The peak of the craze of Malay magic was in the mid of 80's following the murder of a politician, Mazlan by Mona Fandey, a bomoh or a local shaman in 1993. After that, magical things especially among Muslim Malays were suppressed and discouraged until extinction today. Perhaps there are still practitioners around hiding somewhere but no one dares to talk about magic openly in Malaysia anymore. At least the once feared magic becomes the sole proprietor or silver screens.
I too were once mesmerized by the powerful world of Malay magic as there were many silat (Malay martial arts) exponents exhibiting extraordinary invulnerability skills such as jumping from a 5 floor building, bathing with boiling oil and hanging on a tree branch without obvious injuries. A top silat master is said to be able to be buried alive 6 feet under the ground for 3 days! Some of these tricks were later debunked by some practitioners with a fee *SIGH*!
In the school I was in, One of my Malay friends, Jeffrey told me that the best bomoh was in Kuala Kangsar, the royal town of the State of Perak. He asked me to go to Sayong and seek a bomoh who stayed beside a tall tree.
With this hint, I happily went to Sayong which is a small town beside the Perak River. After some efforts in searching and asking, I finally found the said old lady. She was about 70 years old then.
The old bomoh was sweeping floor in front of her house and when I approached her, she suddenly said: "Peace be upon you! My grandchild, what took you so long? I have been waiting for you."
Though shocked, I carefully approached her and responded to the greeting: "May peace be upon you too, grandma!"
The old bomoh invited me to go into her house and served me tea. Then I conveyed my intention of learning the art of bomoh. The old bomoh hesitated for a moment and said: "My grandchild, you cannot stay here for too long. People dislike me teaching magic to others. But I can teach you the method..."
I was a little disappointed and the bomoh seemed to have read my mind, she smiled and continued: "Don't worry. I will give you one of my keris, a 'ketam' wood staff and a prayer bead. You can go to a cave in Padang Rengas, look for a big boulder and meditate in front of it. Then someone will guide you..."
I thanked the old bomoh and followed her instructions. True enough, I did see many people wearing white came to me. Later, Jeffery told me that the ones I saw in the cave are what Malays call 'orang bunian' or literary 'hidden people'.
A few years later, another friend of mine asked me to go to a forsaken cemetery to meditate. It is believed that the grave was that of a very powerful bomoh.
We went to the grave at dusk and meditated in front of it. I was taught to imagine that I was peddling a sampan in the middle of an ocean repeatedly until an image appeared in front of me.
True enough, I saw an island in the middle of the ocean and an old man greeted me on the shore. He taught me some magic rituals that I have written down. Unfortunately I lost my notebook when I moved house some time ago.
Yet a few more years later when I was working in a factory in Ipoh. Another friend of mine wanted to learn 'santau' which is a form of poisoning with the help of 'hantu raya' (giant spirit which is about 12 feet tall).
According to my revenge seeking pal, the best santau practitioners are hidden in downstream of Perak River, which is near Teluk Intan, a town located in Hilir Perak District. So, we proceeded with another witch hunt.
We did find a santau practitioner and learnt up the tricks. I don't know if my friend has used it on his ex-girlfriend and his rival in love as I got an job offer and moved to Penang soon. I have not tested my santau however. Perhaps I will never need to use it.
Wondering if my quest of Malay magic is over? Perhaps. I just dreamed of the old bomoh who gave me her keris last night. She asked me to visit her soon. Maybe this is another beginning of yet another magic adventure.
Friday, August 24, 2018
Thursday, August 23, 2018
Between Toyol And Kumantong (鬼仔比较)
Both supernatural beings mean 'ghost kids'.
Toyol is almost extinct in Malay Archipelago while Kumantong is continued to be worshiped by Thai magic fans around the world.
It is believed that the original Toyol was brought back from Mecca by pilgrims many years ago. the ownership of Toyol is through inheritance either from mother to daughter or a person can also purchase a Toyol from a bomoh (shaman).
The purpose of keeping a Toyol is to steal money. A Toyol will not take all the money but just a small sum each time and most of the time, victims wouldn't discover that some of their monies had lost. Of course, there is a price to pay to own a Toyol as its owner must feed her Toyol with blood drawn from her thumbs. Hence it is generally believed that if a woman is exceedingly thin, rich and lived alone, then she is most probably be a Toyol master. Oh, normally a Toyol would be kept by a woman somehow.
So said, Toyol has very weak concentration as it can be easily diverted to tidbits such as sweets. In old days, people would throw some sweets outside of the house or some sweets are put on top of their money at night in the hope that if a Toyol did visit their houses, it will take sweets instead of money. I have seen my friend's mother placed sweets in the drawer where she kept her money.
Khairul said his kampong was once besieged by a Toyol. At first, some villagers found part of their money missing from their safes. At first they thought there are thieves in the kampong. So they took turn to petrol the village at night and occasionally during daytime. But nothing was found. One day a villager found some small footprints on his kitchen floor where a layer of fine sugar has dispersed due to a broken glass container.
