Death for Life?

In my most recent navigation of the World Wide Web, I managed to come across a very interesting bit of new Buddhist traditions. In Nakhon Nayok, Thailand, an individual experiences a temporary death and is soon reborn with completely new karma, as if they were a completely different person. This ceremony is called the coffin ceremony. A 39-year-old woman from Bangkok has been applying for a visa to the Netherlands, but has not yet received her wish. Well, after her temporary death she prayed again and, along with all the other individuals who died and were reborn, got her wish. So, these people sort of contemplated a temporary death and after a long slumber, awoke a completely new person. I believe that I may have heard that somewhere before. Perhaps these lines from Siddhartha, “Perhaps he had really died, perhaps he had been drowned and was reborn in another form…this Siddhartha was somewhat changed, renewed” (91). Siddhartha, the savior of these people, contemplated and may have done the exact same thing that they have just started doing. So, has this tradition that recently commenced in Thailand really that new? Didn’t Siddhartha try it over 2400 years ago? Either way this story relates to our school experiences by showing that Siddhartha’s “practices” are still being followed or “reborn” today. I hope you enjoyed my presentation of my weekly browsing of many completely irrelevant stories and occasionally, as shown here, some relevant ones from the Internet.

"In latest Thai fad, a taste of death brings hope for better life." The Buddhist Channel. 11 Oct 2008. AFP. 11 Oct 2008 .