When Bad Luck Strikes (当厄运来临时)

A friend thought she has extreme bad luck, and her bad luck was caused by evil spirits that possessed her body. So, she lit some firecrackers at midnight to ‘expel’ the evil spirits inside her… Consequently her neighbour lodged a police report and the lady was subsequently fined a substantial amount of money. Seems the firecracker exorcism ritual not only did not expel my friend’s bad luck; instead causing her to lost money despite now she is also having very bad relationships with her neighbours. Perhaps the incident also doubled my lady friend’s bad luck instead!

When this friend of mine complained to me of her unfortunate incident, I jokingly said to her: “Perhaps you should use a grenade or dynamite to blow yourself up and that would certainly expel all evils from your body… in addition, your body that has brought you such a bad luck!”

Hopefully this lady did not take my words literally and perform some suicidal attempt to blow herself up…

I have mentioned about ‘theory of bad luck’ in my blog:

http://liewsp1-magicsea.blogspot.com/2015/06/theory-of-bad-luck.html

Again, there are many causes for one to experience ‘bad luck’. General Buddhist and Hindu would attribute one’s ‘bad luck’ to his/her previous bad karma. I think it is just a lame excuse to blame all to previous lives because this would make us living in hopelessness and that we would spend this life time to repent what we have done in our past lives. If we spent all our time and savings on religious matters, then we would not be able to enjoy this life…

In higher Buddhist teachings, good luck or bad luck is only relatively speaking. It is our mind that causes this difference. If we understand how our mind works, then we would understand that if we can be impartial to our worldly matters; then there is no good or bad. With this view in mind, we would always live in peace.

I sincerely hope all other friends who have the idea of ‘blowing up’ bad luck, inspect their own mind first before doing anything stupid. Anyway, if one really needs to blow himself/herself up (not that I encourage it); please do that on his/her own and not to risk lives of others…

The Center Of Dharmadatu (法界心中心)

In the study of Great Perfection (大圆满), a practitioner strives to stay in the heart of Dharmadatu; or the center of the universe. According to Ati Yoga, this is the final resting place of Buddha of three times. One can only enter the centre of Dharmadatu through direct teaching of a qualified guru and no amount of theoretical studies will bring a practitioner there.

Sometime ago, my guru brought me to the summit of a mountain in a chilly morning and he asked me to stare into the deep blue sky while performing the lotus posture. After a while my guru asked me:

“What did you see?”

I answered: “The state of AH.” (AH refers to the unborn state of our mind).

“Not good enough!” He shouted.

“Now follow what I do.”

I looked at my guru bewildered but obliged.

“HA! HA! HA!” He shouted, so I shouted “HA! HA! HA!”

“Now what did you see?”

“Oh! I saw the syllable AH flew off into the sky and gone… there is no past, present or future… just luminous and calm.”

My guru said: “Rest in this state of mind now and forever.”

After the strange initiation, my mind always stays in that state and my interest in magic slowly diminishes.

One day, my 80 year old brother in dharma was in a terminal stage and dying. My guru summoned me to the brother’s sickbed. The bro in dharma was performing meditation preparing for the dying process.

After a long while, my guru said to the bro:

“Do you want to go easier?”

The bro in dharma nodded and my guru suggested me to perform phowa service for the bro. So I obliged. As the dying person continued to be in a meditative state; I said to him:

“Please do as I do… HA! HA! HA!”

The bro shouted the first ‘HA’ loudly, then the second ‘HA’ became weaker and by the third ‘HA’… he was gone for good. I know he has entered into the center of Dharmadatu and never return.

So you see… the dying process in Great Perfection is not a sorrowful or painful event. It is as if going out for a final tour!

  

Mountain God’s Escaped Bride (山神的准新娘)

This incident happened about a decade ago to a foreign model friend who almost became the bride of Maxwell Hill mountain spirit. Let us call this beautiful model Jessica. Jessica then was a fashion model from Australia and she just dropped by a friend’s place to have a short stay and have a look see about this Taiping town.  It was of Jessica’s interest to visit the WWII Commonwealth War Cemetery as her grandpa was buried there also.

Since Jessica is a nature lover, she won’t miss her chance to hike up the Maxwell Hill with her friends. I would have no story to tell should Jessica and her local friends just walk along the tarred road… Instead Jessica’s friends are fond of taking shortcuts that would shorten the route to hill top by 1/3; but the catch is that one may lost his/her ways  if he/she is not careful and familiar with the local landscapes.

So, after some preparations; off the group went up the hill and as usual they followed the more challenging and steeper uphill hike. For Jessica’s safety, her friends put Jessica in the middle of the row so that she would not be lost behind. All went well until they reached 3.5 miles and the group leader decided to take a rest.

