Should we burn everything to recreate everything?

Many years ago, my paternal grandmother passed away when I was in Secondary 4. It was about 3-4 weeks later when I dreamt of her. It was a short dream. I just dreamt of my grandmother standing at one corner. As I walked towards her to greet her, I saw her thin frame with her bun up hair, standing there without a word. As I got closer, I noticed that there were no eyes on her face. Yes it was a scary sight and I was shocked. I immediately woke up. When I told my parents, they quickly arranged to burn the existing glasses of my grandmother to her.

In some chinese traditions practised here, the families of the deceased normally would burn paper house, paper car and even paper mobile phones to the deceased, to ensure that the deceased would still continue to possess the "material" stuff they had on earth.

Would the deceased really get to use the stuff which was burnt to them? Read on. The below is adapted from TheDailyEnlightenment.com.

Many Chinese believe that all will be reborn within hells in the afterlife, which is imagined to be a mirror image of this world. However, only those who have created very negative karma are reborn there, while there are five other possible realms of existence - realm of hungry ghosts (and wandering spirits), animals, humans, demi-gods and gods. Hell is also not an 'interchange terminal' between every two consecutive lives. Since it is a realm of suffering, 'requisites' such as money, houses, cars and handphones are not relevant. There is also no proof that incinerated paper items like such can re-materialise into solid items.

Also, money is useless without trade, houses without land, cars without fuel, just as handphones are pointless without telcos! If life in hell requires everything in our world via burning, we would need to burn the whole world, as every thing is interdependent on every other thing! The custom of burning is thus illogical. Burning expensive paper items not only wastes paper, money, time and energy, it also pollutes the environment, and is damaging for plant, animal and human health. Ironically, much fire, ash and smoke might also displease unseen beings, just as they irritate many humans.

Sometimes, the deceased are so attached to paper items that they manifest in dreams to ensure they are burnt – even though they are not needed at all. In such cases, it's okay to burn a little if 'counselling' fails, but it's more important to do charity in the name of the deceased to help them create merits for better rebirths. Another possible reason for such dreams is that the family of the deceased are attached to the idea that paper items must be burnt, thus creating such dreams out of guilt, fear and worry. We should also offer prayers by chanting to share the Dharma, ideally urging them to be born in Amituofo (Amitabha Buddha)'s Pureland.

Burning what shouldn't be burnt destroys blessings,

it doesn't share them.
Burning paper offerings is likened to sending bouncing cheques,

at high costs.