The Deathbed Conversion Trap: Why You Shouldn't "Change the Bus Halfway"

The Flashback: A Shadow in a Western Suit

Back in June 2008, I published a post on this journal that still generates conversations today. It started with a frantic message from a client named Jack, who was seeing moving shadows in his home.

Months earlier, during a routine Feng Shui audit, I had felt a heavy, unmoving presence in his late father’s bedroom. When I later entered meditative stabilization to see what was happening, I encountered a spirit on the staircase wearing a sharp Western suit. When I asked why he was still there, his answer was heartbreakingly simple:

*"This is my home. Nobody invited me to the ancestral tablet."*

When I called Jack the next day to ask if his father had been buried in a Western suit—a rare choice for traditional Chinese families in Malaysia at the time—Jack was stunned. It was true. We resolved the issue by properly inviting his father to the ancestral tablet, and the shadows vanished.

2. The Core Problem: Subconscious Ties at the Exit Door

The reason Jack’s father was stuck on the physical plane wasn't malice; it was confusion. Throughout his life, his subconscious mind was deeply mapped to Taoist traditions. But in his final days, facing a terminal illness, his family pressured him to switch religions.

When you change a person’s spiritual alignment right at the exit door, they have no deep, lifelong subconscious roots in that new faith. When they pass, they become disoriented. They don't belong to the new path yet, and they've been cut off from the old one. They are stuck between stations.

As I wrote back then: **We must love our family enough to let them choose their own vehicle for the final journey.**

3. The 2026 Growth Ring: What 18 Years of Practice Has Taught Me

Looking back at that 2008 post, I realize I treated it as a spiritual mechanics problem—perform the ritual, move the spirit, fix the haunting.

Nearly two decades later, I look at that case with much more empathy for the family, but an even firmer stance on spiritual sovereignty. In the years since, I have seen this exact scenario play out dozens of times. Well-meaning children, driven by the fear of their parents "going to the wrong place," force a deathbed conversion.

What they don't see is the spiritual friction it causes.

In 2026, we talk a lot about living our truth and having autonomy over our lives. But we rarely talk about autonomy over our deaths. True spiritual maturity means respecting a person's lifelong internal compass, even if it doesn't match your own. You cannot force a soul into a mold it hasn't spent a lifetime building.

4. Where the Energy Sits Today

If you are caring for an aging or ill loved one, the temptation to "save" them through your own spiritual lens is powerful. But the greatest act of filial piety or love you can offer is space—the space to let their subconscious mind rely on the symbols, prayers, and traditions that comforted them when they were strong.

Don't force them to change buses halfway across the bridge. Let them cross in the vehicle they know.

Taking the wrong path on 7th Lunar Month

On 20 August, I received a message from my Taoist disciple Sam informing me that her wife is being admitted into the hospital for infection. However the doctor have yet to ascertain the root cause of her infection from hive similar patches appearing on her whole body.

She had never had such allergic reaction, and the doctor is taking blood and skin sample for checking. Sam was asking me whether this might be related to something spiritual. On the previous Sunday the wife walked around a public park and the and also climb a briefly on a climbing trail.

I was surprise that they went for some hiking and bring their below 10 children along. Lunar 7th Month is not advisable for children or those with below average luck to go for climbing or water/sea related activities especially with bringing small children along/

Sam worried that his wife might step on 'something' while hiking or accidentally offended some beings in that area.

Immediately I  advised him on what to do which include bring some paper offering back to the place where he suspect she had the encounter.

I went into a brief meditative stabilization and checked with our deities of what had actually happened. Then I saw some sort like a video playback, Sam's wife walking along some jungle like area with her daughter and they pass a path with what I assume was a family/group of Tree Spirits. Inside my mind I saw the looked like a group of people wearing ghillie suits (camouflage suits used by snipers) but instead the leaves were real leaves.

Deities informed me then, if Sam did what he was instructed to remedy the situation, her wife would have strong signs of recovery the next day.

The next day morning, I message him asking how was his wife's condition. He told me about the same and also doctor informed him that they do not know what was the cause of those patches but it does not seems to be dangerous (not something internal). I immediately asked him how much paper offering did he brought with him when he went to offer near the site. He told me he brought 1 bag but decided to burn only half as there were many people walking around the area. I almost wanted to faint, no wonder there is no change in the wife's condition.

I advised him to go buy another bag and add with whatever leftover the day before, bring it immediately to the site again and offer that very evening.

Met Sam and his wife and children few days later at the temple during the Fa Zhu Gong Celebration, can see there is still some residue qi left in her body and also his daughter's surrounding aura. Gave them 3 talisman to clear and also help push out the remaining qi during the deities blessing.

We met again 6 days later during Cheng Huang Celebration, her face was all cleared but left faint marks on the leg but it is clearing. I advised her not to go near hill or seaside until all her marks are cleared.  When I uttered those words, I thought I must be silly, as it was actually quite a trauma for her to go through and I assume she would have no plans to go near the hill anytime soon. To my surprise, she told she she was actually planning to go back there that weekend during the holiday!

