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- The Twelfth Anniversary Celebration of
Purple Lotus Society
- Written by Sue Zhang for the True Buddha
News Issue 221, May 13th 1999.
- Translated by Janny Chow
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May 2, 1999 was the twelfth anniversary of the establishment of
Purple Lotus Society. This year, the celebration was very unusual.
Under the leadership of Master Samantha, a group of monks, nuns,
students, and volunteers from Purple Lotus Society (altogether there
were one hundred-sixty-two of us), made a trip to the Ling Shen
Ching Tze Temple in Redmond and the Rainbow Villa to pay homage
to our Root Guru. On May 2nd, at the newly constructed Fire Puja
Auditorium at Rainbow Villa, H.H. Living Buddha Lian-sheng, our
dear Root Guru, especially conducted a Red Jambhala Enhancement
and Magnetization Fire Puja on behalf of the Purple Lotus Society.
The goals of the fire puja were to supplicate for great lineage
empowerment so that the building of the Purple Lotus Thunder Store
Temple and Wa Kwong Purple Lotus University will be speedily realized.
Since its founding twelve years ago, the Purple Lotus Society
has been disseminating the Buddhadharma and promoting the teaching
and practice of the True Buddha Dharma in the San Francisco Bay
Area, enabling many people to embark on a wonderful spiritual journey
towards self-mastery and liberation. Over the last twelve years,
Master Samantha has traveled extensively throughout the world to
teach the True Buddha Tantric Dharma, and her selflessness and compassion
have touched the hearts of numerous students. Due to this reason,
many students living outside San Francisco have also come to attend
this anniversary celebration. Some of them have traveled from Houston,
New York, Los Angeles, Ohio, North Carolina, Canada, Indonesia,
and Taiwan. Close to four hundred masters, venerables, and students
attended the fire puja.
In order to make this fire puja a complete success, Master Samantha
and the society have spent a great deal of time and energy into
preparing and decorating the shrine for the fire puja. The chief
colors for the offering items were yellow and red. Around the shrine
were more than two hundreds pots of pink lilies decorated with ribbons.
Two Red Jambhala statues were enshrined behind the fire puja altar
each holding a banner: one read “Having Money is Nice!”
and the other read “Having Self- Mastery is Even Nicer!”
In front of the mongoose of each Red Jambhala was a pile of gemstones
and jewelries, signifying the inexhaustible abundance of Dharma
resources. At one corner of the shrine was a display of the seed
syllable of the fire puja’s main deity formed by more than
a hundred golden miniature sized Red Jambhala pins.
Before the fire puja, Master Samantha, on behalf of all members
of the Purple Lotus Society, made an offering which included a five-colored
kata and five pure gold nuggets to His Holiness as a sign of our
highest reverence. Amid the powerful chanting sounds of the Red
Jambhala Heart Mantra, His Holiness lit the homa fire and started
feeding the fire with the carefully chosen offerings. With the skillful
play of Dance of Mudras, His Holiness invoked the Main Deity to
bless and fulfill the wishes of all participants.
After the fire puja, His Holiness gave the following brief teaching,
“The decoration for the shrine was exceptionally fine today.
Before the fire puja was even started, the main deity and other
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas had already descended to the shrine. Since
the main deity is Red Jambhala today, I have decided to wear a red
ceremonial robe and a red ceremonial hat. I really cannot get myself
any redder than this. A few days ago, my eyes suddenly turned red.
Master Lian-hsiang and Master Lian- ning took me to see an ophthalmologist,
but he could not find anything wrong. My eyes are still a little
red today. The Red Jambhala told me that since it was a Red Jambhala
Fire Puja today, the red eyes were just a sign of ‘yogic response.’
If the main deity had been Yellow or White Jambhala, my eyes might
have turned yellow or white. [audience laughter] The Purple Lotus
Society’s goal for this fire puja is to build a Purple Lotus
Thunder Store Temple and University. There is a Chinese idiom that
says that ‘at its gloriest moment, red turns into purple,’
so it makes sense that the Purple Lotus Society is asking the Red
Jambhala to help them. I believe the main deity for the fire puja
today will bless everyone so their wishes will be fulfilled.”
After the fire puja, the venerables from Purple Lotus Society and
the students from the elementary school of the Purple Lotus Institute
put together a variety show for everyone present. A particularly
entertaining performance was a Hawaiian dance performed by monks
from Purple Lotus. The highlight of the programs took place when
His Holiness accepted our invitation and performed a series of Vajra
Fists Movements to the music of a popular martial arts song. Later,
when His Holiness was asked about what he thought of the Hawaiian
dance, he humorously said, “One cannot just view the movements
of the Hawaiian dance without appreciating its inner meanings. The
various gestures and movements are symbols telling people about
the beaches, waves, coconut trees, and fishes in the ocean, etc..
When the dance is performed by young girls, one pays attention to
the movements of their hips. When it is performed by ‘women’
of your age, watching just the hands is sufficient.” Upon hearing
this, there was an uproar of laughter from the students.
Afterwards, everyone was treated to a lunch prepared by volunteers
from the Purple Lotus Society. Eighteen booths, in the style of
outdoor vendors, had been set up serving Taiwanese snack specialties
and other delicious ethnic dishes. Most of the equipment, utensils,
and raw materials had been transported from San Francisco to Seattle
by the monks in a bus and U haul. When His Holiness finished his
meal, he came out to greet the volunteers at each booth. When he
saw the donation boxes at the booths, he casually dropped some of
the red envelopes offered to him by students into the boxes and
said laughingly, “It depends on your luck. If you are lucky,
you might find a love letter inside. If you find one, please give
it back to me.” Everyone broke up in laughter again.
Prior to the fire puja, His Holiness has inspected the bounteous
offerings set up around the shrine and praised, “Very nice,
very beautiful. You have all worked very hard for this!” When
Master Samantha, the monks and nuns, and volunteers heard this,
their fatigue melted away. Their sincere hard work had been perceived
by the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. The materialization of the Purple
Lotus Thunder Store Temple and the headquarters for the Purple Lotus
University will not be far away!
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