Finding A Soul Mate (灵魂伴侣)

Some lady come to me and said: “I want the handsome gentleman next door.”

Some gentleman come to me and said: “I want the pretty lady in my office.”

No one really knows who his or her soul mate really is.

A person’s soul mate is definitely not written on his/her face for sure. The only way to find out one’s soul mate is through his/her astrology reading.

In the West people advocate ‘freedom of love’ where when two people are in love, then they are considered as both person’s soul mates. Sorry to say, this is far from the truth. The person you love, or the person who loves you might not be your soul mate. If we put two persons who are not each other’s soul mates; then one will die or both of them would be divorced.

Many people come to me and complaint about their marriage lives but when I looked into their astrology chart, I found that none of them appeared in each other’s astrology reading. For example: if a lady is destined to marry an older person far away from her home, and she instead married another younger person near her place; then their marriage would not last very long. I just have too many examples in hand.

My soul mate stays a few thousand miles away from me, before I met her; I knew a lady. During the time we were together, I would have 2 minor car accidents yearly until this become a norm. When I first date this lady, my one-week old new car was bumped into by a drunk driver and I had to spend $1,000 to repair it. Lives were getting bumpy then and we finally parted. Now, with my new soul mate; my life has changed for better. For the first time, I near missed two freak accidents on a roll within a week!

So said, I would define one’s soul mate as a person who can compensate one’s shortcomings. For example, if a person is passive; his/her soul mate will normalize this person to a more active level comfortable to both parties. There is an old saying that when a couple gets together for a long time; they will have the same look (夫妻相).

If you have not found your soul mate, then you may try the Miao (苗族) moon praying ritual:

This ritual should ideally be performed on the full moon night of the 8^th Lunar Month.

When the moon is full and clear in the night sky. Either go to a lake or pond where the reflection of the moon can be clearly seen on the surface of the water with offerings of 7 types of flowers, fruits and the ‘7 colour clothes’ (could be bought in Chinese shops selling offering materials) together with some incense and candles.

Perform a short prayer to the moon asking it to bestow you with a soul mate suitable to yourself. In this matter, you cannot put a condition of your soulmate such as rich, handsome, famous etc. If you do so, then it may work; or it may not.

After the prayer, just sit comfortably and look at the reflection of the moon. After a while, the image of your soul mate may appear. Otherwise, just thank the moon and go home. If you are not successful this year; then you may repeat the ritual next year. If you cannot find a pond, you may use a container filled with water.

I tried this ritual and got my soul mate in a very unexpected circumstances a few years later.

Headless Victoria Cowboy (无头牛仔鬼)

A friend known as Mariam told me that when she was staying in Victoria, Canada some 30 years ago; she had seen herself the figure of a headless horseman.

At that time, Mariam was studying in a high school in Victoria. Mariam stayed in the school hostel together with her other foreign school mates. One day, a friend; Mary and Mariam fallen sick after one’s night’s sleepless party so they decided to be absent from class the next day. They slept in their beds until way past lunch. Since both of them have missed the lunch provided by the hostel, they decided to go down to the street to get some hamburgers.

After visiting a snack shop at the end of a street just some walking distance from their school hostel, Mariam and Mary walked slowly along their most familiar street. As the ladies were slowly walking enjoying the autumn afternoon, suddenly Mariam heard noises similar to ‘crock, crock crock…” came from the further end of the street. She instinctively thought someone was riding a horse on the street. So, she turned her head and looked around while asking Mary: “Did you hear what I heard?”

Mary laughed at Mariam and said perhaps it was the hangover of last night’s booze. So, Mariam just brushed aside what she thought she heard and the ladies continued to walk and chat. A few minutes later, Mariam heard the familiar crocking noise again; this time Mary heard it too… Before anyone of them opened her mouth; there they saw a ‘headless’ cowboy with a cowboy’s hat and wearing grey suit riding on a horse galloping towards them.

Perhaps it was ‘inappropriate’ to say that the cowboy was ‘headless’ because as recalled by Mariam later, between the hat and the grey suit, she saw a blob of greenish gaseous substances instead of the normal head. It was an unexpected sighting and the ladies certainly weren’t expected to see apparition during daytime. Finally, panic broke between the two ladies and they ran with their record fast into their hostel and then jumped straight into their beds. This was their first time see a ‘gui lou’ (鬼佬/foreigner) who was an authentic ‘gui’ (ghost)!

