The wise lesson of a coin during a cremation

It is quite usual in Thailand and in Buddhist culture that people, after passing away, will be cremated instead of buried within three days. In the countryside nearly every village has its own open air cremation area.

Sometimes, as a wise lesson, family members put a coin under the tongue of the dead person. Just to give more attention and awareness of the reason of life.

Most cultures do not speak to much about death. In Buddhism it is accepted as quite a natural part of life. It is connected with the inner believe in destiny, an over and over again being. The ongoing cycle of birth, living, leaning, sharing and building up wisdom and passing away to give space to rebirth and so on. The Dharma cycle or cycle of Samsara.

You enter the world alone and you leave the world alone. Most of the time we are not even aware of this principle. You cannot take anything with you when your time to go, expected or unexpected, is there.

We go on making ourselves sick to fulfill our desires. Nothing wrong to have desires but lots of time we go too far. It seems there is never an end. We are running into the future where we think some happiness is waiting for us, not even knowing that we are standing right on top of our happiness. We join the ongoing rat-race to earn more and more money sometimes not even enjoying living anymore because of this desire.

The wise lesson of the coin under the tongue of a dead person during the cremation shows two things. After the cremation only ashes and dust remains (and off course remembrances for the people who stay a little bit longer till their time is there). The other thing that remains is still this coin. It shows it did not support you passing away this life.

The second thing is that the coin, after the cremation process, turned black and dirty. It does not support you or the good things you could have done with it any more.

The underlying meaning? LIVE life. Know in the understanding that you are here to do good things, to grow and share and to leave a mark. Money, till a certain amount, is necessary. Do not go too far and use it to LIVE NOW and to do good things. Enough is enough. Do not spend your time building up more than you need to live and to fulfill your mission in life.

You come alone (naked) and you will leave alone (without a single coin). 



Frans Captijn
Host / Catalyst / Talenteer at Captijn Insight

Captijn Insight: “Catalyst in your process to new sustainable flow in life and work. Whether you are an individual, couple, team or an organization.” 

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