Question:

Six Realms of samsara:

I sometimes wonder whether the six realms of Samsara is right here on Earth at the plane where we are living right now and not somewhere far away. We can see the human and animal realm so the other realms like Hell, Hungry Ghosts, Demi Gods and God realms may be existing side by side, as can be evidenced by the many degrees of suffering/hunger and also comfort/pleasure throughout this world.Is there anything in the Buddhist texts concerning this?

Venerable :

A. Buddhist texts interpret the six realms in two ways, both of them are useful.

1. When we are in a happy or even blissful state and live luxuriously, we are living in god realm. When we are always overcome by jealousy and anger, we are demi gods. When we are only controlled by extreme greed, we are no better than animal. When we live in famine, we are hungry ghosts. When we suffer greatly in great physical and/or mental pain, we are experiencing hell.

2. Buddhists of course also believe that other realms of Samsara that we do not see like god, demi god, hungry ghost and hell realms do exist.

Question:

Columbarium:-

In the light of recent issues surrounding the proposed Columbarium in Penang I wonder if the practice of keeping the ashes of our dearly departed is in line with original Buddhist teachings or is it part of Chinese traditional ancestor worshipping ? Doesn't this practice promote clinging and attachment to our dearly departed?

Venerable :

There is no one Buddhist way of 'disposal' of the dead body. In India, Indians like to cremate the dead body by the river bank and throw the ashes into the river. After the Buddha's body was cremated, out of respect, many kings wanted a share of the relics and they enshrined the relics in stupas. This was the Indian tradition for honoring and remembering great sages.

Chinese people traditionally bury the dead body and visit the grave to pay respect to the departed relative. Because of scarcity of land, cremation is now very popular and keeping the ashes in columbarium is a convenient substitute of burying the dead body. Buddhists can choose to throw the ashes or relics into the sea or keeping them in a stupa, this is the reason that columbarium is built in the shape of a stupa or pagoda.

Tibetans used to lead nomadic life and they cut the dead bodies up in pieces to feed the big birds.

Buddhism respects different cultures and does not impose a prescribe method of disposing the dead body. The important thing is to remind ourselves of impermanence when a relative or friend dies.