Who uses souls?

Karu-sama
Nice to meet you, my name is Tetsuya Urakami from Nagomi-an.
Thank you for your support.

You've heard in the Dharma before that “the soul of souls is a world of darkness.”
I think it's probably a Jodo Shinshu temple. Other denominations and the general public generally say “pray for the soul” when a person dies, but the Jodo Shinshu sect does not use this word.

“Praying for souls” means “praying for happiness in the underworld.”
If you look up the underworld in the dictionary, it says, “A dark world where the dead go. the other world. The Underworld (Meikai). “Hades” and “The World Where the Spirits of the Dead Go.” the other world. It says, “It refers to the three evils of Hell, Gakki, and Beast.”

In short, if you strictly interpret the phrase “pray for peace of mind,” it can be taken as assuming that those who have died have fallen into an underground dark world. But well, the general public doesn't recognize and say that, so there's probably no need to worry too much about it.

I say things like “I offer my condolences” and “I express my condolences,” just like Kal-san.

Incidentally, in the Jodo Shinshu sect, the world where people end their lives are shown as the “Western Pure Land of Paradise.” It's a world full of light, also called “infinite light earth,” so it's the exact opposite of “dark earth.”

Karu-sama

I also felt uncomfortable with those words praying for souls.
Often used by funeral directors. There is no point in joining hands and praying for your souls.
What is it called.

What is happiness in the other world after all? I thought, and asked a certain teacher.
“That word doesn't mean anything. Somehow it feels comfortable to hear, so I'm probably just using it.”
That was it.

What is saved is not after death, but now that we are alive. Buddhism is not a teaching about being saved after death; it is something that can be saved now that you are alive (^ ^)

In my case, my point of view was slightly different, but I felt uncomfortable with the word soul-searching, so I made a comment. FYI.

I didn't really care about it, but it's a word that doesn't fit even for the Jodo sect.
I'm going to try not to use it in the future.
It's been a learning experience.
Thank you very much.

　There is a dictionary called the “Mochizuki Buddhist Dictionary,” but there was no word “soul” there.
There is a term called “the path of the abyss,” and there is a saying, “a place with a three-way ghost, such as hell, is named the underworld.”
It seems that “three ways” refers to the three evils of hell, hungry ghosts, and beasts, so it's certainly not very good.

Next, Kadokawa Shoten's “New Character Source”
If you subtract “”
Certainly, “about” comes up first.
Other than that, there were also things such as the distant sky (sky), the depths of the mind, the other world, and the invisible effects of gods and Buddhas.
When “souls” were subtracted, it came up as “happiness after death.”

We don't know what happens after a person dies. That's because no one has come back from a dead world.
However, I think everyone uses it with the feeling that they don't know if it's heaven or earth, and that it would be nice if they were happy somewhere far away, and that it would be nice if there was protection from Shinto and Buddha from the bottom of their hearts.
On the other hand, as other monks have written, it seems that there are cases where the expression is not very appropriate depending on the denomination, so it may be appropriate to use “I offer my condolences,” as indicated in the question.
Don't worry too much when they say, “May your soul rest...” After all, it's already a commonly used word.

(More than that, personally, there are people who use the phrase “in heaven...” in condolences, and I'm more concerned about that. (I think “paradise” and “shade of leaves of grass” are more like Buddhism)

I'll supplement it.
In the “Kojiki,” there is a story about Izanaginomikoto going to see the dead Izanami Mikoto. There, it is said that the world after death, “Yesen no Kuni” is underground and completely dark. I imagine ancient Japanese people had such a sense. That feeling still remains even now, and it may be the phrase “I pray for your soul.”