Fat Ghost In Graveyard (坟场里的胖鬼)

A gigantic size 'unknown object' suddenly jumped in front of my motorcycle...

For a very long time I was engrossed in Maoshan ghost magic and I would spend my sleepless nights in whatever graveyards reachable to perform conjurations. Most of the time I could see white shadows passing in front of me perhaps due to my magical power perhaps...

Once I again went to an isolated Chinese cemetery in Kamunting to conjure a recently dead soul in the dead of the night. I must hurry or else other sorcerers might be there first to harvest this 'precious commodity' so said.

The said graveyard is located on a slope beside a small muddy path which is still unassailable by cars. So I had to resort to go with my motorcycle.

When I reached my destination, it took me quite sometime to locate the new tomb and there was already some residuals of half burnt joss paper and incense. I was a little disappointed that I was not the first one to be there. Hopefully this precious 'commodity' would still be there. Without delaying, I laid out my food offerings and start burning incense and candles.

Once settled down, I recited mantra in front of the new grave to call out the dead soul. While I was chanting, I felt a cold breeze blew towards me and then there was a voice of a woman calling: "Boy..."

I opened my eyes and saw a big figure in black rose from the back of the grave... I thought: "WOW! This must be the devil himself and it is coming to get me..."

Instinctively, I dropped everything and rushed head on toward my old bike; jumped on it and sped off down the slope...

The fat creature seemed to be faster, it suddenly jumped into my way and I felt a force forced my bike handle to sway and that caused me to panic and my bike rammed into a ditch by the roadside...

When I climbed out from the ditch, the gigantic creature in black already standing in front of me... I took out my torchlight and shone at it...

"Wah lau! Don't scare me like that le aunty! People scares people cannot be cured one lor! What are you doing here in the middle of the night? And why are you blocking my way?"

I instantly recognize it was indeed my neighbor, Mary. Mary is a hawker selling noodles in local morning market. 

Mary gave me an apologetic smile and said: "Sorry brother, I just did what you did... asking for lucky numbers. My bike couldn't start, I saw some one approaching and thought some bad guy so I hid behind the grave... When I saw it is you, I want to reach you but you ran away. If I don't stop you, I cannot return home tonight... Can you give me a ride?"

"Pull me and my bike out of this damn ditch first aunty!" I yelled out from the bottom of my lung.

Luckily my bike was not damaged and we returned home. Since then we had a mutual agreement: Mary won't talk and I also won't talk about this incident. We would just say: "Ha! Ha! What a wonderful morning!"

Taxi Driver N Ghost (计程司机与鬼)

I like to chat with taxi drivers as they do have some insights on current affairs... And about ghosts too!

Once I took a night taxi from down town to my house. It was quite difficult to get a taxi to stop. Luckily one finally stopped in front of me. I quickly jumped in and as the taxi sped off, we started to chat.

Out of curiosity, I asked the driver: "Not many people willing to pick up a passenger because of scared of robber or something else?"

The driver, known as Lim in his 60's smiled and said: "Well, both. I was robbed a few times and fetched some ghostly passengers too..."

"Sorry about the robbers, but don't mind telling me your ghostly encounters?" I was tempted to know.

After a moment of silence, then Lim half jokingly said: "Well... I gave the robbers money but I ask the ghosts to give me money!"

I passed a strange look and he continued: "Naturally giving money to robbers is the only thing I could do or I will definitely be hurt... And there is a reason to ask money from ghosts even though I am 100% sure that I will not get the money. Money seems to be the magic word to exorcise ghosts...

Once I was alone along Macalister Road, a young lady flagged me and I stopped to let her in. She wanted to go to Tanjung Bungah. As I drove along, I habitually chat with my passenger as I am doing with you.

After asking a few questions, the lady remained silent. Feeling strange, I looked into my rear mirror and to my horror as there was no one at the backseat!

At first I thought I better turned my steering wheel and headed home. Then and again, perhaps I would just drive along and see what would happened.

