P: When the Buddha was close to death, his disciples came to him and asked,
“How would you like us to conduct your funeral?” The Buddha answered, “You don’t need to worry about my funeral because the lay Buddhists will take care of it.”
Lay Buddhists are those who take refuge in the Three Jewels and practice the Five Precepts without becoming monks or nuns. When the Buddha said they will take care of it, he meant that his funeral would be conducted based on customs of the lay people in India. So, after the Buddha died, the Lay Buddhists cremated the Buddha’s body according to the Indian tradition. If he had lived in Korea, he would have been buried in the ground as is the custom in Korea.
The Dharma is a teaching about truth, so it does not contain cultural aspects. However, since Buddhism originated from India, its traditions, customs, and culture were integrated into the Buddhist culture. Strictly speaking, neither cremation nor the 49-day posthumous ceremony is a fundamental tradition of Buddhism. They are in fact part of the of Indian cultural tradition.
It is said that the deceased person has 49 days to be saved and is classified into one of nine levels based on his deeds during his life. “Anyone can be reborn in paradise after he dies if he sincerely hopes for it. However, not everyone can be reborn in paradise right away since people fall into one of the nine categories based on their deeds.” Specifically, people are divided into three categories of high, middle and low, and those in each of the three categories are again divided into high, middle and low, so there are a total of nine categories.
It is believed that people in the very first category are reborn in paradise immediately after their death. It is comparable to leaving a room and entering another room. Those in the second category are reborn within 12 hours. It takes one day for those in the third category, three days for those in the fourth, a week for those in the fifth, 21 days for those in the sixth, and finally, it takes 49 days for those in the seventh category to be reborn in paradise. This is reason that people hold the 49-day posthumous ceremony. This ritual provides an opportunity for people to do good deeds on behalf of their deceased family members and help them be reborn in paradise within 49 days.
What happens to the people in the eighth and ninth categories? Ultimately, people in all nine categories will all be reborn in paradise. However, those in the eighth and ninth categories have to spend some time in hell before that. Every year, Buddhists perform the Buddhist All Soul’s Day ceremony on July 15th of the lunar calendar to save the souls of those in the two categories from hell. There is no point in debating whether this is true or not because it is a religious belief, so people are free to choose whether to believe it or not.
Funeral customs vary greatly from religion to religion and country to country. In India, the dead are cremated, and in Tibet, they are left to be eaten by birds. The corpse is cut up and placed on big rocks high in the mountain, so that it is eaten by falcons and eagles. In desert regions, the dead are “buried in the wind.” That is, they are nailed on a wooden board and exposed to the elements for one year until only the bones remain after which the funeral ceremony is performed. In regions with many islands, the dead are dropped into the sea.
Each of these funeral rituals has its unique meaning and significance. Tibetans feed the dead to birds because they believe that the spirit of the dead will fly to heaven with the birds. Some cultures bury the dead in the ground because of the belief that the spiritual world exists underground. Meanwhile, Indians believe in reincarnation, so they cremate the corpse to help the spirits to quickly sever their attachment to their worldly bodies so that they can be reborn.
Regardless of the funeral ritual that is performed, once a person dies, it’s the end. By saying “the end” I am not implying that there is no heaven or an afterlife; I am simply saying the person who draws his last breath will no longer exist in this world. From a Christian viewpoint, the spirits go to heaven, and from a Buddhist perspective, the spirits are reborn, so there is nothing we can do for them. Therefore, the best farewell for those who pass away is to let them go from our hearts.
