- The True Meaning of Ancestral Memorial Rites
- 1 On Lunar New Year’s Day of 1909, Cha Gyung-suk offered ancestral memorial rites while Sahng-jeh-nim was staying at his house.
- 2 Sahng-jeh-nim said, “Put the offering table in front of Me.” Then, He said to Gyung-suk’s brothers and the disciples, “Do the embracing-heaven-and-caressing-earth bow four times and pray in your minds.”
- 3 Afterward, He asked, “To whom did you pray?” They all answered that they had prayed to Him to resolve the bitterness and grief of their ancestors.
- 4 Sahng-jeh-nim laughed happily and tasted the food.
- 5 “Divide it equally as Chen Ping did,” He said, and continued, “Since people receive their bodies from their ancestors and are, therefore, indebted to them, offering ancestral memorial rites is in accord with the virtue of heaven and earth.
- 6 The current method has been formed incorrectly by the old heaven. True dharma will emerge.”
- (JSD Dojeon 9,102)