Once a person have some encounters with spiritual beings or their energy, and if it has left a marked on the body, you would need to wait for the mark to completely disappear before doing anything similar or go to places that are more risky spiritually. If not then it would be a huge problem, as that signifies that your own energy field/ yang qi has already been breached or what commonly known as low luck period.

Her case was easily solved due to the fact that she is a Kam Dong San temple disciple. I have heard other cases of encounters with tree spirits/beings that left permanent lifelong problems to their health even after the matter was resolved.

Insidious Adventures

I have been meditating since I was in primary school, secondary school gotten more serious about it and when I was exposed to Buddhism and Taoism then there is meditation of letting go and meditative stabilisation of working in the spiritual level. Amid all these experiences, I am still a very noob in meditation in the language of my teenage son.

Few years back, I use to have experiences of wandering off in my dreams during my sleep. Meaning dreaming of strange places or neighbourhoods which is dark or usually on a cloudy day. And most of the time these dreams are vivid and lucid. After few adventures of this kind, I enquire with a fellow senior master...he just told me you don't wander off at night after you sleep.

What he meant was, my soul or consciousness likes to go out of my body during my sleep. And most of the time I ended somewhere in Bardo states of consciousness in other words lower realms. Although I did not experience any harm in my dream, usually I would met up with dead relatives and their first word to me would be something like "How come you are here?"

Anyway I have figure a way to lock my consciousness and not to allow myself to uncontrollably wander off in my dreams. Since then work pretty well, coz I do not have weird dreams or vivid dreams anymore. If you know me, you would know that showing up in my dream is usually not a good thing as it is a sign from either Deities that something is coming next few days or weeks for the other person or myself.

Well last week, I had one of those dreams and it was worth sharing here. I dreamt one of my old friend and disciple 'K' was driving me and my family just down a village road, and when the car came to a simple bridge, the bridge was slightly curved. Instead of following the curve and just drive across the bridge, he decided to speed up and make a drastic turn, of course then the car would flew to the left side of the bridge and land on the river...somehow in the dream and he was about to land, I told him land further near the river bed and true enough he did (It was a dream!)

After we had a slight rough landing, we walked out of the car safely, nobody was injured in the dream. But soon a lot of villagers show up, they were not the friendly type, look quite hostile and were pointing towards me and K.

Quickly I told K lets slowly walked out of here, they do not dare to touch us and slowly we walked on the village road arriving to some stores in the village. Slowly however more villagers notice our arrival and they are in not friendly gestures, I told K in my dreams, lets take shelter in this corner shop house, it has chinese wording on it, looks something like a 1960s coffee shop. Anyhow we entered the cafe, locked the door, the we try to take some sneak peek through the windows of the shop. I can see those villagers are not locals of Malaysia. Local here means they are not Chinese, Indian or Malay people. Looks a bit native with languages I could not understand in the dream.

Then after a while, I told K that we better leave this place before the whole village shows up and then most likely we will be trapped. I slowly leave the shop house and walk down the road out of the village. Some stood on the side and stare at us but no harm came to us. Then I woke up in middle of the night, usual time is around 3:30am or 3:45am.

The next day, I called up K and asked him whether he have been doing any smoke offering practice lately. I then proceed to update him on my dream the night before, then suddenly I remembered he told me he was helping a friend to sell or acquire a piece of land. I suggest to him that maybe it has something to do with this piece of land that he was involved with.

Then K proceed to informed me in detail about the land. He told me actually that piece of land belong to his friend and that piece of land also contain their family relative tombs, about 20 of the tombs are located at that piece of few acres land. His friend were planning to develop a columbarium building on part of the land and also some other development. I immediately advised to K that he better forgo this land deal, as obviously the ancestors that are buried there are not so happy with the plan they have in regards to developing the land.

Any relocation of tombs especially on an area needed to be handled with exceptional care and with correct spiritual procedures being done before hand. Well after my advice, K immediately inform his friend that he cannot help him anymore for the development of the land.

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Few days later K update me that actually on that piece of land there is a Thai Temple that houses columbariums. I immediately inform K that this confirm my dream, as the group of people in the dream are not local natives. So this confirm my dream.

K then proceed to advice his friend that he better get the correct approval and procedures spiritually before proceeding further with this project.

Descend of Mythical Beast Pi Xiu 貔貅降下 _ Part 1 of 2

This blog entry will be focusing on the latest consecration for a batch of Pi Xiu for Kam Dong San Temple. For those reader who wants to find out the basic of Pi Xiu, you can google it, plenty of information out there.

It all started about 2 months back when my sister informed me that she have bought  a 999 gold pixiu and decided to buy 1 for me as well and asked me to consecrate 開光 for her. In my early years of meditative stabilization (about 12 years ago), I have consecrated Pi Xiu cooper statues. However they were more for home protection rather than wealth enhancement.

