Qing Ming Jie & Buddhism

Posted in Buddhism by amituofo on April 3, 2008

What is Qing Ming Jie?

In English, it is known as Tomb Sweeping Day which usually falls on somewhere between April 4 or April 5 of the western calender. It marks the middle of spring and is a sacred day for the dead.

This is one traditional not-to-be-missed festival customarily practiced by the Chinese in honor and remembrance of the dead ancestors of each and every family as an act of filial piety and gratitude. It is a duty incumbent of every living generations to pray and make offerings to the deceased during this festival yearly without fail.

The usual practice involves cleaning by sweeping the tomb, offering of foods and before the ancestors’ tomb the living both young and old pray and burn hell paper money or other made-of-paper clothes, cars, handphones, among other things (sometimes I wonder if they really receive those things) in the hope that it would appease them and in return received the blessing from the dead.

Or so it may seem…

But in what I come to learn in Buddhism is the deceased are the ones who actually need our help the most. The fact of the matter is that they need more blessing from the living relatives to help them relieve their sufferings. The deceased whether they are our immediate family members, relatives or friends may be born in a not-so-good condition (the Effect) due to their unwholesome karma created while living (the Cause). This is an eternal law.

So how can we help them?

Qing Ming Jie is the time (as a matter of fact, this should not be the only time) when we perform good deeds and transfer the merits wholeheartedly to the deceased in the hope that it will help reduce their karma and be born into a happier state. As in Pureland practice, we can make a wish for them to be born into the Western Pureland of Amithabha. In return, those deceased thus appreciated and satisfied will gratefully wish for our well-beings.

So let’s celebrate this festival by performing any good deeds and transferring all the merits in the name of the deceased. This in essence is filial piety in Buddhist sense.

P/S: Please do not kill or slaughter any living animals as offerings to the dead as this is considered an act of killing for the sake of the deceased and it is unwholesome and produces bad karma. Think about it if we do that, we are not helping them at all but increase more of their sufferings due to the karmic retribution of killing. Here an act of gratitude may turn out to be, umh, not-too-grateful.

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