or in that Sanjip. Of course, in the olden days, people used to believe that all their ancestors would stay in the Sanjip and bless you and bless your house. So that is not Buddhism. So what is the Buddhist way? Actually, in Buddhism, the Buddha said that only four types of persons should keep the ashes to venerate. And the ashes are this kuthu, kuat-fui. This kuat-fui is actually Sir Li Che. Sir Li Che is not some beautiful looking crystal. It's just this kuat-fui. One of our devotees, he went to India, then he went to New Delhi, the museum there, and he actually saw the Sharira, the Surajya of the Buddha. And it's not small, beautiful looking beads, it's a bone, bone, actually bone. So our Chinese always talk about Surajya, so it's some small thing. Why? This is also because of history of Buddhism. If you have been a Mahayanist like me, I was a Mahayanist for nine years, three years as a novice and a monk, you will learn that when Buddhism first came to China, those emperors, they did not believe in Buddhism. So according to the story, one of the early Buddhist monks, he wanted to convince the emperor how good Buddhism is. So he prayed to heaven for Sarira, a relic. So he prayed very hard. for many days. Then one day, according to the story, in the cup he put, he heard a clink. So rich, he was supposed to have fallen from heaven. So he was very happy, he took this sarira and went to show the emperor. He said, this is a real relic. So the emperor said, how do I know? He said, you take a hammer, you knock the sarira, it won't break. According to the story, the emperor knocked with a hammer and it never broke. From here, people think Sarira is something round and beautiful. It's not. So, only four persons, their Sarira, their Kwad Fui is worthy of veneration. The first one is a Sammasambuddha, a Buddha who teaches the Dharma to the world. The second one is a Pacheka Buddha, a silent Buddha. who doesn't teach Dhamma to the world. Then the third one is Aryan disciples. First fruit, second fruit, third, fourth fruit. Suttapanna, Sakadagamin, Anagamin and Arahant. Four types of Arya. Then the last person is the universal monarch. King who is so good that the whole world wants him to become the king. Such a person is very hard to find. So only these four types of persons, you take their remains after burning, then you venerate. Otherwise, other people, you just throw it away. So our Buddhist system is very simple. After burning, you can either scatter in your property, or scatter in the river, or scatter in the jungle, or in the sea. But if you want to bury, you also can. So you don't need to waste a lot of money on coffins. You see nowadays people buy very expensive coffins. You put for cremation or turn to dust. So you can do like in the Buddhist countries. You can just take plywood and knock the plywood together. And some of them you can do like the Muslims actually. They just wrapped with white cloth only. In Buddha's time it was like that. They just wrapped the corpse. No need coffin also. The other thing is about this praying for the ancestors, like Qingming, the Ghost Festival, the last day of the Chinese New Year. When we pray, this Pai Gong Ma, we call it Pai Chu. Pai Chu Xian. Pai Zhou Xin, Cantonese. So this one, we pray, Chinese pray because they think by doing merit for their relative or showing respect to their relative that you will get married. But actually, if we want to give any merit to our relative since they have passed away, then according to the Buddha, only if they are reborn as ghosts that you can help them. Because if they are reborn as ghosts, they come back But if they are reborn in heaven, in other planes, like in heaven, or as a human being, or as an animal, or in hell, they cannot come back. So if they cannot come back, whatever you do also, they don't know. So whatever you do, they don't know, you can't help them. Because for a person to receive, that person must know, and that person must be willing to accept. That's why only ghosts, only we can help them. So you can either, of course, if your relative is reborn as a ghost, you can offer food by the roadside. Or better still, you do some charity. But before you do the charity, inform your relatives that you're going to do the charity on their behalf. And then you transfer the merit to them. Why you do this way? Because if you do your charity, your merit increases, depending on who you do it to. That's why people like to offer to the Sangha of monks and nuns, because it's more meritorious. If you offer something to a virtuous person, the merit is multiplied. But if you offer to somebody who does not keep sila, no moral conduct, then your merit