Father Marcel Reding – Memorial Service

Funeral Orator Father Marcel Reding is a Zen monk and abbot of the Honora Zen monastery in Reichenburg. Through his many years of training (10 years) as a Zen monk in Japan and Korea, he further developed the art of the funeral speaker.

Reformation

Whether in Japan, Korea or Switzerland, zen master Father Reding examined the elements in burial ceremonies that have not changed and are universal. So he could slowly approach the content, the core of the rituals. Back in his native country, Switzerland, the universal content is being reformed into our culture over the years. So that the content of a funeral service is understandable via the appropriate form.

Meditation - Father Marcel Reding

Without seeing self-nature, no matter how hard you look for God, day and night, it is absolutely impossible to see. Even though we might say there is originally not a thing to be attained, if you do not yet understand it, you must, with sincere effort and work, find and meet a Master to open your mind. Life-and-death is a great puzzle. Do not spend your life in vain. Deceiving yourself does not help you in any way.

Even if one has jewels stored in quantity as big as a mountain or, if one has a lot of followers, these things can only be seen while eyes are alive. But, when eyes are dead; are they still possible to be seen? Therefore, it is a very obvious fact that anything we do is a fleeting apparition like a dream or a ghost. Unless you quickly find a teacher, you will waste your life meaninglessly because of this; everyone already has Self-Nature, but unless you depend on a teacher's help, no one can acknowledge and sanction your understanding. That is why it is almost impossible to attain great understanding without a teacher.

But one, who by his own karmic privilege, has already attained the level of understanding of a sage; he does not have to go to find a teacher. Although everyone has a Self-Nature before birth, if there is even one tiny residue of misunderstanding remaining, he must go and meet with the teacher.