Since the footprints looked like that of a small kid, this villager went to the village imam and asked for guidance. The imam thought the foot prints were that of a Toyol and a witch hunt was initiated.
Eventually the villagers found a slender lady who stayed alone by a riverside possessed a large sum of money. Since she cannot explain on the possession of her cash and she did not work; she was accused of using black magic for monetary gains. Since nothing strange was found in her house, the imam made her swear on the holy Koran that she is not the mastermind of those lost monies.
Very strange too, the slender lady refused to do so. In view that there was no real hard evidence; the lady was let go with some cautionary remarks. Strangely too, after the ransack, no more cases of money lost were reported.
A few months later, Khairul found that the lady's house was vacated. No one knew where she has moved to.
Of course, we don't hear too much of Toyol nowadays with the installation of CCTV and the wide availability of smartphones. Perhaps a Toyol is indeed a fable character.
Talking about Toyol reminds me of Kumantong. Modern Malaysians like to equate a Toyol with Kumantong. Although both indicated as 'kid spirits'; their places of origin are different. Very strangely too, the more popular Kumantong has lesser fame and power of that of a Toyol... At least a Toyol brings real money to its master while a Kumantong just burns its owners' money! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Modern kumantong is the weakest of all spirits as most of them cannot even communicate in real time. Some could just appear in dreams while others did nothing. The most powerful kumantong I seen can make a chair rock but it is a little too expensive to pay just to rock a chair I supposed. I can just rock a chair with my own hands and free of charge!
Once I was yielding a phurpa and the phurpa suddenly flung towards one of my kumantong statue. When I went to retrieve my phurpa, I found some bloodstain in front of the kumantong statue. Perhaps a kumantong is only as fragile as a kid after all. I dismissed all my kumantong spirits after the phurpa incident. There is no point to keep a spirit that is too weak I supposed.
Toyol is almost extinct in Malay Archipelago while Kumantong is continued to be worshiped by Thai magic fans around the world.
It is believed that the original Toyol was brought back from Mecca by pilgrims many years ago. the ownership of Toyol is through inheritance either from mother to daughter or a person can also purchase a Toyol from a bomoh (shaman).
The purpose of keeping a Toyol is to steal money. A Toyol will not take all the money but just a small sum each time and most of the time, victims wouldn't discover that some of their monies had lost. Of course, there is a price to pay to own a Toyol as its owner must feed her Toyol with blood drawn from her thumbs. Hence it is generally believed that if a woman is exceedingly thin, rich and lived alone, then she is most probably be a Toyol master. Oh, normally a Toyol would be kept by a woman somehow.
So said, Toyol has very weak concentration as it can be easily diverted to tidbits such as sweets. In old days, people would throw some sweets outside of the house or some sweets are put on top of their money at night in the hope that if a Toyol did visit their houses, it will take sweets instead of money. I have seen my friend's mother placed sweets in the drawer where she kept her money.
Khairul said his kampong was once besieged by a Toyol. At first, some villagers found part of their money missing from their safes. At first they thought there are thieves in the kampong. So they took turn to petrol the village at night and occasionally during daytime. But nothing was found. One day a villager found some small footprints on his kitchen floor where a layer of fine sugar has dispersed due to a broken glass container.
Since the footprints looked like that of a small kid, this villager went to the village imam and asked for guidance. The imam thought the foot prints were that of a Toyol and a witch hunt was initiated.
Eventually the villagers found a slender lady who stayed alone by a riverside possessed a large sum of money. Since she cannot explain on the possession of her cash and she did not work; she was accused of using black magic for monetary gains. Since nothing strange was found in her house, the imam made her swear on the holy Koran that she is not the mastermind of those lost monies.
Very strange too, the slender lady refused to do so. In view that there was no real hard evidence; the lady was let go with some cautionary remarks. Strangely too, after the ransack, no more cases of money lost were reported.
A few months later, Khairul found that the lady's house was vacated. No one knew where she has moved to.
Of course, we don't hear too much of Toyol nowadays with the installation of CCTV and the wide availability of smartphones. Perhaps a Toyol is indeed a fable character.
Talking about Toyol reminds me of Kumantong. Modern Malaysians like to equate a Toyol with Kumantong. Although both indicated as 'kid spirits'; their places of origin are different. Very strangely too, the more popular Kumantong has lesser fame and power of that of a Toyol... At least a Toyol brings real money to its master while a Kumantong just burns its owners' money! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Modern kumantong is the weakest of all spirits as most of them cannot even communicate in real time. Some could just appear in dreams while others did nothing. The most powerful kumantong I seen can make a chair rock but it is a little too expensive to pay just to rock a chair I supposed. I can just rock a chair with my own hands and free of charge!
Once I was yielding a phurpa and the phurpa suddenly flung towards one of my kumantong statue. When I went to retrieve my phurpa, I found some bloodstain in front of the kumantong statue. Perhaps a kumantong is only as fragile as a kid after all. I dismissed all my kumantong spirits after the phurpa incident. There is no point to keep a spirit that is too weak I supposed.