Years later, the ladies returned to Malaysia. Mariam got a new boyfriend and on their first date, they somehow chatted about ghostly happenings. And, after her boyfriend heard Mariam’s strange encounter with the headless cowboy; the first question he asked Mariam was: “Was the cowboy headless, instead a blob of greenish smoke?”

“Yes. But how did you know?” Mariam asked bewilderedly.

“Well, I was in Vancouver and staying in a hotel some years ago. I saw this headless horseman after returning from a pub one night…

 If you are in Victoria, perhaps you have seen this headless one too.

Movie That Never Screened (未上银幕的电影)

Naturally, there are many movies made but due to many reasons; they could not make it to the big silver screen. One of these movies is the story concerning 9-tailed-fox spirit. The reason as told by my Hong Kong friend who was once active in movie industry was that 6 of the movie crews were killed throughout the making of this particular movie. Rumour has it that the death of movie crews was attributed to the doings of the 9-tailed-fox spirit because it didn’t like its story to be viewed in public; of course we may not know the truth behind such claim. Whatever reason that might be, the deaths did put a halt on similar movies being produced in Hong Kong film industry.

Let us flashed back to early 90’s. As I was told; a famous movie company of that time wanted to jump on the bandwagon of ghost fevers to bag a fortune. So, the company gathered a group of movie crews to make the movie possible in the shortest possible time. A scrip writer was hired to write scripts, a director was hired to manage the filming of the movie, camera teams were assembled and potential actors and actresses were also identified. It looks everything was a go-go-go until…

First, the script writer was found dead while writing the movie scripts in his house. The autopsy result showed that the cause of death of this unfortunate gentleman was due to alcohol intoxication. Strange thing was that; everyone thought this script writer never drinks alcohol. Since the movie script was half done, another writer was asked to complete the task. This incident has put a considerable delay in the movie shooting.

So, in order to make up for time lost; the filming director was eager to start shooting. This said director worked extra hard and overtime to see through all the movie shooting details. Late one night, the director exited the filming company just past midnight with his new car. As his car passed through a stretch of downhill curve which was just another 10 minutes’ drive from his house; the director’s car lost control and rammed into a truck coming from the opposite direction. He suffered from serious head injury and after struggling in the hospital for a week or so; he too kicked the bucket.

Now, with two persons related to this fox spirit movie killed; there were some noises wanting the movie company to reconsider about making such movie. After some considerations, since money was already invested; they decided to press on. After all, no one believes in supernatural stuffs anyway.

So said, another film director was hired to replace the deceased. Now that the movie shooting schedule has delayed twice, the filming crews were under tremendous pressure to execute their tasks flawlessly. They couldn’t make another mistakes again.

Maybe it was due to sheer pressure, the camera man got drunk in a local pub and he eventually started a quarrel with a gangster. A fight then entailed and this camera man was seriously hurt when a bear bottle struck his head. This poor man was hospitalised but later pronounced brain death due to some reasons.

With three deaths on record, naturally the filming crews were afraid. But the management thought the latest death was another coincident and to answer to the investors; the filming has to go on. Very quickly, a new camera man was hired and business was as usual.

Somewhere in the middle of the film making, movie shooting must be done outside of the company. The place was at a hill top at the outskirt of Hong Kong and the shooting proceeded until night falls. With tired bodies, the crews tugged themselves into two company vans; each with about 10 passengers. The weather was pretty bad as heavy rain started to pour. Just as one of the vans was negotiating a sharp bend, it skidded and rammed upside down into a deep drain.

A rescue team was quickly dispatched and one actor and two actresses were found to have succumbed due to serious injuries and drowning; as the drain was practically filled with rain water at that time.

Now that 6 lives were lost, whether if it was due to coincidences or supernatural causes; the movie company had to make a decision to pacify those rumours spread like wildfires. The decision then was to temporarily halt this movie production until a more suitable timing. I was told that this movie was never revived until today. I guessed the 9-tailed-fox spirit finally won the battle against human kind and its secret is safe for now!

