Incensed - The Duality of Man
10 Mar 2019
Eastern Religions seem peaceful enough that even a person most disillusioned Westerner can look through rose tinted glasses and claim that eastern religion is harmless in comparison. But there is a Duck, Dark side to Eastern Religion.
I would like to add a sad but cursory note about a friend whom my parents have known for a long time, but who recently passed away due to lung cancer. She was young, living merely half a century, and she did not smoke. And she prayed. She was a devout either Buddhist or Taoist and her family owned a small temple, I think.
But we must ask ourselves, what are the things that we do that we think actually benefit us but may end up hurting us. Such as praying with incense or joss sticks, and burning joss paper, which is traditionally a Taoist practice but has been adopted by many Buddhists in Singapore who bastardise religion. And incense smoke may actually have similar harm as cigarette smoking, or at least second-hand smoking, which is causing cancer. I also recall a distant memory of praying at their family temple in one of the dark rooms many years back. Where they actually offered cigarettes, lighted up, as an offering to the gods. It was probably a Seventh Month thing, but I am not too sure, and there was a dark room and in the middle was a round or square table with seats for gods or spirits, and they had food offerings as well as a lighter and cigarette at each seat, and each person, or adult, who went in to pray would have to light a cigarette to present to the gods or spirits. And there was a funny instance where Dad asked Mum if she knows how to light a cigarette and Mum was like she experimented before. Ha-ha. Anyways, such a thing happened. So, if you are in an environment where not only are there many smokers because of cultural and social reasons, but you also often encounter incense smoke, well I’m not sure what to make of the risks associated with smoking.
Anyways, I get quite scared writing about this spirit things and stuff while listening to the song called The Opera from the Great Comet cast recording. But I have to constantly remind myself that I am an atheist and spirits are a non-issue. Or “freethinker” according to Singapore, but there are many problems with this word. Such as how it does not adequately convey the idea that atheists are gnostic in the belief that gods and the divine really do not exist. Even though I am now an atheist in belief, but a non-practicing atheist, meaning that I am a practicing religious person who does what her parents say because I still have to rely on them for my university education because I really don’t wanna get a loan just to study. Even though I am an atheist it is hard to shake off the years of indoctrination and brainwashing that I have had over the years, and it is difficult to forget the years of blind belief and fear mongering. Besides, non-practicing atheism may not be that bad, because by presenting as a religious person, I can potentially use religion as an excuse for being a “picky” vegetarian or vegan in the future, and have my choices be considered seriously. Even though this may become less necessary in the future with the rising vegan movement.
(Actually, I am very confused, because I just looked it up online, and realise that Taoism also encourages vegetarianism, similar to Buddhism, so I am very confused as to where the practices of offering meat dishes, often in large excess, as a prayer and offering to the gods actually came from. Is it the supposed prestige of meat in ancient China because meat is indeed very expensive? But now almost all meat is factory farmed and heavily subsidised, and some plants are more expensive than meat. Supply and demand is a magical thing. Brown rice is more expensive than white rice because of economies of scale or something, even though it is less processed. Is meat really still prestigious now?)
Ok, so there’s this culture and tradition thing in Singapore, which my parents, actually, my dad practices while I think my mom just obliges. Mom is the type of person who feels like she needs religion because she has a weak mind and is afraid of the afterlife and afraid of no afterlife. And she is very freaked out by NDE stories, so she needs religion for comfort, that she will go to heaven or something. Whereas dad is a mercenary and believes in using religion for blessings (as a person brought up by religious parents, I get chills running down my spine when I write this).
Ok, so anyway there’s this thing that we Chinese people do, whereby, I think its Chinese folk religion (?), we place offerings for deities and ancestors and also hungry ghosts during the seventh month. These offerings come in the form of food, often fruits, sweet “doggie treats” (I don’t mean to be rude but these little biscuit thingies are so tasteless and hard that the only being willing to eat it is the family dog), alcoholic beverages, and tea. As well as meat. Which I do not understand at all. The deities that they pray to include Tu Di Gong, the god of earth, Tian Gong, the god of sky, and Guan Yin, goddess of mercy. While the exact offerings for each occasion varies, there is definitely some permutation of deity and occasion where Sah Seh (pronounce in a nasal Teochew middle tone), San Sheng, or “three living beings” will be bought as an offering, which includes, if I’m not wrong, roast chicken, roast duck, and roast pork. Sometimes dad also makes offerings of seafood dishes or other types of meat. Excluding beef because Chinese who believe in Guan Yin aren’t supposed to eat beef. Though I think this exclusion should be expanded to include all meats, but this is just my opinion. These offerings of meat, is probably out of belief of the “richness” and “grandness” of meat, which is thought to please the deities and gain favour from them, in order to bless the place/family/person. Doesn’t this remind you of the purchase of indulgences in Catholic Europe in the middle ages?