Terror Of Orang Minyak (油鬼子惊魂记)
'Orang minyak' or literary translated to 'oily man' is a type of half man half spirit creature perhaps exclusively to Malaysian culture only. Its appearance is black and oily and some bomoh (shamans) think that an oily man is actually deviant yogic practitioners as they seemed to possess some magical power to slip through tightly shut doors and windows.
The orang minyak almost exclusively pray on girls and they will leave behind a pile of pull after as their signature sign. It is believed that a oily man cannot be killed by any other means except by his own kind or after beaten by a cane made from petai (bitter bean) wood.
Of course, there were some phony oily men caught from time to time and they turned out to be thieves smeared themselves with lubrication oils so they are difficult to catch...
So said, the Malaysian orang minyak remains a mystery until today.
We probably won't see many orang minyak in modern housing estate but the existence of orang minyak did terrorize many village folks as most of houses in villages are located in isolation, pretty far and between many years ago.
Orang minyak didn't really trouble the rubber plantation that I once lived in but a Malay kampong adjacent to the plantation was hit many times by so-called notorious orang minyak.
Some legend has it that an oily man must have sex with 21 virgins in one week or he will be punished by the Satan personally...
As I heard that a few households were attacked by oily man who normally operated after midnight. Due to the fact that there was no physical boundaries between the kampong and rubber plantation, the kampong headman invited the rubber tappers to join the night watch for mutual safety and benefits.
Occasionally the sighting of a black shadow was reported and that did stirred up quite a commotion and panic for days.
Finally, an old bomoh taught the villagers to keep a piece of bitter bean wood measuring about 3 feet in the house especially in the ladies' bed for protection.
The orang minyak incident persisted for a few weeks and just as when everybody became a little relaxed, one night watch by the name Ali saw his neighbor's window being opened by a black figure.
Ali immediately notified the other watchmen and they surrounded the house. Almost all of them were holding a piece of petai wood in their hands.
Some of the crowd knocked on the house door but no one answered. Feeling impatient, they rammed the house door until the door swang opened and the oily man was seen in the daughter's bedroom. There was a pile of shit on the floor.
Luckily the lady was not molested but she seemed to be unconscious.
The oily man tried to barged his way through the crowd. Someone tried to catch hold of the oily man but he was too slippery. Then oily man was beaten down by raging batons.
After the oily man was knocked unconscious by angry mob, someone in the crowd immediately identified the oily man as the son of a farmer who stayed at further end of the kampong.
Strangely too, house owner and his family remained sound asleep and they were not aware of what had happened in their house until someone sprinkled some blessed water onto their faces.
There was no more sighting of oily man in the kampong or the rubber plantations. Luckily for us, this oily man thing has gone extinct nowadays. Perhaps real orang minyak does not exist. That remains a mystery until today.
The orang minyak almost exclusively pray on girls and they will leave behind a pile of pull after as their signature sign. It is believed that a oily man cannot be killed by any other means except by his own kind or after beaten by a cane made from petai (bitter bean) wood.
Of course, there were some phony oily men caught from time to time and they turned out to be thieves smeared themselves with lubrication oils so they are difficult to catch...
So said, the Malaysian orang minyak remains a mystery until today.
We probably won't see many orang minyak in modern housing estate but the existence of orang minyak did terrorize many village folks as most of houses in villages are located in isolation, pretty far and between many years ago.
Orang minyak didn't really trouble the rubber plantation that I once lived in but a Malay kampong adjacent to the plantation was hit many times by so-called notorious orang minyak.
Some legend has it that an oily man must have sex with 21 virgins in one week or he will be punished by the Satan personally...
As I heard that a few households were attacked by oily man who normally operated after midnight. Due to the fact that there was no physical boundaries between the kampong and rubber plantation, the kampong headman invited the rubber tappers to join the night watch for mutual safety and benefits.
Occasionally the sighting of a black shadow was reported and that did stirred up quite a commotion and panic for days.
Finally, an old bomoh taught the villagers to keep a piece of bitter bean wood measuring about 3 feet in the house especially in the ladies' bed for protection.
The orang minyak incident persisted for a few weeks and just as when everybody became a little relaxed, one night watch by the name Ali saw his neighbor's window being opened by a black figure.
Ali immediately notified the other watchmen and they surrounded the house. Almost all of them were holding a piece of petai wood in their hands.
Some of the crowd knocked on the house door but no one answered. Feeling impatient, they rammed the house door until the door swang opened and the oily man was seen in the daughter's bedroom. There was a pile of shit on the floor.
Luckily the lady was not molested but she seemed to be unconscious.
The oily man tried to barged his way through the crowd. Someone tried to catch hold of the oily man but he was too slippery. Then oily man was beaten down by raging batons.
After the oily man was knocked unconscious by angry mob, someone in the crowd immediately identified the oily man as the son of a farmer who stayed at further end of the kampong.
