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Funeral Vanity !

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Time Zone: EST (New York, Toronto)

Messenger: Matthew

Sent: 4/25/2013 11:13:13 AM

In this life I believe InI should be concerned with the living. There is people all over the world living from hand to mouth. Men, wombman and Children are living with no access to water, food, healthcare, or education. I believe any available resources should be directed towards these sufferers. As such I see funerals as a waste of resources and vanity. People spend thousands on the dead but wont spend a dollar to help the living! This makes no sense to I.

Christ says... 'let the dead bury the dead'.

Although I dont believe he meant this literally, I do think he was showing the diciple that wanted to bury his father that work which helps the living is more inportant and beneficial than that towards the dead.

When I was younger I viewed my Grandfather in the mortuary. I remember thinking that the body laying before me was no longer my Grandad but just a empty shell. As I trod in RasTafarI I relise that death can not
touch I. The world can destroy I body but I Irit is and always will be with RasTafarI. As such burials and funerals hold no importance to I

RasTafarI Liveth

Messenger: Ark I

Sent: 4/25/2013 11:18:54 PM

There is a time for everything, and this is not the time.

Show Respect.

Proverbs Teaches I and I

Prov.29
[11] A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.

I don't write this to call the I a fool, but instead to Teach the I how to be wise. I always keep that saying in I mind, so I can be mindful of it and speak in due time and season.

Messenger: SunofMan

Sent: 4/26/2013 7:05:17 PM

Greetings...the verse refers to a man who wants to follow Christ, but puts something before HIM. If you are to put "God" on hold to work on a burial, or anything else for that matter, then one might be considered spiritually dead. Christ is speaking in a time when everyone can potentially come and follow him in flesh, but most people don't, they go on with the mundane, and so they're referred to as "dead." I personally don't think this verse is meant to be a direct diss of burial practices...personally, I feel that burial has tremendous significance. I started a thread a while ago, which got really contentious (so I'm really not inclined to link it)but, you might find that it sheds some light...you could search the term "sarcophagus" to find it. I don't know that the biblical Christ ever gave burial much props, but He was buried...and the Bible itself certainly makes positive mention of the practice as well. Burial is an ancient tradition which is extremely symbolic, within the practice is deep meaning to reflect upon.
Selam

Messenger: Matthew

Sent: 4/27/2013 3:21:26 PM

Blessed Love

Ark I
I give thanks for the Fiyah and advice.
I APPRECILOVE the Is continued guidance. Im not sure if the I is aware or not but the Is reasonings have played a important role in I trod from since a youth. Much RASpect teacher!

Bro Sun of man
Christ said he didnt come to change the laws of old but to fulfill them.
I see Christ as fullfilling Num 6.6 when he declared 'let the dead bury the dead'.
----
6 � All the days that he separateth himself unto the LORD he shall come at no dead body.
7 He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration* of his God is upon his head.
----

I will reason more and check the reasoning the I linked when time permits

Blessed Love

Messenger: SunofMan

Sent: 4/27/2013 4:11:14 PM

Personally, I don't consider myself a Nazarite...I guess if I did then I would abide by what Numbers states.

I'm still not thinking that Christ was advising the man who wished to follow HIM, but bury his father first, to become a Nazarite. I do think that it's a statement about giving something precedence before the Almighty, and by doing so One is spiritually "dead".

Anyways, there's still those of us who aren't Nazarenes and someone's got to take care of the dead, that's a job that should be done with great respect and care. The ceremonies surrounding burial aren't frivolous, they're sacred.

If you model your life on that of the biblical Nazarenes then I would understand the aversion to a deceased body.
Selam

Messenger: Black heart

Sent: 4/28/2013 2:09:14 AM

Funerals are important part of our lives. Death n birth are de two main stages of life dat everyone passes through so I n I affe raspect death n birth. I man do attend burials. Blessed love n inity.

Messenger: om rasta

Sent: 4/28/2013 3:41:24 AM

greetings rasta, i man living in an ashram on the ganges where people come to burn their loved ones 24 hours a day. it is an irie meditation to swim in the ashes that roll by. simplicity is proscribed to biblical burial. but judeo-christian is against burning. i think the culture of the families who gather to watch their departed burn is a kind of catharsis. 'let the dead bury their dead' means that rastafari recognize and see no death. to become rastafari we already died to our egos. because i and i are already grafted into eternal life. we no suffer second death. nazarites keeping away from funerals means that the higher man no grief for what is departed. because he know the true self is not born and does not die.

Messenger: Matthew

Sent: 4/28/2013 5:16:45 AM

Of course different cultures and traditions call for different ceremonies and procedures surrounding a ones passing on.

Unlike in other places though here in the west funerals are used as a sort of symbol status. The larger and more expensive the funeral the more important and successful the individual is seen to be. Vanity of Vanities. People put large amounts of money and resources aside for their own death . Some families go without and get into debt because they think if there loved ones don't have a expensive funeral people will think they loved them less.

In the city free land is rare yet so much is taken up by the dead in cemeteries ect. Such valuable resources I believe could be better utilized for agricultural or community development especially for deprived areas.

Blessed Love

Messenger: Iman Bo

Sent: 4/30/2013 3:34:15 AM

Isis brethren

To I, western burial practices display a misplaced conception of humanity; as if humans are so far superior to the natural world that we should cut down forests to build coffins to protect our bodies from being eaten (or decomposed). Our bodies are vessels in which Life inhabits and are provided by the materials of the Earth. Our lives depend on the ecological food web of microorganisms that decompose organic matter and supply plants with nutrients. Plants sustain INI. The least we could do to show thanks for the life-processes of Earth is to let our bodies revitalize the Earth when we die---let our bodies return to the natural cycles and Order. Rather than separate ourselves from the majesty of creation, embody it literally.

As far as remembrance and celebration of ones passing, INI think that it is very important to honor and show respect for the righteous who have moved on. Always best to dwell on the heights of life, all the great experiences that have been shared, not on a single moments of grief or sorrow. Death is just a passage, to what, Jah know

Messenger: DURU

Sent: 5/4/2013 4:10:07 AM

blessed to all

yes I, only d ego dies not life, d personality dat InI are identified with but not life dies, higher I is life and lower I is a function in life, and through this identification with d lower I death seems to b reality.

death simply is a symbolism of liberation from ego in other words being 1 with life or be life itself, this is why when dead d term rest in peace came from, every one wants to be in peace. this Is why in ancient cultures death is sacred "death of ego "
death is a celebration not a grief

InI JAH RASTAFARI

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