My own wear

To consecrate for wealth enhancement it has to be made of gold, 12 years back there is no technology for doing gold electro-forming for jewellers to make it small and yet hard shell on the outside. If anybody can afford to make statues out of gold then, I think they don't need it anyway. When my sister brings the 999 Gold PiXiu for me to consecrate, I was amaze at the current art work of it.

After consecrating both of the PiXiu, I did not think much about it and handed it to her and wear one myself on my wrist. Within the week, she called me up and told me about all her latest extra ordinary sales she is able to close. Of course she is also very hardworking, not the type to sit and wait for sales to fall from the sky.

I have also experienced tremendous activity boost for my own business. Every year I do consecrate some Taoist items to offer Kam Dong San patrons and members to request in order for us to gather donations for our temple maintenance fund. So I have specifically seek permission from Taoist Deities to consecrate 10 pure gold PiXiu bracelet for donation request. On the first consecration, when the sun beam shone onto the gold pixiu after the ritual, I simultaneously entered into meditative stabilization and can see the yellow glow descended from direction of the sun in a bouncing manner (from point to point) unlike normal time when just the bright ray descended. I didn't think much about it, because from so many years of cultivation, one learns to treat these phenomenas and non phenomenas.

10 pairs from KDS Temple - All Requested by members and patrons

The female of the pair

I can feel that the PiXiu was energetically vibrating very strongly, but this kind of stuff also I do not go out and tell members about it. When I write on this blogpost of course I can share it out, because the PiXiu has all been requested out, to prevent any readers thinking that this Master is trying to peddle his stuff to request donation for the temple. 

After consecration for about 2 days, I asked my mum for safekeeping in her room(inside its own boxes for each individual piece) instead of leaving on my altar because I was going out of town, and we have weekly cleaners to our house. The next day when I was away, my mum called me up and told me somehow for the whole evening she could not sleep until wee hours of morning. Then she realize it could be the PiXiuS. The next evening, she put the boxes out from her room and everything went back to normal.

Meanwhile, my wife started wearing her PiXiu bracelet as well. Within 1 day, she was able to close 1 big project that have been hanging for past week going nowhere, with all the advantages on her side of the deal that previously it was a almost just a break even deal.

I was getting really excited because now 3 out of 3 person who wore it are having positive effects. On the final consecration day, the sun was shining extra bold, after the consecration the whole sun was totally shaded. I decided to just take a photo outside my balcony area to post on the whatsapp group for temple members, how the sun was totally shaded after the consecration.

PiXiu image on the clouds

One of the members immediately replied on the group that the cloud I captured looks like a shape of PiXiu. Well can you see it? I did not intent to look for shapes of cloud to capture, but it appears out in the sky, a phenomenon meaning the heavens is reflecting the activity below, which is a very auspicious sign.

Just as I was writing this blog, feedback from members came back on their experience with wearing Kam Dong San Temple PiXiu.

Member's testimony

Member's testimony

Not only the above testimonial on the result, another wearer went to visit one of her friend who is into all energy works etc. The moment he sense her energy (the wearer), he said he can sense she is being envelope by a very strong energetic force, and no wonder she is able to complete her sales target for 2 years in a span of months.

I am so happy for all those that have the opportunity to request the PiXiu from Kam Dong San Temple due to their generosity to support the temple maintenance fund.

Here are some links that you might find useful after reading the blog

Yin Yang Journal on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/mastergkham

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

Emergency Call for Help

Early last month (Sept) in the morning, I received a call from PY a long time friend and also a temple member. She asked me whether I can do some prayers for her friend P who is in Kuala Lumpur. PY relayed to me her friend was admitted into hospital few days back and suddenly this morning heard news that she is already in ICU with her body and heart all swollen and heart condition was failing.

P was also a temple member, although she visited the temple for only once or twice, nevertheless its sounds quite serious to me. Normally temple members or the public should come up to the temple personally and request for the deities help. And whether any help can be rendered. Sometimes inability to help may be due some underlying karmic reasons.

Anyhow, I had a look at her Destiny Chart and it indicates that she was in a very low luck period that could last till end of the year. I then immediately enquire with KDS Deities whether this is pure a real health matter or there is some spiritual outstanding or Yearly Bad Luck. Spiritual Outstanding could mean Spiritual Encounters, House Feng Shui Problem, Hex, Ancestors Tomb to name a few.

She had all three, Low Luck Period add on with Spiritual Outstanding on some Hex and also real health matters.

With 3 in a sandwich, the most important is to get her out of her emergency situation first. Then I went into meditative stabilization for a very short while. As the Chinese saying goes ' Water from far away are unable to eliminate close proximity fire'. City God Temple is the first sentence that came to my mind when I was in meditative stablization.

Immediately I called up William, who is one of KDS Disciple residing in Kuala Lumpur. I check with William whether he had the City God temple address that he went to a while back. He told me the one he went to was quite hard to find in terms of being in a KL rural housing estate. He told me there is another bigger one that is east to find. I then enquire immediately with KDS Deities, and they said to go the one in the rural housing estate.

