Many people nowadays cannot write the memorial tablet. Because modern people have lost traditional Chinese culture, many people write tablets in irregular formats. Another point is that when writing tablets, many people are not respectful and write random scribbles. First, let’s talk about the requirements for writing tablets. We must know that writing tablets is to establish a place for these ghosts and gods. If we do not write tablets for ghosts and gods, they will not be able to enter the ashram. Whether it is a chanting hall or a temple, there are Dharma protectors, so they cannot come in casually. For example, we teach the Dharma here, we do Buddhist practice here, and we take refuge in the netherworld here. There are Dharma protectors guarding the door, and ghosts and gods are wandering outside, so anxious that they can't come in. Including the Dharma protector at our chanting site, ghosts and gods cannot come in. How can they get in? Write tablets for them. The tablet is their passport, their position. I have talked about this issue many times in my "Report on Thought Assistance". For example, there was an example: a lonely ghost saw us assisting in chanting and could not come in because the protector was very strict. Just like in the human world, the Dharma Protector sneaked in without even noticing. After he slipped in, if the Dharma Protector saw him, he would be kicked out. The Dharma Protector was very strict, so this lonely ghost hid. Later, he hid in the kitchen and happened to meet us lay people going in to wash our hands. He made a request, "I am a lonely wandering ghost. When I saw the Buddha chanting here, I really wanted to come in and follow it, but there is no place for me. Please help." We. The layman said, "Okay. But it's too late to write a memorial tablet for you now. We have a memorial tablet for all living beings in the Dharma Realm. You can stand there." As soon as the layman said hello, the Dharma Protector knew that that was his position, the Dharma Protector. God won’t chase you away. The Dharma Protector protects our Dharma. Just like when we have a meeting here, there are security guards guarding the door outside. People who enter must have tickets and passes. If our relatives or friends come and do not have passes, we should go to the door and say hello to the security guard, "This is my friend, this is my relative, let him in." The security guard will let him in. If you don't say hello, others won't let you in. The principle is the same, so writing the tablet is very important. This is the first point. The second point is to be respectful when writing tablets. We must be respectful to ghosts and gods. When writing memorial tablets, we cannot write homophones or variant characters. Every word of the name must be written accurately and cannot be replaced by other words. If you make a mistake, ghosts and gods will not be able to enter. Therefore, when we help people write memorial tablets, we must ask for accurate names. Chinese characters are very complicated and there are many homophones, so we have to be careful. When family members provide names, they don’t understand and don’t pay attention, but we have to pay attention and we must ask every word clearly. Secondly, writing must be neat. Some people write cursive calligraphy and write the tablets in random places. This is not acceptable. What to do? Use block letters and write stroke by stroke. This is one. The other one cannot be altered. During the writing process, if I make a mistake, I have seen many memorial tablets. After making a mistake, I would take a pen and make an ink pimple, smear it and then write. This is not allowed, no scribbling, no scratching. What should I do if I make a mistake? Stack it up respectfully, take another sheet and rewrite it. You must know this. We can't be disrespectful to ghosts and gods, because they won't benefit. If you write randomly, the Dharma Protector won't be able to see clearly, so that's not okay. We know that tablets are the passports of ghosts and gods. In addition to writing the name of the deceased, we also need to write Yangshang. Yangshang is our Yangshang people. When writing about Master Yang, the title must correspond to the relationship between the deceased and the deceased. For example, if the deceased is the mother, named Yang Shufang, then the person in Yangshang should be the son or daughter. If we don't write about Master Yang, it would be very troublesome to write about Yang Shufang alone. When we arrived at the ghost path, the ghost king mentioned Yang Shufang, and a large group of Yang Shufang came. Which one should he mention? Because there are so many people with the same name and surname, it would be very troublesome not to write Yangshangren. If you write about Yang Shangren, it will be different. But there is another problem here. For example, Yang Shufang’s son is called Li Jie. Among the one hundred Yang Shufangs, there may be five Yang Shufangs whose sons are all named Li Jie, and the sons also have the same name. This is troublesome. What to do about this? Therefore, two lines of words should be written behind the tablet: one line should write the year, month, day, and time; the other line should write the death, that is, the year, month, day, and time of death. hour. After writing it like this, when you go to the Ghost King, you won't mention the wrong person. China is a country with ancient civilization. Ancient Chinese culture was very particular about writing, but now people no longer have that. I have read many tablets written by people, and I can tell at a glance that these people don’t understand. For example, when a son writes a memorial tablet for his mother, he writes Yang Shufang and Li Suzhen directly, but it won’t work, it won’t work, and he may not be able to come. Furthermore, now I see many tombstones in cemeteries, including those who carved tombstones, and I don’t know much about them now. It is a mistake to write "dead father" directly on the tombstone, or "father". Some people directly write about their deceased father, which is also a mistake, at least it is disrespectful to the father. Let me tell you, the writing on the memorial tablet and the writing on the tombstone should be clear to others. People can know whether the deceased's parents, parents-in-law, or elders are still alive or not by looking at the tombstone without asking. After a woman dies, people can tell by looking at the tablet that the deceased's husband is still alive, whether she has any grandchildren, and whether her parents are still alive. How many people understand now? Nowadays, many people don't understand. It is very simple to directly write the spiritual position of so-and-so of the deceased father, which does not explain the problem. Even if you go to the ghost king, you will cause a lot of trouble for the ghost king. If he can't be found, you simply don't look for him.
