In the previous episode, I explored with everyone on the topic of folk customs and their taboos. I had also mentioned about ancestral worship. Ancestral worship is a very sensitive topic because some people think that we do not worship our ancestors after we have become Christians. They will say that “Christians, who believe in Jesus, do not want their ancestors” and in doing so, Christians have lost their Chinese identity. Actually, all these are misinterpretations. We need to know the true reasons and the motives for ancestral worship.

What’s the motives for ancestral worship? In the previous episode, I shared that people worship their ancestors as a result of fear in their hearts. This was the traditional view of people in the past - we would become ghosts after death. If ghosts have a place to return to, they will not be scary; if otherwise, they will become powerful spirits. If they remain in this world, they will bring disasters to us and our descendants. We are afraid. Thus, we worship our ancestors and have religious rituals conducted for their souls so that they have a place to return to. This is the first reason for ancestral worship.

The second reason for ancestral worship is to perform religious rituals for the dead souls. Based on the Buddhist cycle, there are six realms of existence for reincarnation. Where do they lead to? It depends on the effort put in by the human beings and their fortunes! In the six realms of existence, there are three good realms such as the heavenly, human and demi-god realms and three evil realms such as the animal, hungry ghost and hellish realms. Reincarnation constantly occurs in the six realms of existence for the people in the world to end up in – for instance, good people will have a good place to go to. If he is a good person, he will most likely end up in the human, heavenly or demi-god realms. On the contrary, if he commits evil, he will most probably end up in the animal, hungry ghost or hellish realms.

Brothers and sisters, such forms of beliefs are to tell people to do good. However, there are a lot of discussions revolving around the concept of “conducting religious rites for the dead souls”. Some parts of it are rather absurd. For instance:

a) If the ancestors end up in reincarnation, why do you still need to worship them? He had already been reincarnated! How can you worship him? This is impossible.

b) On the other hand, does the spirit leave the body after a person has died, does the animal also have a spirit? Is there reincarnation? If there is no one to conduct religious rites for the animal, where will its soul seek refuge?

c) In the same way, how many generations shall be involved in ancestral worship? What about those ancestors who do not reincarnate? Will there be poverty for those descendants who do not worship ancestors? Many westerners are Chinese who refrain from ancestral worship, but many of these western countries are still prosperous and they live well!

d) From the point of logic reasoning, the world population is decreasing. There are fewer good people and more evil people. Since there are only six realms of existence for reincarnation in Buddhism, the animal realm should have more animals and the human realm should have fewer people, isn’t it?

The above points can be discussed. What is “conducting religious rites for the dead souls” about? Its purpose is to persuade people to do good and stay away from evil. However, it is miserable for the dead souls to end up in a bad place such as the hungry ghost realm or the hellish realm. This is definitely not about the “gospel (good news)” rather it is disastrous news (or bad news)!

In Taoism, it is believed that the dead souls have to pass through ten checkpoints for the ten Buddha kings to settle their accounts for judgement. They will be judged from the first temple to the tenth temple till they are reincarnated! In Taoism, there is a saying regarding “three souls and seven mortal senses” to contrast the spiritual and carnal aspects of the human beings. It means that people have life and death – from the time of birth till death is one’s life in this world. While the life before birth is known as the past life, the life after death is called the afterlife. There is a total of three lives. Thus, people talk about the blessing of three lifetimes in Taoism but the Christians have no such beliefs in it.

In Taoism, people will enter a total of 49 days of mourning after death. As for the “three souls and seven mortal senses” of the deceased, they have to conduct a complete sequence of rituals following the mourning period. Big rites will be conducted on the first, third, fifth and seventh day whereas small rites will perform on the second, fourth and sixth day. When the small rites are conducted, the Taoist priest will be invited to read the Taoist texts and conduct the rituals for the deceased. Each time the rituals for seven days have finished, a mortal sense will disappear! After he has finished the Taoist text for the complete sequence of seven rituals, only the three souls of the deceased will remain after forty-nine days. Where will the three souls of the deceased go to? One of the souls will be in the ancestral tablet, another soul will be reincarnated and the final soul will be in the tomb. Therefore, we must go to the tomb and to the ancestral tablet for ancestral worship. Based on the Taoism saying, some people may attain Nirvana or go to the spiritual western world.