I then passed William contact number to P family member. Finally they are able to find the temple and light up 7 Star Lamp at the City God Temple.

After that evening she slowly recovered and was able to discharge from the hospital within a week.

Below are the message she sent me after she was discharged from hospital.

After interfering into this matter, I got into some health matters which involve in bleeding. Reason why there is some side effect on my side is because she is considered a stranger to KDS deities and me. There is no ground for me to interfere in karmic cases (remembered she had 3 factors all together coming at once). So when I interfere in any such cases there is always side effect on my side.

Have advised her to become KDS disciple this coming March 2017.

Help! Being pressed by Ghost in my sleep...

In mid of July, I received a message from HT a Kam Dong San temple member. He told me he just came back from holiday with his wife in Thailand. During their final stay in a hotel room (they stayed at 2 hotels) in the middle of the night his wife felt she was pressed on top by an invisible entity, she shouted but could not wake up even though she was conscious.

As he was relaying his story, I interrupted him midway, explaining to him there is a term for this condition called Sleep Paralysis. Sometimes when a person is too tired physically but the mind suddenly is awake, which can trigger a person to have this type of experience.

Pic taken from www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com

He stressed that, after they came back from Thailand, not only did the wife continue to experience it on their first night back to Malaysia and he also had an episode the night before contacting me. He also told me that during his experience, he dreamt of going back to the hotel and was at the swimming pool area of the hotel. He remember seeing a dark shadow of some sort in his dream.

I immediately asked him on whether they took the purple handbook with them, unfortunately for them, they forgot.

As it is already late in the afternoon when he contacted me, plus I am already down with heavy flu. I was in no condition to write any talisman or enter into meditative stablization. I just teach him what are some of the things to get and do to raise up their Yang energy, and asked him to go to the temple the next day. Before I went to bed that evening, I offer some incense request for spiritual help on their behalf and did some brief protective ritual from afar for them.

The next morning, I follow up on him and he informed me that he and his wife slept soundly.

A few days after, HT and his Mrs came by the during my voluntary evening duty at Kam Dong San Temple. Then only did Mrs HT told me in detail on her experience. After being awake from the experience, she tried to sleep on her side, when she is about to fall to sleep she can feel the bed moving felt like someone leaning close to her from behind.

After that 1 night of sleeping soundly upon my advise, the second night she felt it again and HT use the temple purple book and tape it on their head board. Finally she took another one place on her chest and she was able to sleep.

As they were finally in the temple, I gave them some talisman to ingest and wash. I also did a brief sealing of body ritual on Mrs HT back. When I push the Taoist energy imprint into her via fingertip, I felt something exiting her body. Of course I did not mentioned to her then, because that would create even more restlessness in her mind.

After their visit to the temple, I follow up on them again few days afterwards, and they gladly informed me everything returned to normal.

** To request for Kam Dong San Purple Hand Book kindly click on this link (Handbook is Free if you come by Kam Dong San Temple to collect) . Else it is just rm10 for EMS postage

Tao Fa Path With Kam Dong San Temple

Finally the new revision of Tao Fa Path with Kam Dong San Temple is up. It provides a bearing and direction for existing and new people who are interested in Tao Fa path.

Here are the Rules and Regulation for Kam Dong San Temple Disciples

Conditions for Initiations

1. Male and Female must be 25 years of age and above and married. If not married at least must be 40 years of age.

2. Must be temple member for at least 1 year with 80% attendance on deities celebration then only will be considered for initiation.

3. All disciples must use the oracle by Master to seek for approval disciple before initiation.

4. After initiation, person will need to attend at least 8 times Fish Liberation in year (out of state disciples can choose to donate for liberation activities)

5. Person will need to learn basic Smoke Offering.

Rules & Precepts for Disciples

1. Tao Fa cannot be use to earn a living.

2. No extra marital affairs for married disciple. If single, cannot be romantically involved with any individuals who are married.

3. Not allowed to be involved in illegal activities under the law.

4. Cannot use Tao Fa to help those who are involved with illegal activities

5. Every 1st and 15th Lunar month must be on vegetarian diet.

Most important is to have a sense of righteousness and a faithful heart. Link for Kam Dong San Temple http://www.facebook.com/kdspg

Kam Dong San Purple Handbook Testimonials

When I decide to have our temple team compile a small handbook last year. It was a labour of love and compassion from the committees and members for the benefit of all those that can come into contact with Kam Dong San Temple Deities and Bodhisattvas.

The introduction and content was blogged on May 2016. 

http://yinyangjournal.blogspot.my/2015/05/why-i-am-excited-about-kam-dong-san.html

After 1 year since handing out the handbook. We have receive numerous positive feedbacks and experiences that members and public had with using the Purple Kam Dong San Handbook.

The handbook has 2 Taoist Talisman, 1 on the front cover and 1 at the back. Even though it is printed talisman, but I have requested our Deities to consecrate each of these talisman and also with Deities Seal.