A few minutes later, the lady appeared in the reflection of my back mirror again... I instantly knew that the lady is not human beings.

In order to brave myself, I started to talk in spite of not getting any responses. The lady's face remained grim and expressionless. 

Then I thought on if the lady could pay for the ride in our local legal currency or just hell notes...

I braved myself and spoke aloud to the lady when she asked me to stop near a Chinese cemetry: "Hey lady, I know you are not human. Can you pay me in MYR than in hell notes?!"

*SLAPPED*

Suddenly she gave me a slap in the face and yelled out: "I know what you are up to you sex maniac! I will call for help if you dare to touch me!!"

She threw me a 50 dollar note, opened the door and ran towards a high rise building. As soon as the lady disappeared into darkness, I recovered from shock and quickly drove off. Apparently the lady is a human after all, someone wight come out a gave me a smack on the head! Ha! ha! ha!"

The taxi soon arrived in front of my apartment, I paid the driver and opened the door. Before I alighted the taxi, I half jokingly asked: "Would you still ask for money if you are so lucky as to get a ghost passenger?"

"No, no more brother! There is no such thing as ghosts! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Shortcut To Buddhahood (克期取证)

Unlike us who dared not touch the subject of death, Tibetan folks view death very openly.

Many Tibetans would engage in some kind of preparations for the approaching death. In order to secure a place in the Pure Land, there are basically two type of practices a person can follow:

• The common practices
• The not common practices

The common practices in preparations for dying

The main practice for all schools is commonly known as 'phowa' or 'transference of consciousness'.

Phowa is a practice to send the consciousness of a practitioner directly into either heart of Vajradhara (金刚持), Samantabhadra or Amitabah depending on the preference of each schools.

It is not easy to engage in phowa practice. Previously a practitioner is asked to sit in front of a bottle with a small pebble in it. He/she must shout 'hi' until the pebble jumps out of the bottle.

This method is still being practised in certain Tibetan monasteries as far as I know.

For ordinary folks, it is sufficient just perform visualization and shout 'hi!' and then 'ka!' so that the consciousness would rise into the heart of the deity of the choice and then returns to the heart of the practitioner.

For Ningmapa practitioners however, the consciousness is not visualized to return as this school thinks that if the person passed away during his phowa practice, then it is very auspicious.

A preliminary sign of success is that a small hole will result in the middle of the skull. The size of the hole must be able to fit in a piece of kusha grass.

Ideally speaking, phowa ritual should not be practiced by a youngster as his mind is still not set. In the event that he is delinquent in his practice, this hole will automatically closed and further practise in later time would not be fruitful.

On the other hand, if a youngster is diligent in his phowa practice, then his lifespan will be shortened. This is against the Buddha's teaching of 'no killings'.

To overcome the danger of short life, a longevity practice should be followed. Amitayus practice is the most common but there are many other methods according to lineages.

The uncommon practices a.k.a 7 day's to Buddhahood

For a selected few, they can engage into a type of Dzongchen meditation technique that promises a shortcut to achieve Buddhahood. 

First a person must build a small hut on top of a hill where he can see the deep blue sky. He must be able to spend 7 days at the hill top each session.

The prerequisite before engaging in Dzongchen meditation is that the person must have practised tummo (inner heat) and Yidam practice for at least 3 years.

When the signs of death (死相) become apparent, then the practitioner should let go of every worldly thing and engage in this fast track to accomplishment practice. Many accomplished practitioners would even stop food consumption one week before their death so as to achieve rainbow bodies (虹身).

After a place is picked and the time is right, he should meditate backing the sun with a clear view of the deep blue sky.

He should then engage in the heart chakra vase breathing (心轮宝瓶气) and concentrate on the syllable 'bam'. When the psychic heat has reached the white 'ham', it will melt and flow down dripping into the 'bam'. At the same time, the red '!' from base chakra rises into 'bam' as well. When the red and white essence meet, extreme joy will be produced.

