Fang Zheng couldn't laugh or cry when he saw this. What does this mean? He had seen many people who were cheating on people, but this was the first time he had seen people cheating on people by giving gifts.
Fangzheng had no choice but to thank him, choose two bundles of yellow paper money, a few candles, and some nails, and then left.
The last stop was Wang Yougui's house. As soon as he entered the door, he saw Wang Yougui busy there, Song Ergou, Ma Laizi, accountant Yang Ping, Yang Ping's brother Yang Hua, secretary Tan Juguo, Jiang Zhou, Fan Qing, Qiu Xiaoye, Guan Xiangfeng is in the yard, talking about something.
Seeing Fang Zheng coming, everyone stood up quickly.
Wang Yougui said with a smile: "Abbot Fangzheng, you came at the right time. We are discussing how big the altar should be. In the past, our village was poor and we were all fooled. Now that we are rich this year, we can't continue to fool ourselves." ? At least I want to be the most beautiful one in every village."
Fang Zheng shook his head helplessly and said: "Sacrificing ancestors does not require such a big pomp. Worshiping ancestors is like worshiping Buddha. It is better to be sincere than anything else. To give a simple example, Donor Tan, you want your grandson or granddaughter to buy you a mansion. , Is it filial piety to buy a luxury car but never come back once a year?"
Tan Juguo shook his head decisively and said: "I would rather those brats come back to see me, chat, or let me scold me. I can also give them money..."
Fang Zheng nodded and said, "It's the same with our ancestors. It's not easy for them to come back. What they want to see is sincere filial piety, not a bunch of food and a high table. People are gone, so what's the use of seeing all this?" "
Wang Yougui said: "Make it bigger so that our ancestors can also benefit from it."
"That's what you think it's like down there. Have you ever been there to see it?" Fang Zheng asked.
Wang Yougui was speechless...
Fang Zheng continued: "The poor monk has never been there. No living person knows what is down there. From the eyes of a living person, the world of the dead is like putting your own comfortable shoes on the feet of an elephant." Will he be comfortable? Since we don’t know, it’s better to be filial to them with sincerity and true feelings. Whether it is the world of the living or the world of the dead, there is one thing whose value remains unchanged, and that is true love.”
Everyone suddenly realized...
Jiang Zhou said: "After living for so long, this is the first time I have heard such remarks. Some masters and wealthy families I met in the city wanted to burn real gold and silver to show their filial piety. Now think about it, they It's not really filial, it's just showing off..."
Guan Xiangfeng said: "I once saw a wealthy man who burned ten Ferraris at once... Thinking about it now, he was really stupid."
Fang Zheng smiled and said: "No matter how much you burn, it has no value other than polluting the air and promoting the concept of copper smell. It may show your face to the living, but what about the ancestors? If you don't realize it, no matter how much treasure you burn, it will be useless. In the end, it will still be unfilial. .If the ancestors were aware underground, they would probably still be the ones who were laughed at..."
Speaking of this, Fang Zheng paused and said: "No one knows whether there are souls in the world, but ancestor worship has been a kind of inheritance of filial piety since ancient times. If ancestor worship becomes a mere show off, without the inheritance of filial piety culture, A family will lose its cultural heritage. If it loses its heritage, no matter how much money it has left, and if its moral integrity is not enough, it will capsize and drown sooner or later."
When everyone heard this, they nodded thoughtfully.
Jiang Zhou sighed: "Master Fangzheng, you should say these words in class..."
Fang Zheng shook his head and said, "With this poor monk's knowledge, I don't have the nerve to stand on the podium. People who understand know better than me, and what the poor monk says may not be useful to those who don't understand."
Everyone fell into deep thought.
The topic changed. Since the altar did not need to be too luxurious, it would be simple. Everyone brought the materials to the entrance of the village and started building the altar. Fang Zheng took action himself, Jiang Zhou cooperated, and everyone worked together to build a simple altar that was full of simplicity and Buddha nature.
It is said to be an altar, but in fact this platform is called Shigu Terrace. There is a mage's seat on the Shigu Terrace. In front of the mage's throne, there is a statue of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, who transcends the evil spirits underneath. There is a plate of noodles placed under the statue. Rice, peaches and other items were made, and at the same time, there were three spiritual tablets and soul-calling flags placed on the Shigu platform. Fangzheng placed a handful of triangular paper flags in blue, red, green and other colors on each of the sacrifices, and wrote words such as "Bon Lan Festival" and "Ganlu Gate Opening". At this point, the Shigu Terrace was set up.
Looking at the Shigu Terrace built in front of him, a picture flashed in Fang Zheng's mind. Zen Master Yizhi once said that Yizhi Village did not have such particularity in the early years, and it was all done by simply burning paper money. All these teachings came from the south. Who brought them specifically, Zen Master Yizhi did not say. Only a few villages near Yizhi Mountain celebrate the Bon Festival in this way, and Zen Master Yizhi always takes Fang Zheng to these villages to go there. Most of the villages that Zen Master Yizhi has never been to are not so particular... Now it seems that most of this particular method of living was brought here by Zen Master Yi Zhi.
After the Shigu Terrace was decorated, the altar had to be opened. First of all, Fangzheng had to perform the ritual, that is, facing the Buddhist altar and reciting the "Great Compassion Mantra", "Ten Little Mantras", "Heart Sutra" and other scriptures. Fortunately, although Fangzheng did not know how to do it before, , but the Internet is developed. He has read and recited these scriptures on the Internet, so they are not unfamiliar to him.