When we hand them out, I always tell the receivers to bring it together with them when they are travelling. It will help prevent any spiritual problems especially when staying at unfamiliar hotels.

Here are 3 recent feedbacks.

1. A normal patron to the temple who have requested the handbook, whom later reported back that few weeks later she had experienced sleepless nights for 3-4 consecutive nights with lots of dreams and restlessness. 

She then recalled that she has the handbook, so she decided to put it under her pillow. To her amazing surprise, she slept soundly for the whole night. After which, she does the same for the second night and continue to have good sleep. 

This lady then decides to request few more handbooks to give to her family members for safekeeping and also as an essential item to bring in their travel.

2. The above patron, has a female friend whom had undergone chemotherapy twice. After therapy she also find it difficult to sleep. After she passed the handbook to her friend, she place it by her bedside. To her surprise she also find it very easy to sleep without much mental activity.

After these 2 recent feedbacks, I usually will share with members of the temple. Then last week, another lady member told me that she also had really good experience with the handbook while travelling. She went for tour in Korea with her family member.

3. During her stay in the hotel, in one of the evening, she had numerous nightmares. Even to the point of screaming out loud while having these nightmares. When she opened her eyes, she notice a black figure (seems like wearing a cloak) standing next to her. She then recalled about the temple handbook and decide to place it next to her bed. She was thinking of not sleeping for the night for fear of another nightmare. Somehow she felt asleep and slept soundly until morning. She told me from now on, she will bring the purple handbook with her whenever she travels.

If you are interested in requesting the Kam Dong San Handbook https://www.facebook.com/commerce/products/1182358328455354/

Once you have it, important is not to place it on the floor or at levels where people can walk or put their legs across it. Treat it with respect, and it will definitely help you out in unwarranted spiritual situations.

Feng Shui Setup or Spiritual Help which is the Priority?

Received a call from a long time client about 3 weeks ago. He told me that he is now experiencing hard times. He have just moved the 4th times to an office. His first and 2nd office was audited by me. Currently his business also cannot make enough to pay for his staff salary. He has no where to turn to except trying his luck to ask for my help.

When I audited his business office, he made decent profit and business was growing. That was the condition he was in when I last met him. He did not engage me on his 3rd time moving, and to me that was normal because maybe he finds that luck was on his side and my services was not needed anymore.

I have decided to helped him out due to his past standing as good client. He told me he cannot afford to pay my fees however he will be willing to pay me once he is stable again.
Cleared my appointment on the nearest availability and decided to audit his place as fast as possible.

When I arrived on to audit his current office, the first thing I noticed was there was quite a number of Taoist spiritual implements inside his office. I checked the site with my Loupan and discovered that the front door location and direction is actually not bad for his type of business.

However once inside, all the Feng Shui setup was wrong. From his sitting location, his staff sitting location, enhancing the qi for the type of business plus even the water exits within is all not conducive for his business.

No wonder he is in such a mess.  His personal space within the office has a lot of Taoist spiritual implements from sword to flags to even ancient chinese coins below the desk and a whole lot more.

I advised him to relocate those spiritual items, consolidate some of it while others that cannot be use to be place in storage. He looked at me with a puzzling look. I am not surprised, because in all those years of him knowing me and conducted 2 audits for his office, never once did I mentioned to him about using spiritual implements nor about my Taoist background.

Seeing his puzzling look, I knew if I did not elaborate on my Taoist background he was not going to remove those items. I continue to explained to him that one of the talisman which he painstakingly went to a South Thailand Taoist Temple to obtain is actually one of my Taoist lineage. I further briefly informed him on 2 more Taoist lineage that I am holding, and the reason spiritually why he should relocate those items and consolidate them.

I always believe, if a Feng Shui Master is good at what he is doing, he does not need to use other fields of knowledge to solve the Feng Shui problem. Example, adding spiritual context into solving a Feng Shui problem. On the other hand, if a Taoist Master is good at what he is doing, he does not need to add Feng Shui into solving spiritual matters. Using spiritual method alone will be able to solve the spiritual problems.

Furthermore, I do not like to confuse my client on who are they actually hiring, The Feng Shui Master or the Taoist Master? If in doubt, usually I assure them that you are hiring a practical logical Feng Shui Master who have strong Taoist religious belief. This rarely happen because 90% of my client knows me as a Feng Shui master or practitioner only.

After advicing on the recommendations, finally I gave him some talisman to solve his existing pressing business problem. Because to wait for the Feng Shui setup to run its course requires at least 10 days in which the time he does not have at the moment. Told him the spiritual help is pro-bono but make sure he pays my Feng Shui due fees when he is ok again.

Moral of the story -
1. Remember your Feng Shui Master when you are having a good run.
2. Spiritual methods will work once your environment setup is done correctly. Or else the spiritual help will be like trying to push a heavy cart uphill, you cannot continuously use spiritual method to solve a basic Feng Shui environmental mistake.
3. Remember your Feng Shui Master when you are having a good run. (its not a typo repeat)

Secret of How to Fill Up Your Merit Tank to Request Effectively for What You Want.

