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Chapter 14 - The Five Directional Fortune Gods Dharma
Good afternoon gurus, fellow cultivators (applause)
The first half of today's session was devoted to "Great Compassion Repentance". You must be very tired, after sitting and prostrating for so long. The second half will be more difficult to endure. Your feet must have no more feeling now, after sitting there without moving for more than two hours. But you have to endure, we must carry on with the second half.
Today, I am going to talk about the dharma of Five Directional Fortune Gods (applause). I can see so many eyes are bickering now - once you hear the words five directional fortune gods. (laughter) That is why you must be patient.
There are three difficulties in the Samsara world.
This morning we did the Great Compassion Repentance ritual, ideally it must be followed by the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva empowerment. But this morning I went to Hanki restaurant for my breakfast, I saw four sentences at the back of the menu. Inspired by the words, I have decided to teach you the Five Directional Fortune Gods dharma.(applause) The first sentence reads "Big pow is easy to sell, but big money is difficult to make". The second is "The nose of a needle is used to cut the iron" meaning the profit is marginal. The third is "Few people come with their fathers, but more come with their sons." The last sentence reads "Water flows from the roof, it never flows back".
I don't quite understand some of the sentences, as my foundation on Buddhism must be very elementary. (laughter) Shao Dong is a business man, he knows more. He told me the Cantonese likes to eat big pow, which has many ingredients. The pow is big, but you have to sell it cheap.
Since the profit is small, it is difficult to make a lot of money. The second sentence using a tiny needle to cut the iron signifies the small benefit we are able to get. The third sentence is even more wonderful. Few people treated their fathers to the restaurants, but more fathers brought their children there. The implication is clear: there are more loving fathers than filial sons. The last sentence:"Water flows from the roof and it never flows back." hints that if you lend your money out ,it is seldom returned. The moral is clear, it is difficult to live in this world. There are three major difficulties we have to face in our life.
The first is the difficulty in going to heaven, i.e. difficulty in our cultivation.
The second is the difficulty in being a human being. We must live with others harmoniously. It is difficult to be perfect and yet be well-liked by others.
The third is difficulty in making money, our topic today.
To make money in Hong Kong and Taiwan is easier. I feel it is more difficult to make money in Canada and U.S.A. Many dharma masters thought by coming to these places, everything will change for the better, they will receive more offerings. But the truth is the opposite, we are hitting against an iron plate. People here are very stingy, unlike other oriental people who really offer a lot to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. People from Seattle and Vancouver become stingy because they have to worry about their daily life. They have to work very hard in order to earn a decent living, that is the reason I must teach the Five Directional Fortune Gods dharma (applause) In future, I hope they are able to make the same vows as those from the South East Asia.
Our material well-being in this life depends on the law of karma. During consultation, many disciples like to ask about their fortune.(laughter) I look at their faces, and make a prediction. Sometime I dare not speak the truth, I just tell them their luck is so-so. With deva-eyes, I can take a look at them and know immediately how much wealth they have accumulated in their previous life. Of course, some of them may come with a fortune god which has a smooth face, I know at once they are very rich. But this is rare occasion during my consultation. Most of them come with poor ghosts, some even come with ghosts that are asking for repayment.(laughter) As a cultivator, we must learn to drive away all the poor ghosts and attract the fortune gods.
The secret mantra of the Five Directional Fortune Gods
The Five Directional Fortune Gods Dharma implies that they are from five directions. We must use five colours to indicate them:
Folding the five colour papers into five Edict-flags, you then use five colours to write their names. Or use white to write on the black paper; black to write on other papers. It is better to put a precious cover on top of them. What is a precious cover ? If you have prayed at a funnel-shaped lamp, you should know what it is. You can line them up or put them into their respective directions. i.e. to find out the East, South, West, North and central positions in your room and place them accordingly.
You must choose a perfect or successful day to do the ritual. Once they are placed properly, you must light up a lamp that will shine at the flags and make such offerings as flower, light, tea, fruit or non-vegetarian food to them. Then you pay respects to the flags, i.e. prostrate the flags. For every lamp that represents one directional fortune god, you must prostrates nine times. Then you form an earth-god mudra or inner-bend mutra while you do meditation in the central location. (Grandmaster demonstrates)
Bend the ten fingers inwards and close the two hands together, the mudra you formed is known as Nei Fu (Inner-bend) Mudra. (the right hand hooks on the left). As the five fingers represent the five fortune gods, they are hooked and tied together by you. Once you chant their mantra, they will appear.
The Mantra is supposed to be very secretive. In fact not very secretive now. You have come across them before. You chant the mantra quite often, the only trouble is you do not know how to use it. If I don't tell you, you can't get the answer even after three years. When I tell you, you will say it is so simple (It was repeated in Taiwanese dialect) (laughter) The mantra is simple "Namo saman do mutanam, om tulu tulu diwui suaha" (laughter, applause). You don't know when we chant the invocation mantra in our cultivation, we are in fact asking the local god to protect our recital and cultivation.