At this point, Jessica need to relief herself so she moved behind a large tree to do her business. Her friends waited for Jessica for half an hour or so and Jessica still did not return to the group. So, they performed a manhunt but Jessica still nowhere to be found. They shouted for her name only answered by their own echo.

It was already way passed afternoon and it looked like rain would fall soon; so the group had to alert the authority and a rescue group was dispatched. However, the rain started to fall heavily and nothing could be done until the next morning.

Jessica’s friends didn’t want to just rest and do nothing… well as a matter of fact; they couldn’t sit still now that Jessica is missing. Instead of waiting, they went to seek the help of a spirit medium.

Pretty soon, the medium and the gang returned to the foot of Maxwell Hill and almost immediately the medium fell into trance:

Medium: “Rrrrr… Why do you all disturb my peace?”

Gang: “Who are you?”

Medium: “Rrrr… I am Pak Belang… I watch over this mountain…”

Gang: “We seek your help… Our friend Jessica is missing…”

Medium: “Rrrr… You mean the white girl? I want to make her my bride!”

Gang: “No can do… She needs to go back to her parents… What should we do to exchange?”

(The bargaining went on and on until a deal was struck.)

Medium: “Rrr… I want a feast… I have not eaten for a very long time… I want to eat curry mutton and yellow gluttonous rice…”

Gang: “Okay. We do that tomorrow afternoon…”

At this point, the medium trembled and then fell onto the ground. Apparently this Pak Belang has left the medium.

As promised, a food offering ceremony was carried out the next day. Strangely speaking, Jessica was found by the rescue team two days later sitting at the back of the huge tree where she done her business… Apparently, Jessica has never left the place!

Since Jessica wasn’t herself after the rescue, she was sent to hospital to recuperate for one day. This is when I was called to perform a smoke offering to the mountain spirit and learnt about Jessica’s story.

After the smoke offering, Jessica looked better. So, I asked her of her experiences. This was what she has said:

“I was in the midst of relieving myself… and my friends suddenly called my name; I responded as loud as I could but they just ignored me and left me alone. I dared not move so I just sat at the place… After a while, I thought I heard the roar of a tiger or something… An old man suddenly came to me and said that he wanted I to be his wife and the marriage would take place after 3 days… The next thing I know was that I was in the hospital. That’s what I could remember.”

Hmm… perhaps Jessica didn’t know that she was so close to be the bride of Maxwell Hill watcher! Incidentally, I have come across this mountain tiger spirit in several occasions which is still roaming the Maxwell Hill now days!

Encountering Datuk Kong (巧遇拿督公)

The so-called ‘Datuk Kong’ is a form of earthbound spirit believed to be haunting places in Malaysia and Singapore. By definition, a ‘Datuk’ in Malay means ‘grandfather’. So, one can imagine that a Datuk Kong is the spirit of an old man. However, this is not necessary true as most of the Datuk spirits many people including I have seen appear as white shadows. Many people have seen a Datuk spirits before especially those who work in night shifts and those field workers such as plantation workers.

The Malaysian Chinese are particular fond of worshipping Datuk spirits but their faithfulness can become the heartburn issues of our Malay friends because many people would worship the statue of a Malay elderly in a small red shrine. Even to some extent, shrines mimicking mosque would be built to honor a Datuk. But in many cases, a Datuk spirit is represented by a stone or an anthill or even a plaque inscribing with words ‘Datuk Kong’.

It is very difficult to say if indeed a Datuk Kong is really a Malay elderly spirit as it can be a wandering spirits, earthbound spirits or just any spirits. One thing for sure, Datuk spirits come in many colors: black, green, white, yellow and red. The black and green Datuk spirits are said to be of having very bad temper.

It is also believed that Datuk Kong has many pets especially snakes. Although Datuk Kong normally dwells in a caves, huge trees, anthills or huge boulders, they can be at times dwelled in factories or warehouses too.

Now, let’s come back to my story proper…

The electronic factory with initial ‘I’ that I used to work in Bayan Lepas is believed to be haunted by a Datuk Kong. This Datuk Kong is normally seen in the air-conditioning room at night. My technicians were sometimes afraid to do their rounds as they often complaint of seeing a white shadow wandering in the vicinity of the air-conditioning room. The best timing to see the Datuk is on a full moon night. Although this Datuk doesn’t bother facilities personnel; periodic offerings were made especially on Thursday noon time to appease this spirit. A small shrine is also being built so that this Datuk has a place to sit and that it doesn’t wander out too often to scare people.