Simultaneously the syllable 'bam' that represents our human seed gradually shrinks in size. When the practitioner experienced extreme joy and at the verge of fainting; he should immediately shout 'ha' loudly for 21 times sending this now minute 'bam' into the deep blue sky.

He should maintain this meditative state for as long as possible. This exercise directly sending a person's consciousness into the center of dharmadhatu (法界中心) and hence achieving Buddhahood.

If the consciousness failed to return to the body and the body collapses during this time, the person is as good as dead.

I have tried this method once and when my consciousness didn't return for a long time, my guru quickly asked a few of his disciples to recite 'ka' repeatedly for quite a long time before I finally awoke from my meditation.

This is a very quick way to enter into the heart of samantabhadra or in layman's term: death. Don't try it if you still have a family to look after or a big business to run!

The Intermediate Beings (中阴体)

There is no teaching other than the Tibetan Buddhism that explores our human dying process in detail and provides a guide to the still living to follow. However, those religious texts can be difficult to understand and the visiting lamas may or may not speak of it openly. So what are those intermediate beings?

The dissolution of life forces 

Human beings live on energy flows. During dying process, the earth dissolves into water and human cannot support his body weight. When the water dissolves into fire, he becomes thirsty. When the fire dissolves into wind; he felt cold. When the wind dissolves into space; the man stops breathing. Finally, the space dissolves into consciousness. His vision turns white and his consciousness enters into his heart chakra. At the same time, a red light rises from the bottom. Both red and white light united momentarily in the heart chakra. This is the moment of the union of mahamudra (大手印).

Anyone who can grasp this moment and meditate in such a situation, he will achieve enlightenment. An accomplish lama can meditate on the state of mahamudra for a few days but an ordinary people only experiences it as a flash.

If the opportunity to enter the state of mahamudra is lost, then the deceased will fall into a long sleep normally lasted for 2 to 3 days.

The deceased's consciousness remained in his heart chakra for another 7 days and experiences further energy dissolution in the heart chakra. This is the time to recognize the so-called 42 peaceful deities of intermediate state.

Failure to recognize this, the consciousness will be lifted to the crown chakra and stayed there for another 7 days where it further experiences the 58 wrathful deities.

If the deceased failed to be liberated, then his energy level will descend to the throat chakra and he must recognize the 10 vidya-raja (持明).

Then the deceased will descend to the navel chakra when it further meets with 5 dakinis.

If the dead soul yet failed, it will descend into the base chakra and faces the Vajrakila slaughter house.

All of the above narrations are symbolically speaking of course. Beyond this point, the dead soul is said to have entered into the decisive 'intermediate state'. Further journey would determine the becoming of this dead soul. After that, the dead soul just have to wait to move to the other side (reincarnation).

The intermediate beings

Ordinary people would think that an intermediate being as 'ghost' but this is not really true as it can be a prospect demon, god, human, hungry ghost, animal and hell being. The duration of intermediate beings vary.

My late father, grandmother and aunt are all still in their intermediate states and I don't know how long will they stay in their intermediate states.

Interestingly speaking, I found out that intermediate beings cannot see the presence of other intermediate beings. When I saw my late father's soul, he is always alone. So is my grandma and my aunt.

Once I was approached by a dead soul asking for food. I told it to go with others to a shrine where the food offering ceremony was held. It gave me a blank face and asked: "What others? I didn't see anyone around."

The shape of intermediate beings

I was forced by my guru to mediate beside the dead to understand the human dying process. Interestingly I found that intermediate beings are normally dark grey in color and measured about 3 feet tall.

They feed on the scent of incense or steamy hot foods. Because intermediate beings do not have a physical body, they are easily dispersed by breeze. In order to prevent being blown away by wind, these beings normally congregate in the corner of a building or a place with poor air circulations.