Strangely too, house owner and his family remained sound asleep and they were not aware of what had happened in their house until someone sprinkled some blessed water onto their faces.
There was no more sighting of oily man in the kampong or the rubber plantations. Luckily for us, this oily man thing has gone extinct nowadays. Perhaps real orang minyak does not exist. That remains a mystery until today.
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
A Relative's Ghostly Encounter (亲戚遇鬼记)
This is a true ghost story happened to a very distance cousin of mine in a rubber plantation just behind the Kuala Kangsar railway station almost 30 plus years ago. That unfortunate cousin of mine is deceased a few years after that ghostly encounter for some unknown reasons.
Due to the sensitivity of this story, I would just call my late cousin as Ah Beng.
Ah Beng used to work as a rubber tapper and he worked alongside with his father in their portion of rubber plantation. Rubber tapping and processing were their family business until they sold their land fairly recently.
It was during the so-called Chinese Ghost Month again. That year, a Taoist shrine located just outside of the rubber plantation employed a group of Chinese opera performers to put up a few day's performances. Needless to say that the shows were meant to please those wandering spirits released out from the hell. That year's performing group was particularly grand because the rubber plantation just experienced some suicide cases. Local residents believed that some restless spirits were behind those incidents. So, for once people were willing to spend a lot of money to pacify those good brothers and sisters that year.
At that time, Ah Beng's house was located in the middle of the rubber plantation and it was about 45 minutes walk from his house to the shrine. Normally cycling is more preferred way as it is faster especially during the night. Motorcycles were luxury items afford by only a few rich households. The main path was then out of the question for cars then.
Although the rubber plantation was quite a safe place then but one cannot rule out of stumbling into wild animals such as wild boars and giant pythons. So plantation residents would try to get out of the rubber plantation as fast as possible for safety reasons. Further, with a few suicide cases occurred recently, no one dared to walk alone in the dark as there were rumors about people met some of those dead souls wandering about the only path connected to the outside world.
One evening after dinner, despite his mother's advise not to attend the opera performance on the first night's performance because old folks believe that the first night is meant for ghosts and people are likely to bump into one if they are unlucky; hence bringing bad luck for the whole year.
However, Ah Beng insisted of going out as he wasn't too believe in things concerning spooks...
According to my uncle, Ah Beng didn't return to the house that night. Some rubber tapper found Ah Beng with his bicycle in a bush by a small stream just off the main path early in the morning when they started their daily routine. They sent recognized Ah Beng and sent him home.
There Ah Beng laid in the bed for three days and when he finally became conscious; he became confused and somewhat disordered. Later when Ah Beng's condition stabilized, half of the time he would be perfectly normal while half of the time he would started to talk gibberish.
Once when Ah Beng was in his unusually sober state of mind, he came to my house and said: "Young cousin, I think I will not be around for long. But before I go, I want to tell you what had happened to me that night..."
Though I was a little stunned, I made him a mug of coffee and invited Ah Beng to be seated while I sat in my lazy chair. And Ah Beng started to talk:
That night after the opera show, I stayed back to help my pal who is the shrine taker to clean up his shrine. After the cleaning, we sat down to chat until way past midnight. By then the opera performers had gone to rest.
Feeling a little tired, I decided to return home to sleep.
As I was cycling through the rubber trees following that couldn't be more familiar mud path, I saw the figure of a lady in white beside me. When I got closer, I instantly recognized that the figure was Ah Moy from her familiar voice and body gestures, my ex-girlfriend who had moved to Ipoh to worked in a factory.
It was indeed a surprised as it was Ah Moy who had jilted me for a factory manager and not me. Worrying about her safety as she walking alone at night, I invited Ah Moy to ride on the back seat of my bicycle.
I know Ah Moy's house as it is not far from mine. So as I was peddling my bicycle, I started to talk: "Long time no see! When did you come back? Why are you alone walking in the dead of the night Moy?"
Ah Moy silent for a while and replied: "I will answer your questions if you promised to stay with me for all eternity. I don't want to be hurt again!"
Since I still couldn't forget Ah Moy, I immediately responded without a second thought: "Sure thing. I will accompany you even you have turned into ashes!"
So said, Ah Moy jiggled and laughed causing my bicycle to sway left and right: "Promise?"
I responded: "Scout's honor!"
Ah Moy started to say: "In fact, I have committed suicide by hanging in my house after my factory manager boyfriend jilted me... now I am lonely, I want a company..."
On hearing those most chilling words, I panicked and my bike rammed into a bush.
Now I am constantly haunted by Ah Moy's ghost. It want me to fulfill my promise..."
It was quite unfortunate that I dozed off in my chair and by the time I woke up, Ah Beng has gone.
A few day's later I visited Ah Beng in his house but he was not himself and he couldn't recognize me as his cousin. I told my uncle about Ah Beng's story though in disbelief, my uncle decided to visit Ah Moy's parents.
