T272 蓮生活佛英文文集148－咒的魔力 The Vajra Teeth 1
- 詳細內容
- 分類：大燈新書上市
■Book 148─Power of Mantra
■Written by Master Sheng-yen Lu
■Chapter Four
When I was young, my mother, Lu Yunu, told me a story. Once, there was an old woman who had lost all of her teeth due to her old age. It was very difficult for her to eat anything without her teeth. She could not eat solid food, so she could only eat liquid food.
The old woman’s daughter-in-law was very filial and caring and always served her mother-in-law with the greatest care. She was sad to see how the old woman struggled with food, but she did not have a solution for the problem.
The daughter-in-law gave birth to a boy one day and she breast-fed the baby. Her breast milk was very nutritious and filling. After feeding the baby, she continued to produce milk. The daughter-in-law thought of her mother-in-law and instinctively took the old lady into her arms and breast-fed her. Her mother-in-law was old and was so light that it felt like she was cradling a small child in her arms.
The old woman had no teeth and could only drink her liquid food, so she suckled on her daughter-in-law’s milk and had a full meal.
The baby grew well and the old woman’s mental acuity and health greatly improved after the breast-feeding. The baby’s teeth began to come through, but the most amazing thing was the fact that the old woman’s gums began to harden. Eventually she grew thirty-eight new teeth! Don’t you think this is amazing?
When I first heard this story, I thought it was simply impossible. My mother had mentioned that:
1. Breast milk is more nutritious than any manufactured milk products.
2. Breast milk is rich in calcium.
3. The filial act of the daughter-in-law moved the heavens.
This was a rather familiar story. Later in life, a traditional Chinese doctor told me that human breast milk is very nutritious. Babies that feed on their mother’s milk usually do not fall sick very easily, and they have a naturally strong immune system.
The doctor told me that breast milk was known as “celestial wine” in traditional Chinese medicine:
Celestial wine,
Celestial wine,
Here on earth you will readily find.
* * *
My life was touched by the spiritual realm and thereafter I began my mission to help and liberate sentient beings in every way possible. Throughout all of this, I have encountered the strangest things and some of these encounters were simply magical and beyond comprehension. One of them even involved teeth!
There was a Buddhist by the name of Jiang Wei who came to me for a consultation.
“What would you like to find out?” I asked.
He kept silent. Instead he opened his mouth to show me his teeth.
I noticed a missing front tooth in the upper row of his teeth and it was obvious to anyone there was a gap there.
Jiang Wei said, “I lost this front tooth naturally. It just loosened up and dropped off. Now I am stuck with this gap. First of all, it looks ugly. Second, there’s a lisp whenever I talk. Next, my saliva shoots out uncontrollably and lastly, according to the book of face reading, having a broken tooth contributes to a loss of wealth.”
“You want a …?” I began to ask.
“I wonder if I can ask you for a talisman which can help me grow a new tooth to replace the old one.”
“Ha!” I laughed, “You need a dentist to help you with that!”
Jiang Wei said, “It is costly to consult a dentist. Without the root of the tooth, you need a fixed-bridge supported by the adjacent left and right teeth. Thus, it is best that I grow a new tooth.”
“There is no such thing as growing a new tooth, you know. You are not a kid anymore.”
“I heard you are able to solve any problem.”
“Nonsense!”
“It’s not nonsense. It’s true,” Jiang Wei said.
I told Jiang Wei, “What I have here are talismans to help an infant’s teeth come through, to cure toothaches, and to treat inflammation of the gums as well as tooth decay. Your condition doesn’t seem to fit into any of these.”
“All I need is a talisman to grow a new tooth.”
“No way,” I said.
“Why not?”
“They only work for infants and you’re not a baby.”
Jiang Wei said, “I’d like to give it a try!”
“The effectiveness of talismans depends on the sincerity of one’s heart. There is no room for frivolous attempts.”
“But my heart is sincere when I request a talisman that can help grow a tooth.”
“That’s for an infant,” I repeated.
“Why don’t you treat me as an infant baby then?” Jiang Wei insisted.
“If the talisman doesn’t work, don’t blame me.”
“I won’t.”
I could not refuse Jiang Wei’s repeated request. I drew a talisman for him that helped grow new teeth, which was meant for infants. Naturally, the talisman had no effect on him.
