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Written by: Huang Wenxuan
2020-10-29 00:00
Last update date: 2020-10-29 00:00
At 8 p.m., eight "coffins" were placed in an upstairs bookstore in Sham Shui Po, with eight black and white photographs standing on them, and a small yellow light was lit in front.
The "deceased" sits next to his coffin, silently writing a suicide note, with words of thanks, apology, and goodbye, and then tells the story well.
After speaking the last words, they put on white clothes, lay down in the coffin, covered nails, sealed the coffin, and formally entered the soil for safety and ended their lives.
This is a "coffin" death experience workshop.
Restorator Wu Guilin is one of the organizers. He wants to reflect on the true meaning of life through death.
Confucius said, "If you don't know how to live, you know how to die."
Instead, he wanted to ask, "Unknown death, how can I know life?"
Photography: Gao Zhongming
This "Coffin Coffin" death experience workshop was jointly organized by Ng Guilin, a restorationist of the deceased, together with Yi Quan Bookstore, Jingguan teacher and social worker Chen Muning.
(Photo by Gao Zhongming)
A couple attended the funeral together. The husband took the microphone and read the last words to his wife: "My wife, knowing you is the happiest thing in life. You brought me many happy memories, and I felt it in times of difficulty. Your support gives me direction and dependence in my life." The wife behind him bowed her head and said nothing, crying.
Some people leave with gratitude, while others walk through the last journey of life with regret, reluctance and guilt.
A young college student wrote a suicide note to explain what happened to him, "I hope I can do organ donation, be a general teacher, and of course I will scatter the ashes in the sea for a green funeral."
"The suicide note asks us to think about three advantages that describe ourselves. It turns out that I rarely pay attention to my own advantages."
Death experience workshop participant Yufeng
After speaking the last words, the participants put on white clothes, lay down in the coffin, covered with nails, and sealed the coffin to formally "get into the earth for peace."
(Photo by Gao Zhongming)
"Experience" After life and death, social workers are shocked to say that they rarely thank themselves
Yufeng is one of the participants. He is a social worker and has been accompanying many dying cancer patients on their last journey in the past five years.
I have seen many deaths, but when he really experienced the moment of resurrection from the dead, he was shocked that he rarely thanked himself. "The suicide note asks us to think about three advantages that describe ourselves. It turns out that I rarely pay attention to my own advantages." He also Don't forget to think about how to apply experience to caring for dying patients. "If some dying patients can find their own merits before leaving, they may walk more peacefully."
Yufeng is a social worker who has been accompanying many dying cancer patients on their last journey in the past five years.
(Photo by Gao Zhongming)
"My dad died of gallbladder cancer in 2004. I didn't realize that he would leave at any time. Visiting is also a routine job. How did I know that he received a call from the hospital one day and said that he was gone. He has nurtured me for so long. Never told him."
Anthony, Participant of the Death Experience Workshop
Another participant, Anthony, after returning to the world from heaven, remembered his father, "My father died of gallbladder cancer in 2004. At that time, I didn't realize that he would leave at any time. Visiting is also a routine job. How did he know that he received it in a day? The hospital called and said that he was gone. He has raised me for so long, and I have not told him anything." In the end, he arranged for his father according to the wishes of his family. "I don't know whether it is the funeral in his father's ideal." When it was his turn to write his suicide note, he deliberately explained what was going on. "If you can notify them before death and let their family members do what they want after death, they will also have less worry."
The "coffin" was found by Wu Guilin from the funeral parlour in Hung Hom. He contacted the shopkeeper and collected the cardboard boxes used to hold the coffins. It took another half a day to restore the paper to the shape of a coffin. He laughed and said, "Lie down and meet. It really smells like a coffin.” (Photo by Gao Zhongming)
The idea of the activity comes from the Taiwan Funeral School
The idea of this death experience comes from two years ago, Ng Kwai Lin, a deceased restorer and the chairman of the Hong Kong Society of Life and Death, and a group of college students went to a school in Taiwan to train funeral directors. They attended the school as a foreign visitor. Death experience.
He brought the event to Hong Kong this year, and organized a death experience workshop with social worker Chen Muning and Yi Pun Bookstore.
Participants will go through the process of lying in the coffin and resurrecting from death. The social worker will lead the contemplation and let the participants reflect on the meaning of life.
I think life and death education is not a purely discussion of death. There is also a very important concept in it. Let everyone reflect on life through death, so that they can sort out the pursuit of life and the meaning of life.
Ng Kwai Lun, President of the Hong Kong Society of Birth and Death
Social worker Chen Muning circled the song to remind the participants to keep their attention in the room, and from time to time asked them, "How many people are ready to die?", "At the last moment of life, what will be remembered?" ( Photo by Gao Zhongming)
Wu Guilin has done countless life and death educations in the past. The objects range from college students to middle-aged and elderly people. The scope of death topics is also wide, analyzing life and death from the perspective of end-of-life care to social welfare.
For the death experience this time, he wanted to explore death from the perspective of personal feelings. "Hong Kong people think that death is quite influenced by traditional Chinese concepts. Most of us don't talk about feelings because of "great auspiciousness." When should we talk about it? 、We will discuss it when we don’t talk about it,” he said.
Wu Guilin has done life and death education countless times in the past. This time he has a death experience. He wants to explore death from a personal perspective.
(Photo by Gao Zhongming)
By writing a suicide note, he encouraged the participants to speak out their innermost things, look at life from death, and sort themselves out from it.
Wu Guilin said: "I think life and death education is not purely about death. There is also a very important concept in it. Death allows everyone to reflect on life, so that they can sort out the pursuit of life and the meaning of life. There are very few busy urbanites. Thinking about this, at the moment before you die, apart from parental requirements and mainstream values, do you really want to pursue something? That would be a good reminder."
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