What is the Purpose of Burning Paper Gold?
A dharma sister asked, `Since taking refuge up till now, we have attended many ceremonies and burned endless stacks of paper money. Why is that not enough? Why do we still need to burn more money?`
This is a good question, as it talks about a realistic problem.
When you burn paper money, it turns into smoke and becomes the intangible currency for the intangible spiritual world. The spiritual world can`t use tangible materials, but it can accept intangible goods such as the burned paper money. The spiritual world will accept the paper money as if it were real money.
One stack of paper money in the spiritual world is worth the merits of one stack of real money in this world. Just like people can use up the real money in their pockets, one or two hundred bills of paper money can get used up in the spiritual world. Once the paper money is gone, the spirits will ask for more. Just like children asking their parents for more money, your relatives in the spiritual world will also clamor for more money.
Just try to count the numerous relatives you have had in your previous lifetimes. You have relatives by the boatload! If you really count all your lifetimes, how many relatives do you have? Speaking of which, your relatives could be vast enough to fill the universe. Some of them will receive the money you burn, but the money will run out while most of your relatives are still queuing up. The best way is to indicate the intended receiver on each stack of money. Then only authorized people will be able to access the money.
There are some smart Dharma Brothers and Sisters asking the Masters to bless the paper money first. The visualization method of our Tantric sect can convert one stack of money to multiple stacks, so you can buy the least amount of paper money and achieve the greatest effect. But do the things that you visualize actually achieve the expected results? That is the question of the effectiveness of visualization.
If you have cultivated sufficiently, then your visualization power can create images with the same effects as real things. Then the offerings that you visualize will be complete. The visualized currency will be as effective as real money. When you have this capability, then you can multiply your paper money offerings to feed your countless relatives.
The gold that you visualize must feel as heavy as real gold to be effective. The same goes for the paper money you visualize. It has to look just like real money to be usable. If you can`t visualize to this extent, a stack of paper money has only the merits of a stack of paper money.
Are you burning enough paper money? That depends on how much you owe from your previous lifetimes. If you owe billions and billions of dollars, you will have to continue to burn paper money. Think about it, if you swallowed an entire fortune in a previous lifetime, and you want to pay off your debt with just 30 cents, will that be satisfactory? The debt we owe our debtors and enemies must be repaid. Although paper money may not be cheap, the burning must continue until the debt is paid.
You need to burn the money to get it to the relevant people. If you gave them real money, they wouldn`t be able to use it. You have to burn a currency that will turn into something that they can spend. Paper money can be used to pay back debts of relationships, emotions and life itself.