Any infant whose teeth have not come through needs only this talisman to help push the teeth out. It works every time.
Jiang Wei was not about to give up so easily. He came to see me again.
“My friends told me you have the best solutions for everything and that you have great power,” Jiang Wei said. “What is impossible miraculously becomes possible in your hands. I hope you can create a miracle for me.”
“To make an adult grow a new tooth? Aren’t you stretching it a little too far?” I said.
“That would be a miracle. A true miracle.”
-To Be Continued-
T271 蓮生活佛英文文集148－咒的魔力 Grandfather's Prayer Beads 3
- 詳細內容
- 分類：大燈新書上市
■Book 148─Power of Mantra
■Written by Master Sheng-yen Lu
■Chapter Three
Thus, I wrote a verse:
Filled with joy while reciting the Buddha's name and mantra
Now there is lineage in the Saha world
Continue to recite sincerely and respectfully
The blessing of deities and spirits will be with one perpetually
There is another story related to the Earth Deity Mantra.
There was a period when an epidemic swept through Taiwan and many livestock were killed. I observed many plague ghosts roaming in the wild and biting the animals to death. Owners of many farms approached me for help.
I studied the constellations and noted that the Five Plague Deities had descended from the southeastern area of the sky. This meant that an epidemic would sweep across the region, resulting in the deaths of many chickens, ducks, cattle, sheep and pigs.
I was worried, so I approached Cheng Huang, the City God, for help. He said, “This is fate, it has nothing to do with me!”
“Even if it is the will of the heavens, I cannot just watch people suffer.”
“Don't interfere. People's hearts are too corrupted.”
“It's hard for me to be at peace if I don't try to help them!” I said.
Cheng Huang said to me, “You, Sheng-yen Lu, try to help people every day, but their suffering is due to their own actions. One day, if someone hurts you, I wonder if anyone will save you.”
I answered, “If someone hurts me, that's my own karma - but looking at all these livestock suffering, I really feel for them in my heart.”
Cheng Huang then taught me a solution.
Take four sticks of bamboo and chip away the green outer layer. Each stick must be one foot six inches long. On an Accomplishment Day of the lunar calendar, chop the bamboo sticks. On each stick, inscribe the letters of the Earth Deity Mantra in either Chinese or Sanskrit.
In the afternoon of a lunar Removal Day, consecrate the bamboo sticks. Recite the Earth Deity Mantra one hundred and eight times for each stick. The more you recite the better. On a lunar Stability Day, hammer the bamboo sticks into the four corners of the ground of the respective farm.
When this is completed, a plague will not touch the respective farm. I taught this method to the farm owners and it worked! Each farm that was lined with the mantra-empowered bamboo sticks was protected from the plague. Not even one livestock animal died.
However, many other farmers were unaware of this method and during that year when the epidemic occurred, a lot of livestock died. There was hardly enough time to bury every dead chicken and cattle, and the carcasses piled up high like a hill.
One farm owner relayed this incident to me.
One night, he overheard a conversation that took place outside his farm. However, it was not human beings but plague ghosts who were talking. A large number of them arrived outside the farm.
One ghost exclaimed, “An aura produced by a certain mantra surrounds this farm. We cannot enter.”
“What mantra?” another asked.
“The Earth Deity Mantra.”
“That mantra is no big deal. It cannot stop us. Let's go!”
“No way!”
“Why not?”
“The Earth Deity is, after all, a virtuous god.”
“We have our orders by heavenly decree!” the ghost shouted.
“But this mantra is empowered by Living Buddha Lian-sheng, Sheng-yen Lu himself.”
“Really!”
The ghosts fell silent. One of them suggested, “Let's leave this place! We can feed ourselves elsewhere. Besides the small Earth Deity Mantra, there's also the Buddha's edict. It's better to leave it alone.”
Thus, this bunch of ghosts left the farm.
Let me share this with you. Many wealthy men owe their riches to the help of spirits. Many disasters are the result of mischief from spirits. All of these incidents are caused by spiritual entities.
Confucius once said, “Respect the spiritual world but keep your distance.” This means that the spiritual world does exist, but keep your interactions with them to a minimum.
In the Bible, Jesus once expelled spirits and exorcised demons. In the Catholic's instruction for the Exorcistate, the third of the Minor Orders, it outlines the rite of exorcism. The seventy-five-year-old Father Amorth is himself a famous Catholic exorcism priest!
