Chapter Nine : Sending on Spirits in Transition 34

Taegŏ asked again, “How was it decided to hold the deliverance service on the forty-ninth day after a person’s death?” The Founding Master said, “When people die, they generally stay in the intermediate state for forty-nine days before they receive a new body in accordance with their karmic affinities. Thus, in order to guide them to collect the pure and clear one-pointedness once again, we decided to offer the deliverance invocation on that day in accordance with the teachings of the Ancient Buddha. However, there are plenty of spirits who receive a new body in accordance with their attached minds as soon as they die.”