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Spiritual Ancestors and Blood Ancestors
Each person possesses at least two families: a blood family and a spiritual family. The blood family consists of parents, grandparents, and ancestors, while the spiritual family includes teachers, patriarchs, and the Buddha, who is a real ancestor within the lineage. People of this time suffer greatly because they are cut off from their traditions and uprooted. The practice is to get back in touch with these roots, as a tree cannot grow if uprooted. One must make inquiries into both the father’s and mother’s branches of the blood family and maintain contact with the spiritual lineage, never excluding one family for another.
Ancestral worship involves maintaining a permanent dialogue with those who have passed. In the Vietnamese tradition, every home has an ancestral altar, and everything that happens—whether a child’s fever, a marriage, or travel—is reported to the ancestors. When pain or difficulties arise, one breathes deeply and asks the ancestors for help. If immediate parents or spiritual teachers are unhappy or have caused suffering, they are simply not lucky enough to have transmitted the beautiful things from the lineage. One must not reject the ancestors due to the shortcomings of one generation but instead find a way to link with the whole lineage, perhaps through a grandparent or even through children and grandchildren who also carry the ancestors within them.
An assignment is given to write a short, true letter. The practice involves identifying a specific person who represents the ancestors—someone known, trusted, and loved, rather than an abstract symbol. During daily activities like walking or cooking, one calls on this person for help with specific fears or frustrations. After listening deeply for their energy and wisdom, the response is written down. The exercise concludes by writing a promise to the ancestor, detailing how one will walk, breathe, and smile to transform the suffering, thereby practicing with the support of the entire lineage.