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- Book 45 - The Art of Meditation
- By Grand Master Sheng-yen Lu
- Translated by Liu Runqing
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Chapter 28 - Responses to Good God's Foresight
Cultivators have thirty-six good gods to protect them if they do
not go astray. Whenever something is going to happen, good or bad,
these gods will come to inform them. This is true indeed. Quacks
use the "ear reporting" method by which spirits and ghosts
come to inform them of the good luck or ill luck.
Here I disclose a letter to show this is true.
| Feb.
6, 1983
Grand Master Lu,
How are you! Let
me introduce myself. My name is Xu Ren-yuan, from Chiayi county;
it is a pleasure to be born in the same place as Grand Master.
My family lives in Zhu Qi, Ja Yi county. I work in a hospital.
I have read Grand Master's many books. Spiritual studies are
useful for sentient beings and also opened up my spiritual
wisdom. In February last year, when I was about to fall asleep
for a nap, I saw that my grandma was dying, and that everyone
in the funeral procession was distinctly clear. And I saw
that her grave was facing the south, with a little road going
from right to left. There was a vast expanse of scenery, at
the end of which was a bird-like hill. When they were making
holes on the coffin, a stream of air gushed out onto my face
and I woke up. I felt this was too strange; it was not like
a dream. My grandma was 92, but was in very good health. Why
should I see those things? By the first half of July, lunar
calendar, my grandma unexpectedly left this world when she
was sleeping.
What was even
more strange is that taking part in the funeral were exactly
the people I saw in that "dream," without exception.
Grandma's grave
was facing the south with a little road going from right to
left.
There was indeed
a vast expanse of scenery and a bird-like hill there.
On another occasion,
I was getting a lift from a colleague going back to Ja Yi.
As son as I got on the car, I had a strong response that one
of the tires would break. On the way, I told my colleague
again and again to drive slowly for fear that one of the tires
might break. When we were driving between Xin Ying and Hon
Bi, we were stopped by the traffic lights. When the green
light was on again and we were trying go drive through, a
tire was flat. We didn't even know when it happened!
I had many responses;
they are countless by now. Each time I see something in a
dream, it will come true within three or six months. My presentiments
are also often correct-they always come true. I was born between
6 and 8 o'clock p.m. on Dec 2nd. From very early on, I have
the habit of getting up at mid-night, without my knowing,
and sitting in meditation. My family wonders why I sleep in
a sitting position. Sometimes I am half awake. I don't know
myself why I do this.
May I ask, Grand
Master: what was I in my previous life, and why can I foresee
and predict things?
Wish you Dharma
peace!
Ren-Yuan |
After I got this letter, I found, with my divine eye, that Xu Ren-yuan
was a Zhan master in his previous life. This master often sat in
meditation for sleep (called "never-lying-down pellet). Some
of the habits in the previous life were retained in the present
life. So Xu often sat up at midnight, unconsciously. Such is causation
accumulated over the past lives.
The Zhan master in his previous life cultivated "good gods'
foresight response" and he always knew what was going to happen
soon. He often told other people's fortune and could predict many
things. He actually make a furore. Though Xu Ren-yuan did not leave
home for cultivation, he retains some of the abilities of foresight
and prediction, due to his causation in his previous life. This
is by no means strange.
"Good gods foresight response" is not a complex doctrine,
but a by-product from cultivation. All practitioners who have attained
achievement will experience some "foresight responses."
Tantric practitioners concentrate all their vital energy, generate
all kinds of virtue, and therefore get protection by all good gods.
Due to this protection, the practitioner will know, beforehand,
what is going to happen, for the kind gods will inform him.
What about spiritual children's ear-reporting? It is practiced
as the following describes:
"On a day ending in the number of five, get a stretch of
willow wood from a place in the east where water is constantly
running. Get a Buddha-making sculptor turn the piece of wood into
a man-like figure, about 8.6mm long, smart-looking, with clearly
distinguishable eyes, and eye-brows, the left hand forming a positive
mudra and the right hand forming a negative mudra with the hair
worn in two coils. The figure is a child, dressed in robes. Use
cinnabar mixed with human milk to write on a piece of yellow paper
"heart, liver, lung, kidney, spleen," and put the paper
into the hole dug into the body of the child. Put blood from a
cockscomb or from a tortoise on his mouth. Then wait, till you
hear that a child in the neighborhood dies or a woman has a miscarriage.
Write on a piece of yellow paper the date of death of that child
or baby, and put this piece of paper on the back of the idol."
On certain days of the year, memorial ceremonies will be held and
offerings will be made to the child in a quiet room. At the same
time, the spirit-tracing mantra will be recited. It takes about
forty days to complete the rituals when the spirit of the deceased
child attaches itself to the willow wood and can show itself and
can predict what will happen in the near future. This method is
described in my book Random Remarks on Spiritual Prediction.
Spiritual children's ear-reporting method was originally used by
itinerant entertainers and had nothing to do with spiritual cultivation.
But since it bears great resemblance with "ghosts reporting
what will happen" and "gods reporting what will happen,"
it is described briefly here.
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