Ok now, forgive me for my bloody ignorance, but what the HELL is so grand and respectful of presenting a fucking seasoned dead animal as an offering to your gods? (Chinese folk religion is polytheistic.) (I think.) now forget for a moment about the ethical side of this. This is environmentally irresponsible as well. I can only speak from personal experience of what my family and its members has done. I think there is nothing about offering meat as a sacrifice to deities if its what you were gonna buy to eat anyway. But what we sometimes do is that we will place the food out in the open on the altar for hours at a time, until it spoils, or it has incense dust on it, and is inedible or has to be partially thrown away. That is just a bloody waste of food, I don’t give a damn about whether or not your deities are pleased. And other people I’ve heard of, deliberately throw away prayer food because they think it to be bad luck to eat food that has already been “eaten”. Besides this, there are certain months where the prayer occasion dates are so close together that a lot of food will be bought in short succession. And because we are a family of small eaters, we often cannot finish the food, we will place the food in the freezer. And sometimes it never gets eaten because there’s just too much to finish before it turns bad. And sometimes we get tired of eating the same food over and over again that we end up wasting it.
Why would religion permit such waste? Also, because prayer offerings often include meat, this subconsciously tells the followers that it is okay, normal, and even grand to eat meat. Which is simply strange and wrong? And by obligation of having meat as part of the offerings, this indirectly leads to higher consumption of meat because followers buy meat even if they may not have desire to eat it, or for that specific kind of meat often used in offerings.
Ok. And here conclude my ramblings which I began writing over six weeks ago, which has a messed-up train of thought and which I would guess that I am not even done writing.
Eastern Religions seem peaceful enough that even a person most disillusioned Westerner can look through rose tinted glasses and claim that eastern religion is harmless in comparison. But there is a Duck, Dark side to Eastern Religion.
I would like to add a sad but cursory note about a friend whom my parents have known for a long time, but who recently passed away due to lung cancer. She was young, living merely half a century, and she did not smoke. And she prayed. She was a devout either Buddhist or Taoist and her family owned a small temple, I think.
But we must ask ourselves, what are the things that we do that we think actually benefit us but may end up hurting us. Such as praying with incense or joss sticks, and burning joss paper, which is traditionally a Taoist practice but has been adopted by many Buddhists in Singapore who bastardise religion. And incense smoke may actually have similar harm as cigarette smoking, or at least second-hand smoking, which is causing cancer. I also recall a distant memory of praying at their family temple in one of the dark rooms many years back. Where they actually offered cigarettes, lighted up, as an offering to the gods. It was probably a Seventh Month thing, but I am not too sure, and there was a dark room and in the middle was a round or square table with seats for gods or spirits, and they had food offerings as well as a lighter and cigarette at each seat, and each person, or adult, who went in to pray would have to light a cigarette to present to the gods or spirits. And there was a funny instance where Dad asked Mum if she knows how to light a cigarette and Mum was like she experimented before. Ha-ha. Anyways, such a thing happened. So, if you are in an environment where not only are there many smokers because of cultural and social reasons, but you also often encounter incense smoke, well I’m not sure what to make of the risks associated with smoking.
Anyways, I get quite scared writing about this spirit things and stuff while listening to the song called The Opera from the Great Comet cast recording. But I have to constantly remind myself that I am an atheist and spirits are a non-issue. Or “freethinker” according to Singapore, but there are many problems with this word. Such as how it does not adequately convey the idea that atheists are gnostic in the belief that gods and the divine really do not exist. Even though I am now an atheist in belief, but a non-practicing atheist, meaning that I am a practicing religious person who does what her parents say because I still have to rely on them for my university education because I really don’t wanna get a loan just to study. Even though I am an atheist it is hard to shake off the years of indoctrination and brainwashing that I have had over the years, and it is difficult to forget the years of blind belief and fear mongering. Besides, non-practicing atheism may not be that bad, because by presenting as a religious person, I can potentially use religion as an excuse for being a “picky” vegetarian or vegan in the future, and have my choices be considered seriously. Even though this may become less necessary in the future with the rising vegan movement.