The following namely, Four Protector Kings, Eight Beings from the Heaven Realm, Goddess with Childlike Eyes, Gods from the air, river, sea, spring, lake, herb, forest, house, water, fire, land, mountain, palace and mantra protectors, dragons, ghosts and gods and their relations etc... will follow you wherever you go, provided you are a true cultivator, a real dharma master with virtue who cultivate daily.
When you chant "Namo saman do, mutanam, om tulu tulu diwui suaha" all the above-mentioned will appear.
Ten years ago when I was about to leave Taiwan. I stood at the backyard and made my last offerings. Holding a glass of water in my hand, I started to chant the Mantra. What Mantra did I chant? I used the Taiwanese dialect to chant: "Roc and Garuda, Gods and ghosts in the wilderness, om mudi suaha" seven times, then I threw the water out. Suddenly a gust of wind returned the water to my body. I wondered what happened. Using my deva eyes, I saw many gods lined up in the wilderness, mountain and valley.
I asked:"What's the matter? I am leaving Taiwan, why must you return my last offer of honey water?" They replied:"Dharma master is leaving, after receiving your offerings for so many years, we wish to bid bon voyage to you by returning whatever you offered to us."(applause) I was very touched at that moment. The story is real. Many gods will protect you if you always make offerings to them.
They told me this image (showing the image of a local god) was done in Mainland China. It must have been from Canton, as the face looks more like a Cantonese.(laughter) Don't imagine that all the local gods are alike. They are different, even the local god of your house is different from that of my house.
The local god of my house will have a shining face, and wear such nice garments as a dragon jacket, put on an official hut. He will be full of dignity.
Your local god may use old and tattered clothing. (laughter) My local god will understand Taiwanese dialect; and you will probably speak Cantonese. Why? Because our local god is very close to us. Even if you cultivate Vairocana dharma for life, you might not see Vairocana. But if you cultivate the Five Directional Fortune God Dharma for 49 days as the gods are closest to us , he may appear at night. So don't just think of cultivating Vairocana dharma.
You know when I have my meal, I will cup my hands to make offerings, and do a little chanting. My voice is usually low, you may think the mantra must be very confidential. To tell the truth, I only say a simple sentence " Please join me everybody!".(laughter, applause)
I only need to say it three times, the local god will come, sometimes many of them. Then I say again, "please eat, everything can be eaten." (applause) Don't think a simple invitation like this is useless. As all the gods are kind and close to us, they will always follow us. When you summon them, they will appear. You are able to have unification with them.
Once you put the flags in their proper locations, everyday you must prostrate to the flags nine times with inner-bend Mudra, and chant invocation Mantra. If you are not sure whether they are present, you can throw two coins. They are around when the coins face different directions.
If they are absent, you must chant again until the five fortune gods are there. You may ask them to help you. What kind of help should you ask? Don't ask for Lotto, as too many people ask for it. Ask them for a steady job and not be laid off. You may ask for a salary increment, and your boss allows you to have a side-line.
In order to do a thriving business , a business man should do as follows when he prostrates, chants mantra, forms mudra, and makes his wish:
He must purchase good quality inventory, and make a great effort to sell them. He must open his shop early and close it late. And ask the local god to stand in front of the shop to pull in customers. Those businessman who had cultivated in his previous life will have fortunes following him this life. When these gods stand in front of his shop, the passers by will be happy to buy from him even the goods is of no use. The customers would like the imperfection of the goods they purchased. We often say when luck strikes, nothing can stop it. What is luck? Fortune gods are helping us. What are the salient points to remember? There are three points: "Will", you must invoke the fortune gods whole-heartedly, so that they will come and help you. "Mudra", inner-bend mudra must be used so that you will embody them. Chant the marvellous "Invocation mantra". We must chant more than 108 times, in fact until we lose our voice. Fortune gods are merciful, if they know you lose your voice because you want to summon them, they will come and support you. The closest god to us in this world is the land god, as long as he is protecting us, you need not worry about anything in this world.
Many cultivators think that we must prostrate to Shakyamuni Buddha, Vairocana Buddha, Amitabha Buddha, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, and Mahasthama Bodhisattva. We need not care about all the other gods. They do not know as all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are always in their meditation. They have given some of their powers to these gods, the administrator to carry out the missions.
You must cultivate until you can be unified with your protector god, then you can be enlightened. Your wish will be fulfilled when you cultivate the Five Directional Fortune Gods Dharma. But you must remember to do what I just said. To prostrate nine times each to the five lamps; form the mudra; visualise; chant the mantra; make the vow; and finally make your wish.
Just now when we carried out the Great Compassion Repentance ritual, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva manifested. (applause) To tell all of you, this is true. These gods are protectors who accompany the Bodhisattvas. Many of them also follow me. They helped me when I conducted rituals for the following: to empower others; to increase merit; to eradicate calamity; and to promote living kindness. When your offerings, prostration unified with these protectors, you will be lucky whenever you go out, as all misfortune will leave you alone. That is why in the High King Sutra, it is said: "able to stop the cycle of life and death, and annihilate all the misfortunes and sufferings". It means a protector god will be with you all the time, and he will ensure that misfortune will not be befallen on you, and you won't suffer from the pain of life and death.
This is a wonderful dharma that can really help all of you. I hope you will treasure it.
Om Mani Padme Hum
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