The Scripture of the Fo...

Dictionary

The Scripture of the Founding Master

Chapter Nine: Sending on Spirits in Transition

34

Taegŏ asked again, “How was it decided to hold the deliverance service on the forty-ninth day after a person’s death?” The Founding Master said, “When people die, they generally stay in the intermediate state for forty-nine days before they receive a new body in accordance with their karmic affinities. Thus, in order to guide them to collect the pure and clear one-pointedness once again, we decided to offer the deliverance invocation on that day in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha of the past. However, there are plenty of spirits who receive a new body in accordance with their attached minds as soon as they die.”