Most dead rituals failed to deliver dead souls

Sad to say that most dead ceremonies I have attended have failed to send the intermediate beings away. My late father, grandma and aunt are still around until today although Buddhist dead rituals were performed by experienced masters.

There are many reasons that an intermediate beings refused to leave. It could be that they have lost their golden opportunities to be liberated, or that these folks were not spiritually inclined or they have no religious beliefs.

For example: If a person who was a free thinker, his soul cannot be sent to the Pure Land that he has no interest in during his life. Likewise, if a person has no understanding of Tibetan Buddhism, his soul cannot be liberated with transference of consciousness method.

Countering the fear of intermediate states

Starting from beginning, Tibetan Buddhist rituals are meant to prepare a person for dying. It might be funny to hear that we must take a whole life time to learn how to die but there are reasons:

• We will travel alone when we die and that is absolutely sure. It doesn't matter if we are high and mighty kings or we are beggars; each of us will travel our last journey alone. Tantric rituals trained us to isolate ourselves so that we are not afraid of being alone during dying process.
• I have experienced many dying processes and I can definitely say that I was always alone walking towards the tunnel with bright light from the other end. If it had not been my Yidam that has blocked my way; I am already passed away by now. So, holding to your Yidam is of utmost important when you are alone in the intermediate state.
• During dying process, we will not be able to bring anything except our beliefs torards gurus, dakini and our thought forms such as our Yidam (本尊). Only our imaginary beings can accompany us after we died.

In short, if you are feeling lonely now; then you are blessed as you are likely to have lesser sufferings in your intermediate states. However, if you are always in a group of big companies, then it is worthwhile to take a retreat and experience what you have not experienced before.

I have many rich friends who are afraid of staying alone and at night. Then I can only pity these folks as these people will surely suffer during their dying process. I have seen many lost souls outside nightclubs and bars that failed to move on because they are afraid to accept the fact that they are already dead. Sadly, I am not obliged to help those who cannot help themselves.

Deliverance In Unusual Situations (特别的超度法)

There are a lot of deliverance rituals in Tibetan Buddhism suitable for people of all walks of life. Unlike other religions that only have one dead ceremony.

Not many people aware that Tibetan Buddhist deliverance rituals actually done according to situational needs and timing.

Deliverance ritual for tantric practitioners

In this case, a tantric practitioner has many ways to send his consciousness:

• Dharmakaya (body of essence)
• A dzongchen or mahamudra practitioner will dissolve his consciousness in the presence of natural pure light hence achieved the dharmakaya state.
• Sambhogakaya (body of enjoyment)
• The consciousness of a practitioner transformed into the illusion body of his Yidam.
• Nirmanakaya (body of transformation)
• The transference of consciousness through 'phowa' method.
• Liberation by self confidence
• When a practitioner has unshaken confidence that he will be reborn in Pure Land, then by his strong will; he will.
• Deliverance by consciousness summoning
• This method is only for the enlightened practitioner. Milerapa has said: "Those who is not enlightened, cannot perform deliverance ritual."

Deliverance ritual for ordinary folks

• Dead rituals such as recitation of 'Tibetan Book of The Dead' from first day to 14 days or so.
• Dead rituals carried out on demand.

Deliverance ritual for non-human

• Non-human spirits such as demons or animals cannot be delivered in their presence forms because of their karmic debts and bonds. The only way is to 'destroy' their bodies and guide their consciousness to the Pure Land. This is a controversial and most misunderstood ritual in Tibetan Buddhism as it involves 'killing'. The common tool used in a slaughtering ritual is the 'phurpa'.

