Chapter 12: A Ghost with Hatred

A man named Chiang Chung came to ask me to tell him his fortune.

I drew a car on a piece of paper and said, "You are doing this."

An onlooker remarked, "Auto trade."

Chiang Chung shook his head.

Another person guessed, "Auto repair?"

Chiang Chung still shook his head.

Another person said, "I know it, you're a driver aren't you?"

Chiang Chung still shook his head, and said, "You can't guess, for I'm in the business of toy cars. Adults drive big cars, and children drive small cars."

Everyone was amused.

I lifted my head and looked at the face of Chiang Chung. When I was about to do the divination on Chiang Chung's destiny, I was suddenly stunned, for his had face changed.

Chiang Chung previously had a short hairstyle, but now he had disheveled hair. He had had rosy cheeks, but now they had become iron-green, and the seven holes of his eyes, mouth, ears, and nostrils were bleeding. His appearance was repulsive, especially his eyes that were filled with an expression of hatred.

I was so frightened that I was speechless. After a moment, I said: "I need to tell you your fortune inside!"

Chiang Chung came with me to the other room.

I said, "You bring with you a hateful ghost!"

Chiang Chung did not want to admit it in the beginning, and he tried to deny it.

I said again, "This is a woman. There is a mole on her chin! If you do not free this ghost with hatred, your whole life will always be obstructed by her."

Chiang Chung continued to deny it.

I said, "You two made an arrangement to go together, but you withdrew at the last moment. How could she not have resentment?"

Chiang Chung was frightened. He knelt down and told me everything in detail about what had happened:

Chiang Chung was in the business of producing toy cars.

The factory office had employed a female accountant. That new female accountant was pretty. She had a family, and she had been married for only one year.

Chiang Chung himself had a family too, and his wife was of a fierce and brutal type.

The female accountant was sympathetic to Chiang Chung's situation. After a long period of spending time together, her sympathy became love for him. The female accountant went so far as to fall in love with Chiang Chung. Without knowing it, Chiang Chung was also in love with her. Because of Chiang Chung's fierce and brutal wife, the love between them could only develop secretly and confidentially.

As long as they had an opportunity, without both his wife and her husband knowing, the man and the woman committed adultery on many occasions.

The two swore an oath of eternal fidelity to live and die together.

It is commonly said that regardless of how dense an egg is, it still may crack. Their affair would sooner or later be seen by others. One time, the intimate note that Chiang Chung had written to the female accountant was found by her husband. Her husband immediately forbade her to go to work, and informed Chiang Chung's wife.

Chiang Chung's wife was quite fierce. She took a belt, and whipped Chiang Chung very hard with bitterness and resentment.

Chiang Chung cried for forgiveness.

A pair of Mandarin ducks had broken up.

Unexpectedly, this female accountant was extremely foolish for love. She loved Chiang Chung so much that she would rather die without him.

Finally, the two made an arrangement to die together. This was conceived on the notion that, though life is truly valuable, love is even more valuable, and for the sake of love, life can be abandoned.

The female accountant drank pesticide before he did, and she died instantly.

When it was Chiang Chung's turn, his lips touched the pesticide, but he flinched at the last moment and he lived on.

This is the whole story of Chiang Chung and the female accountant.

I must remark with a sigh:

Sexual desire often creates disaster, and its consequence is sad and pathetic. People don't refrain from it, and they dare to risk involvement in it. From this many incidents of death have occurred. Some people have jumped into rivers out of despair, some have committed suicide in pairs by burning themselves, some have hung themselves in pairs, and some have taken poison in pairs. These people are really fools for love. Isn't it sad for those who are harmed by sexual desire?

Chiang Chung told me that after the incident the production orders of the business suffered a steep decline.

Chiang Chung's body became like a deflated ball. If he was not sick here, he was sick there. He was unable to pick himself up, but there was no actual cause for his sickness.

The most troubling thing was that he had insomnia and many nightmares.

Even sleeping pills had no effect.

Chiang Chung asked me for help.

I told Chiang Chung, "When you saw the female accountant who was so sweet and lovely, so gentle and soft with loving care, your thoughts of loving affection were aroused. When those thoughts arose, your body and mind became involved in it, and this could hardly escape punishment by ghosts and spirits.

"This is especially so because you have your own spouse, and the female accountant had her own spouse, so both of you had your own natural relationships. When you violated these natural relationships, then the friendship was gone. The friendship between the couple was gone, and the causes and conditions had completely changed. This kind of violation is not far from the behavior of a beast.

