Feng Shui for the seventh day after death, taboos for the seventh day after death

The first seven days is one of the traditional Chinese funeral customs. The time refers to the seventh day after the death, commonly known as the first seven days. In some places, there is a tradition of returning home on the seventh day after death. Family members should take some measures to arrange for the deceased to be comforted spiritually. Also, someone in the house should not close the door and leave on the seventh day, as this would be disrespectful to the deceased. Let's take a look at this Feng Shui story that is popular among the people.

The first seven days is a funeral custom. It is customary to believe that "the first seven days" refers to the seventh day after a person's death. It is generally believed that the soul of the deceased will return home on the "first seven days". The family should prepare a meal for the soul of the deceased before the soul comes back, and must avoid it afterwards. The best way is to sleep. If you can't sleep, you should hide in bed. If the soul of the deceased sees the family members, he will miss them, which will affect his reincarnation. There is also a saying that when the soul returns home at midnight on the seventh day, the family should burn something in the shape of a ladder at home to allow the soul to follow this "ladder" to heaven.

Those who have passed away and those who have gone to heaven (if a person has done great good deeds in this life, he will go to heaven after death) do not have an intermediate state between going to heaven and passing away, so there is no need to hold a seven-day memorial service! However, most people have deep karmic habits and if they fall into the evil paths, the three evil paths, or if they can be reborn as a human being in the next life but will still be an ordinary person, not a rich or noble person, but an ordinary person, they will all have an intermediate state. The bardo usually lasts forty-nine days, which is seven sevens. In the bardo, he changes from life to death every seven days, which means he suffers great pain every seven days!

At this time, reciting scriptures, chanting Buddha's name, or performing repentance practices for him and dedicating the merit to him can alleviate his suffering. This is stated in the "Sutra of the Past Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva." So the seven-day memorial ceremony comes from the "Sutra of the Past Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva". If you read this sutra, you will understand. So people decide not to commit suicide, because suicide is extremely painful. Why? Anyone who dies by suicide will commit suicide again every seven days in the bardo body.

It's not just one time that it's over. It has to happen again every seven days. It's very painful! For example, if someone died by hanging, he has to hang himself once every seven days; if someone died by taking poison, he has to take poison once every seven days. So at this time, if his family members and relatives do good deeds for him, he can reduce his suffering, or even avoid it.

If his family and relatives did not accumulate blessings for him, he would definitely not be able to avoid it. This is what the Buddha told us. Seven sevens. If you understand Buddhism, you must do all seven sevens. You cannot choose a few and not do the others. That is not allowed. Why? He suffers pain of change once every seven days. We understand this principle from the scriptures. Therefore, chanting Buddha's name and reciting sutras is the greatest benefit for the deceased.

As for holding a seven-day memorial service, it is clearly stated in the sutra that of the seven parts of merit, we who hold the memorial service will receive six parts, while the deceased will only receive one part. Therefore, when holding a seven-day memorial service, it is best to invite seven monks. The deceased will only receive one part of the merit from the seven monks. To truly gain great benefits from performing the Seven Buddha Rituals, those who perform the rituals must do so with sincerity, and they will gain great benefits.

If one recites the sutras and repents according to the rituals but with an insincere heart, he will gain very little benefit. How can one’s heart be insincere? While reciting the sutra and repenting, his mind is wandering and absent-minded, and he gains very little benefit. If the deceased had a bad temper and a bad personality when he was alive, or recited the scriptures insincerely, he would cause trouble for him. Ghosts are the same as humans. If you offend some powerful ones, they will cause trouble for you and take revenge on you. Forget about someone with a gentle temperament. I won’t look for one.

Therefore, everything has cause and effect! Karma and retribution are never wrong, this is the truth. In Buddhism, it is often said that "all dharmas are empty, except cause and effect." Why is cause and effect not empty? Cause and effect have “transformation and are not empty”. Causes become effects, and effects become causes. For example, if we plant a fruit tree, the most obvious example is a peach tree. The peach pit is the seed.

When a cause is planted, it grows into a tree, and the cause becomes fruit; the fruit then becomes peaches, and inside the peaches there are peach pits. This is “transformation is not empty”; “cycle is not empty”, the cycle of cause and effect, this is to say that this is not empty; “continuity is not empty”. Therefore, it has three phenomena: transformation, continuity, and cycle. All worldly and otherworldly laws are inseparable from cause and effect.
Remembering and respecting the dead is the basis of human nature. Some taboos in the first seven aspects are a kind of remembrance and respect. Let everything become a memory. Everything will be abandoned, and one should not face it with an attitude of being too reluctant to let go.