Deliverance ritual for human who died in an unconscious manner

• As per teaching: "Those who has fallen unconscious and died are not worthy of receiving deliverance rituals." This situation includes those who died in freak accidents too. 
• The reason is simple because once these folks are knocked unconscious, they will lost their golden opportunity to be delivered during the first few days. In normal cases, a dead soul only realized that it is dead after 3 to 4 days after the mishaps.
• The above quote is cautioned by previous masters in view of the lack of accomplished practitioners nowadays.
• In order to be able to guide an unconscious soul, a master must first be able to see the soul and he must have accomplishment in his illusion body practice with a clear visualization of chakras and energy channels.
• Then the dead soul's consciousness would be disintegrated into two components: the white essence (father) and red essence (mother) and entered through the bottom of the feet of the master's illusion body.
• The father and mother essence is reunited in the illusion body's base chakra and then slowly moved up to the crown chakra with recitations of 'phat'.
• At the end of the ritual, the dead soul shall be reborn in the Pure Land and the master will destroy his illusion body and offered it to the deceased's karmic debtors.
• This is known as 'slow transfer' contrary to the 'fast transfer'.
• A slow consciousness transfer is normally done on those people who died of drug overdose, poisoning, or people died in fatal accidents. 
• This ritual also done one those who smoked or dunk too much alcohol. The reason is that alcohols and tobacco blurred a person's consciousness and his central channel shrunk. Subsequently, the deceased's consciousness cannot leave its body or hear the prayers of the master. So extra effort must be done to guide this dead soul out in its original state: the father (semen) and mother (egg) through its nose and asshole.

Conclusion

Just a word of advice, please stop smoking and drinking alcohol. My master once performed a dead ritual for a deceased who liked alcohol and smoking. When my master ordered the dead soul to leave, it just couldn't find its way out and hence losing the golden opportunity to be liberated.

I don't expect you to understand the above teaching as I have compiled it as a teaching guides for my fellow dharma brothers and sisters. No one should try the above rituals as there are more details to be added.

A Forgotten Old Grave (被遗忘了的古坟)

There is a centennial old grave located on the slope opposite the Taiping Esplanade Field just beside Lake Gardens. If I have not pointed it out to you, you are likely to have missed it. I don't know if it is still there but I it was still there when I revisit the place a few years ago.

My gambler friend Chong has had a fairly unforgettable experience with the dweller of this old tomb unfortunately or fortunately speaking because after this experience, Chong vowed not to ask for lucky numbers again. The most delighted one is of course, Mrs. Chong herself.

Before Chong's dramatic change, he was one of those many die hard fans of asking for lucky numbers in the most scary and haunted place at the weirdest hours where no one dares to attempt. He even tried the bamboo ritual on a decease pregnant lady's tomb and almost lost his life. 

Well, what made Chong changed his mind? Hold your horses and let me continue with this story...

After Chong has exhausted all available means for getting an accurate number prediction, he approached this century old grave with some food offerings at the dead of the night. Since Esplanade Field is a public place and it is visited by many visitors during the day time. The most probable time is obviously at night.

So said, Chong parked his car by the grave so that his car will block him from passing cars which were very far and between.

After the setup was readied, Chong said to the tomb stone: "Good spirit, good brother; please give me as 'cun' (accurate) number. I will transfer your grave to a better place if I wind first prize..."

Following the seemingly insincere short prayer, Chong took out a container filled with some paper shreds marked by some numbers. Soon a series of numbers fell out from the container and Chong was extremely happy as those numbers were his lucky numbers.

Chong boasted to me about those lucky numbers he got from the old grave. He instigated me to join in to raise capital for betting the lucky numbers. Since I am not into gambling, I declined but wished him luck.

Two weeks later, I saw Chong again in the company canteen. He wasn't looking too happy. So I started the chatter box: "Hey, Chong! Have you stricken rich yet? Where is your Mercedes? Do you need a driver, I am looking for a job you know?"

Chong gave me a fiercely stare and said snappily: "Damn the old ghost! It made me lost $3000! I wanna seek revenge... Do you have any ideas what to do?"

Half jokingly, I said: "Ghosts are afraid of warm pee and pull. You can pee and pull on the grave if you dare! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Chong gave me another disbelieve stare but he said no more.