So sometimes even though the tablet is written, it has no effect. Now I will give you a brief introduction to the writing of tablets. Everyone should remember it. If you have the opportunity, it is best to buy a book published by our chanting aid group, called "Simple and Quick Emancipation Manual". The four books "Xi Xu Zhi" are bound together. Our chanting aid group circulates this book in large quantities. At the back of this book, there is the writing format of the memorial tablet. You can take a look for yourself. Today I will give you a simple explanation according to this format. We follow the Chinese way of writing since ancient times. After the death of parents, we cannot write parents or call them parents again. When they were alive, they were called parents. After their death, their father was called Kao and their mother was called heir. Kao and his wife, Kao is his father and his wife is his mother. When your father has passed away, you cannot say "dead father". That would be the greatest disrespect to your father. You must call him "Xian Kao" or "Xian Kao". If the memorial tablet is first examined at the beginning, outsiders will know at a glance that this is the memorial tablet erected by the son after his father died. But there are still elderly people in his family, that is, the deceased still has his father and mother. At least one person is still there, or his father and mother are gone, but his father-in-law and mother-in-law are still alive. Why do you say this? Because as long as one of the parents and elders is still alive in the world, he has the elders around, and if he dies, he can only be asked to go first. He left first, and took the first step. In this family, he cannot be seen yet, so he is called "Xian". If his parents, father-in-law, mother-in-law, and elders are all gone. In addition to no elders, and he also has grandchildren, then he is the oldest person in the family. How to write? Just write "show", show the show. He has the most distinguished status in the family and is called Xiankao. If there are no grandchildren, he cannot be called "Xian", but can only be called "Xian". This is what we must know. The same goes for women. The concubine is the mother, and the deceased is also the deceased, as well as the parents-in-law and parents. At least one elder is still alive and is called the concubine. The same goes for Xian Hei and Xian Kao. If the elder is gone and there are grandchildren, it can be called "Xian". The difference between "Xian" and "Xian" is that there must be no elders, and there must be grandchildren. There are no elders above, and there must be grandchildren below oneself, in order to be called "Xian", otherwise it is called "Xian", and it is the same for men and women.
