(page 255-257 Achievement of Rainbow Light Body Volume six)
Nowadays many Buddhist and Taoist temples in
Personally, I think these dharma masters and persons-in-charge of the temples are incorrect. I will not oppose burning of paper items, as long as it does not flout the safety rule and pollute our environment. Why ? It is said in the Buddhism Sutra : " Myriad things but one mind; the only reality is mental . " In other words, all the dharma in this world arise because of our senses and minds. As Buddhists we must have a good understanding of what constitute our senses and minds, then we can understand the reasoning involved. Showing our filial piety, we burn the paper gold and offer it to our ancestors. The wills of those living descendants will make the paper gold efficacious and powerful.
We burn paper gold to show our filial piety, and not just for the sake of burning . In Buddhism, it is said : "everything arises from conditions" - By burning paper gold, we fulfill the condition, therefore the act is righteous and lawful, and cannot be considered mere superstition. If we consider burning paper gold as a hoax, then nothing in this world can be considered real. Everything that we do can be considered superstitious. The images of Buddha whether made of wood, bronze, clay, or fiberglass that we enshrine at the temples could not be considered the real things. Since they are all unreal, why do we still pay homage to them ? As we are mindful, a causal condition is produced - "Everything arises from conditions, and not being spontaneous and self-contained . It has no separate and independent nature." If we are of this view then our homage will be efficacious, otherwise it will be useless. This is the subtle difference between superstition and otherwise.
Those dharma masters who proclaim that burning paper gold is a superstition do not seem to understand this reasoning. In short, if we have the will, then whatever we do will be efficacious. Since Buddhism talks about mutual dependence, the paper gold will be effective as long as we do it for the sake of showing our filial piety .
In this world, we must use our wisdom to discern what is this "will" power. Our mind will decide, among other things, whether our offering is clean or filthy; what can be offered, and what cannot be offered ; what are the likes and dislikes of Bodhisattvas. Remember it is the human minds that create all the things in this world . Likewise Tantric Buddhism also advocate the use of mind to do the visualization and offering .
The nether world is created by the minds of the Samsara world, so is the paper gold. As the money used in our material world is made of paper, it is agreed by all that paper gold can also be used in the nether world . The wide recognition will make the paper gold effective. The subtle difference between superstition and otherwise lies in whether our mind consider it to be so or not. You may take your time to deliberate the issue . I am sure very soon you will be able to tell what is right and what is superstitious.
Nothing in this world is real. But once you have the will , it will become real. Europeans offer flowers at the graves, Chinese offer food to the dead during Qing Ming festival, offer food to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and offer paper houses, paper TVs, paper refrigerators and money to the deceased. These are rightful deeds; they are not superstitious. As some of the dharma masters do not realize it is the activities of human minds that count , they erroneously dismiss burning paper gold as something undesirable and to be discouraged.