The invisible spirits are worthy of our attention!
T269 蓮生活佛英文文集148－咒的魔力 Grandfather's Prayer Beads 2
- 詳細內容
- 分類：大燈新書上市
■Book 148─Power of Mantra
■Written by Master Sheng-yen Lu
■Chapter Three
The old man wrote down his name, birthday and address.
I made a quick spiritual observation and sensed the sound of a mantra filling the atmosphere, accompanied by the scent of sandalwood. I also saw circles of light radiating and within each circle stood a fortune deity. This was most astonishing.
“Do you know how to recite any mantras?” I asked.
“Nope!” Pan Ji, the old man, replied.
“I heard the sound of a mantra and smelled the scent of sandalwood. I saw fortune deities by your side.”
“Impossible!”
I had helped many in my consultations and had a good track record of accuracy. It was rare to hear someone remark “impossible.” Rather, it was impossible for my divine eye and divine ear to make a wrong observation. If there was ever any mistake in my observation, I was always able to pinpoint the cause of it.
“Does anyone at your home know how to chant any mantras?” I asked him.
“Neither my wife nor my kids know how to chant any mantras,” Pan Ji replied.
“Do any of your other relatives know how to chant any mantras?” I asked.
“Do the deceased count?”
“Yes,” I replied.
Pan Ji proceeded to tell me, “In my family, only my grandfather, Pan Li, knew how to chant a mantra. He held great respect for the God of Fortune and Virtue, and had built a temple for him. Subsequently, He also became the temple's guardian. Once, a monk gave my grandfather a string of prayer beads and taught him how to chant the Earth Deity Mantra. My grandfather recited the mantra his entire life using the prayer beads. He chanted with the prayer beads so much that it eventually turned black and became shiny.”
“Where are the prayer beads now?” I believed I had found the answer.
“My grandfather passed them down to my father, and my father gave it to me, but I don't know where I put them. I think I'll ask my wife to help me find them.”
Pan Ji returned home and asked his wife about the prayer beads. She told him, “They are tucked away inside a hidden crack at your vendor. Nobody knows about it.”
Pan Ji searched for and found them in the vendor. He then took the darkened prayer beads and showed them to me. He did not know the value of the prayer beads.
I told Pan Ji, “Your grandfather, Pan Li, received protection from the Earth Deity. This is the result of reciting the Earth Deity Mantra, showing the Earth Deity respect, visualizing the Earth Deity and praising the Earth Deity.”
The Earth Deity Mantra is as follows:
[transliteration:] Namo san-man-doh, moo-toh-nam, om, doo-loo-doo-loo, dei-wei, so-ha
[Sanskrit: NAMO SAMANTA BUDDHANAM OM DURU DURU DEVI SVAHA].
The Earth Deity Mantra is usually chanted before reciting a sutra. This is to summon the Earth Deities of the Four Directions to guard over you while you recite sutras.
Pan Li spent his entire life reciting this mantra. His sincerity moved the Earth Deities to protect him. This mantra is neither from the buddhas, bodhisattvas nor the vajra protectors. It is not a major mantra, yet it should not be underestimated as it contains amazing power.
If anyone is troubled by spiritual entities and recites this mantra, the spirits will retreat and respect you.
If anyone contracts a serious illness and recites this mantra, the illness will vanish. All pain will disappear and one's good health will return.
In the past, I had taught people how to chant this mantra as it is especially helpful for curing several forms of dermatitis, such as athlete's foot, chronic dermatitis, discoid eczema, etc. By chanting the mantra, those who have skin-related illnesses should be cured because the Earth Deity devours the bacteria on the skin.
If one recites this mantra diligently, abides by the Five Precepts and carries out the Ten Good Deeds, then one will not fall into the three lower realms and hell. In fact, one will be reborn in the heavenly realms and enjoy utmost bliss and joy. The Earth Deity Mantra is also extremely effective in terms of accumulating wealth because the Earth Deities and their spiritual attendants will help those who recite the mantra to receive measureless fortune.
Pan Li devoted his life to chanting this mantra and achieved great results with it. The prayer beads were passed down from grandfather to father, then from father to son, and the blessings were passed down as well. This was simply incredible.
-To be continued-