(Actually, I am very confused, because I just looked it up online, and realise that Taoism also encourages vegetarianism, similar to Buddhism, so I am very confused as to where the practices of offering meat dishes, often in large excess, as a prayer and offering to the gods actually came from. Is it the supposed prestige of meat in ancient China because meat is indeed very expensive? But now almost all meat is factory farmed and heavily subsidised, and some plants are more expensive than meat. Supply and demand is a magical thing. Brown rice is more expensive than white rice because of economies of scale or something, even though it is less processed. Is meat really still prestigious now?)
Ok, so there’s this culture and tradition thing in Singapore, which my parents, actually, my dad practices while I think my mom just obliges. Mom is the type of person who feels like she needs religion because she has a weak mind and is afraid of the afterlife and afraid of no afterlife. And she is very freaked out by NDE stories, so she needs religion for comfort, that she will go to heaven or something. Whereas dad is a mercenary and believes in using religion for blessings (as a person brought up by religious parents, I get chills running down my spine when I write this).
Ok, so anyway there’s this thing that we Chinese people do, whereby, I think its Chinese folk religion (?), we place offerings for deities and ancestors and also hungry ghosts during the seventh month. These offerings come in the form of food, often fruits, sweet “doggie treats” (I don’t mean to be rude but these little biscuit thingies are so tasteless and hard that the only being willing to eat it is the family dog), alcoholic beverages, and tea. As well as meat. Which I do not understand at all. The deities that they pray to include Tu Di Gong, the god of earth, Tian Gong, the god of sky, and Guan Yin, goddess of mercy. While the exact offerings for each occasion varies, there is definitely some permutation of deity and occasion where Sah Seh (pronounce in a nasal Teochew middle tone), San Sheng, or “three living beings” will be bought as an offering, which includes, if I’m not wrong, roast chicken, roast duck, and roast pork. Sometimes dad also makes offerings of seafood dishes or other types of meat. Excluding beef because Chinese who believe in Guan Yin aren’t supposed to eat beef. Though I think this exclusion should be expanded to include all meats, but this is just my opinion. These offerings of meat, is probably out of belief of the “richness” and “grandness” of meat, which is thought to please the deities and gain favour from them, in order to bless the place/family/person. Doesn’t this remind you of the purchase of indulgences in Catholic Europe in the middle ages?
Ok now, forgive me for my bloody ignorance, but what the HELL is so grand and respectful of presenting a fucking seasoned dead animal as an offering to your gods? (Chinese folk religion is polytheistic.) (I think.) now forget for a moment about the ethical side of this. This is environmentally irresponsible as well. I can only speak from personal experience of what my family and its members has done. I think there is nothing about offering meat as a sacrifice to deities if its what you were gonna buy to eat anyway. But what we sometimes do is that we will place the food out in the open on the altar for hours at a time, until it spoils, or it has incense dust on it, and is inedible or has to be partially thrown away. That is just a bloody waste of food, I don’t give a damn about whether or not your deities are pleased. And other people I’ve heard of, deliberately throw away prayer food because they think it to be bad luck to eat food that has already been “eaten”. Besides this, there are certain months where the prayer occasion dates are so close together that a lot of food will be bought in short succession. And because we are a family of small eaters, we often cannot finish the food, we will place the food in the freezer. And sometimes it never gets eaten because there’s just too much to finish before it turns bad. And sometimes we get tired of eating the same food over and over again that we end up wasting it.
Why would religion permit such waste? Also, because prayer offerings often include meat, this subconsciously tells the followers that it is okay, normal, and even grand to eat meat. Which is simply strange and wrong? And by obligation of having meat as part of the offerings, this indirectly leads to higher consumption of meat because followers buy meat even if they may not have desire to eat it, or for that specific kind of meat often used in offerings.
Ok. And here conclude my ramblings which I began writing over six weeks ago, which has a messed-up train of thought and which I would guess that I am not even done writing.
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