Chinese New Year is just a stone throw away. Everybody is hoping a beginning of a new year will bring about improvements and also better change for current situation in all parts of our life.

What are the driving force for better changes in a person's life spiritually? What are the crucial factors that boost up your already good luck or decrease your bad luck tremendously?

Spiritually where did money, good relationship, good health and also good luck manifest itself? What is the source?

The source is ............. merit and specifically charitable merits. Things, money and action that you have given out generously in the past (this life and many lifetimes ago), those are the very things and factors that keep coming back as the good stuff you enjoy and experience in this life. The universe and karma never forgets, our continous and endless mind/soul do not forget, we may have change body but the mind/soul still remembers the affinity.

Without charitable merits, life of hardship is the reward. With too much charitable merits, the punishment is not enough time to enjoy it all :)

How to fill up your merit tank for this coming year? Donate, donate and donate. How to donate effectively and what to donate?

Spiritually, the best thing to donate is for building of a temple. Temple is a place where people gather to do only good actions, to affect other people in a positive way and also a place where people gather merits.

Then what type of temple you should donate? Well you should donate to a temple that is close to your community. It is the place then for you to establish the connection and also positive affinity with those who are close to you. People whom you will have a higher chance to bum into. Why is that? A simple bum of shoulders in a crowded place requires 5 lifetimes of affinity. Imagine if you have sponsored on a cause that can benefit people whom already have possible affinities with you?

Since we solved the location on where to donate, second factor that comes in to consideration is the temple actively generating positive vibes in the community or is it once in a blue moon type of schedule. This is money for value of merits -  for those of you who are expert in cost/value ratio. A place that constantly have positive activities for the community, affecting the community, generating more affinity with the public, these are the places that you should help them expand. Because each person that they in turn help or affect for the better, you will also share the merits.

Kam Dong San Temple, Penang has launch its temple building initiative last year June http://www.facebook.com/kdspg . It is also the temple where I contribute and volunteer my time for the past 10 years. Some of our milestones

1. Hosting Dharma activity for esteemed Rinpoches and helped more than 100 people taken refuge in Buddhadharma.

2. Collectively dedicated more than 7,000,000 mantras

3. Released more than 100,000 lives and continue to do so every month non-stop for the past 5 years

4. Distributed more than 5000 vegetarian dinners meals to surrounding community.

5. Hosted more than 100 Celebrations for various deities in Kam Dong San.

6. Started yearly distribution of 1000 bags of rice to local 1000 needy families.

There is at least 50 activities in a year for Kam Dong San Temple. https://www.facebook.com/kdspg/photos_stream

Our temple building project is called Square Feet for Boundless Merits.

Each square foot for our temple building would cost about RM888 (about USD202 at current rate) which includes all fixtures and fittings. A person can donate 1 square foot each month, or 1 square foot a year. Donors can also opt to donate for a temple pillar which is the cost of 20 square feet x rm888 = RM17,760. There are many options to refill up your merit tank in your contribution for the manifestation of Kam Dong San Temple Building.

Donor of each square foot would be entitle to have their name listed on the specific hall that they have donated. Some hall require at least 2 square feet to have the name of donor engraved.

How and what to do when I donate? Should I just donate and forget about it? This is what the whole purpose of this article. The secret to fill up your merit tank and request effectively for what you want. Between what you request (logical request ok, not I want to be an astronaut when you cannot even handle the roller coaster ride) and its manifestation, there is a gap. That gap is usually due to lack of merit. If you have the merit, then you would have gotten it. There will be no request in the first place.

I have many people that comes to me with their problems, and ask me spiritually what they can do. Because they have exhausted or have done all the things possible on their side but still they cannot manifest it. For example, someone wants to sell of a luxury piece of property and cash out. They have tried all the ads, all the agents all the required commission but still they cannot connect to someone who is willing to buy their property. What is lacking here? Merits. The merit to have that high amount of cash in their hand from the sale of their property.

Then comes the part where people try to bypass the system of merit. They will think, okay I will make a promise to donate to the temple cause when I can sell off my property. That is the mistaken thought. The very reason the person is unable to sell their property is the lack of merit. So how can it be possible to sell it then later only donate a small fraction from the amount you received to temple building project. It is a the case of I will believe it when I see it. 

YOU WILL SEE IT WHEN YOU HAVE THE MERITS.

Taoist Deities cannot and unable to help the person connect to the buyer even though they may be very earnest in their request. Why? Because their merit tank is empty. The credit line is finished. Overdraft is max out.

Either to request for smooth luck, request for getting rid of petty people in your life, more work and career opportunities, good relationship, finding a good partner, avoiding dangerous situations - all these and more required a person to fill up their merit tank BEFORE and not AFTER it happened.