is lower. So when you do the offering, for example, to monks, and it is multiplied, then you transfer to your dead relative, then he gets a lot. But if you offer by the roadside, and you offer one bowl of rice, that being will only get one bowl of rice. Whereas if you do it the other way, it might get many bowls. So we have to know that our relatives, we want to help our relatives only if they are reborn as ghosts. Can we help them? Otherwise, we cannot help them. The other thing is about our Chinese custom, a lot of people like to go to Taoist temples, and they have problems, they ask for help. And sometimes these people in Taoist temples, either they go into a trance, or the spirit comes, enters them, and then they write, they use a wine, piece of wood, they write on the sand, yes or no? Two persons hold, let's say we have in Ipoh, Kelok Seh, one place, they always do this. But when they write the writing, it's a Chinese character, but it's upside down, reversed. So a normal person see, I don't know how to read. But some of them are trained, trained so they can read. And then they write down the actual words. So in this way, they help people. Now, who are these spirits that come and help? Of course, according to the Taoists, they are all kinds of gods. But to my belief, they are more likely to be ghosts. Because if you invite them to enter a human body, if they are a celestial being, a god, they are so happy in heaven, why should they come into your body? Your body is so smelly to them. Just like pigs come near us and we close our ears, our nose. So in the same way, our body is full of shit and urine and pus and all these things. But if you invite a ghost, the ghost will happily come into a human body because he can enjoy back human life form. So why they come? Because many of them are reborn into the ghost realm and they have remorse that they have not done enough good deeds. That's why they are reborn in the ghost realm. For a person to be reborn in the ghost realm, you don't have to do evil. You just lead a normal life and you'll be reborn in the ghost realm because I use up our blessings. Every day we enjoy Kentucky chicken, see Astro, go Lei Hang. All this is a use of blessings. So by the time we pass away, our bank account is in the red already. It's like now the economy is very bad. Meltdown. So because they have remorse, they realize they need to do good deeds, so they want to help human beings. So sometimes there are some people, even though they don't want to become a medium and all that, some of these spirits purposely enter them. You all know, many ordinary people, they try to resist, so they cannot. Then after that, they have to do this work to help people. It's actually the spirit wants to help, not he, not that person wants to help. So the spirit helps and he gets married, so one day he's reborn out of the ghost realm. But sometimes even if it's a deva that comes, it's a very low deva, very low type of deva. OK, the other thing you find in Chinese Buddhist temples and Taoist temples is Kunyang, Kuan Yin. Kuan Yin came from India. And in India, it was called Avalokiteśvara. Avalokiteśvara. The last word is Avalokiteśvara. And Avalokiteśvara means god. So it was actually an Indian god that crept into Buddhism. And this Indian god was male god. That's why the earliest statues of Guan Yin in China was a male with moustache and all that. But then our Chinese very smart. Even so long ago, they managed to do a sex change operation. 2,000 years ago, they could manage to do a sex change operation and turn Guan Yin into a woman. So now you find people praying to Guan Yin. But then of course, actually in our original Buddhism, praying to all these gods and Bodhisattvas and even Buddhas will not help us. Because the Buddha said in one discourse, Buddha said, there are several things in life that everybody wants. You want to be born beautiful, you want to be born strong, healthy. You want to have a happy life. a long life, and when you pass away, you want to have a good rebirth again. Everybody wants all these things. But the Buddha said, these things are very hard to get. And the Buddha said, you can't get them by praying, or making a vow, or thinking of them every day. The Buddha said, you have to work for them. So how to work for them? You have to understand karma, the law of karma, vipaka. In the law of kamalpaka, if you want to be born beautiful or handsome, you've got to be sweet-natured. If you're sweet-natured, then you're born muka manis. But you're always sour. Sour face, very bad-tempered. People say anything, you get angry. When we get angry, we have a sour face. Fierce face. Every day you behave like