Narrated By Fellow Initiate Hu
Nantou, Formosa
Recorded By Resident Disciples,
Hsihu Center, Formosa
Taoist Hu was an optimistic, simple nature child. He was mischievous, intelligent and had a strong sense of justice. He liked to help out anyone being treated unfairly. Even now, in his old age, he is still the same way. It truly is like the Chinese saying, "It is easy for a nation to change its ruler, but it is difficult for a person to alter his nature." Perhaps it is because of his character that all his life he has run a Taoist temple to help the public, the kind of work that demands a lot of one's effort but offers little reward in return.
Among the many incidents in his life, there are some that he remembers well and likes to relate to others. One of them that occurred when he was a child, is the story of working with the water spirits to earn one hundred silver dollars.
In his home town, a village in Yung Ching, where he spent his childhood, there was a place called "Water Ghost Pond". Disturbing incidents caused by the water spirits frequently occurred around this pond, and so no villagers dared to go near it. Especially at night, it even became a forbidden area for the villagers. One evening the villagers gathered as usual, to have tea and chat. They were talking about mysterious and ghost stories, when the local wealthy man said, "If anyone dares to pick some leaves from the banyan tree by Water Ghost Pond, I will give him five cents for every leave." Of course none of the villagers dared to take up such a risky challenge. (At that time, the Japanese ruled Formosa, and five cents was a lot of money.)
Taoist Hu was not afraid of ghosts because he had had frequent encounters with invisible beings since he was a child. So he said to the wealthy man, "Are you serious about what you just said?" "Of course!" the wealthy man replied without hesitation. So Taoist Hu set out for the banyan tree by Water Ghost Pond. Once he got there, he saw many water spirits gathered under the tree. Taoist Hu said to them, "I've come here tonight to pick some leaves, because someone in the village said that he will pay five cents for each leave. This tree is too tall for a child like me to pick leaves off it, so please give me a hand. You can help me by pulling the branches down so that I can pick off the leaves. Tomorrow I will have money and I will buy a lot of paper money, biscuits and candies for you."
So he worked with the water spirits and earned over one hundred silver dollars. That was quite an unforgettable income in his life as a "poor Taoist", especially that he was barely a teenager then.
When Taoist Hu was young, his father often entertained in his home people from all walks of life, from both sides of the law. Once a so-called "Tang Shan traveller" from Mainland China came to stay with them. This man was a specialist in poison. During his stay, he often went to the so-called wine clubs and poisoned the hostesses there. He waited quietly for a chance to put poison on the towels, with which the hostesses, unknowingly, used to clean their faces. Later when their faces began to fester and rot, he spread the word that he knew how to heal that kind of illness, and people would come to him for a cure.
The hostesses relied on their beauty to attract people. Now that their faces were ruined, of course they were very anxious and willing to pay any cost for a cure. Later, they gradually realized that it was a trap set by the Tang Shan traveller to make money. However, fearing that he would use poison on them, they dared not do anything but curse him behind his back.
Because the Tang Shan traveller was staying in Taoist Hu's house, the reputation of his family became jeopardized. One day Taoist Hu could not bear it any more and asked his father, "The uncle staying with us is very bad. He hurts people in order to make money. Why do we continue to let him stay in our home?" His father replied wearily, "I don't know that he really does things like that; he did not admit it when I asked him. I can't tell him to leave without having any evidence."
So Taoist Hu began to watch secretly how the Tang Shan traveller picked herbs and prepared the antidote. When he learned how to make the antidote, he stayed home and waited for the hostesses from the clubs to come for treatment. Then, instead of advising the Tang Shan traveller, Taoist Hu gave them the medicine free of charge. Later, the Tang Shan traveller could no longer make any money by his crooked means, so he left.
Master had once jokingly said, 'Praising others unnecessarily is also a kind of poisoning. It can poison people's humility, consequently their arrogance and ego will emerge. In the end, they have to come and bother me for an antidote." So Master asked fellow practitioners not to praise each other the way outside people do. Instead, you should protect each other. From then on fellow practitioners at Hsihu Center joked and gave the title, "the patriarch of the Poisonous Dragon Lake", to those who liked to give sweet talk and flattery to others.
In 1989, a few months after his first vision of seeing Master, Taoist Hu had another vision. During meditation while in the state of samadhi , he saw Master's manifestation body. He asked Master when would She have time to visit him again. Master replied, "I will come to see you within three days." Sure enough, on the second day Master came to see him, bringing with Her even more monastic disciples. It happened that there were many guests in the Taoist temple. When Taoist Hu saw that Master had suddenly arrived, he was very surprised and hurriedly asked all the guests to leave, so that he could welcome Master and the over thirty monastic brothers who accompanied Her.