We people nowadays don’t understand etiquette. We all say so-and-so about our father. That’s wrong. As a son, what qualifications do you have to call your father by his name outside? It is a big taboo for a son to call his father by his name outside. This son is absolutely unfilial and does not understand the most basic rules. This is a big taboo in ancient Chinese culture. But if someone from outside comes and asks, "What is your father's name?" If someone asks, you have to answer, and it would be disrespectful not to answer. I want to answer my father, that is, my father. When a son calls his father's name, let me first mention a taboo. It is taboo for me to mention my father's name, but I have to say it. What should I do if I have to say it? First bow your head to the other person and say a taboo word before your father's name. For example, my father’s surname is Cheng, and his name is Cheng Zhizhong. If I mention my father's name, my father's surname is Cheng, and I must say this. When people hear that your father's surname is Cheng, he is called Zhizhong. This is why. This taboo is sandwiched in the middle and not mentioned as a name. It means that the son is humble and respectful to his father. There must be a taboo in the middle, and this is still the case when writing tablets. When writing a memorial tablet, write it first and then test it, or make a clear test. For example, write my father's tablet: My father's surname is Cheng. If there is a grandfather above me, or there is an old man in the family, and there is an old man above me, my father will be called the first tester. His surname is Cheng and his name is Zhizhong. When writing the tablet, you should write "公" under Cheng, Cheng Gong. This "Gong" is his honorific title. Now let’s talk about the taboo, let’s talk about the name, taboo is Zhizhong, and the ruler of the mansion is born in the lotus position of the west. This is very complete. The full name is: First, let’s examine Cheng Gong’s taboo, which is the loyal ruler of the mansion and is born in the lotus position of the west. If there are no elders and my father is the highest generation in the family, then he should write: Xian Kao Chenggong Taozhi Zhongfu Jun was born in the lotus position of the West. Father's way of writing is relatively simple. The writing method of the mother's tablet is more complicated than that of the father. Take my mother for example. My mother's surname is Du, my father's surname is Cheng, and my mother's name is Du Xiuzhen. When my mother passed away, my grandparents and grandparents were gone, and when my mother passed away, my father had also passed away, so when I wrote the memorial tablet for my mother, I could call her the heir. You can't talk about Du Xiuzhen under the concubine. It would be wrong to refer to Du Xiuzhen as the concubine. How to call it? Her maiden name is Du, because she married my father. According to traditional Chinese practice, when you marry a chicken, you follow the chicken, and when you marry a dog, you follow the dog. So after she got married, her surname was Cheng, and her surname was not Du. You should understand this. How do you write your mother's surname? Her surname is Cheng, and she also needs to write her maiden name. That is the name of the concubine Cheng Mu. Because she gave birth to a son in the Cheng family, she is the mother of the Cheng family's son. Her maiden name is at the end, but her full name cannot be called Cheng Du. She can be called Cheng Dushi when she is alive, but she cannot be called Cheng Dushi after death, otherwise she will not be found in the underworld. She also needs to write her name, but her name cannot be written directly. If it is wrong to write Du Xiuzhen, why? She has married into the Cheng family. Her maiden name is the name given by her parents. What will her name be when she lives as a human being after marriage? Her name is Cheng Dushi. But it's not enough to just write "Cheng Du" on the tablet. It's hard to find her in the underworld. You have to find out her name when she was a child, because people have files in the underworld. Therefore, Cheng Mu should be written as Du Ruren. Ruren means child. Next, write "boudoir name", which is the name of the girl when she was a girl. Her maiden name is Xiuzhen, so it is complete.
That is to say, she is now married to the Cheng family and has given birth to a child. She is the mother whose surname is Cheng. Her maiden name is Du. When she was a child, her name was Xiuzhen. It is still called this way in Hong Kong and Taiwan. What's it called? My name is Cheng Du Xiuzhen. Here, women have one more rule than men. What's one more rule? If the deceased meets the conditions for being recognized as an heir and her husband is no longer around, she will not be called "Ruren" but "Tairuren". Because when my mother passed away, my grandparents and grandparents were gone, and my father died before my mother, so my mother was not called "Ruren" but "Tairuren". As soon as people saw Tai Ruren, they knew that the husband of the deceased was no longer there, the elders above him were no more, and he already had grandchildren. Therefore, the full name of my mother’s tablet is: The lotus tablet of Xiuzhen, the mother-in-law of Cheng’s mother, who was born in the west. Writing the tablet in this way is complete and people can understand it at a glance. Therefore, this tablet makes people feel respectful at first sight. This is the writing format of the mother's tablet. I also want to tell everyone that when we are at a memorial service site, in addition to erecting a memorial tablet for the deceased, we usually erect a soul-calling flag for the deceased. This is very necessary. For those who don’t understand the chanting group, if you write the memorial tablet but don’t set up the soul-calling flag, their spiritual consciousness will wander around. Yesterday I told you about the lay practitioner in Dalian who ran away when others tried to trick her. Sometimes, not only does she run around when she is moving, but she also runs around when she is not moving. It happened in the past when we were assisting the deceased. As