this, it's natural you won't have a beautiful face. The other thing is if you want to have a healthy body, you don't make other, don't torture other beings. If we torture other beings, I know when I was young, my parents used to tell me stories. In those days, they had slaves. Man slave, woman slave. And they think it's my slave, I can do what I like with her. They torture the slaves. So you make these other beings suffer, the body painful. Next time you come back with a painful body, Not a healthy body, not a strong body. If you want to have long life, don't kill. If we kill, we make other beings have short life. It's only natural we have short life. Nowadays we see some babies born short time only, they have cancer. Where did that cancer come from? Don't blame God. So... then if you want to be, have a good rebirth, depending where you want to be reborn. If you want to be reborn in heaven, you've got to behave like a human, a heavenly being. If your character is like a deva or a devi now, it's only natural you'll be reborn as a deva or a devi. But you are what we call a ngau ching. How to be born as a deva or a devi? Ngau ching, you become ngau. So for us, we don't pray to any god. We help ourselves. That's why they say Buddhism is a do-it-yourself religion. The other thing, the other god the Chinese like to pray to is the Chai Xin, Choy San. Pray to all types of Choy San, hoping the money god So, in Buddhism, what is the money God? We also have Choy San, but our Choy San, the real Choy San is Dana and Sila. Dana is charity, generosity, helping others. Heo Loi Chod Loi, Heo Lek Chod Lek, as they say. Money, you give money. You have energy, you give energy. You have time, you give time. You have words, you give comforting words. So being good to all other beings, that is dhana. And sila is moral conduct. When we keep sila, we don't harm other beings. So we keep hau yin, create good affinity with others. Next time we are reborn, people see you only, mukha manis, people like you. So if you open a shop, people come, pong chan, come and help your business. So this affinity is very, very important. That's why you find some people, they have good affinity with so many people. They rise up very fast. Last time in my university days, I had one friend. He was a great joker. Everybody like him is very smart, always joking. Then he joined Exxon, ended up a CEO of Exxon, a few countries, now Southeast Asia or something like that. So this affinity helps us a lot. So the way is this generosity and moral conduct. That way we can easily become wealthy. The other thing about rebirth as a deva, this behaving like a deva, This dana and sila, generosity and moral conduct is important. The other thing that is important to become a deva is meditation. Because we know devas and devis have great psychic power. One day the Buddha was meditating in a cave. It was a very small cave. And 60 devas and devis came to visit him. But even though the cave was so small, and these devas and devis, their bodies are very big, very huge. The Buddha said they did not feel crowded in the cave, even though it was a very small cave. In fact, the Buddha said all 60 of them stood at the point of a needle, such a small point, and they did not feel cramped because of their psychic power. And then the Buddha said, you don't think that their psychic power they cultivated in heaven, Buddha said, all the psychic power was cultivated in the human lifetime, human birth. So if we meditate, especially Samatha meditation, we train our mind to focus. If our mind can focus, then the light wells up from within us. And that's why these devas and devis, they are called devas because they are bright. bright, shining. So it helps a lot if you want to become a Deva and Devi by meditating. Now this, our Chinese, this Taoist culture, they like to pray to all these gods. So much so that, I don't know whether you all know, you go to certain old houses, the door got one face there, Even like you go to some Buddhist temples, the big door, they got a face there. Who is this face? Mun. Mun San. The door of God. They believe that the door also has a God guarding the door. So now in Buddhist temples, you go, sometimes you don't have this face on the door. Sometimes they have Si Tai Tin Wong. The four great heavenly kings, Chatu Maharajika, standing at the door there. You go, for example, to Cameron Islands, the big temple in Brinjang. You enter the big door and you see there are four great heavenly kings. So this comes from Taoism, actually, praying to these door gods. And then, in Taoism, they have all kinds of statues, these gods they pray to. And they offer food. So in Chinese Buddhism