At Ah Moy's house, her parents greeted us and after hearing my story, they were shocked as they had just laid their daughter to rest on that morning Ah Beng purportedly saw Ah Moy.
A ghost marriage was proposed but my uncle dislike the idea.
A year later, Ah Beng was found dead beside the stream where he met with Ah Moi. Since there was no evidence of foul play, the case was closed.
I am not sure what is the sequel to Ah Beng or Ah Moy because after Ah Beng's death, I have not stayed in contact with my uncle or any of his family members.
Due to the sensitivity of this story, I would just call my late cousin as Ah Beng.
Ah Beng used to work as a rubber tapper and he worked alongside with his father in their portion of rubber plantation. Rubber tapping and processing were their family business until they sold their land fairly recently.
It was during the so-called Chinese Ghost Month again. That year, a Taoist shrine located just outside of the rubber plantation employed a group of Chinese opera performers to put up a few day's performances. Needless to say that the shows were meant to please those wandering spirits released out from the hell. That year's performing group was particularly grand because the rubber plantation just experienced some suicide cases. Local residents believed that some restless spirits were behind those incidents. So, for once people were willing to spend a lot of money to pacify those good brothers and sisters that year.
At that time, Ah Beng's house was located in the middle of the rubber plantation and it was about 45 minutes walk from his house to the shrine. Normally cycling is more preferred way as it is faster especially during the night. Motorcycles were luxury items afford by only a few rich households. The main path was then out of the question for cars then.
Although the rubber plantation was quite a safe place then but one cannot rule out of stumbling into wild animals such as wild boars and giant pythons. So plantation residents would try to get out of the rubber plantation as fast as possible for safety reasons. Further, with a few suicide cases occurred recently, no one dared to walk alone in the dark as there were rumors about people met some of those dead souls wandering about the only path connected to the outside world.
One evening after dinner, despite his mother's advise not to attend the opera performance on the first night's performance because old folks believe that the first night is meant for ghosts and people are likely to bump into one if they are unlucky; hence bringing bad luck for the whole year.
However, Ah Beng insisted of going out as he wasn't too believe in things concerning spooks...
According to my uncle, Ah Beng didn't return to the house that night. Some rubber tapper found Ah Beng with his bicycle in a bush by a small stream just off the main path early in the morning when they started their daily routine. They sent recognized Ah Beng and sent him home.
There Ah Beng laid in the bed for three days and when he finally became conscious; he became confused and somewhat disordered. Later when Ah Beng's condition stabilized, half of the time he would be perfectly normal while half of the time he would started to talk gibberish.
Once when Ah Beng was in his unusually sober state of mind, he came to my house and said: "Young cousin, I think I will not be around for long. But before I go, I want to tell you what had happened to me that night..."
Though I was a little stunned, I made him a mug of coffee and invited Ah Beng to be seated while I sat in my lazy chair. And Ah Beng started to talk:
That night after the opera show, I stayed back to help my pal who is the shrine taker to clean up his shrine. After the cleaning, we sat down to chat until way past midnight. By then the opera performers had gone to rest.
Feeling a little tired, I decided to return home to sleep.
As I was cycling through the rubber trees following that couldn't be more familiar mud path, I saw the figure of a lady in white beside me. When I got closer, I instantly recognized that the figure was Ah Moy from her familiar voice and body gestures, my ex-girlfriend who had moved to Ipoh to worked in a factory.
It was indeed a surprised as it was Ah Moy who had jilted me for a factory manager and not me. Worrying about her safety as she walking alone at night, I invited Ah Moy to ride on the back seat of my bicycle.
I know Ah Moy's house as it is not far from mine. So as I was peddling my bicycle, I started to talk: "Long time no see! When did you come back? Why are you alone walking in the dead of the night Moy?"
Ah Moy silent for a while and replied: "I will answer your questions if you promised to stay with me for all eternity. I don't want to be hurt again!"
Since I still couldn't forget Ah Moy, I immediately responded without a second thought: "Sure thing. I will accompany you even you have turned into ashes!"
So said, Ah Moy jiggled and laughed causing my bicycle to sway left and right: "Promise?"
I responded: "Scout's honor!"
Ah Moy started to say: "In fact, I have committed suicide by hanging in my house after my factory manager boyfriend jilted me... now I am lonely, I want a company..."
On hearing those most chilling words, I panicked and my bike rammed into a bush.
Now I am constantly haunted by Ah Moy's ghost. It want me to fulfill my promise..."
It was quite unfortunate that I dozed off in my chair and by the time I woke up, Ah Beng has gone.
A few day's later I visited Ah Beng in his house but he was not himself and he couldn't recognize me as his cousin. I told my uncle about Ah Beng's story though in disbelief, my uncle decided to visit Ah Moy's parents.
At Ah Moy's house, her parents greeted us and after hearing my story, they were shocked as they had just laid their daughter to rest on that morning Ah Beng purportedly saw Ah Moy.
