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Chapter 5 - The Worship Of Kuan Yin Bodhisattva
Before I began enshrining Buddha statues in our home, there was not a single Buddhist statue in the family. My mother's religious worships only extended to making offerings to our ancestors. So it was completely beyond the imagination of any family member that our home would be transformed, over the course of a few years, into a large Buddhist shrine. Mr. Three-Peaks-Nine-States had explained to me that my practice of Taoism should be kept a secret from my family and colleagues, and he also gave me the Dharma name: Lian Shen (Lotus-born). "Spirit Master, may I set up a shrine to pay homage to the Buddhas, sages, and immortals?" "Yes, there is actually a good reason for this. In the future there will be a large shrine in your home!" "Which statues should I have?" I asked. "Any statues that please you." My Spirit Master did not give me a direct answer. "May I enshrine a statue of you?" I was thinking that, since he was my invisible teacher, I should have his statue on my shrine. "People of the world do not know my original face. My name is not directly mentioned in the Taoist Sutra of Huang T'ing Thing, as I hide myself amid the mountains and waters on heaven and earth. Since no one today recognizes me, how can you enshrine my image? Besides, I am used to the easy existence of not being called upon. So, don't worship me, just worship other Buddhas and deities." "Is there any merit in making offerings to Bodhisattvas?" "The Buddha has said, 'To feed one hundred non-virtuous people is not as good as feeding one virtuous person. To feed one thousand virtuous people is not as good as feeding one follower of the Five Precepts. To feed ten thousand followers of the Five Precepts is not as good as feeding one Srota-apanna [one who has entered the stream of holy living]. To feed one million Srota-apannas is not as good as feeding one Sakrdagamin [one who has one more rebirth]. To feed ten million Sakrdagamins is not as good as feeding one Anagamin [one who will not be reborn in this world]. To feed one billion Anagamins is not as good as feeding one Arhat. To feed ten billion Arhats is not as good as feeding one Pratyeka-buddha [a solitary awakened one]. To feed one hundred billion Pratyeka-buddhas is not as good as feeding one Buddha who has interpenetrated past, present, and future. Yet, to feed one trillion Buddhas is not as good as feeding one unenlightened non-cultivator who is totally non-attached. Lian-shen, to feed is to make offerings. Do you understand?" "Yes, I do," I respectfully answered.
One day I went to a building in Taichung which contained department stores, and inside a ceramics store on the second floor, I suddenly came upon a unique Kuan Yin statue. It was light green with an undertone of gray and was extremely dignified. The figure was about eight inches tall and was sitting on a lotus. As soon as I saw it, a great happiness welled up inside me. When I inquired about the price, the storekeeper told me, "This Kuan Yin statue has been enshrined before by someone else. Because the vase held by the Kuan Yin is broken, its owner considered it to be inauspicious and asked me to sell it for him. The price is very cheap, if you want it. How about fifteen dollars?" "Fifteen dollars, wow! That is inexpensive." I purchased the statue without any hesitation and took it back to my apartment in the dormitory. After placing the statue on my desk, I put in front of it a small censer which I had also purchased earlier. In the evening, I lit an incense, and my heart was filled with a great joy. That night, in a dream, I saw a vast ocean. A resplendently beautiful lotus slowly emerged from the ocean, and sitting on the lotus was a majestic Kuan Yin. Smiling, Kuan Yin approached me from afar. Above, in the sky and on top of colorful clouds, stood a golden armored god with a demon subjugating scepter in his hand. (I found out afterwards that awe-inspinng amd majestic looking god was the image of the Dharma Protector Weit'o.) The Honored Weit'o commanded loudly from the sky, "Lian-shen, I have received an order from the Bodhisattva to bestow a name to the shrine in your home: Tz'u Hui Lei Tsang Temple. Do remember." As soon as the Weit'o Bodhisattva finished speaking, both he and Kuan Yin Bodhisattva vanished, and I immediately woke up. Carefully recalling the details of the dream in my mind, I looked at the Kuan Yin statue to which I had earlier offered incense and was astonished to realize that the Kuan Yin in my dream had looked exactly like the one I had enshrined. I got out of bed and respectfully kowtowed three times to the Kuan Yin Bodhisattva. As I was kowtowing, the room became suffused with sandalwood fragrance; my Spirit Master had arrived. "Spirit Master, did I do the right thing?" "Lian-shen, because today you have enshrined the Kuan Yin Bodhisattva, in the future the Bodhisattva will save your life." "Save my life?" "Yes. I can't explain to you now as the time is not ripe." Spirit Master's prediction did materialize later, and I shall discuss this in a later chapter in the book. It involved an incident that still makes me shudder. During the period I had the Kuan Yin enshrined in the dormitory, Captain Chuang, the person in charge of my unit, invited my parents to come see him. "Mr. Lu, your son has been acting peculiarly; he is even worshipping Kuan Yin in the dormitory. Do you think there is anything wrong with him?" Captain Chuang asked. "I don't think so!" my father replied. "He is sincere in his belief and completely lucid in his speech. Is his worship interfering with his job in your unit?" "No, I just find that he's acting rather strangely. You know, he has made a prediction that I will be transferred to Taipei in the middle of July. Since when did he begin to do divination? The middle of July is still six months away!" "Divination? This is something I was not aware of," my father replied. As it turned out, Captain Chuang was promoted and transferred to Taipei on July 17th that year. Afterwards, he frequently mentioned to others that my divination was extremely accurate. Captain Chuang's full name was Chuang Ming Shi, and he was from Hsihu, Taiwan. I had used the Pa Kua Method taught to me by my Spirit Master to do the divination. Spirit Master told me, "The Primordial Tao divides into Tai Chi, giving rise to the two Regulating Powers of Yin and Yang, which produce the Four Forms, which again produce the Eight Trigrams and further generate the Nine Courts. These eight Trigrams are Heaven, Earth, Thunder, Wind, Marsh, Water, Fire, and Mountain, and they give rise to the sixty-four hexagrams which contain all the permutations and transformations in the Universe. When you have a full mastery of the hexagrams, you can divine any event regarding any person, anywhere on earth. It is tantamount to becoming an earthly immortal yourself!" "Spirit Master, what if some people do not believe in it?" Spirit Master sighed and said, "People who have not yet evolved to the point where they have a strong urge to return to Tao will not have the opportunity in their present incarnation to encounter such mystical teachings. Even if they had the chance to hear the correct Dharma, doubts and confusion would quickly overcome them, so there would be a reluctance to devote themselves to the Dharma. It is sad that one can be entrapped in the polarities of the physical world, interminably suffering through birth, aging, sickness, and death. Lian-shen, there is little you can do about these people, just let them run their own course."
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