That is the SECRET. Finally, if you request for USD1 million property to be sold off, please do not donate 1 square foot and expect that it is enough merit to request that deities and heavenly marshall can help you. At least 3% or more merits need to be filled up before there is even any chance of manifestation!

For any donation, do contact Bro Fa Hong who is the admin for the temple at  +6011-1657 1418.

The Test from The Demon Within

I have met many people on the spiritual cultivation path. More often that not, after about 10-15 minutes into conversation, a lot would like to talk about spiritual attainments or spiritual powers.

Most of the people who got interested into spiritual path is also due to wishing to have extra sensory skills compare to others in modern society. Take a look at meditation class that talks about spiritual ability attendance usually would be full when compared to those meditation classes for mind stillness and so on.

And those that walk the path of spiritual cultivation, there will always be test and exams along the way. For some, they think tests and exams are things for when you are in schools, colleges and universities. Oh yes, spiritual path is filled with tests along the way and unlike educational institutions, there is no advance notification on the tests and exams that they will give you.

Usually tests and examinations on the spiritual path will be on your weakest link either in your character or the mind or both. Then it will also be separated into small test, such as events that occur in your dreams and see how you react. There will be also real life exams, which you will walk or thrown into situations, push to the extreme to test your own fortitude, strength, commitment and also the will to walk the path. 

Small test such as when a person have taken a vow to abstain from eating certain food. In one of their unsuspecting dreams, they will be in a situation where friends or people they know offer them the abstained food. If in the dream they suddenly realised and rejected the food, then they would have passed the test. If not, then their cultivation would have to drag on further before another test comes along.

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Examinations however are a whole different ball game. If you have greed, you will be tested on situations where you will have opportunities to earn a lot of money however it will be at the expense of others. You will need to do something that goes against basic moral vows. The situation is real and the money rewards are also real. However if you failed the exam, the consequences will be a down hill road on your cultivation. Some took years to recover from one failure while others do not recover at all.

Some who are weak on relationship or particularly on controlling their sexual urges, when an exam comes along, out of the blue you will meet with someone who are highly attractive towards you, and although you may have a family or in a steady relationship, then how you react, whether to follow through on your urges will determine on whether you continue walking further and higher on path or to fail miserably and lose respect of not only others but family and close ones as well.

There are even cases where those who lost their sanity as a result of being unable to get through the exam. Buddhism called it Demon/Mara Within 心魔.

The Demon Within is much scarier than the ones outside as your subconscious knows you better than yourself. No matter how far a person walks on the spiritual path, there will always be tests and exams. There is no exception and the stakes will only get higher as one progress along the path.

The only solution is to develop integrity, congruency and also honesty before ones walks the path and continue to remind oneself the higher purpose of their cultivation.

Another Shadow from Her Body

This case came to our temple 2 months ago, just right after our Annual Fund Raising Dinner. www.facebook.com/kdspg . This lady is a relative of one of our temple member.

When she told me about her encounters, she was also not sure whether it is anything spiritual or whether she needs help or not. She told me she went for a movie in a local cinema with some friends. Before the movie starts, she felt a bit dizzy and headache and thought it was just tiredness.

Then when she turn back from her seat at the cinema, she saw all the seats was moving as if in a forward wavy manner. She was surprised and ask her friends to look at it, however they did not see anything strange. That was the beginning.

The following week she went to some chalet stay by the beach, in the middle of the night she can hear very loud screams near her room and she could not sleep the whole night. After she came back from her trip, she have trouble sleeping at night.

Taoist Deities confirmed that she had some encounters with spiritual entity, however it is not as serious as possession yet.

So I gave her 3 Talisman to ingest, one every evening and advice her, if she have any out of ordinary dreams then she can come back to the temple again.

After about 1 month, she came back to the temple with her daughter and requested to see me. I thought she had some different dreams or encounters. She told me, after ingestion of the 1st talisman, during the night she felt very uncomfortable, then suddenly she saw in a brief moment as if another shadow leaving her body. After that, she felt a strong relieved. She said she completed the 3 day ingestion of talisman.

And the reason she wanted to see me was to ask me, whether she is now alright. "If there is no more strange dreams and you can sleep well,  you should be ok" - I told her.

Encounter with entities can happen anywhere and any time. Especially when your luck@life force is down, then the person becomes a likely candidate.

Why am I excited about Kam Dong San Handbook?

Taking 1.5 years to compile since we felt the need to have a handbook that compromise all our regular practice and something a new person can keep with them and refer from time to time.

Hence the Kam Dong San Handbook.

It contains photos of 

1. 22 Taoist Deities and Ksitigarbha of Kam Dong San Temple

2. Smoke/Sang Offering Guidelines.

3. Animal/Fish Liberation procedures

4. Heart Mantras for different Buddhas.

5. Essential Mantras of Great Compassionate Dharani, Heart Sutra, Amitabha Rebirth Mantra

6. Tibetan Auspicious Invitation of all Buddhas, bodhisatvas, and all supporting  8 direction deities and higher beings.

7. Taoist Protection Talismans

Printed mantras alone would be considered huge blessings. What's more so many procedures contain in the handbook to benefit sentient beings, increase a person's merit, protect yourself and surrounding space through consecrated Taoist talisman on the front and back of the handbook.