also, they offer the Buddha statue food every morning. I used to do all this chanting. But then you offer this food to these statues, what's the point? They're not going to eat. The Buddha and even these devas, they have better food than us. But what is the Buddhist attitude concerning devas? The Buddha said there are a lot of devas around us, spirits, devas and ghosts and all that. And the Buddha said whenever we stay in any place, especially a new place or new house, we have to pay respect to the devas around there. Because the devas, they also have their Penghulu, just like we have a village headman, they also have their chief. In Pali, it's called Devaraja. Sometimes we call Datuk Kong, the Deva head of that area. So when we come to a new area, we should pay respect, the Buddha says. They can't help us very much, but they can harm us if we look down on them. That's why you see those contractors, when they put up a building site, they always must go and pray 3rd Datuk Kong first and make offerings and all that. And then they can construct their building peacefully. Otherwise accidents will happen and some people die and all that. And in Buddhism, the Buddha talked about all types of spirits, even like, for example, tree spirits. The Buddha said, even in one tree, there are many spirits inside. There are some that like to live only in the leaves. There are some that like to live only on the bark of the tree. Some like to live in the wood. Some like to live in the flowers. Some like to live only in the roots. So one tree itself has so many devas. If it's a bigger tree, there are more and bigger devas. So we have to be very careful. If you want to chop down a tree also, you should pay respect to it, and give notice, say, in three days' time, I have to chop down this tree. If there's any devas here, devis, please find another tree. So just saying like that, at least you show respect, and then you come to know. But I've heard many stories of people, for example, their house, they have an old mango tree. When it's old, no more bearing fruit. and looking ugly, they go and get people to chop it down. And after that, sometimes they have accidents, sometimes they fall sick. Many cases. And the worst case I heard now was one lady, she became deranged. Qi Xin. So we have to be very careful of all these spirits around us. Don't offend them. And then, praying to statues, it seems the first 300 or 500 years after the Buddha's passing away, the Buddhists never prayed to any statues. It's only later when people don't really understand the Dhamma, and they put up statues and they worship them. So this worshipping of statues is not necessary. It's something that was added later. And then in the The old days, the Taoists, when they put up a statue of a god, they like to open the third eye. So how they do this, they slaughter some animal and put the blood on the statue. Actually, why they do this, I suspect because they invite some spirit into that into that statue. And then, now it has come into Chinese Buddhism, they also do this, but just a ceremony. The Buddhist monks are from far, they will take the pen or something and do something, mark the eye like that. So, all this didn't come from one. And just like Taoists practice as physicians. Sometimes our Buddhist monks also practice as physicians, which is not allowed according to the disciplinary rules of the Buddha. Now, the other thing, you know, just now I said in the Chinese culture, the family is very important. So among the Chinese monks and nuns, They also consider themselves like the Sangha is one family. So their name, like formerly I was a Mahayana monk. My Mahayana monk name was Kaipha Vassa. So if I write my name, Sir Kaipha. What is that Sir? The Sir is a Sir Chiamoni Sakya. So they claim themselves to be members of the Sakyan clan, Sakyan family. So they have that Sir. So the kai is also like a family. All my sushi ati, all my dharma brothers, all also will be kai. Kai chao, kai yong yong, kai this, kai that. So this is the tradition. And then also, we call the master, sifu, yes or no? Sifu. And then the master's master, we call tsukong. And then the Dharma brothers, Suhyati. All this is just like a family. This also came from our Chinese culture. So we find now in Chinese Buddhism that they have become vegetarians, actually, from this Taoism. All the Chinese monks and nuns are vegetarian. It's not actually a Mahayana practice. If you go to many Mahayana countries, they are not vegetarian. Japanese Buddhism is also Mahayana. They don't practice vegetarianism. If you go to Tibetan Buddhism, also Mahayana. They don't practice vegetarianism. But Chinese Buddhism practices