Ghost Fight Ghost (鬼打鬼)

During the 80’s I was a little obsessed with the True Buddha School movements so I did join many of their activities then. Although the True Buddha School was and still is being treated as the new kid on the block, it continued to flourish within local Chinese community. The reason behind its popularity is perhaps the loosely combined Taoist and Buddhist doctrines coupled with lots of folk beliefs. Almost everything one can think of would present in True Buddha School. Also, with the avocation of supernatural power which is strictly prohibited by mainstream religions; no wonder why so many people were crazy about the True Buddha. In addition, gurus could be ordinated easily too compared to other Buddhist schools.

At that time, many small common practise groups (共修组) comprised of 3~5 people were being formed within a residential area; and a small True Buddha shrine were setup within a community. Other than the standard True Buddha rituals; many localised and private practices were naturally being incorporated. A very interesting practice similar to the auto-movement or Tenaga Dalam exercise was called ‘soul awakening’ (启灵学) was the foundation practice.

Now, a very interesting phenomenon could be observed when a few people having auto-movements together in a rather small living room. With the ‘awakening’ of each person’s soul, all of the participants would individually started to dance and performing various mudras indicating their own patron spirits. The advocate of that time was ‘1 mantra, 1 mudra and 1 method’ as I could still remember it.

When one’s soul is ‘awakened’, he/she would be in a trancelike state as practitioners would proudly say that it is the person’s spiritual guide that is training the practitioner; I would not want to argue. So said, many pretty funny cases happened during these private practise sessions. During of the session for example after everyone was in a trance state:

Bro Lim started to move about in the living room amongst the 5 practitioners. After some movements, he made the gesture of Guan’gong (关公) and said: “Ho! Ho! Ho! I am the invincible Guan’gong’!”

Sis Tan also moved in a trance state while making the mudra of Green Tara and proclaimed herself as the ‘Green Tara’.

Aunt Lee danced for a while and sang in high pitch and announced she was the ‘Golden Mother Of The Heavenly Pond’ (瑶池金母).

Sandy also danced for a while and sang the ‘om mani padme hum’ mantra and indicated she was the ‘Avalokitesvara’.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling too well that day. So, for safety reasons, I couldn’t fall into trance. My spiritual guide for that time was the ‘Manjushri’.

As I sat in a corner and watched the fantastic display of spiritual dances, a commotion broke out after Guan’gong bumped into the Golden Mother and Green Tara. Both of them started to argue in trance state:

Guan’gong: “Golden Mother and Green Tara, do you mean to find fault with me? Why do you block my way?”

Goledm Mother: “Guan’gong, have you no respect on me?”

Green Tara: “Wait! You are no Guan’gong… I can see you with my 3^rd eye… You are actually a pig spirit!!”

(While the arguments were raging, the compassionate Avalokitesvara continued to dance…)

Guan’gong: “How can you insult me! Now, eat this!!”

(Guan’gong was making a series of hand gestures at Golden Mother and Green Tara. And both of the said goddesses retaliated with more hand gestures…)

“Now, eat our powers!!” Both Golden Mother and Green Tara responded quickly.

(After a grand display of body movements and hand gestures, the Golden Mother and Green Tara were losing ground…)

Guan’gong: “Ha! Ha! Ha! Now, who is the mightiest? On second look, you are no Golden Mother and Green Tara; both of you are actually pigs!!”

(Just as when Guan’gong was celebrating on his victory, suddenly Avalokitesvara jumped in…)

Avalokitesvara: “Hey, pig head! I am the Thousand-Armed- Avalokitesvara! Retreat now or meet your doom!”