soon as we were assisting the deceased to visit, the whole body of the deceased was cold, stiff and without warmth. The temperature cannot be found, what is the reason? His consciousness ran away, far away, running around everywhere. If we write a spiritual banner for him and stick it there, he will not be able to run far. This is very effective. The writing method of the soul-calling banner is basically the same as the writing format of the tablet. The title of the tablet is "Fo Li Chao Jian" on the top, and "Xian Kao" or "Xian Heir" below, for example: "Fo Li Chao Jian" shows the concubine, Cheng's mother Tai Ruren's niece's name is Xiuzhen Shengxi's lotus position. At the bottom of the tablet is written the lotus position. The way the soul-calling banner is written, the title is not the Buddha's power to recommend it, but the Buddha's light to guide it. The format after the Buddha's light is introduced is the same as the format of the tablet, but at the bottom of the soul-calling flag is written "The Right Spirit of the Second Position". The tablet is in the Lotus position, and below the soul-calling flag is the Zhengling in the B position. For example: the Buddha's light leads to the righteous spirit of the concubine Cheng's mother Tairu, whose name is Xiuzhen Yi. Writing a soul-calling flag and offering it as an offering can make the deceased feel at ease and not wander around. If an elderly person dies in the family, the memorial tablet must be written by the son or daughter-in-law. If there is no son or daughter-in-law, if there is a daughter, the daughter can also write it. Yangshang people are of the descendant generation, and they are called Xiankaoxianhei or Xiankaoxianhei. Only when the son and daughter-in-law are dead can the grandson be the solemnizer of the funeral. If Yang Shangren is a grandson, the title has changed, and the tablet should not read "Xian Kao Xian Hei", but "Xian Zu Kao", "Xian Zu Kao", which is what we call grandfather and grandmother in the world. The titles must correspond. Many people don't know how to write tablets, so how can they do it? The name of the father is written on the tablet, and the name of the grandson is signed. You are calling me father, how can you write your grandson's name on Yangshang? That's a wrong title. You're causing trouble for the Ghost King. It's hard to find anyone. On the tablet are the names of ancestors and descendants, and Yangshang talents write the names of their grandsons. But everyone must remember that there is a condition. If it is the grandson who sets up the memorial tablets for grandparents, and if someone in Yangshang writes about grandson, it must be the father and mother. Uncles and aunts are all gone, so it is the grandson's turn to write the grandpa's memorial tablet, and the grandson can take charge. If the father and mother are still alive, and the uncles and aunts are still alive, it will not be the grandson's turn to take charge. As long as the old man has children, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren, they can't take charge of the affairs, so you can't write casually. If the memorial tablet is an ancestor test, no one will ask. The grandson of this old man is in charge, and all his children are dead. Do you dare? Your father and mother haven't passed away yet, but you, the grandson, are in charge of writing the memorial tablet. With a stroke of your pen, you sentenced your father and mother to death! Those who understand will see that your father and mother are no longer alive, so you cannot write casually. You must understand this.
When faced with good times, follow good conditions and avoid greed and delusion - all blessings and wisdom will appear!
When faced with adverse circumstances, follow bad conditions and avoid anger - all karma will be eliminated!
There are also memorial tablets written between spouses. If there are no children, the wife should write a memorial tablet for her husband, which should be written as her late husband, followed by the name, followed by "jun", which means an honorific title. A son calls his father "jun", and a wife can only call her husband by the word "jun", followed by "jun". It is the lotus position of the West. The full name is: My late husband, Mr. xxx, was born in the lotus position of the West. The husband wrote a memorial tablet for his wife, calling her the first wife. Since she had no children, the following is her maiden name. The full name is: First wife x’s maiden name xx Shengxi Zhilian. If there are children, the wife should write a memorial tablet for her husband, and she should write: My husband, x, xx, you were born in the lotus position of the west. If there are children, the husband should write the tablet to his wife as follows: Concubine x Mother Because she gave birth to a child for you, if your surname is Li and her surname is Wang, Xiuzhen, you should write: Li's mother, Wang's maiden name, Xiuzhen, was born in the lotus position of the West. You must write it according to this format. If there is no son, it will be: Xiuzhen, the maiden name of the Wang surname, was born in the West Lotus position. This tablet is a bit simpler. It is very simple for brothers to write memorial tablets. When a younger brother writes a memorial tablet for his elder brother, he should write: Brother. Be respectful to your brother. If the elder brother wants to write a memorial tablet for his younger brother, he can directly write the deceased brother. The dead brother can be addressed directly. But when a younger brother writes a memorial tablet for his older brother, he cannot write about his deceased brother. If a younger brother writes a memorial tablet for his elder brother and writes about his deceased brother, people will know that this person has no rules, so he must write about his late brother. Parents write memorial tablets for their children, writing about their late husband or deceased son. When a daughter dies, she calls her deceased daughter. Parents can call their children by their first names without violating any taboo. The following is just the name plus the lotus position. It is very simple and easy to write.
