How to Prepare Taoist Altar for Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year 2015 is just around the corner. During this period, many people would be thinking on how to clean their altar to celebrate the coming new year.

Cleaning a Taoist altar, there are some guidelines in which I  will explain on this posting.

The first question that people usually ask me is that, do we need to select a date to clean the altar?
There are no specific date needed. If you are particular, the best time to clean would be on the 14th day of the 12th Lunar Month 十二月十四 (2 Feb 2015). After cleaning then you can do so offering on the next day which is the 15th day of the 12th Lunar Month.

What are the materials to prepare?

1. Clean NEW paint brush, or a paint brush that is totally dedicated to clean only your altar. The brush you are not going to use it to paint! but to brush off the incense residue and also accumulated dust.

2. Prepare 5 different colours flower.

3. Clean NEW cloth

4. Clean NEW bucket to contain cleaning water.

How to clean.

Clean your hands thoroughly with soap and wipe it dry before touching anything on the altar.

1. Remove all incense base sticks  (red ones) from the urn and put it into a container - as you are supposed to burn all the base sticks once you clear them.

1. Use the clean brush, dust off all the incense residue if any from your statue. However, you cannot dust the Face of the statue, the rest is ok.

Tai Sui General Statues from blog.joshfahler.net

2. After dusting off the statue(S) then use the brush to dust off remaining residue from the altar table.

3. Use the 5 different colours flower, place it onto the clean bucket fill it with half cold and half boiling water. So it will be lukewarm. Use the water and the clean new cloth, soak the cloth into the lukewarm flower water and then squeeze it dry and wipe the altar table.

4. There is no need to wipe the statue or the incense urn. They are suppose to be dry as long as they are on the altar. Therefore having a brush to dust it off is crucial.

5. After you have completed the cleaning and wiping process. Arrange all things back into order, meaning arranging the offering cups etc.

After all the arrangement is done back into place, then you can offer incense (3 sticks) on all the available incense urns.

Oh Yes Babies !!

Sam and his wife first visit to Kam Dong San Temple was 2 years ago. They were introduced by my temple committee and disciple Peter.

They consulted spiritually on how the deities could help them for successful conceiving and pregnancy. After their second visit, they approached Peter to help them asked me, whether I can go to their apartment and do Feng Shui audit. I gladly oblige and all my consulting fees was donated back to the temple, because the medium highlighted that there was something wrong with their house Feng Shui.

After I have audited their house, adviced them on some changes. Both Sam and his wife continue to participate in many of our temple activities. Spiritually I have also adviced both of them to read the Ksitigarbha Sutras many times to dedicate to their un-successful pregnancy attempt.

Sam and his wife were also very diligent in participating in our monthly fish liberation. He and his wife continue to chant many Great Compassionate Dharani, Heart Sutras everyday. He also did his Sang Offering consistently.

Sam also ended up become temple disciple and then also my Tao Fa disciple in 2014. Great news came when his wife Hooi Yee was pregnant with twins! The receiving of 2015 Tai Sui General Ceremony also coincided with the twin babies full moon.

Everyone in Kam Dong San is very happy and great rejoice to the new addition to Sam's family. Twin baby boy and girl. Their names was also selected by our main Kam Dong San Deities.

Kam Dong San Temple : www.facebook.com/kdspg

The Trick to Money is Having Some - Part 2 (Final)

This is the 2^nd part of the Trick To Money is Having Some. For part 2, I am going to emphasise on how to seek spiritual help in obtaining wealth. This will only work, if you are completely immerse with my part 1 posting http://yinyangjournal.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-trick-to-money-is-having-some-part-1.html

Taoist Method.

1. Earth God at Home/Office 地神
   Earth God in Taoist system of belief represents, the local earth deities. Slightly higher than spirits, they are bound to the area, place or home. Every home/area or office has its own assigned local earth deities. If you already have a Earth God in your home/office, the practice is to regularly do proper offering.
   Proper means regular offering of tea and water. 1^st and 15^th day of the Lunar Month, make more elaborate offering of fruits. You can also regularly make gold paper offering. Common offerings of biscuits, sweets and chocolates are also encouraged.
   Some homes that I have visited, they have Earth God setup, but no water offering, no tea offering. The urns are messy, cobwebs around. They only thing they do is just offer incense when ever they are free. This is a sure way to get problems from Earth bound deities. Because unlike higher Deities, they still have a lot attachments.