A ghost marriage was proposed but my uncle dislike the idea.
A year later, Ah Beng was found dead beside the stream where he met with Ah Moi. Since there was no evidence of foul play, the case was closed.
I am not sure what is the sequel to Ah Beng or Ah Moy because after Ah Beng's death, I have not stayed in contact with my uncle or any of his family members.
Methods Of Using A Phurpa (普巴杵的使用法)
Nowadays anyone can buy a phurpa or peg in the open market. Without knowing methods of using a phurpa, then the item can only bring bad luck than good.
Basically a three-faced phurpa is the one held in the image of Vajrakila. It represents 'central government' and the power to destroy. To most of the Vajrakila practitioners, even the use of phurpa is out of bound. Only those privileged practitioners who have received empowerment of a special kind of Vajrakila with pointed triangular lower body can keep a phurpa.
This special Vajrakila is mostly used in slaughtering rituals. In Buddhism, slaughtering is prohibited but a special provision is made on tantric practitioners. The condition is that one can kill if he must on the condition that he can also deliver the soul of the slaughtered to the Pure Land of the Buddha.
For the purpose of this discussion, let us quickly skim through various methods of using a phurpa. My materials came from various gurus and without referencing to a particular lineage:
For defense from evil spirit
In the event that a practitioner is being disturbed by evil spirits during his meditation, he can pick up his phurpa and rub the phurpa with both of his palms. This will destroy the heart of the evil doers.
For setting up a boundary protection
A practitioner makes the mudra of vajra-hum-kara with his left hand holding a vajra and his right holding a phurpa. Accompanied by reciting the mantra 'hum', all unrelated spirits are expelled from a place temporarily.
For symbolic slaughtering and deliverance ritual
A flour effigy is normally made and placed in the middle of a triangle metal plate. The soul of the victim is first summoned into the effigy. Then, a phurpa is used to pierce the effigy's head, shoulders, heart, stomach and limbs. Finally, the consciousness of the victim is led into the tip of the phurpa and then the center and finally to the crown. This is done with accompany shout of 'phat'.
For removal of spirits possessing a person
If a person is possessed by a spirit and it refused to leave. The patient is either asked to be seated or stand straight. A phurpa with its tip pointing downwards is moved from the person's head to his feet a few times and finally touching the ground.
I have tried this method using a meteorite iron phurpa once to exorcise a kid spirit and surprised to find blood stains appeared from no where on my feet.
For removal of illnesses
Some gurus will use a phurpa to 'suck' out illnesses from a patients. The method is to use the tip of phurpa touching the part of body in pain and visualize the source of pain is sucked into the phurpa and burnt away.
For Dzongchen meditation and death ritual
In this case, the phurpa is actually our mind and the base is the Dharmadhatu (universe). With a shout of 'ha', the practitioner's consciousness is sent into the deep blue sky. This is also known as the 'buddhahood without meditation'. This is the same death ritual a master will use when his time has come.
A physical phurpa is not necessary for an advanced practitioner because he can use mudras or hand gestures in place of a phurpa. Even advance practitioner only needs visualization.
With a better understanding of various uses of phurpa, perhaps you will know where your practice brought you so far.
Basically a three-faced phurpa is the one held in the image of Vajrakila. It represents 'central government' and the power to destroy. To most of the Vajrakila practitioners, even the use of phurpa is out of bound. Only those privileged practitioners who have received empowerment of a special kind of Vajrakila with pointed triangular lower body can keep a phurpa.
This special Vajrakila is mostly used in slaughtering rituals. In Buddhism, slaughtering is prohibited but a special provision is made on tantric practitioners. The condition is that one can kill if he must on the condition that he can also deliver the soul of the slaughtered to the Pure Land of the Buddha.
For the purpose of this discussion, let us quickly skim through various methods of using a phurpa. My materials came from various gurus and without referencing to a particular lineage:
For defense from evil spirit
In the event that a practitioner is being disturbed by evil spirits during his meditation, he can pick up his phurpa and rub the phurpa with both of his palms. This will destroy the heart of the evil doers.
For setting up a boundary protection
A practitioner makes the mudra of vajra-hum-kara with his left hand holding a vajra and his right holding a phurpa. Accompanied by reciting the mantra 'hum', all unrelated spirits are expelled from a place temporarily.
For symbolic slaughtering and deliverance ritual
A flour effigy is normally made and placed in the middle of a triangle metal plate. The soul of the victim is first summoned into the effigy. Then, a phurpa is used to pierce the effigy's head, shoulders, heart, stomach and limbs. Finally, the consciousness of the victim is led into the tip of the phurpa and then the center and finally to the crown. This is done with accompany shout of 'phat'.
For removal of spirits possessing a person
If a person is possessed by a spirit and it refused to leave. The patient is either asked to be seated or stand straight. A phurpa with its tip pointing downwards is moved from the person's head to his feet a few times and finally touching the ground.
I have tried this method using a meteorite iron phurpa once to exorcise a kid spirit and surprised to find blood stains appeared from no where on my feet.