vegetarianism. And because of Chinese Buddhism, Vietnam used to belong to China. So Vietnamese Buddhists also practice vegetarianism, just like South Korea, at one time also under China, also practice vegetarianism. But not all of them. So lastly, I'd like to say is that now we find Chinese Buddhism, the monks and nuns have degenerated and become very similar to Taoist priests, and they spend a lot of time doing ceremonies and chanting and all that. Those few monks and nuns who really want to practice, they don't want to do all this Papui, all this ceremony. Instead, they live in isolated areas, and they plant their own vegetables and all that, and they practice meditation. And this deterioration of Chinese Buddhism is quite natural. It's not only in Chinese Buddhism. You find it in many religions. For example, in the Buddhist discourses, the Buddha's discourses, he always said that the Brahmins originally were cultivators, were ascetics. Brahmins, their caste, at one time or other, the man must renounce and go and become a monk and beg for his food and all this. Sometimes it is after that person is married, sometimes before that person is married, that person becomes a monk. So in those days, when they practiced as monks, they meditated until many of them got psychic power. So when they had psychic power, they could communicate with the devas, the gods. So I believe from there, they learned a lot of mantras. Mantras are words with no meaning. We have a lot of mantras in Tibetan Buddhism, some in Mahayana Buddhism also. And these mantras are very powerful words. In fact, they can do things similar to psychic power, like walking to the wall, make themselves invisible. This person by the name is Chinese called Longshu Pusa, one of the monks who started Mahayana Buddhism. His Pali name is Nagarjuna. He mentioned in his biography in his younger days, he was not a Buddhist. And he and his friends learned some mantra, where after chanting, they made themselves invisible. And then they go into the king's harem and then seduce the king's wives. So one day, the king got furious. He asked his brahmin, got advice what to do. So he told his soldiers to stand guard. Next time when the wives scream, they go in with their swords and slash everywhere. So his four friends, he and his three friends, went to the harem and did the same thing. And the guards came and slashed. And his three friends died. So he was so afraid, he prayed for his life. He vowed that if he came out alive, that he would change his person. So he managed to run out, and then after that he became a Buddhist monk. And then he changed his ways. So you see, these mantras are very powerful things. So after the Brahmins learned the mantras, they kept it as a secret. Only their own clansmen, only Brahmins, they teach. They don't teach other people. So because these brahmins had these mantras, the king employed them as advisors, as protectors. And because the mantras were very powerful, the king was very happy and rewarded them with land, money, cattle, wives, slaves, everything. So from there, they stopped becoming ascetics. and became like priests, doing all the ceremonies and all these things. So the Buddha used to sometimes scold them, say, compared to the old Brahmins, there are no more Brahmins and all this. So they deteriorated. So you find also in Christianity, Jesus Christ was a great meditator. In the Bible, you find that Jesus went to the desert and meditated for 40 days and 40 nights, must be without food, until he probably was near to enlightenment or what. Mara could not sit still. Mara, Satan, had to come and disturb him. But you find nowadays, the Christian priests and the pastors, their lifestyle is completely different from Jesus Christ. So it's natural that sometimes the founder of religion is an ascetic, a recluse. Then years later, a few hundred years later, the disciples degenerate. So even with Hinduism also, nowadays you find a lot of Hindu priests only do ceremonies, only blessings and all that. So with Buddhism, luckily, because the Buddha's teachings on the Suttas and the Vinaya is very clear, explain the holy life so clearly that we still have a chance. If we are sincere, we want to practice, we can still follow the Buddha's way up to now. But unfortunately, a lot of monks, they don't follow the Buddha's lifestyle. Just like the Buddha gave a warning that in the future monks and nuns will live in the cities and the towns and behave like lay people and all that. Nowadays this is happening. Monks and nuns driving Mercedes-Benz, buying shares, owning a lot of property. So we have to know this now, how Buddhism deteriorated. So that's the end of this talk.