Earth Deities of Kam Dong San Temple (www.facebook.com/kdspg)

1. God of Wealth 財神
   
   Some will have consecrated God of Wealth in their home/office, in this case we are mentioning 趙公明元帥. You can also visit temple that have this Deity. The best time is during his celebration which is on 5^th day of the 1^st Lunar Month. Bring offerings such as fruits, biscuits, chocolates, juices etc. Remember don't be stingy, if you have read part 1 posting then you will know what is the mind set to have. Request for blessings and also for good ideas! Why good ideas? 1 idea can make you millions.
   
   Don't request for 4D or lottery, that is hard to come by, because it will need a strong luck on your side to fulfilled it.

Vajrayana Method.

In Buddhism the basic core idea of wealth, is the ability to detach from it. Not get more of attachment! However as mentioned in part 1, when your motivation is different, then wealth is still greed, but greed with a higher purpose, which is to help others. If your sole motivation to practice any wealth method in Vajrayana for your own selfish ego, no matter how dedicated you are, it won't have any results.

1. Sang Offering/Smoke Offering
   
   Sang offering is a practice where the practitioner gathers dry food such as grains, sugars, rice, medicine, incense and blend it into powder form. Then the powder is burn and the smoke aroma becomes an offering to all higher deities and karmic debtors. This particular offering is especially helpful in clearing obstacles in your life. As manifestation of obstacles are usually your karmic debtors who are in the way of what ever that you may try to accomplish. Some Sang offering practice requires empowerment from a Lama or Rinpoche while some does not require empowerment.
2. Jambhala Practice
   
   Whenever there is a Rinpoche in town offering Jambhala Initiation, whether it is White, Yellow, Black,Green or Red Jambhala you will see throngs of people lining up. Many have the mistaken notion that once you get the initiation, wealth will be upon you.
   
   To practice any Jambhalas, first few requirements are highlighted in part 1. Without the correct mindset, no result can be obtain from your practice. However if you are practicing for the well beings of others, Jambhala practice will be very swift.

General Method.

1. Do donation. Donation? you may ask, you may also be saying that you don't have any to give. The reason you are reading this posting is how to get money, not give it away. Because you are not clear of the rules, which is why you have problems getting it. Give or donate to a charity that can benefit lots of people immediately. Why immediately, because the idea is to gather worldly merits that can help in your financial prosperity. Keep in mind however that it is a lower motivaton to donate and expect something in return from the universe. The highest motivation would be donate without any notion of expectation. Until you reach there, this is the way to start.
   
   
   
2. Practice Liberation. Liberation of animals especially fishes, helps you to gather merits or worldly merits fast. This is because through life liberation, essentially you are helping the animals/fishes to extend their life without fear. This type of merits would help your tremendously if you have a lot of karmic debtors.

If you are totally down and out, without anything to give, then give your time and your attention to a charity organization. There is always something you can contribute, for you to slowly gather some forms of merits. When you have more then you can start to practice on the methods that I have recommended here. The idea is to start, or else you can never go to where you want by standing still.

A Gift of Thanks....

Happy 2015 ! May all you benevolent wishes come true for 2015 !

Just before Christmas 2014, our temple Kam Dong San (www.facebook.com/kdspg) receive a gift from our renovation contractor Mr. Saw

He was in charge for much of our temple renovation. When I met Mr. Saw about a month back, he was asking me whether how much did our temple charge for spiritual help. I told him we did not charge any amount, usually any token of appreciation/donation is accepted.

He then relayed to me that his daughter's newly renovated apartment in the Macallum area had some spiritual disturbance. He told me when the daughter came back from KL (Kuala Lumpur) and stayed in her new apartment with some friends, they will hear strange noise in the kitchen at night, like people open and shut the kitchen door. The daughter's friend even saw some shadow floating around in the area of the apartment. After this incident, his daughter refuse to stay in the newly renovated apartment.

Mr Saw, then asked me whether I need to visit the site to confirm. I just asked him to come up to KDS Temple to offer some incense to all deities before we can help him.

The following week, he came with his wife, I have prepared 2 talisman for him. 1 to burn in the middle of the home, the other to stick on the front main door.  He further asked me if there is big problem. I assured him that it was just some spirit passing by, nothing to worry about.

I can see from his face that he was actually quite skeptical, because I did not give him anything else. Just 2 piece of yellow paper!

