Death

Perhaps never before have the keywords “Ba Vang Pagoda”, “inviting the dead” and “offerings” been searched so intensely by netizens and created such a terrible wave of indignation as in the past few days. For the first time, a scandal was discovered right in a temple, creating a “mental shock and anger” in public opinion. People have many reasons to be shocked, skeptical and bitter before the shocking evidence.

Why are those who still preach the Dharma so “immune” to the pain of living beings? Where is the responsibility of the management agency? Why is a small duck hut built temporarily on agricultural land being loudly forced, even prosecuted, while a superstitious corporation with signs of taking advantage, defrauding and appropriating property with the number of victims reaching thousands can continue to operate so comfortably and strangely over time? If the press does not have the courage and ingenuity to jump in and expose it, where will it go? And… if there is retribution, what will they have to do in the next life to be worthy?

On this occasion, a series of "specialized terms" were updated, contributing to making the people's knowledge more clear: "offering", "karma", "dharma", "invitation", then "ghost", "believer", "karma resolution", "disciple", "guest management", "yin illness"... It must be said that according to practical analysis, the word that is mentioned the most is also the last word mentioned, the word that is both the purpose, the means, and the bridge between "her" and the believer, between her and the spirit, and between the spirit and the believer - that is the word... money!

Money is called out in a calm, coherent, decisive and seemingly very democratic way! All the sins of dozens of previous lives are evaluated and bought off with the current national currency. Ghosts, however, refuse to spend the money of the underworld. The way ghosts receive money is also strangely different, they do not dissolve it, they just put it in an envelope and all the sins of the “previous term” are dissolved. No one can understand it and the more they do not understand, the more they rush into it. The explanation is mystified in a very blunt way: Offering money is “at the request of the ghost” (the abbot’s explanation). So who is the ghost? What military rank does it have to have such power?

To make up for his limited knowledge, the writer of this article was forced to "interrogate Mr. Google", but unfortunately up to this point, that is, when the spirit has brought hundreds of billions of real money, there has not been a concept updated in the dictionary. So what is a spirit? Well, it seems that a spirit is the soul of a dead person who has not yet been liberated. A spirit can also be another name for a ghost. Spirits exist around us, spirits are also sad, happy, angry, loving, and when needed, spirits also "haunt" mercilessly. That is what we have heard described, but no one has ever seen a spirit. Some people have the supernatural power to "invite" spirits to come up and talk. There are many stories about inviting spirits and possessing spirits. A few years ago, a famous "psychic" even invited a whole council of spirits to come up and talk as loudly as a scientific conference. Only the spirit spoke through the psychic's skillful mouth, so only the psychic knew how big and loyal the spirit was. I was lucky enough to witness with my own eyes the spirit possessing a man. Needless to say all the mysterious and thrilling things. The spirit swayed, the spirit collapsed, the spirit scratched its head and pulled its ears, then the spirit suddenly stood up and took the homeowner to find the ancestor's grave. Dozens of people excitedly ran after the spirit, but after only a few steps out of the alley, the spirit was stunned and turned back. I thought the spirit was angry because it lacked lucky money, but unexpectedly the spirit turned back because in the rush, it forgot its flip-flops! I couldn't help but laugh at the carefulness of this spirit. There have been thousands of other cases of spirit possession, even in the large hall of some potential research institute. Spirits are always smarter than people, if asked easy questions, the spirit will answer, if asked difficult questions, the spirit... will succeed. However, for a long time now, we have seen people inviting spirits to temples, cemeteries, family churches, or even at home, but it seems that we rarely see anyone inviting spirits to pagodas. Is the invitation to spirits at Ba Vang Pagoda a special case? Are spirits also biased and local? Ah, but it is also strange, I do not understand why the spirits at Ba Vang Pagoda have a very clear regional and contemporary character. The proof for the above statement is that every spirit that comes here also... demands money! Is it possible that the spending needs of spirits in this land are much more advanced than those of spirits in other regions?

With the argument that everyone can be followed by a spirit, and when a "spirit" follows, the "host" is always disturbed, the mild ones will encounter many obstacles in life, the severe ones will get sick, ill, and "die young". To resolve this, the temple advises sentient beings to "invite the creditors" or in other words, "pay off the debt to the spirit". Depending on the karma of the previous life, the person followed by the spirit will have to spend a considerable amount of money to pay off the debt in the form of merit to the temple. But it is worth mentioning that the price for each debt payment depends on the spirit's judgment. The relationship between the person and the spirit is quite equal on the principle of mutual agreement. No bargaining, no haggling, but... installment payment. The job of the temple is to call the spirit up, make a summary of the sins, then the spirit will "estimate" and "quote" the price on paper from the temple! The believer's job is not too complicated, just pray continuously and pay. That's it! All illnesses are considered over. Where the money goes is a question that perhaps only the underworld can tell!

A newspaper wrote: “When asked by a reporter, why didn’t the temple check the amount of money that people put in the envelope to see if it matched the amount the spirit had said? If people paid less than the amount, where would the temple get the money to compensate the spirit? No one could answer, but what was the lack? Spirits, how could they fool them? That’s not to mention the “disciple” cushion behind the spirit that silently recorded the name, hometown, and “negative illness” of each person. Later, it would be compared with the data written on the envelope in the donation box, and only when the person, illness, and amount of money were correct would the person be released from their karma.” Oh, it’s clearly a spirit, but it’s very… human! And the human is very… spirit!

It is expected that by the time this article reaches readers, public opinion will have begun to calm down. Hopefully, this incident will be a lesson for those who are fanatical and blind, for those who are trying to take advantage of that fanaticism for personal gain, and it will also be a valuable lesson for the management agency and the entire church. However, if just because of a few individuals' mistakes, criticizing an entire pagoda and turning one's back on Buddhism is a loss of wisdom. Buddhism has accompanied the Vietnamese people for thousands of years, and the contributions of Buddhism to the cause of national revival and development through each historical period cannot be forgotten and must not be forgotten. The practice of summoning spirits is not in the Dharma, and those "soul summoners" do not represent Buddhism. They are exploiting Buddhism, if not being ungrateful to Buddhism!