Chapter 8 - A Case of Instantaneous Transportation

Readers who watch television will know of the Star Trek series about a spaceship that carries its captain and crew into all kinds of inter-planetary adventures.

Viewers know that, when the captain and crew want to visit a planet, they do not have to land the spaceship on it. Instead, they enter a "transporter" and, after exposure to a de-materializing energy beam, they disappear and gradually re-materialize on the planet.

To return to the spaceship, the procedure works the same way. By standing in one spot, after contacting the spaceship, they "beam up," de-materializing from the planet and re-materializing back in the transporter. Star Trek is, of course, science fiction. Nevertheless, we can't deny that many kinds of science fiction have become reality. In fact, this Universe is so boundlessly enormous that every planet or star has its own mystery, beyond humanity's wildest dreams.

I had a strange encounter that I particularly noted down because it was a truly extraordinary case of "transporting."

At twelve noon, Sunday, February 17th, 1985, my wife Li-hsiang Lu and I, and our two children, Fo-ch'ing and Fo-ch'i, drove from Redmond, where we had had hamburgers at a local McDonald's restaurant, to a big department store in Bellevue which was, at that time, having a furniture sale.

In the United States, sales are often the best way to attract customers. There are car sales, home sales, furniture sales, fashion sales, etc.. Whenever there is a sale, stores are jam-packed with people and the parking lots are always full as well.

That day, the parking lot was full and many cars were cruising around for a space to park. To get a parking space depends on the timing. When a car is just about to leave a space, one must position oneself so that one can drive quickly into the space the moment it is vacated. Sometimes one can drive around for hours and not find a space to park, so the parking problem is serious.

I drove straight into the parking lot (please note that it was the first level of the parking lot that I entered). I couldn't find a space and so I turned left, and moved straight ahead a short distance. The ground was level; there were no slopes at all. I still did not see any space, so I chanted the mantra "Om Mani Padme Hum" once. Suddenly a car was backing out of a stall right in front of us! I was glad. At last we had found a parking spot, and my wife and children applauded as we pulled into the space.

Once we got out of the car, we were puzzled. We assumed we were on the first level, but there were people walking below. I looked again. We were parked on the second floor!

"Did I drive up the ramp to the second floor just now?" I asked.

"No!"

"That's right, I remember very clearly. We went straight into the first level, turned left and stopped. We did not go up any ramp. How could this be the second floor?"

My wife was also surprised. We walked once around the floor and found there was no ramp connecting level one and level two. To go to level two from level one, it was necessary to go to the rear entrance and up a spiral ramp. I knew absolutely that I had not entered from the rear entrance, nor did I drive up a spiral ramp, so how could the car end up on level two?

I again checked the pillars in the car park; the words "second level" were plainly written on them. Looking down from level two I could see many cars going in and out of the level one entrance we had just driven through. My question was, how could we be on level two instead of level one? Not only was I surprised, but so was my wife. She also knew that it was not possible to reach level two by the route we had taken.

It was like a dream - in an instant the first level became the second level! This happened in broad daylight, and the shift took place in the blinking of an eye. It was a very real and instant transportation, a joke created by the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

I think this was how it happened: the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas followed us to the department store in Bellevue. They took a look, and saw that level one was full but that a car was moving out on level two. They did not inform us in time and so, with a disassociation method, they de-materialized us and the car into formless energy, which rose up to the second level. They then put us back again with the re-materialization method. This dematerializing and re-materializing was done in an instant, the very instant when I chanted "Om Mani Padme Hum."

The space travelers in the science fiction series, Star Trek, utilized the "de-materialization" and "rematerialization" method of traveling back and forth between their spaceship and the planets. In an instant, as in a dream, positions are shifted. That day, the four of us, together with the car, also experienced such instantaneous transportation, going from level one to level two.

It was indeed wonderful!

In the Amitabha Sutra expounded by Buddha Shakyamuni, there is a verse:

"At this time, Lord Buddha addressed the elder Subhuti: To the west, passing one hundred thousand billion of Buddha-lands, there is a world called Ultimate Bliss [Sukhavati], where there is a Buddha named Amitabha, now expounding the Buddhadharma."

How far is a hundred thousand billion Buddha-lands? As each Buddha-land is divided into Pure Land, Impure Land, the Land of Reward and the Land of Dharma Nature, these hundred thousand billion Buddhalands are, of course, not on our planet Earth, but very far away on the planets of another dimension.

Chanting Amitabha to rebirth in Pure Land is actually an instantaneous transportation. If a person on Earth constantly chants the name of Amitabha of the faraway Western Paradise, visualizes Amitabha's magnificent Pure Land, and concentrates his mind to onepointedness, when he dies, a lotus will blossom in the Western Paradise. (As the lotus blossoms, you will see the Buddha.) So, when this person dies on Earth, his or her wisdom consciousness will pass through the hundred thousand billion Buddha-lands and will instantly, through transportation, achieve a rebirth in the Pure Land.

The Holy Red Crown Vajra Master Lian Shen, the Tantrika, is the transformation body of Padmakumara of the Maha Twin Lotus Ponds. He also came to testify on behalf of Amitabha. The merits of Amitabha are excellent. His magnificent Pure Land Pathway enables one to be reborn in paradise by traveling instantaneously through the hundred thousand billion Buddhalands. Such "transporting" is indeed a spectacular manifestation of the Buddha power. This kind of transporting, shifting both people and car from the first level to the second level, is comparatively a rather insignificant feat, unworthy of causing anyone alarm. But then, in this world where spectacular, magical illusion is rare, it can perhaps be considered an unusual interlude.

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