Mr Saw did mentioned to me during one of our conversations when he was renovating our temple , in which during his younger days he was quite interested in Taoism especially Tao Fa. Therefore he had known many of our 'pioneer' Master in this field. He was very curious young man and where ever there are known Tao Fa Master he would always visit their temple. Sadly however many of those legendary figures in Tao Fa have already move on from this plane.

When we received this trolley gift from him, it was due to his gratitude on the help we have rendered him. His daughter's apartment no longer had strange noises, the daughter now have no problem staying in the apartment whenever she is back in Penang. And he now sees the effect of the deities protection through the simple 2 piece of yellow paper.

虔敬心 – 学习与修行的通用推动力

道教弟子问我何谓虔敬心？由于这对于他们还相当陌生。金刚乘佛教却一直很强调“虔敬心 ”。我依然记得一段源至于Tsewong Sitar仁波切两个星期前到访槟城时，在一个午餐上提及的真实小故事及对话。

这是关于Naropa 和Tilopa 的故事。Naropa是著名的Nalanda佛教大学的主持方丈。他对于所有的佛经非常地熟悉。一天晚上，他梦见金刚瑜伽空行母告诉他去东方寻求Tilopa作为他的上师。于是他启程往东方去，一路询问关于Tilopa这个成就者。在他脑海里一直不断的想象，这个成就者到底长什么样子，行为举止又会怎样？当他抵达该国东部的一个村庄时，他打听是否有人认识这名叫Tilopa的成就者。不少人告诉他说“这里并没有一个叫Tilopa的成就者，不过有一个叫Tilopa的渔夫。他就住在河边”。于是Naropa兴致勃勃地直奔河边去，希望找到他的上师。当他 到达河岸时，他看见了一名几乎赤裸裸并且头发邋遢的男子，正在岸边一边捕鱼，一边烤鱼。在那一刻，Naropa心想，这不可能是我已成就的上师。在Naropa心中早已设定他所期望所谓的成就上师会是长什么样子，行为该是如何的。那根本出乎他所预料的。

他问渔夫说“你是Tilopa？” Tilopa点点头。Naropa然后问眼前的Tilopa是否愿意指导他。由于Tilopa的外貌，Naropa甚至没有向Tilopa进行礼拜之礼。Tilopa告诉Naropa说，我并没有任何东西可以教你，我只是个渔夫。他还问Naropa“你想吃点鱼吗？ ”

当Naropa 坐在岸边看着Tilopa吃鱼，他看见一些他无法解释的情景。每当Tilopa把鱼放在火上烤时，他打个响指，那些鱼的灵性马上得到解脱。这时Naropa才意识到Tilopa是一名真正的成就者。

从那一刻起，Naropa的虔敬心增长了。不管Tilopa去哪里，Naropa都会跟随。他放弃了他主持方丈的地位，并成为像Tilopa一样的禅修者。尽管Tilopa没有给予他正式的教导，反而喜欢沿途给他许多艰苦的考验。由于Naropa对他的上师从不动摇的虔敬心，最终在这一世成佛了。

基于弟子的能力，教学的方式共有三种。首先是通过心灵传授。这需要天资聪敏的弟子，上师只需通过心灵传授一切所懂的。而弟子将立刻开悟。第二种是透过强烈的虔敬心，能力中等的弟子 – 没有得到太多的教导，但对上师的一举一动都视作一种教导。由于对上师的强烈虔敬心，他们也可以成就悟道。而第三种方式是像如今一般人一样，接受一些教导然后慢慢修践，然而增加虔敬心，再获得更多的教导。

以上是关于金刚乘佛教及虔敬心对于佛，法，僧的重要性，因为没有虔敬心，一切修行都没有任何意义。

对道教而言，我们并没有视神明为我们的上师。然而敬重及某形式上的虔敬心是必须有的，如果我想学到一些东西。

如今，“师父”这一词还正在使用，但却只是一种随意的称呼。有些人会称呼您师父，因为他们希望于现在或不久的将来获得一些好处。他们并没有兴趣了解道教。他们所在乎的是 – 它可以给我什么？当师父点出弟子的错误时，他们的自我受到的伤害，他们会寻找许多方法来证明自己。忽然间，这些弟子好像变成道家，佛家的专家似的。

他们将尝试通过网路寻找一些贴文来“提醒” 师父，实质上应该如何处理及应对，而不是检视他们自己的反应。因为一直以来他们与师父一起，并不是为了学习而是他们可以得到什么好处 – 他们的自我已经充满了内心，以致心中无法容入任何学习。他们总会想 – 教我一些道法，所以我可以做别人办不到的事情。然而满足自我。

