Why Do We Memorialize
Our Ancestors?
Do you know why we
memorialize our ancestors? We are all children of God. Although our physical
bodies become old/sick and die, our real selves never die. Therefore, we
memorialize these spirits which are indestructible and deathless. Even though
our physical lives are over, and our physical bodies are cremated and become
ashes, our individual souls still continue their activities in the spiritual
world. We do not become nothing when we die. In the Divine Message of Return of the Soul to the Spiritual World it
states, “All people must someday lose their physical body, but they do not die.
Man is a child of God and therefore deathless. The form of your temporary
existence will change according to your thought’s musical score. The temporary
existence of all people will differ according to the differences in their
thought. When a major change occurs in the form of your thought your temporary
existence will manifest itself in another world and your physical body—the
manifestation of your thoughts until now—will quickly disintegrate. People call
this ‘death,’ but it is not death. It is as if Life has finished the performance of one musical composition on the
strings of thought and turned to another.” Our true selves which are children
of God will never die; therefore, from the standpoint of the True Image World,
death means just an end of one performance by a child of God. He begins another
performance in a different time and place.
Human Beings Are Not Physical Bodies
To know that we are not physical bodies but spiritual
existences is the quintessential reason for us to memorialize our ancestors. If
some of these spirits didn’t realize that their physical bodies had died, they
would still believe that their physical lives continue in this world. For
example, classic literature, religious texts and world folklore depict ghosts
who continue to suffer from their illnesses or injuries that existed before
their death. Since their physical bodies do not exist anymore in this physical
world, the sufferings of their physical bodies also should not exist. Then, why
do ghosts suffer? Many spiritual communication dialogues describe the condition
of spirits or ghosts in this manner. This is because these spirits do not
realize that they are children of God and that their physical bodies have already
ceased to exist and became ashes. Therefore, those spirits need to be taken
care of by others to be awakened to the Truth. Those spirits who have not
realized the Truth ask for help from their immediate family members or
relatives in this physical world. Through memorializing our ancestors, these
spirits will realize the Truth that they are already healthy, wealthy children
of God as they are by reading the Holy Sutra at the memorial services. Reading
the Holy Sutra is a great help for those spirits. At the same time when they
realize their true selves, they will increase their spiritual power and help
and guide their descendants like guardian angels.
Two Important Things for Ancestor
Service
We now need to clearly realize two reasons of the
importance of performing the Ancestor Memorial Service. First, we are all
children of God; therefore, in essence all spirits do not need to be
memorialized. However, some spirits do not
realize this truth, so for the secondary
reason we memorialize them to help them to realize the Truth. We also need to
understand that there are two meanings of our everlasting lives. First, I
already described earlier by quoting the Divine
Message of Return of the Soul to the Spiritual World that we are deathless.
Just like the possibility of musical arrangements is fluid and infinite, so are
our thoughts that lead us from the phenomenal to the spiritual world to
continue fulfilling lives. Second, it means our lives are the result of our
ancestors. We cannot exist without our ancestors. If one of my parents had not
existed in this world, I would not have been born in this world. In the same
way, if one of my grandparents or great grandparents had not existed, I would
not have existed here right now. When I trace my family back to my great
grandparents, I realize that 14 individual spirits exist. When I trace ten
generations of my ancestors, I can statistically figure that there are 2,046
individual spirits. Likewise, I can figure, going back 30 generations, that
there are 2,147,483,646 spirits. My current existence flows from my ancestors’
lives. I would not exist today if one of my over 2 billion ancestors was missing.
Likewise, my phenomenal life which is the expression of my everlasting life is
not only my own individual life, but the unique infinite life endowed to me
through the stream of the lives of my ancestors. So, I feel deep gratitude
towards all of my ancestors who, along with God, are responsible for my
existence, and my infinite life, and who provide me with enduring strength and
support. Therefore, we must memorialize our ancestors to awaken them to their
infinite individual lives and at the same time to show our gratefulness because
our lives are a part of their infinite life stream.
I will briefly explain how to memorialize our ancestors in
the SNI way at home. I summarized this service which can be adaptable in our
present life styles into 7 categories. (I omitted explanation for the following
seven categories. If you need more information, please contact your local
members or contact the SNI US Missionary Headquarters 310-323-8486)
1. Altar:
2. Memorial
Tablet/Spiritual Register:
3. Period of individual
memorialization:
4. Food offering:
5. Memorializing spirits
who are unrelated:
6. SNI memorial service:
7. Procedure for the SNI
Ancestor Memorial Service at home:
