Question

In Thailand there are a lot of spirit houses in the gardens. Is this for some "people's minds" look on a way from one life to another? If it is something like that, is it possible for us to help these spirits to get out from this state?

Answer

I believe there's some grammar mistakes here, but I'll try to answer some of this. Spirit Houses are not actually part of Theravada Buddhism, but part of Thai culture. However Buddhism does teach that there are spirits. The word spirit might not actually be the right word, we are taking a word from Judeo-Christian society and bringing it into Buddhism. Buddhism teaches there are living beings whom we can not see, who live here with us. They are invisible, they are living amongst the trees, they are living in buildings. They have a home, and some of them are ok with their homes, and some of them don't like their homes, they're distressed. Some of them supposedly have the ability to bother human beings. Take this for what you want, this is from the teachings.

In order to please the spirits that we live with, the Thai people will sometimes make spirit houses for them. A nice little place where they give them some food every morning and they do a little chanting for them. You may see some trees with cloths wrapped around them, that is to make the tree look pretty for the spirit who lives there. Doorframes. Have any of you noticed with some doorframes in Thailand, there is a frame on the bottom, you know it is not flat. Go into the bathrooms here, and there is a frame. People will think well that is because it is a bathroom and it catches the water. But there are a lot of houses that have that same sort of frame right as you walk in the door. What is that for? That is because Thai people believe there are spirits who live in doorframes and if you step on that spot you are possibly stepping on them. So by putting a bit of wood frame there you have to step over, you don't bother the spirits. This is part of the Thai belief in spirits.

Is it possible for us to help these spirits to get out of this state? Ok, if a spirit is in a state they didn't actually want to be in, Buddhism does say it is possible to help them to a certain extent. And that is the teaching of Dedication of Merits. Now when you do some goodness and you dedicate your merit for somebody else, whom you know who has died or the spirits, supposedly they will get some benefit from that. I can't say, yes or no.

But I will give you a different way to look at that. My father died recently, and everyone was told that if they would like to make a donation to do it for a certain hospital or a certain other thing, I forget what my niece wrote in the article. It has been traditional in my family that whenever any relative or friend dies they will write a check for the Children's Hospital in Washington, DC, where my parents lived. Now when they write that check, they put in a note that this is from the person who died, or this is for the person who died. Basically this donation is because of that person's life, this is for them. Now the people at the hospital get this check, they see whose name it was for and they may think, "Oh, it's so nice that that person was such a good human that these other people liked that person and they therefore gave money to the hospital."

Now my parents are the ones that wrote the check, they sent it in, the other person is dead and gone, but wasn't it because the other person had done some goodness that that check was sent? Isn't it their Kammic result, too? So the check to the hospital is because of something my parents did, but my parents wouldn't have done it unless that person had done something first. So that person's goodness produced money for a hospital. Aren't they supposed to benefit from their own good actions? Buddhism says, yes. So when a lot of people do a lot of goodness for somebody who has just died, the person who died, Kammically, is supposed to get part of the result of that goodness.

Our apologies if there are any errors in the above text. If anything seems to be wrong or confusing in any way, please feel free to contact the teachers for further clarification.