每当面对师父的指责，他们的自我便跳出来证明：“你不是说你是修行人，怎么都没有菩提心啊？”因为他们的自我不能接受指责没，先天性认为师父应该要教导他们。

如果道家弟子早已对他们的师父有了一个心中期许的刻板印象。那是妄想自我的一部分，包括他们应该如何被对待和他们的自我在任何情况下都不被指点。如果师父只为了取悦弟子，从来没有指点他所见的错误，那并不是师父与弟子的关系 – 而是商家与客户的关系，他们之间只希望从对方手里得到一些物质上的利益。

由于我们生活在现今社会里，一切都是以自我为中心。为了放下自我，减少自我也许是教学上最难的一件事情了。道法曾经有很多的修行者，但如今已所剩无几了。这主要是因为前辈们看见一代不如一代的人格与态度，基本上放弃了接受任何弟子或传授道法。我将它归咎于缺乏虔敬心。

Translated by Koay Boon Wee

DEVOTION The Universal Drive to Learning and Cultivation

Taoist disciples asked me what is devotion? as this concept is quite foreign to them. Vajrayana mentions about devotion quite a lot. I remember a conversation or a matter a fact, a teaching by a short story that Tsewong Sitar Rinpoche talked about during lunch when he was here in Penang 2 weeks ago.

It's the story of Naropa and Tilopa. Naropa was an abbot in famous Nalanda university. He was very knowledgeable in all the sutras. One evening he had a vision of Vajrayogini a dakini that asked him to seek out Tilopa at the East as his teacher. He went to East and asked many places looking for the Mahasiddha Tilopa. He had many ideas in his mind, what a mahasiddha would look like and how one would behave. When he arrived in a village on the Eastern side of the country. He asked around whether anybody knows of this enlighten person named Tilopa. 

Many told him "there is no enlighten person named Tilopa here, but we have one Tilopa the Fisherman. He lived by the river". So Naropa excitedly went straight to the river in hope of finding his guru. When he reached the river banks, he saw an almost naked man, with scruffy hairs catching fishes and roasting some fish by the river. At that moment, Naropa thought to himself, this can't be my enlightened guru. Naropa in his mind already have a fixed set of expectation what his guru or an enlightened being would look like and behave. This is by no means matches any of his expectation.

Naropa

He asked the fisherman "Are you Tilopa?" Tilopa nod his head. Naropa then told Tilopa of his vision and asked whether Tilopa can teach him. Because of Tilopa's outlook, Naropa did not even prostrate when he met him. Tilopa told Naropa, I have nothing to teach you, I am just a fisherman. And he asked Naropa "Would you like some fish?"

Tilopa

As Naropa sit by the river and watch Tilopa eats his fish, then he saw something he cannot explain. When Tilopa puts the fish to roast, he snaps his fingers and those fishes were liberated spiritually. Then Naropa realized that Tilopa is a real Mahasiddha. 

From that moment onwards, Naropa devotion grew. Where ever Tilopa went, Naropa would follow. He gave up his abbot status and became a yogi like Tilopa. Although Tilopa did not give him official teachings, more like many gruelling test along the way. Naropa succeeded in achieving enlightenment in one life time due to his unshakeable devotion towards his guru Tilopa.

There are 3 methods of teaching dependent on the capacity of the students. First is through mind transference, this is for students who have very strong potential and very smart in which the teacher/guru just transfer whatever he/she knows via the mind. And the student would instantly be enlightened. Second is through strong devotion, the student of medium capacity - does not receive much teaching but each action of the guru becomes a teaching in itself. Due to their strong devotion towards the guru they would also achieve enlightenment. Whereas the Third way is like everyone else nowadays, receive some teachings slowly practice, arise some devotion practice further, and receive more teachings.

The above is about Vajrayana and the crucial key of devotion towards guru, buddha, dharma and sangha because without it none of the practice one does will make sense.

In Taoism however, we do not have to see the teacher as embodiment of Deities. However deep respect and some form of devotion should be within us, if we were to expect to learn anything.

Nowadays, the term Shi Fu 师父 is being used and called loosely. Some would call you Master, because they expect to receive some benefits now and or in the near future. They are not interested to learn about Taoism. The main interest is WIIIFM - What is in it for me? When a Master points out the student's fault. Their ego is hurt, and they will find many ways to justify their action. Automatically the student suddenly becomes an expert in Taoism and Buddhism.

