In a life full of wandering and benevolent hearts, I have a soft spot for Xu Yunliu's **, although I would rather stay at home, but because of his explanation, I unexpectedly narrowed the distance between my religious beliefs. During one of his visits to the Guandi Temple in the ancient city of Ninghua, there was a burst of "Good Buddha Warning" on the screen, and "no one is allowed to enter the temple". This mysterious barrage made me curious, so I couldn't wait to launch an investigation to uncover the mystery of "no one enters the temple".
I think back to a deep parting in my life more than ten years ago, it was on a hot summer day, when I experienced my grandfather's death from lung cancer. A funeral was held at home, but the flies buzzed during the banquet, and the cold dishes were patronized by them, which made people feel extremely uncomfortable. Unfortunately, the older generation of the family began to talk about those nasty things, claiming that Grandpa's ghost was still hovering in the house. For me, a person who doesn't believe in the existence of gods, such a statement is difficult for me to accept.
On the night of my grandfather's death, everyone decided to stay overnight in order to deal with some pre-natal supplies, feasts, and the next day's grave. However, due to the traditional belief that the soul of the deceased would linger in the house, relatives chose to spend the night in the open air, and I decided to sleep in peace in the house. This night, the humid open-air environment caused great inconvenience to my relatives, but I lived relatively comfortably in the house. The next day, when I was preparing to send off the deceased, there was a shortage of sedan chair drivers, which caused some confusion, but I found red paper in advance in this scuffle and made up the number for one of the missing sedan chair drivers, defusing a potentially ominous atmosphere.
As night fell, paper sedan chairs, horses, cars, televisions and other paper items were lit during the ceremony of sending the trays, forming a raging fire. During the ceremony, a small episode occurred: I accidentally tripped while delivering a sedan chair, causing everyone to laugh. The old lady in charge kept shouting: "XX, get on the sedan chair!.""It was dark, but I inadvertently tripped and became a little laugh in this farewell ceremony. Then the old lady took the plate that caught the ashes, and when she looked at it carefully, she said, "It's a bird." I fell into an incredible contemplation of all this, and fellow relatives also accepted this strange ending in confusion. The old lady claimed that this was the manifestation of her grandfather's spiritual power, which became a part of this mysterious ritual.
Although I had doubts about this series of traditional rituals and beliefs, they provoked me to think deeply about life and death, and the existence of the soul. If the soul really exists, I would prefer it to stay with my loved ones all the time, rather than stay away. I find it difficult to agree with the belief that you may be reincarnated as a bird in the next life, and I think such traditional beliefs are really incredible.
In this ritualistic process, I felt a lot of emotion and thought about the meaning of the cycle of life and death. When we are alive, we strive for family affection, but the ritual of sacrifice after death seems cumbersome and incomprehensible to a certain extent. In today's society, there are many cemeteries, and people burn paper and money, but I am beginning to question the true meaning of all this. When our loved ones are still alive, should we care for and accompany them with our hearts, rather than leaving them for devotional rituals after death?
Overall, this personal experience has made me think more deeply about traditional beliefs and the concept of life and death. In modern society, do we need to re-examine those red tape rituals and different attitudes towards life and death? Perhaps, caring for our living loved ones allows us to better understand the true meaning of life, rather than leaving everything for after death. This is perhaps a more modern, practical way of thinking.