I didn't see Chong for a few days but the news of he fell sick reached me. So I visited him after my work...

Chong was lying in his bed lethargic, Mrs. Chong came to greet me. While his wife was away attending to kids, Chong grabbed my collar and yelled: "You *&#%%!! I did what you said and this is what I get..."

Apparently Chong really went to pee and pull on the old grave. Now he cannot pee through his penis and pull through his ass hole as both places seemed to have shut tight or being blocked by something... The doctors couldn't find any reasons but they suggested to dig a hole in Chong's stomach to let the pee and pull out. That suggestion has really scared the living daylight of poor Chong.

I could understand Chong's pain as man's 'front tail' is also a place of enjoyment so long as the stimulation is from outside. On the other hand, if the stimulation occurs inside; then this would mean unbearable acute pain.

Knowing the seriousness of Chong's problem and before he has additional rubber hose in his stomach, I went to the old grave with some offerings and promised the spirit that Chong will personally come to apologize to it once he is well.

On that night, Chong later told me that he was visited by an old man scolded him for peeing and pulling on him. Chong knew that the old man was not human so he kept apologizing until he was awakened by a series of long farts followed by the urge of going to toilet.

Chong seemed to have a complete recovery the next morning even the doctors couldn't explain what has taken place. Of course, that will be the secret between Chong and me, and now you!

Revelation Of Terma Tradition (伏藏的启示)

The terma tradition is a set of Tibetan Buddhist teachings said to be hidden by Guru Padmasambhava and later discovered by so-called 'treasure revelers'  some time later.

Although the Gelug Tradition refused to recognize terma teaching as authentic, today, most of the empowerment given by visiting Rinpoche or living buddha belonged to terma tradition: Vajrakila, Hayagriva, Three Roots, Throma (black dakini) etc. all belong to terma teachings.

The characteristics of terma teachings are that the sadhana (rituals) are compact so much so that a few stages of tantric practices are compressed into one: the generation stage, the completion stage and Great Perfection stage.

Hence I always argue that the terma teachings are not meant for general practitioners but most gurus don't care so long as they gets donations; they are willing to part with the teachings superficially without due regard to the students' readiness. Of course, no one cares if the rituals are meaningful. I have not seen anyone demanded any explanations from the gurus so far.

Let us just take the practice of Dorje Drolo for the ease of discussion:

The Dorje Drolo practitioner would first be requested to recite syllable 'hum' many times. This sounds boring to the uninitiated. In fact, the recitation of 'hum' has a deeper meaning. By reciting 'hum' repeatedly and visualizing a practitioner is transformed into 'hum'; this increases the power of concentration and purifies one's mind.

Only after our busy mind is tired, it will automatically cease thinking. Once our thinking process is halted and before a new idea arises; we will experience so-called 'pure light' that we will experience during our natural dying process. This is the preliminary practice of the Great Perfection.

Then from the pure light, arises the pure illusion body of Dorje Dorlo. This image is held while the recitation of heart mantra continues. We again return to the generation stage to create the Dorje Dorlo image.

After the mantra recitation, again the image Dorje Dorlo became faded following a series of 'hum' recitation. We now returned to the Great Perfection meditation stage.

With recitation of 'phat', the Dorje Dorlo is again raised from emptiness. We again returned to the generation stage.

So we can see that in a short terma ritual, a practitioner is brought into a series of mind creating and destruction exercises. This not only indirectly implies the impermanent of our human life, it stimulated a practitioner to further understand how his mind works; and what he experiences during cycles of birth and rebirth.

The image of Dorje Dorlo only serves as a means of protection against our karmic debtors during our dying process or 'intermediate state'. Every time I am attacked in dreams by demons (consciences), Dorje Dorlo would appear in my dreams to chase away the demons of my mind. So visualization in Tibetan Buddhism in general has a purpose.

I wrote down this teaching after dreaming of Dorje Dorlo for the benefit of those who still struggle to understand terma teachings.