■Book 103 - The Great Spiritual Response Of Tantrayana
■Written by master Sheng-yen Lu
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Folding the five colour papers into five Edict-flags, you then use five colours to write their names. Or use white to write on the black paper; black to write on other papers. It is better to put a precious cover on top of them.
What is a precious cover ? If you have prayed at a funnel-shaped lamp, you should know what it is. You can line them up or put them into their respective directions. i.e. to find out the East, South, West, North and central positions in your room and place them accordingly.
You must choose a perfect or successful day to do the ritual.
Once they are placed properly, you must light up a lamp that will shine at the flags and make such offerings as flower, light, tea, fruit or non-vegetarian food to them. Then you pay respects to the flags, i.e. prostrate the flags. For every lamp that represents one directional fortune god, you must prostrates nine times. Then you form an earth-god mudra or inner-bend mutra while you do meditation in the central location. (Grandmaster demonstrates)
Bend the ten fingers inwards and close the two hands together, the mudra you formed is known as Nei Fu (Inner-bend) Mudra. (the right hand hooks on the left). As the five fingers represent the five fortune gods, they are hooked and tied together by you. Once you chant their mantra, they will appear.
The Mantra is supposed to be very secretive. In fact not very secretive now. You have come across them before. You chant the mantra quite often, the only trouble is you do not know how to use it. If I don't tell you, you can't get the answer even after three years. When I tell you, you will say it is so simple (It was repeated in Taiwanese dialect) (laughter)
The mantra is simple ”Namo saman do mutanam, om tulu tulu diwui suaha” (laughter, applause). You don't know when we chant the invocation mantra in our cultivation, we are in fact asking the local god to protect our recital and cultivation.
The following namely, Four Protector Kings, Eight Beings from the Heaven Realm, Goddess with Childlike Eyes, Gods from the air, river, sea, spring, lake, herb, forest, house, water, fire, land, mountain, palace and mantra protectors, dragons, ghosts and gods and their relations etc... will follow you wherever you go, provided you are a true cultivator, a real dharma master with virtue who cultivate daily.
When you chant ”Namo saman do, mutanam, om tulu tulu diwui suaha” all the above-mentioned will appear.
Ten years ago when I was about to leave Taiwan. I stood at the backyard and made my last offerings. Holding a glass of water in my hand, I started to chant the Mantra. What Mantra did I chant? I used the Taiwanese dialect to chant: ”Roc and Garuda, Gods and ghosts in the wilderness, om mudi suaha” seven times, then I threw the water out.
Suddenly a gust of wind returned the water to my body. I wondered what happened. Using my deva eyes, I saw many gods lined up in the wilderness, mountain and valley.
I asked:”What's the matter? I am leaving Taiwan, why must you return my last offer of honey water?” They replied:”Dharma master is leaving, after receiving your offerings for so many years, we wish to bid bon voyage to you by returning whatever you offered to us.”(applause) I was very touched at that moment.
The story is real. Many gods will protect you if you always make offerings to them.
They told me this image (showing the image of a local god) was done in Mainland China. It must have been from Canton, as the face looks more like a Cantonese.(laughter) Don't imagine that all the local gods are alike. They are different, even the local god of your house is different from that of my house.
The local god of my house will have a shining face, and wear such nice garments as a dragon jacket, put on an official hut. He will be full of dignity.Your local god may use old and tattered clothing. (laughter) My local god will understand Taiwanese dialect; and you will probably speak Cantonese.
Why? Because our local god is very close to us. Even if you cultivate Vairocana dharma for life, you might not see Vairocana. But if you cultivate the Five Directional Fortune God Dharma for 49 days as the gods are closest to us , he may appear at night. So don't just think of cultivating Vairocana dharma.
You know when I have my meal, I will cup my hands to make offerings, and do a little chanting. My voice is usually low, you may think the mantra must be very confidential. To tell the truth, I only say a simple sentence ” Please join me everybody!”.(laughter, applause)
I only need to say it three times, the local god will come, sometimes many of them. Then I say again, ”please eat, everything can be eaten.” (applause)
Don't think a simple invitation like this is useless. As all the gods are kind and close to us, they will always follow us. When you summon them, they will appear. You are able to have unification with them.
Once you put the flags in their proper locations, everyday you must prostrate to the flags nine times with inner-bend Mudra, and chant invocation Mantra. If you are not sure whether they are present, you can throw two coins. They are around when the coins face different directions.
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