Brothers and sisters, such beliefs comfort the people. It makes us believe that after our ancestors have passed away, we need to conduct rituals for them so that they can go to a better place. I would have, then, done my part of filial piety and am a filial child. However, such a belief is rather illogical because a person only has one spiritual soul after his death. How does it become three souls? I did some research. The concept of three souls in Taoism is a bit similar to the spirit, soul and body concept in Greek philosophy. The best among the three is the spirit. Of the three souls in Taoism, one is the best, the other is average and the final is bad.

After a person has perished and reincarnated and some may have changed their surnames or become animals, why is it so that the hungry ghosts still remain in the ancestral tablets for worship? Furthermore, if they have gone to the heavenly realm and become celestial beings for at least 900,000 years, they will live carefree lives there and do not need to eat food cooked by the humans. Thus, their descendants do not have to offer food to them and they will not return to haunt their descendants. So, if they have reincarnated to be humans, we do not need to worship them. If we still continue to worship them as dead people, aren’t we unfilial? What if they have reincarnated to be birds or animals? I once heard a story about a woman whose husband had died and she went to seek the god. The medium told her that her husband had reincarnated to be a cockroach. So the day after, when she saw a cockroach, she killed it. She hated her husband and was furious with him so each time she saw a cockroach she would kill it. If the dead spirit has become a bird, an animal, an insect, a fish or a prawn, will the creature have three souls and seven mortal senses like a human being? If he has become a cow and his descendants are filial, they should think of a way to find the cow and worship it. All because of reincarnation. Isn’t it?

All these are superstitions so it is not worth believing in them. Moreover, such forms of saying lack a sense of morality because if you have money to engage the Taoist priest to conduct rituals and earn “merits”, the soul of the deceased will dissipate. If you have no money for conducting the rites, even if you are a good person, the spirit will eventually end up to be a lonely and wandering ghost. Based on the saying of Taoism, if the dead spirit is banished to hell but has yet to be reincarnated and has just gone past the ten temples in three years, his family members can still try their best to earn merits for the deceased and save him from the suffering in hell. Then, he can go to paradise. In other words, the human beings on earth can influence the final judgement that takes place in hell, just as the saying goes, “with money, you can do anything you like”! It is no wonder why so many people are afraid that no one will worship them and earn merits for them after they have died. As a result, they are condemned to be hungry ghosts that will never be reincarnated. Isn’t it unfair?

The FaHua sutra in Buddhism emphasizes that if you continuously chant in prayer, you will be able to resist and eradicate sins. Therefore, if people can chant forever, they will not experience the karma or preordained fate in the three realms. Thus, there is a “team to assist in chanting” for a dying person. They will be chanting Buddhist scriptures continuously by his side till he goes into the beautiful eternal world in no time at all.

Brothers and sisters, these are the superstitions and unfair sayings of many people.  These motives for ancestral worship are not wise.

However, in the tradition of Confucianism, ancestral worship has the meaning of “carefully attending to one’s parents’ funeral rites and keeping them in remembrance.” This is acceptable in Christianity.

However, other than this, Confucianism also involves ancestral worship. They worship the dead as if they are worshipping the living. This is not acceptable in Christianity. Later, I will further discuss this topic.

Finally, there is a saying for seeking blessing and avoiding disaster. If an elderly person passes away, one says to him, “We part and go our separate ways. When you are gone, bless us with good lives so that we live and eat well. Do not let us suffer for the sins. May the whole family live good lives on earth. When you are gone, do not take the blessing along with you and leave nothing behind. When you return, bring the good fortune with you.” This is an attitude to seek blessing and avoid disaster. Why should we worship our ancestors? It is to bring blessing and happiness to our descendants. It is not a good motive to have.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we now have some basic understanding of ancestral worship. In the next episode, I will share with all of you on the stand and perspective of Christianity towards ancestral worship. Let us pray together.

Dear Heavenly Father, we are very thankful to you because through your Word, we see the positive significance of ancestral worship but there is much superstition in it too. Let us abandon such superstitious perspectives and not be enslaved to superstitions. Let us also not be drawn away to do foolish things. On the other hand, let us understand the Holy Word of God and be wise people, who worship our heavenly Father, the creator of human beings. In addition, may we know how to respect our parents on earth and be filial to them in our lifetimes. Lord, this is our prayer to you. May the Lord bless us, give us His grace and teach us. In the holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray, Amen!

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