It was also the year when Master started to lecture publicly, and the number of people who followed Her to practice drastically increased. However, Taoist Hu had not yet officially received initiation, becoming Master's disciple. Several months later, when Master visited Taoist Hu's temple, Ming Hu Kung, for the third time, Taoist Hu asked Master the moment he saw Her, "A few days ago, during meditation, Your manifestation body told me that You would come in a few days time. I asked, 'About what time will You come?' Your manifestation body only smiled and waved, but did not reply. So this time I did not know when You would come." Master replied, "If I want you to know, you will know! If I don't, you won't! Why do I have to tell you in advance every time?" That made everyone present burst into laughter.
Not long after Master's third visit to the Ming Hu Temple, in a situation where Taoist Hu was the least prepared, he finally received initiation and formally became Master's disciple.
In the early days, Hsihu Center admitted only fellow practitioners and was not open to the public. Master did that in order to protect the tranquil atmosphere of the Center, so that when fellow practitioners went there for group meditation, they could concentrate on their meditation and receive great blessing. Master did not want the Center to become like the tourist attraction temples outside, which were crowded by curious, wandering tourists and polluted by people's meat eating, drinking and smoking atmosphere. Under such circumstance, how could fellow practitioners meditate in peace?
However, the general public in Formosa already had a bad conception about centers of spiritual practice. They do not have much respect for the tranquil atmosphere of spiritual centers. Therefore, Hsihu Center made a rule prohibiting visits from outsiders. However, it created misunderstandings with the people outside as well as with fellow practitioners' friends and relatives. They thought that something mysterious that could not be revealed to the public was taking place in the Center. Eventually, to nullify the unnecessary misunderstandings, Master opened the Center and allows guests to come on Sundays.
One Sunday soon after the Center was opened, Taoist Hu joined some fellow practitioners and went to Hsihu Center to see Master. It happened that there was to be an initiation that day. A fellow practitioner advised him to take the opportunity to apply for initiation. He was not prepared at all. He only had five thousand NT dollars on him. So he said to the fellow practitioner, 'Oh, no! I didn't know that I can receive initiation today. I haven't prepared any red packet." The fellow practitioner replied with a smile, "Master never accepts any red packet (money) for initiating someone to be Her disciple." Not believing what he heard, Taoist Hu went to ask other fellow practitioners if that was true. Of course the answers he got were that it was true. Feeling very comfortable, he went to apply for initiation. (According to Taoist Hu, out of the more than twenty masters he had followed, only master Peizhung Liu of the Kunlun Sect and Master Ching Hai did not accept any red packet (fee for the service) for initiating people to become their disciples.)
That day, at the initiation session, while Taoist Hu was sitting with others waiting for Master to arrive, he closed his eyes and meditated. Suddenly he had a vision of a scene that made him shed tears of agony. He saw Master giving people initiation and paying off their karma for them. The initiation caused their debtors to appear. In order to take on the bitter karma of the disciples, Master's manifestation body was beaten black and blue. She was almost beaten to death. As Taoist Hu could no longer bear to witness that and was about to lend a helping hand, Master stopped him and said, "This is something I need to undertake for my disciples. You do not have to interfere." So Taoist Hu could only stand back and watch Master being tortured.
Taoist Hu said that he rarely wept in his life. Even when his father died, he did not shed a tear. But during this meditation, he cried for more than an hour. With tears flowing endlessly, he was not aware of Master entering the hall or everyone applauding to welcome Her. Only when Master patted his shoulder, as She passed by him, and said, "Why are you crying in such sorrow? Do not cry any more," then he, being quite astounded, stopped crying.
After the initiation, Master distributed blessed food to the fellow practitioners. Hundreds of people were busy trying to catch the blessed food that Master was throwing. Seeing so many people rushing to get the blessed bags, Taoist Hu was puzzled. Not only did he not know what blessed food was, he also could not figure out why that sugarless, tasteless popcorn in the bag was so precious. He was intrigued, so he closed his eyes to "investigate"! The moment he closed his eyes, he saw Manjushri Bodhisattva on a lion's back by the popcorn, blessing it with the light radiated from His hands. All the blessed popcorn emitted white light.
Then he understood what "blessed food" was, and why fellow practitioners cherish it so, rushing forward to receiving it like a treasure as Master threw it out. So as not to miss the opportunity, he ran over to join the crowd to catch the flying blessed food. Perhaps it was because he had great supernatural powers or maybe his inner inconceivable power of "greed" emerged, otherwise, how could an elderly person of over sixty years, who had no experience in catching blessed food, easily catch two packages?!
Since receiving initiation, Taoist Hu has always practiced earnestly. Also, he often talks about how grateful he is to his old master, master Peizhung Liu, for his guidance. If it was not for his prophecy and arrangement for him to practice in the mountains, how could he have met Master Ching Hai and acquired this supreme Quan Yin Method?! Of all the masters he has met, only these two are truly capable and wholeheartedly and unconditionally teaching their disciples.
--To be continued next issue--