Truly a Taoist and Buddhist Gem. If one is able to use the content on a daily basis, definitely the individual would be able to gather tremendous amount of merits. 

Even if you don't know how to use, by having the handbook alone and bringing it with you whenever you travel. Will serve as a good protection of your unfamiliar temporary space due to the consecrated talisman contain in the book.

What's more, distribution is free - only condition - treat with utmost respect.

The Promise

This incident happen more than 10 years ago.  My first Yin Feng Shui 阴宅风水 project is to handle my own ancestor's tomb. It is one of the key requirement to do Yin Feng Shui in our lineage.

And I started with a big one, because at that time I have to co-ordinate 4 of my ancestors and senior relatives separate tombs into 1 tomb. While at the same time, I have to also arrange and do the tomb of my late grandmother who just passed away at that time.

I have selected a good Feng Shui spot for the relocation of my ancestors and have also seek the opinion of my master. After which, my cousin who is living in Perlis, Malaysia have to ask permission from local clan association to acquire the land.

As my ancestors was considered pioneer of the area, because I am already a 4th generation Chinese in Malaysia. Anyhow initially we have acquired the land without any problems after my tedious selection, the vein of the hill flows perfectly to the spot that I have selected, and the strangest thing was it was covered by tree branch on the lower edge, therefore nobody thought of acquiring it as it was almost invisible to the naked eye for several decades.

After my cousin informed me of the good news, problems start arising, as there was a tomb on a higher ground above the area where I had selected, the family members of that plot of land started making big 'hoo hah' on why we do not have the right to acquire the land and many other sorts of problem.

My cousin had to go for meetings after meetings with the local clan association in order to sort out the problem and it was coming to a deadlock.

Therefore on one afternoon, before he went again to a meeting, I went into meditative stabilization in my home in Penang and trying to seek out the land deity of the tomb area. In my meditation, I saw an old man wearing all white appearing, I asked him if he was the local deity. He informed me he had been there even before the hill became a cemetery ground. However, there was not any altar or temple built for offerings to the local land deity of that area.

Then I told him our family problem, and asked whether he could help. He told me he can, then I made a promise to him in which if my family tomb was successfully erected on the area that I have selected on that hill, then I will build up a small local deity house for him and also do offerings to him each year when I am in Perlis for Qing Ming. He smiled and agreed and I came out from my meditative state.

I quickly called up my cousin, asked him to bring some curry chicken, ginger rice and also a big stack of gold paper money to go to the hill area and just burn it. When I call him it was almost late afternoon. After 1 hour of so, he called me back. He told me that after he made offering at the hill, when he burn the big stack of paper money, there was a sudden gush of very strong wind.

The next day, I received a call from my cousin again that our obstacle on the acquisition of the land has been settled amicably.

After few weeks, when the relocation is ready and tomb constructed, I was back in Perlis again to make the final adjustment on the tombstone, aligned the skull on my ancestors in the new urn after their exhumation before placing them in the new tomb.

I still remember that when I completed the tomb alignment, the sky was quite dark and ready to rain. Some of my cousins and relatives were telling me, its going to rain soon and lets get down from the hill. I told them don't worry it wouldn't rain until I have make the adjustment to the local earth deity house. I went down the hill, installed and make adjustment to the local earth deity house as promised, when I finished the alignment and walk towards my car, the rain came pouring down.

Previously there was a huge tree behind the earth deity house that we have erected. After the build the Tua Pek Kong Temple, the tree was chopped down and remove. However the local earth deity was not invited into the temple.

Done Smoke or in Tibetan called Sang Offering to the local earth deity and also unvisited grave in that area.

After many years have passed, the local clan association whom are owners of the area, decided to build up the Tua Pek Kong Temple next to the cemetery as in custom of all Chinese cemetery. However they did not manage to invite the local earth deity into the temple area. Therefore every year when I am back for Qing Ming, I still bring a big incense and also do smoke offerings for the local deity and also all the unvisited graves of the area.

View from my ancestors grave . The Tua Pek Kong Temple on the right. 

In the spiritual world, your word is the only measure of character and also your cultivation. Unlike the physical world, where words are cheap to many people - in the formless world it brings strong influence on any future help that you seek or request as your reputation spreads fast on whether you are a man/woman of your words or just a plain ignorant.

After more than 10 years

Started at a room at the back of my house, after about 10 years we are now

1. Hosting Dharma activity for esteemed Rinpoches and helped more than 100 people taken refuge.

2. Collectively dedicated more than 7,000,000 mantras

3. Released more than 100,000 lives

4. Distributed more than 5000 vege dinners

5. Hosted more than 100 Celebrations for various deities in Kam Dong San.

How time flies and it still seems that this is just the beginning !!