In addition to the above mentioned, on the back of the tablet, the birth date of the deceased and the date and hour of death must be written. If someone turns over the tablet and looks at the back, you don’t know the birth date. As a child, you don’t even know the birthdays of your parents. How can you celebrate your parents’ birthdays? You haven't celebrated your parents' birthdays. Are you a filial son? People know it without asking. So why is Chinese traditional culture said to be so profound? Do people still need to ask whether your son is filial or not? Also, it is generally no longer used nowadays. Nowadays, people simply don’t understand the color of the tablet. How many people know it now? Now when I go to temples and chanting halls across the country, I see that the tablets are all yellow, which was not allowed in the past. The yellow tablet is for women. When a woman dies, the yellow tablet is used. When a man dies, the yellow tablet cannot be used. When a man dies, a green paper tablet is used. In the past, if you looked far away from the mourning hall, you could tell whether the deceased was male or female by looking at the color of the tablet without reading the words. Nowadays, regardless of whether they are male or female, they are all yellow, and you can’t tell them apart. If you want to know, go and take a look. Nowadays, people do not understand traditional Chinese culture. If you use cyan tablets, they will think you are using the wrong one. Moreover, cyan tablets are not easy to buy, so we just follow fate and use yellow tablets. I hope that memorial groups from all over the world will learn how to write memorial tablets. They must learn how to do so. Writing tablets also cultivates our respect. We must be respectful to ghosts and gods! We often say that all sentient beings are our parents. This is not just talk. They were indeed our parents. Then ghosts and gods are our parents, all the dead are also our parents, and all suffering beings are our parents. We must be respectful! Writing each tablet means that when we face each deceased person, we should respect them as if our own parents were coming. We must be sincere and respectful, write stroke by stroke, and write in regular script.
Of course, there can be no lines or boxes on the tablets. You say draw a line in the middle? no. You can fold it slightly vertically. Usually I fold it in half a few times. After folding it, I can divide it into several grids in the middle. What should I do? Make the words on the tablet evenly written and of the same size. If you don't separate this grid, what will happen when you write the tablet? I'm afraid that I won't be able to write. If I write the characters in the front very small, then there will be a lot of space at the bottom, and the characters at the bottom will be very big. The characters written in the front are small and dense, while the characters in the back are large and loose, which is very unsightly. Sometimes the words written in the front are larger and looser, and when there is no room at the back, the words are quickly written smaller and tighter. This kind of memorial tablet makes people feel uncomfortable when they look at it. Even humans feel uncomfortable when they look at it. How can ghosts and gods feel comfortable when they look at it? Let me tell you that in the past, when scholars came to Beijing to take exams, they were very particular about it. When the test paper comes to the examiner, he or she will not look at how well your article is written or how exciting the content is. If the examiner sees an ink ball on your test paper, he will grab your paper and throw it into the wastebasket. , don’t look! No matter how good the content is, I won’t watch it! Because you will be an official in the future and will be slovenly and incapable of making decisions for the people. Therefore, no matter how good your articles are, you will not have good moral character. In the past, people were very rigorous in doing things. It doesn’t work anymore. Looking at people’s articles nowadays, they are all messed up. When writing a tablet, no scrawling or scratching is allowed on it. Now for the sake of convenience, the top and bottom of our tablets are usually in printed fonts, so only fill in the middle part. When writing, first fold it in half vertically from the middle, and then fold the blank space a few times, so that even a few words can be written evenly. The old master once talked about drawing talismans. Some people draw talismans, but some people draw talisman and it doesn't work. Why? The person who draws the talisman has a pure heart and does not have any distracting thoughts, so the talisman he draws will be effective. Just like when we recite the Buddha's name, those who know how to recite the Buddha's name can extinguish the serious sins of life and death for eight billion kalpas by reciting one sentence of Amitabha. People who don’t know how to recite the Buddha’s name can recite it a hundred thousand times without losing any karma.