For removal of illnesses
Some gurus will use a phurpa to 'suck' out illnesses from a patients. The method is to use the tip of phurpa touching the part of body in pain and visualize the source of pain is sucked into the phurpa and burnt away.
For Dzongchen meditation and death ritual
In this case, the phurpa is actually our mind and the base is the Dharmadhatu (universe). With a shout of 'ha', the practitioner's consciousness is sent into the deep blue sky. This is also known as the 'buddhahood without meditation'. This is the same death ritual a master will use when his time has come.
A physical phurpa is not necessary for an advanced practitioner because he can use mudras or hand gestures in place of a phurpa. Even advance practitioner only needs visualization.
With a better understanding of various uses of phurpa, perhaps you will know where your practice brought you so far.
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
The Dance Of Phurpa (普巴舞)
There are many forms of phurpa, phurba or phurbu but only two types are used in Tibetan Buddhist rituals. The one with a horse neck is the Hayagriva phurpa and the ones with three faces are the Vajrakila phurbas. Some phurpa also come in pairs representing the father and mother deities. However, the Gelug traditions (Yellow Sect) is forbidden to possess a phurpa as I was told.
If you have attended a Buddhist ritual led by a Longchen Nyingthig tradition Rinpoche, then you will notice the Rinpoche will take up a phurpa and wield it in the air before the start of the ceremony proper.
This yielding of phurpa is a short form of phurpa dance meant to chase away obstacle makers (ghosts, demons, earthbound spirits etc.) that could disturb participants; and also to pin down participants' ego selves (我执).
Unfortunately for majority of us, most visiting Rinpoches would not reveal to us about more phurpa rituals; instead they tend to ask for donations more to bring back to their monasteries.
The phurpa dance proper is not practiced in traditional monastic traditions. Instead, this dance is mainly practised by hermits in Himalayan regions far away from big monasteries.
There is no set movements of phurpa dance and the patterns vary according to traditions. The dance step could be that of one step forward and one step back; or it could be of free movements. Among all those phurpa dance movements, one thing in common is that the dancers would hold one or two phurpas in their hands.
There are many purposes for performing phurpa dances:
Space clearing/cleaning
Same as with the vajra dances (金刚舞) that we probably know, phurpa dance is used to chase away evil spirits of an area so that these evil ones will not disturb the ritual proper. Some guru said that the phurpa dance is more hostile towards spirits and only a few qualified persons can perform this type of exorcism ritual.
Bridging the gap of Maha-yoga and Adi-yoga (The Great Perfection)
In Longchen Nyingthig tradition, a phurpa is a very special tool to achieve enlightenment. A symbolic phurpa is used to nail our consciousness into the center or Dharmakaya (universe) when a practitioner experiences his dying process.
Unfortunately, the training in Maha-yoga mainly concentrated on the thought-form formation of Yidam (deity) body. This thought-form body is contrary to the teaching of Buddha, so a supplementary exercise is devised to make the practitioners to drop their ego state that formed through years of lengthy and intensive visualizations.
Only a selected few people are chosen to follow Adi-yoga normally in the number of 8 to 10. So said, the first step for a guru to see if a student is willing to progress further is to ask his students to spend one week in the wilderness to perform phurpa dance.
In this type of dance training, the practitioners are asked to dance till exhaustion and fall onto the ground. After that they will be asked to make phurpa posture and maintain that posture over a period of time until fatigue.
During certain interval in the training, the guru would suddenly approach his student and asks: "What do you see now!?"
If the student gave the answer fit that of an enlightened person, then he is allowed to further the Adi-yoga or now Dzongchen training.
This form of training is the same as the Zen (禅) training in Chinese Buddhism except that the training is more systematic. The downfall of Zen Buddhism in later years is that most of the words have become tongue in cheek manner. So, the essence of Zen is lost in Chinese Buddhism but the technique remains hidden in Dzongchen traditions.
Of course, Dzongchen teachings are not suitable for everyone. Out of 10 people, perhaps only one or none will move on to a higher stage.
Thinking of practising Dzongchen outside of Himalayan regions, possible but this remains to be a very difficult dream unfortunately speaking.
Understanding Our Life Foundation (生命的基础)
Our lives are very fragile as we are consistently striving for balancing work among physical plane, psychological plane and the spiritual plane. After dealing with many peoples from all walks of lives, I have summarized my new view of how the wellness of human beings are affected:
Let us imagine that we are standing on a piece of giant pie that is divided into:
These three planes are not glued together and each plane can further be subdivided into smaller sectors:
The physical plane
Physical plane can be subdivided into our physical body and the external world. Naturally, the well beings of our body is affected by the ever changing external world.
The psychological plane
This is the state of our mind. Our minds are constantly working to strive for a balance state after receiving stimulation from the outside world. Some people are more immune to the external stimulation while others are more sensitive.
The spiritual plane
I would further subdivide the spiritual plane into two: the religious and the spiritual side.
