TheQiupster comment: …I have wondered about spirits and hell – and how to avoid hell...Boon loy (100) vhan is design to avoid hell and it is a hectic event, I know.
I like to comment on this a bit, from what I understand, Boun isn’t designed to avoid hell, it’s designed to increase karma, happiness, prosperity, and lessen suffering, for both the living and passed love ones. Borp (sin) is designed to avoid hell, if you don’t want to go to hell, then don’t commit these Borp (sins.) below,
In standard religious Buddhism committing one of these five or seven sins is said to earn one a place in the lowest and worst of the hell realms, which are not harming sentient beings, not stealing, not lying, not indulging in improper sexual acts, and becoming intoxicated. Lastly, the most deadly or heinous sin of all are killing one’s father, killing one’s mother, shedding the blood of a Buddha, destroying the harmony of the monastic order (the sangha), and either killing a Buddhist saint (arhat) and/or destroying Buddhist scriptures and statues.
From the last sermon that I gathered, if I understood correctly, there are 3 types of Borp (sin), the first type if you committed, you have to pay for it in your next life, second type if committed, you have a chance to Tum Boun (good deed) to replace or lessen the sin, third type if you committed, you have to pay for it in this life, this is when Lao people said ‘Borp Tun Ta Henh’, what goes around, comes around.
Buddhism isn’t like other religions in which if you committed a sin, you just have to ask for forgiveness or confess your sin and you have a clean slate. Buddhism is a way of life that you’d try to do good deed to lessen your suffering, in a sense very similar to problem solving approach in life where you’d identify a problem, then solve it in a way that will benefit as many people as possible, and at the same time to minimize or eliminate suffering.
Note from my post of ‘Boun 100 Vanh…Part I’, something to think about: … Why 3 Kone Haih, parade of 3 people behind the casket, symbolize the basic reality of life, no matter who you are, rich or poor, we can’t escape the reality of ‘IMPERMANENT, SUFFERING, NON-SELF.’ Lastly, Why 2 Kone Nom Thung, the casket should only be lead by 2 people, which represent Borb (sin) and Boun (karma, or good deed), where you go from here is lead by your Borb and Boun.
Nye Noona 