went guang ming monastery to pay respect to my ancestors with my parents and relatives..
tons and tons of people there.. each bringing along boxes and boxes of offerings to their ancestors..
years ago, it was just paper cars, then came all kinds of luxury cars like mercedes benz or limo..
then came the pagers (like you really like to page someone from the netherworlds, or you would expect them to return the page!), then the handphones (those big enough to be used as a water bottle in those days), then all sorts of jewellery, then tv, then laptop! (hey, you can even msn you departed ones now!)..
and now louis vuitton bags, gucci bags, you name it, they've got it..
it really seems to me that actually hell is a better place than earth, you get to have the luxury goods you don't get when you are alive and you don't need to pay any coe, petrol, insurances, electricity bills and water bills.. and you get to go for high tea and a cuppa touting your louis vuitton tote while you are at it.. flant it off to the brother cow-head and horse-face in hell.. maybe give them a lift to the hades palace in your latest bmw 3.0 series.. do video conferencing with your loved ones still on earth, show them how hell looks like.. ask them when they are coming down to join them in this 'paradise' of theirs..
but wait, aren't we missing something really essential here? they are in the netherworld isn't it? or the so-called hell as we know it. and it's a place without and pleasures and enjoyment. and unless we are so confident that our loved ones were so holy in their lifes lived, had done no bad deeds whatsoever, they should not be in the netherworld in the first place, ain't it so? and if they are in a better place than here on earth, then i don't think they even need those material offerings to enjoy their stay there. but why do we so paradoxically know that they are in a place called netherworld, know that there are bound to be sufferings, and yet burn them so many luxuries, thinking that they need such 'worldly' pleasures as well, to have a better 'life' down there.. this is a part i don't understand.. do they do it so as to have a peace of mind, 'knowing' that they have done their part for their loved ones, providing for them in their afterlife, because they did not do so when they were alive?? i don't know either.. but i don't need any answer, because there ain't any..
i'm just making fun of people.. bad as i am, doesn't it make us stop and ponder?? perhaps not.. i don't care either.. shall i care?
a+