The religious side is the absolute unchallenged and untouchable religious beliefs accepted by us. For example: A faithful followers will be allowed to enter heaven and bad ones will be cast into hell. I will not tempt to challenge this belief personally.
The spiritual side is the side we accepted in an unwritten manner which is not agreeable by the religions; call it the 'dark side' if you would. So said, when religious teachings cannot satisfy our human greed; we will turn towards mediums to ask for assistance.
Our life foundation
Now you will see that the life foundation of our well beings is made up of many components. We are at peace when most of the psychical, psychological and spiritual planes are held together in equilibrium.
When our life foundation became disintegrated we either fall ill, become insecure, depressed, injured, obsessed, crazy or even insane.
Short comings of modern day therapies
When we become physically sick, we see a doctor.
When we have mental problems, we consult a psychologist or psychotherapist.
When we have spiritual issues, we consult a priest or spiritual medium.
All will be well if our problems are simple ones and those so-called professionals are knowledgeable and ethical enough. So said, in real life situations our problems can be complex.
We must first be able to eliminate some possibilities ourselves before seeking professional consultations. This will prevent us from spending a lot of money with very little or no effective treatments.
For example:
A person complaints of hearing voices constantly and he is a faithful follower of a religious sac. This person is jobless and lives on other's donation.
What a professional would say:
A doctor would say: "Go and see a psychologist."
A psychologist would say: "Take some medicine."
A religious teacher would say: "It is the work of Satan. You must repent."
A spirit medium would say: "You are possessed by 10 ghosts. Pay me $1000 for exorcism."
My diagnosis:
When a person is consistently hearing voices, then this person has a psychological problem for the reason I have described.
If he is also a faithful person, then this person maybe having overly vivid imagination and that he is influenced by his religion.
Further, if the person is jobless and wanting donation; pretending to be possessed by demon is a good way to fish for sympathy and donation from religious bodies.
In short, I will either leave the person alone; or ask him to do some charity work. If he refuses, then the person is plain lazy.
To sum up, we must be educated on what may affect us in this life before we achieve 'enlightenment' or be allowed to enter the gate of heaven. What I have listed out is just one of those minor cases I come across on daily basis.
Let us imagine that we are standing on a piece of giant pie that is divided into:
- The physical plane
- The psychological plane
- The spiritual plane
These three planes are not glued together and each plane can further be subdivided into smaller sectors:
The physical plane
Physical plane can be subdivided into our physical body and the external world. Naturally, the well beings of our body is affected by the ever changing external world.
The psychological plane
This is the state of our mind. Our minds are constantly working to strive for a balance state after receiving stimulation from the outside world. Some people are more immune to the external stimulation while others are more sensitive.
The spiritual plane
I would further subdivide the spiritual plane into two: the religious and the spiritual side.
The religious side is the absolute unchallenged and untouchable religious beliefs accepted by us. For example: A faithful followers will be allowed to enter heaven and bad ones will be cast into hell. I will not tempt to challenge this belief personally.
The spiritual side is the side we accepted in an unwritten manner which is not agreeable by the religions; call it the 'dark side' if you would. So said, when religious teachings cannot satisfy our human greed; we will turn towards mediums to ask for assistance.
Our life foundation
Now you will see that the life foundation of our well beings is made up of many components. We are at peace when most of the psychical, psychological and spiritual planes are held together in equilibrium.
When our life foundation became disintegrated we either fall ill, become insecure, depressed, injured, obsessed, crazy or even insane.
Short comings of modern day therapies
When we become physically sick, we see a doctor.
When we have mental problems, we consult a psychologist or psychotherapist.
When we have spiritual issues, we consult a priest or spiritual medium.
All will be well if our problems are simple ones and those so-called professionals are knowledgeable and ethical enough. So said, in real life situations our problems can be complex.
We must first be able to eliminate some possibilities ourselves before seeking professional consultations. This will prevent us from spending a lot of money with very little or no effective treatments.
For example:
A person complaints of hearing voices constantly and he is a faithful follower of a religious sac. This person is jobless and lives on other's donation.
What a professional would say:
A doctor would say: "Go and see a psychologist."
A psychologist would say: "Take some medicine."
A religious teacher would say: "It is the work of Satan. You must repent."
A spirit medium would say: "You are possessed by 10 ghosts. Pay me $1000 for exorcism."
My diagnosis:
When a person is consistently hearing voices, then this person has a psychological problem for the reason I have described.
If he is also a faithful person, then this person maybe having overly vivid imagination and that he is influenced by his religion.
Further, if the person is jobless and wanting donation; pretending to be possessed by demon is a good way to fish for sympathy and donation from religious bodies.
In short, I will either leave the person alone; or ask him to do some charity work. If he refuses, then the person is plain lazy.
To sum up, we must be educated on what may affect us in this life before we achieve 'enlightenment' or be allowed to enter the gate of heaven. What I have listed out is just one of those minor cases I come across on daily basis.
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