Another best time to experience the presence of Datuk spirit is during factory annual shutdown period. In case you are not aware, factory machineries run 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. So, at certain timing, the machineries need to be shut downed for maintenance. As general rule of thumb, a factory would normally perform two shutdowns a year.

It is during the whole factory shutdown that everything becomes standstill and dead silence. During this time, even the sound of a needle dropping onto the floor can be heard. Since the factory is producing microchips, these inventories must be watched over for the whole of shutdown time. During one of the shutdown I was scheduled to sit in the inventory room to guard the precious commodities.

It was just over midnight and the surrounding was dead silence as usual. I was sitting lazily in a chair waiting for my colleague to relieve me. Suddenly I saw a pair of extremely white hands pushing open the room door! As soon as the doors are pried; the security alarm sounded signifying unauthorized intrusion. But there wasn’t a single soul there!

Some investigations were carried out later and it was revealed in the CCTV that the strange hands were seen prying the door… everyone was baffled.

Now that I have left the company and spend most of my time in wilderness and my herbal garden; strangely speaking that I have not really come across a Datuk Kong. What I have seen often are snakes said to be the pets of the Datuk.

I have once struck a cobra with cane until it lay weakly on the floor in my garden. As it still living, I lifted the snake with the cane and brought it to a river and I said to the cobra: “This is my place, don’t come again.”

Strangely, the snake nodded and swam across the river. I have not seen the cobra again since then. My friends said that it was the Datuk’s pet snake.

There are many signs in the forest indicating the presence of a Datuk. For example, when the surrounding is suddenly being covered by thick fog; then this is the best time just to sit down and wait until the fog disperses. Otherwise one may get lost along with the fog. It is said that the Datuk spirits like to trap unwary forest hikers in this way.

I normally appease the mountainous Datuk Kong spirit with smoke offerings. You would be surprised with the effectiveness of smoke offerings and enjoy your journey into the forest after such a simple ritual. So, please be serious and don’t play when entering the forest.

Encountering Lighting Strike (险被雷劈)

Today when I was tending my herbal garden and suddenly the sky turned gloomy as if it will rain soon. So, I tried to find a shelter under a large tree and indeed about half an hour later; heavy rain started to fall. The rain poured down for an hour or so and while it was still drizzling in the sky before seizing, suddenly my surrounding filled by a layer of mist with chlorine smell.

Generally I thought someone has done a fogging or a chemical spill or something like that. However, I couldn't find the source of the smell. Without giving it a second thought, I headed to my garden to finish my job for the day.

At this instance, a loud bang with an explosion occurred some 30 feet above my head! That has certainly scared the living daylight out of me… Before I realized it; I just had a close encounter with a lighting strike. Unlike common belief, there weren't any warning signs such as lighting or anything like that. All happened so fast that the explosion has taken place out of the blue. The only sign I have noticed was the chlorine smell mist.

As soon as the explosion occurred, the mist dispersed almost simultaneously. I am not sure what the mist was or perhaps ions; it was the only thing that happened before lighting strike. Perhaps when one is working in the open field before and after a rainstorm and the person finds before or after rain; and that he/she is in the midst of a fog with chlorine smell; then please do so and leave the place as soon as possible. Having said so, it is still best not to go to an open field where you are the tallest object in the field to avoid mishaps.

Contrary to common belief as not only lighting can strike during rain, it can also strike without any warning… well, in my case; I saw and smelled a layer of chlorine flavour mist; but I can’t guarantee that this would be a common case. Perhaps the best thing is just to go into a building for good if possible. Also, please avoid seeking shelter under a small hut in an open field such as that of a pineapple plantation, or venture to play football in the field during and after rain. There are just too many incidents in our local mass media now days... And I was one of the lucky ones escaped unharmed. Or, was it the working of my Leklai spirits that has protected me from the lighting? Hmm...

Amazing World Of Look Alike (似是而非)

Many herbal plants look quite alike and with very different properties... However the below plants look quite similar and with almost similar healing properties too. The joy of studying herbs not only lies in enjoying these beautiful and exotic plants; but also improving one's knowledge in alternative healing. So, why not put down your magic text and go out in the wilderness and see how many types of herbal plants are around you?

Ardisia Crenata (朱砂根)

Plant height: Approximately 1m

Ardesia Breviculis (九管血)

Plant height: Approximately 30cm

Ardesia Japonica (矮地茶)

Plant height: Approximately 30cm

Sarcandra Glabra (九节茶)

Plant height: Approximately 1m

Of course, it is not wrong to interchange all the above herbs in treatment in this case; but there are other not so friendly look alike out there. So, be ware!