(Of course Guan’gong would not take the insult and another grand display of hand gestures between each other… And finally, Guan’gong dropped onto the floor…)

Guan’gong: “I cannot fight this long-armed lady ghost now! I must go now…”

So, said; Bro Lim shivered and a few seconds later; he was himself again. Likewise happened to Sis Tan, Aunt Lee and Sandy in turn. All of them celebrated with each other on another happy and progressive spiritual training… But I could only keep quiet…

Bad Dreams, Oh! Bad Dreams! (哦！噩梦！)

Everyone must have experienced bad dreams one time or another. People would suddenly awaken in the middle of the night and even long after that the fright remains deep inside the heart. Oddly speaking, when such scary bad dreams are being flashed back during daytime, people would then laugh at him/herself on being afraid of those absurd dreams. In old time, premonitions of dreams were of much importance but today, dreams are just dreams. Having said so, if a person is having bad dreams constantly, then his/her sleeping quality and mental wellbeing will definitely be affected. It is particular bad if children experience bad dreams on regular basis as their mental and physical developments would certainly be affected.

There are many methods to prevent bad dreams amongst others, true to my own experiences:

1.       Prior to sleeping: the pillow should be raised a little higher, and the person should sleep on either left or right sides. It is forbidden to sleep while lying flat face down or face up like a corpse.

2.       One should not sleep more than 8 hours a day.

3.       One should not talk once he has laid down.

4.       It is best to wear light clothing while sleeping and avoid sleeping naked. Even in tropical areas, temperature differences can be pretty high especially after a midnight rain.

5.       One should not laugh loudly before sleep or his unsettled emotion may bring forth bad dreams at night.

6.       One should not go straight to bed after a heavy meal, or after he/she has consumed something hot.

7.       One should wait until his/body is dried after bathing at night before sleeping.

8.       Postures such as putting one’s hand on his/her chest or sleep with crossed leg should be avoided altogether.

9.       Avoid sleeping in cold, especially right under a window or near a door.

Of course, all those precautions may still bring forth bad dreams. There are some small tricks to calm our mind if we find difficult to continue to sleep:

1.       One may chant the Sanskrit mantra of the watcher of the night: Vasanta Vayanti repeatedly until we fall asleep again; or any simple holy names repeatedly.

2.       A person can also use his/her left hand to pinch the area between his/her nose and upper lip 14 times and then biting his/her teeth 14 times then all his/her unreasonable fear shall be gone.

Generally speaking, when a person is too free and having nothing to do; it is very likely that he/she will get many odd dreams at night. So, instead of staying in the house and grumbling on badluck as scapegoat; maybe involving some charity works would make the person sleep better at night. Also, it is certainly true that doing charity work can boost one’s luck too! The idea is just to make the body tired so that we can rest-in-peace at night really.

Harnessing The Power Of Water Ghost (发掘水鬼的力量)

None of the Asian magical schools utilizes the power of water ghost except one. The Thai magic makes use of earth spirits while the Vietnamese magic utilises the power of plants predominantly. The only system I have ever known that make uses of water ghost is the Javanese ‘name of power of great river’ aka ‘Asma Sungei Rajah’ and the ‘sword’ aka ‘saefi’ typically speaking.

The understanding of water ghost is different in various cultures. The Chinese version of water ghost is anyone who is drowned in water, the West have their own version of water spirit and the Malay version of water spirit is totally different from any other traditions. The Malay water ghost has something to do with mythical story of Badang; who became extremely powerful after swallowing the vomit stuffs of a water ghost. This story was being filmed in 1962 locally.

According to the story, a water ghost used to steal fishes caught by Badang from a lake near his house quite frequently. Badang felt very angry after finding all his catch was being stolen by someone. So, one night after he has caught some fishes, instead of going for more catches; Badang hid behind a bush as he wanted to catch the culprit red-handed. After some waiting, a water ghost appeared from the lake and start devouring Badang’s fishes. In a state of furiousness, Badang caught hold of this water ghost and threatened to kill it unless the water ghost would pay him for all his loses.

As a gesture to redeem its guilt, the water ghost promised to bestow Badang supernatural power if and only if he would swallow all of the vomit stuffs from the water ghost’s stomach. Badang did as told and he became super powerful. Of course, that was the mythos.

Having so said, water ghost in the belief of local Malay is dominated by unisex: male. Its body is covered by thick and big scales and this water ghost has long beard that reaches its chest level. This water ghost is also believed to be bold, with a pair of pointed ears and sharp teeth and also claws.

I am sure you would agree with me that by now, the Malay version of water ghost subspecies is quite different and more powerful from the Chinese ones.