Then write a good essay and pray to the Buddha and Bodhisattvas for their compassion and guidance in the lower realms;
Then Fang Zheng performed the soul-inducing ceremony, read and recited essays written on yellow paper to attract the ghosts into the altar, and then recited the "Heart Sutra", "Rebirth Mantra" and the three mantras; finally, the meritorious master who hosted the Bon Festival also It was Wang Yougui who used a red pen on the ceremony's inscription to indicate the completion of the ceremony!
The agenda after the opening of the altar was worship and repentance, which was usually carried out according to the "Water Repentance of Compassion" ceremony. However, Founder did not have enough manpower to arrange such a large-scale ceremony, so he simply chanted sutras and recited the "Repentance Essay" and ended it. . In the middle, simple activities such as paying tribute and fasting to the monks are added, and the worship and repentance are completed.
It's so simple, and there is another main reason. If it is really carried out according to the "Water Repentance of Mercy", it will be good if Fang Zheng can finish the One Finger Village this night, and there is no need to go to other villages. After all, the ceremony does have to go through the whole process, but it is very cumbersome and troublesome.
Of course, lack of manpower is also a flaw, and Founder has nothing to do about it.
After setting up Shigutai, Wang Yougui took Fangzheng and Monkey on his motorcycle to several other nearby villages and helped them set up Shigutai one by one. When he returned to Yizhi Village, it was already evening. Since there were too many villages to visit and time was tight, when the sun went down and it got dark, Fang Zheng and Monkey simply ate some vegetarian food and shouted to the top of the mountain. The next moment, the bell rang, Obon Festival. The practice begins!
As the bell rang, people from every household walked out of their homes and put bunches of incense at the door. Those with good family conditions would put incense in large quantities. This is called cloth field, which symbolizes a good harvest. Viewed from a distance, the entire village is shrouded in a layer of green smoke, and the interior is dotted with stars, giving it a rather dreamy feel, as if the sky is hanging upside down and falling in the village, lighting up the stars.
Then the offerings in large and small pots were brought out and placed on the altar table to worship the ancestors.
The monkey carried a large basket of tributes and followed Fangzheng to Shigutai. Fangzheng took out the tributes and sprinkled them around. This is called the flame mouth. The tributes sprinkled are given to those lonely souls and wild ghosts to calm them down. of grievances, offering sacrifices to the souls of the dead.
Then Fangzheng came on stage and sat on the mage's seat. Some words were written on the spiritual tablet in front of him. There was no need to have many spiritual tablets, as long as he had them. As for the flame mouth that Fang Zheng just used, no matter how many ghosts there are, they can all be worshiped together. Chanting again…
After the scriptures were recited and the flames finished, Fang Zheng stood up and got off the altar. He nodded slightly to the many villagers and everyone came to the river.
Everyone held a lotus lantern, lit the candles on it, put it into the river, and floated down the river. Some of the lanterns were quickly extinguished, but everyone was not angry, but rather happy.
When the monkey saw this, he didn't understand anymore and asked in a low voice: "Master, their lights are all out, why are they still happy?"
"People have their own paths, and ghosts have their own paths. People take the Yang path, and ghosts take the Yin path. The ancients believed that underwater is obscure, dark and moist, like the underworld, so they thought it was the Yin path, that is, the ghost path. Tonight there are hundreds of ghosts. It is easy to lose direction when traveling at night. If you cannot enter the underworld, you will become a lonely ghost and cause trouble. Therefore, water lanterns are set out to help them light up the way and guide them to report to the underworld. In some places, soul boats are also prepared. , the spirit house, the spirit boat can carry the ghosts directly to the underworld, and the spirit chamber allows them to have a residence below. But we don’t have this condition, so we didn’t do it...
As for why they were happy when the lights went out, because when the lights went out, it meant that a ghost was sent away. "Fang Zheng explained in a low voice.
The monkey suddenly understood, but there were still many doubts in his eyes.
After setting off the water lanterns and sending away the souls, the grand Obon Festival was over. Fang Zheng hurriedly took a motorcycle to other villages and walked around. When Fang Zheng came back, the sky was already misty. It was bright, and walking on the mountain road up the mountain, the monkey finally asked the doubt in his heart: "Master, you said that ghosts are in your heart... In fact, you don't believe that there are ghosts in this world, so why are you doing this? Bon Festival? Since there is no ghost, why spend so much energy and waste so much manpower and material resources? It feels like useless work and a waste of food?"
Fang Zheng shook his head slightly: "My teacher has long said that don't look at things by their appearance, you have to see what they bring. I really don't believe in ghosts, but I also said that everyone has a ghost in their heart, and some ghosts They need to be suppressed and memorialized, otherwise they will come out and make trouble."
"I don't understand..." Monkey shook his head decisively and said bluntly.
Fang Zheng rolled his eyes and said: "Let's be honest, money is easy to make in this world, but if you lose your conscience, there will be nothing! Without conscience, no matter how much money you have, it will only be a big disaster! On the contrary, if you have a conscience, No matter how poor a person is, there will be a lot less hatred and a lot more warmth in this world. Whether it is this ceremony or worshiping ancestors on the Qingming Festival, it reminds everyone not to forget to honor your parents. Filial piety comes first. If a person is filial, then he will be filial. It can't be too bad. Maybe the effect of this kind of festival can't make the heinous people turn back from their misery, but it can prevent the worst, remind children and people with new evil thoughts, and cultivate filial piety in their hearts from an early age, so that they can grow up. As long as Xiao is still there, no matter how bad he is, he will not be hopeless. Do you understand now?"
PS: Please subscribe, please give me a monthly ticket... I made an appointment with the target master, and then I resigned and became a full-time codeword dog! I need everyone's help...
PS: I will leave for Shanghai in the evening, finish there, and immediately go on a business trip. Day after day... I feel like I am going to die. It looks like we are about to return to the era of two thousand people... I feel heartbroken.
(End of chapter)