"Death" is an issue that people can’t avoid discussing, and funeral rituals can help the bereaved overcome the sadness and lessen the suffering when facing the death of a loved one. Currently, most grief healing theories are proposed by Western scholars. In Taiwan, most domestic grief healing theories discuss the influential factors of grief, the task adjustments of grief, and the analysis of condolence experiences. However, little research focuses on how the bereaved go through funeral rituals to find peace. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to propose ""The Grief Healing Model of the Funeral Rituals of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism (GHMFRCTB)"". In this model, the fundamental issue is to put Confucian ethical healing into practice in our daily life, which includes the harmonious ethic relationship with the deceased, the ghost, and God. The psychological reaction to grief in the culture of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism would be sorrow, reluctance, respect, compliance, and awe. The coping skills of the funeral rituals would be spiritual return, bathing and providing meals, mourning, burial, Tsu-Ku-Fu-Chi, setting memorial tablets, and worshiping regularly. ""Spiritual return"" means to let the soul of the deceased return to their body and realize the truth that their relatives passed away. ""Bathing and providing meals"" means that the bereaved treat the deceased with respect and not to lose that because of death. ""Mourning"" means the bereaved should follow the tradition rules to express condolence. In this situation, people won’t hurt themselves because of too much sadness. ""Burial"" means the deceased are accompanied by the bereaved to the graveyard and are buried. It also means the bereaved and the deceased have been separated, not to interfere with each other anymore. ""Tsu-Ku-Fu-Chi"" means the worship after burying. It indicates that the deceased change from human to Gods and bless the descendants. ""Setting memorial tablets"" means welcoming the part of the soul of the deceased back home. It shows that life is endless and the bereaved can remember their ancestors through memorial tablets. ""Worshiping regularly"" means designing the different rituals according to the seasons in order to express their missing. The four tasks of grieving are to accept the reality of the loss, to work through the pain and grief, to adjust to a new environment, and to find an enduring connection with the deceased while moving forward with life. The sign of recovery from grief would be filial piety, ancestor-venerating, grief relief, and continuing bonds. ""Filial piety"" means to treat the parents and the deceased well during funeral rituals, which is according to the conventional rules to finish funerals completely. ""Ancestor-venerating"" means teaching people not to forget their ancestors and origins; then, family members can appreciate their ancestors’ contributions naturally. ""Grief relief"" means using funeral rituals to let the bereaved realize and accept the truth that their relatives passed away and mitigate the sadness in their mind. ""Continuing bonds"" means offering many kinds of sacrifices to gods or ancestors to regularly maintain the relationship with ancestors. Furthermore, funeral rituals could create meaning-making and utilize the values of Confucian culture to release and modulate suffering, in order to maintain the ethical order of the family and keep their ethical relationship in harmony. In this way, the bereaved and the deceased can continue to maintain their relationship and show the ability to create harmonious ethical relationships meaningfully. In conclusion, the GHMFRCTB could offer explanations to the healing effects caused by funeral rituals of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Finally, the possible clinical applications and directions for future research are suggested.
本站僅提供期刊文獻檢索。