"Although the female accountant was in love with you, you should have tactfully rejected her. This is because if things between you two had developed, it would have be an insult to her husband. This is also a further insult to her parents and parents-in-law. For her husband, it is especially a shame that he has to suffer disgrace and pain. This is really like killing him.

"Furthermore, contemporary people consider love as being invaluable, transcending everything else. In actuality, this is only the symptom of sexual desire. If one's sexual desire is not restrained, if one's sexual desire violates the natural relationships between couples, it will cause hatred and resentment, which will cost one's life.

I wrote about this situation before:

The woman would die out of humiliation.
Her husband would die out of hatred.
Both would commit suicide.
It could be that the husband murders his wife, or the wife murders her husband, or the husband kills the man who has sex with his wife, or the wife conspires to harm her husband with her lover, or the husband conspires to harm his wife with his lover, and so on.

Hearing what I had said, Chiang Chung was sweating and he lowered his head. I saw that he was regretful.

I promised Chiang Chung, "I will help you deliver her soul!"

I thought that with the esoteric method of saving and delivering souls, the hateful ghost who was possessing Chiang Chung's body would be benefited by the Buddha-dharma, and would leave Chiang Chung's body. I would send her to the six realms of cyclic transmigration in order for her to be reborn again. This entangled case would be resolved.

With the time of the woman's birth and death, her name, and her burial site, I made a cup-shaped lamp. I lit the lamp and made a complete offering of incense, flower, tea, and fruit.

I recited: "Since beginningless time, the evil habitual tendencies of our greed, anger and stupidity have been heavy and stubborn. Every one of us has indulged in the five desires and six objects. We can say that we are heavily obscured with ignorance. Regardless of whether we are alive or dead, we should all awaken to the truth. When we are far removed from bad habits, and make acquaintance with virtuous and wise friends, we will learn the Buddha-dharma and depart far away from the angry world of hatred and evil causes and conditions. This is like the phrase quoted from the Leng-yen Sutra (Shuramgamasamadhinirdesa): " One who is close to a person wearing perfume also carries the smell of perfume." One spontaneously obtains freedom from boundaries. The living attains accomplishment, and the dead can be reborn."

I said, "A person should never commit suicide, for everyone is endowed with the innate Buddha-nature. This Buddha-nature is not different from the Buddha. Everyone can become a Buddha through practice. Committing suicide is like killing a Buddha and shedding the blood of a Buddha. This karmic offence is very severe. Only if you confess and repent can you attain liberation."

I said, "You should let go of your present hatred, for all hatred is dream-like and illusory, and all love is also like a bubble and shadow. Human life is also like dew and lightning. If one abandons all hatred, this is called liberation.

The Yangtse River surges eastward in billowing waves,
The spindrift washes off all heroes.
Right and wrong and success and failure become empty in an instant.
The green mountains are tilled there,
And how many times is there a red sunset?

The female spirit began to talk from within the lamp, "Master, help me!"

I said, "You have to help yourself by letting go of your hatred!"

"We are bound together!"

"Who bound you?"

"The Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven."

"How could the Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven bind you?"

The female spirit answered, "We had made strong vows in the temple of the Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven that we would live and die together forever. We are bound by the Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven with a red thread. I am now bound to his body, and I cannot be freed even if I try to. Thus, I am asking for your help."

I was shocked. "This is the karma committed by one self, which is hopeless."

I asked Chiang Chung if this was true. Chiang Chung thought about it, and remembered that it was indeed true. At the time, the two were madly in love. There was a temple of the Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven located on a mountain in the middle of Taiwan. They both knelt down in front of the deity's shrine, each holding three sticks of incense, and vowed heavily: "We are willing to become husband and wife from generation to generation without end. The love between us will never change. Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven, please be our witness."

They both stated further, "Our vow is not hollow, and the Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven is our witness."

This was really unexpected! After all, this vow was not an empty one. The Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven really bound the two together by the red thread. Here, I must advise people in the mundane world that one should not casually swear an oath. One should first think about the consequence before one makes an oath. This is because oaths are guarded by the oath deity. There is also an oath deity in esoteric Buddhism. Do not think that making an oath means nothing, like eating cabbage. In actuality, when one makes an oath, the oath deity begins to observe invisibly. If one violates this oath, then one will be invisibly punished.

If it were another person who had encountered this case, he would definitely be unable to solve the problem.

Fortunately, I am a good friend of the Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven.

