Need to prevent superstition

(Baonghean) - “The mountains and forests are not as high as the pain of losing my daughter. It hurts so much! It's a pity! My heart breaks into pieces,” Mr. LNH in N village, N commune (Ky Son) has not yet overcome his pain when talking about his beloved daughter who died unjustly because her parents blindly believed in spiritual healing.

That day, Lau Y. N, a 9th grade student, had a stomachache and asked to stay home from school. The teachers came to visit and advised the family to take her to the hospital. But the family asked a shaman to perform a ceremony to exorcise the ghost and get rid of the illness. The pain lasted for a long time, diarrhea led to dehydration, and on the third day, N. gradually fainted and passed away. The small village was covered in unjust pain. The teachers could not help but feel sorry for the little student... Now Mr. LNH and Mrs. MYM are tormented and regretful, wishing they had not believed too much in the shaman and the story of the forest ghost; if they had listened to the teachers and taken their child to the hospital sooner, everything would have been different... This is just one of the sad stories about excessive blind faith leading to a high price to pay in the mountainous villages and hamlets with many difficulties...

Votive offerings for sale in front of the Ong Hoang Muoi Temple (Hung Nguyen). Photo taken at 11:30 on December 17, 2014.

Recently, Mr. N.D.C's family (Thanh Chuong) has had a tense conflict because his wife lives in the... underworld. Mr. C and Ms. V both went to work abroad, met each other and got married. After returning home and giving birth, Ms. V suddenly became superstitious. She neglected her husband and children, and neglected housework. Recently, Mr. C's mother was seriously ill, and the family was short of people to take care of her. Mr. C discussed with his wife about spending time taking care of her mother. However, she did not care, only focused on going to spiritual establishments to pray. Occasionally, she followed the "religious centers" for long days, leaving him and his children in disarray...

At a school in Vinh City, parents have repeatedly complained about a teacher who spends class time talking about “spiritual beliefs”, affecting the quality and results of learning and the psychology of students. To ensure their children’s education, parents have to petition the school to change teachers.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuyet, a person who specializes in writing and "reporting" petitions in the area of ​​Củi Temple (Xuan Hong Commune, Nghi Xuan, Ha Tinh) said: Visitors come here mainly to pray for wealth and fame. A tray of "salty offerings" of sticky rice and chicken is 500,000 VND, if "tien dai ma" - a large paper horse - is 350,000 VND, a full tray of gold coins, five fruits, incense and flowers is 250,000 VND. In addition, there are also fees for petitions, offerings, and merit money... The total amount of offerings and travel expenses is usually calculated in millions. On weekends, the 15th and 1st of the lunar month, there are not enough goods to serve. An employee of the Quang Trung Temple Management Board (Vinh City) said that more and more students come to pray and prepare offerings to... ask for grades. Many students even buy petitions and clearly state that they want to get enough scores in English B1, B2, TOEFL, IELTS... Recently, there are even export workers asking to get enough scores in Korean.

Talking with Doctor of Buddhist Studies, Venerable Thich Dinh Tue - Head of the Information and Communications Department of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha in Nghe An province (abbot of Phuc Thanh pagoda, Hung Nguyen) about the above stories, he said: Many people have excessive faith, are superstitious, creating conditions for bad people to take advantage of spiritual matters to practice business, trade, beg for alms, even "pretend" to be monks to sell incense, ask for merit. This is completely not in the Buddhist Charter, and no official Buddhist institution allows doing so. The fact that some people neglect their families, are too absorbed in worshiping and neglecting other duties is wrong. First of all, we must find happiness for ourselves, for our families, and then multiply it for the community... We must find joy in the present and find the cause to have a method to solve the difficulties in real life. Neglecting reality, searching for or building something in the illusion is unrealistic.

Regarding the phenomenon of burning a lot of votive paper money, Venerable Thich Dinh Tue said: To soothe the mind, to compensate for the deceased, the burning of votive paper money arises. If the burning is symbolic and reasonable to express remembrance and gratitude for the deceased's merits, then that is morality. As for the offerings burned a lot, they often appear with the mentality of begging, because they think that it is an exchange, a sale, thinking that the more money spent on offerings burned, the more the gods will give them, so those are offerings burned out of greed, not out of morality anymore, not morality anymore.

Obviously, belief is a very legitimate human need, which is recognized by law and in accordance with traditional ethics. However, there are many people who are showing distorted and excessive perceptions of belief, affecting their daily lives and being the cause of negative changes, adversely affecting social life, affecting work, violating cultural lifestyle, affecting happiness, health, and even the lives of themselves or their loved ones. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen propaganda to raise awareness and action on the issue of belief in order to preserve, maintain and promote national cultural values. At the same time, it is necessary to have timely corrective measures; strictly handle, criticize and clearly condemn superstitious and heretical behaviors...

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