Now, if you have followed my earlier posting of Asma Sungei Rajah, then you would notice that for best results; Asma Sungei Rajah is best to be practised by submerging one’s lower body up to waist level into a river with clear running water starting Friday night coupled with a consecutive of 7 night’s mantra recitations.

I certainly don’t expect people to go into a river, lake or sea at night these days… But if you really do, then you might see a black figure linger near you. If you continue to stay put and not run away; then this creature shall jump onto your shoulder and then merge into your body. It is only after the entity has entered into your body successfully that the practice of Asma Sungei Rajah and some Saefi (sword) practices can be considered successful. The power of Asma Sungei Rajah must be recharged every two weeks by dipping into a river, lake or sea or else the water ghost will leave; and hence the power bestowed into a practitioner will also fade.

Before anyone started to jump into water, I must caution that inviting a water ghost into one’s body is very dangerous matter. If the practitioner failed to overcome the brute force of this water ghost, then it will take over the person’s body and this person may drown himself if not become insane. Hence, my advice is simply do not engage in this type of practices at all.

Meaning Of Foods For Ghosts (鬼魂与供品)

Singaporean and Malaysians are not so particular about food offerings to ghosts. This is not the case for those Taiwanese and Hong Kong people. Foods offered to ghosts especially during the Ghost Month should be selective because of their symbolic meanings.

Below are some of vegetables or fruits with their intrinsic meanings:

Banana (香蕉)

Banana is believed to be able to attract ghosts maybe because its link with banana plant and hence the infamous banana spirit; but also the word ‘香蕉’ in Cantonese meaning ‘to invite’. It is so afraid that once those good brothers and sisters enjoyed the meal; they refuse to leave.

Pineapple (凤梨)

Likewise, although pineapple is a must for gods and goddesses; it is not proper for ghosts due to its Chinese characters reads something like ‘come in wind’. If the ghosts do come like a wind, then this will also bring bad luck. Ideally, these ghosts should leave ASAP after the free meal and bring fortune to the worshipper ASAP too.

Apple (苹果)

Apples has the same sound as ‘poor’ in Chinese. So, by offering apples to either gods or ghosts; poverty may be fallen to the worshippers.

Pomegranate (石榴)

Pomegranate also has the meaning to ‘stay put’. So, it is also no good if the ghosts staying put and not bring any fortunes to the worshipper. After all, there is no free lunch in this world… that extends to the spiritual world too!

Tofu (豆腐)

There is a Cantonese proverb that sounds like ‘骗鬼吃豆腐’ (coaxing ghosts to eat tofu) meaning it is very easy to deceive a person. So, it is apparent that ghosts like tofu. The reason being that tofu is soft and wet, after one year in hell; the only thing ghosts can eat is tofu since their throats were already too dry and hot to swallow anything else.

Water convolvulus (蕹菜)

Water convolvulus soup is a must for some Taiwanese folks in ghost worships. The reasons are profound:

1.       Water convolvulus is tasteless so it is not anyone’s favourite food. In a ghost offering ceremony when all ghosts are summoned to enjoy feasts, strong and weak ones shall rush to the offering table at once. The strong ones will devour those goodies leaving the weaker ones nothing to eat. Naturally, no one likes water convolvulus would also not be consumed by the ghosts. Since the weaker ghosts are powerless against strong ones; at least they can still drink the water convolvulus soup. So, everyone would have a piece of something to eat.

2.       Water convolvulus is cheap and at times, it is also freely available from the nature. So, in old times when people cannot afford to prepare sumptuous food offerings for ghosts; just to console those lesser fortunate ones; they are allowed to present water convolvulus soup as the sole offering. In Taiwan, most of the places have joint food offering for ghosts for a village. This allowance enables practically everyone in a village, rich and poor can participate in the festivals.

3.       Water convolvulus is empty inside the stems, and it has the meaning of ‘empty heart’. Indirectly telling whatever spirits that ‘I have no heart to retain you so please leave after eat’.

Just a final word, different thing means different meaning in different places too. So, please pay attention to the local customs or you will find yourself a lot of problems if things are not going well right after the food offering ceremonies… And, the above is just a short list amongst many others!