Who was the Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven? This female deity is the attendant of the Golden Mother of the Primordial Pond. She had been the teacher of the ancient Yellow Emperor. When the Yellow Emperor had been fighting the rebel Ch'i You, the Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven descended and bestowed the Yellow Emperor with the military register for dispatching, with a seal and sword. She made a drum that was made out of cow skin with eighty sides, which the Yellow Emperor used to defeat Ch'i You.

During the period of spring and autumn, the Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven transformed herself into the Jade Lady of Nan Shan. She helped the Yueh State send a punitive expedition against the Wu State, and taught the army to be equipped with six thousand highly qualified soldiers. Afterwards, she departed without bidding farewell, and walked away on air. On the Nan Shan mountain, the king of the Yueh State built a female immortal temple in commemoration of her. The female immortal temple is the temple of the Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven.

The Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven has a disciple whose name was Pai-yun Tong-chun. This person received all the dharma-methods from the Mysterious Lady, and later was able to be elevated to heaven to be in charge of the Taoist books that belong to the Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven.

The Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven represents the original Taoist tradition, which is also endowed with one lineage transmission. I have the dharma-seal of the original Ultimate True Dharma.

Because of this relationship, I met with the Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven.

The Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven said, "Usually, it would be extremely difficult to untie the red thread between these two. Now, because of your request, what can I say ? The tie will be broken as long as you use the talisman of cutting to sever it."

The talisman of cutting is one of the original Taoist methods.

I used the talisman of cutting, and saved Chiang Chung from his suffering, and I also liberated the hateful ghost that was attached to his body. I sent her to the cycle of transmigration of the six realms.

The Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven left people of the mundane world a text concerning refraining from debauchery:

"When you are taking advantage of someone else's wife or daughter, you should think to yourself: 'What if my wife were being taken advantage by another man, playing and laughing in bed, speaking lustfully and lewdly, and indulging in carnal pleasure. If I witnessed such a situation, I would suffer enormous pain, and I would be filled with flames of fury, so furious that I would try to kill the man instantly. At that moment, who could endure the humiliation?'

"Furthermore, you should think of the consequences followed from taking advantage of another's wife or daughter: which is, the strong can have their way, and the weak will live their whole lives filled with hatred. One's extended family would not understand and would be ashamed, and the husband and wife would end their relationship that would usually endure for their whole lives. It is even worse in that it could involve the danger of death, for one's life is no longer stable. One would either conspire to take revenge, or secretly suffer the wound and pain. This can involve the husband, son, or grandson, and one's reputation would be ruined.

"Humans are born in between heaven and earth, and are endowed with the auspicious energy of the five elements of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, and a proud bearing of determination and righteousness. The roles of husbands and wives belong to the natural way of things, and are the norm of human nature. If one exceeds etiquette and violates morality, one is equal to a beast. Moreover, Sui pigeons do not mate with others when they are engaged, and a sad wild goose would rather cry alone than join a group. This indicates that humans do not deserve being called human as they are inferior to birds and are worse than beasts!

"So it is that ordinary people should refrain from indulging in sexual desire, and especially practitioners should refrain from indulging in sexual desire. In summary, sexual thoughts are derived from being fond of the pleasures of the flesh. If one tries to eliminate the root of sexual desire, one should first strictly observe the precept of refraining from being fond of the pleasures of the flesh. If one is fond of the pleasures of the flesh, then one will be fond of carnal pleasure, and one's deeds will not be correct. When one cannot control oneself from being attracted to a woman with soft gestures and a charming appearance, one will most certainly be controlled by her. If this happens, then even one's wife, mistress, sons, and daughters will not be able to prevent someone from going further astray. One would commit debauchery, and one's family would be kept in the dark.

"If a man is fond of carnal pleasure, his children and grand children will die young, and his offspring will not be prosperous. At this moment, heaven, earth, ghosts, and spirits reside above a person, and the eyes of a deity, which accompany the person closely, are as sharp as lightning. When heaven is angry and humans are angry, one will certainly suffer retribution. Disasters and misfortunes will arise one after the other. When this occurs, how can one not be bitterly disappointed? One risks one's life to get under a sharp sword and to have one's head chopped into pieces while in bed. When one's dream has not even finished, the end is already sealed. One ought to realize that all death and bloodshed are caused by the harm of being fond of beauty. A beautiful woman is in fact a tiger with make up, who would not even spit out the bones after swallowing a man. How can one not believe such a truth! How can one not believe such a truth!"

I read the text on refraining from debauchery, and it made my heart vigilant. More importantly, I would like all people to become vigilant in heart.

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