They will try to Google hard and long to find the exact write up and post to essentially 'remind' the Master how they should act instead of inspecting themselves on what should they reflect upon. Because all these time they are with the master, it is not because of learning it is because what can I get - their ego is full no amount of learning can go into the mind anymore. They would only like to think - give me some 道法 Tao Fa, so I can do things what other people cannot do. Again actions to feed the ego.

When reprimanded by the Master, their ego will jump to justify - 'how come you said you are cultivator, but you have no Bodhicitta?' Because their ego cannot be reprimanded, innately viewing themselves as enlighten beings instead of viewing the master has something to teach them.

If a Taoist student has already had an impression in their mind how a teacher would behave and act. That is part of the delusional ego on how they should be treated and how the ego must not be pointed out at any instances. If a Master is only nice to their student, never point out any faults of the students that master can see, that is not a master disciple relationship - that is a transaction customer/vendor relationship when each hoping to get some materialistic benefit from the relationship.

Because we live in a modern world and everything in our society are geared towards feeding the ego. To put down or reduce the ego temporarily for any forms of teaching maybe the hardest things. Tao Fa once had quite a number of practitioners few decades ago, but nowadays the number is very low. Largely due to seniors seeing the degrading attitudes of each generation of people, which is why they essentially gave up receiving any disciples or give any transmission. I attribute it to the lack of devotion.

The Trick to Money is Having Some ! Part 1

Just checked my blog posting and realised that it was already a few months since my last posting. This posting will be about having money. The title of this posting is borrowed from Stuart Wilde's great book 'The Trick to Money is Having Some'. I will outline specifically on spiritual ways to enhance your money or ability to accumulate money.

Almost 98% of the people you ask on the street would agree that they don't have enough money, including this blogger. Essentially when you start out having minimum or none or on the negative end of the spectrum, then the very first thing you need to change is the mindset. That is before any of the spiritual methods that I am going to list down.

Mindset of Abundance.

Many who are lacking have a mindset of lacking, worst kind have the mindset of stinginess. You may say that they have mindset of lacking, because physically they are lacking. Well that's not true. Those that have mindset of abundance, never remain lacking for a very long time. Those that cannot shake loose of the lacking mentality, will also have no way of shaking loose their financial problem. Or they will constantly have financial related problems.

How to have the mindset of abundance? Give give and give ! Donate to your favourite charity with what ever available amount you can afford. Start the ball rolling even if it means just rm0.50 or rm1.00. When you donate affirm to yourself that there is plenty of this energy in the universe. But of course don't just give rm1 when in actual fact you can be very comfortable donating rm10. The surest way of staying in the mindset of lacking, is when you even try to fool yourself that you don't have enough. Therefore your mind will always create the situation where you don't have any.

When you have establish constantly the Mindset of Abundance, your mind is on auto pilot. You are beginning to break free from the shackle of lacking, the iron chain is unlock and your heart opens up to receive not only just plain money energy but spiritual help.

Everyone who has financial problem and try to get spiritual help on their problem, most of these cases would encounter, how come it doesn't work on me? How can it work on you? When your own heart chakra is lock tight like a clam!

When you have establish and affirm on the mindset of abundance with total honesty to yourself. That is when spiritual help works, when miracles appear, when synchronicity becomes a daily testament to your mindset.

Then only we start on the learning some of the spiritual ways to enhance your ability to acquire and retain this 'funny' energy called money which comes in different types of coloured paper.

What do you want to do with it?

Some basic goal setting is paramount. Because without goals, then you will never know why you needed it in the first place. But we don't have to get to too detail and specific on X amount you need, by X amount of time and selling to X amount of people. This is not a Multi-Level marketing blog. This is a Taoist blog! You must have a convincing goal - convincing here means that your mind and body also believe in this goal of yours. It is not something you write up, to please your husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend or worst your parents. The money goal must be big and noble enough that it will affect and help many people or beings. And yet at the same time achievable from where you are now.
Example, I want to have RM10,000 spare cash to donate to my favorite charity each year. And by donating this RM10,000 how are those specific organization will in turn benefit others? How many lives would affected? How many beings of animal would be helped?

This goal setting for charity is a bit different from the conventional, I want a Rolls Royce Phantom by 2017 because that is feeding on your ego. Charity goals is empowering your selflessness. Very different destination. Think of it another way, if you can afford to donate RM500,000 each year eventually, I think Phantom is not something out of the blue for you.  ;)

Part 2 Here http://yinyangjournal.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-trick-to-money-is-having-some-part.html