Along with the Gods: Hell Realms Inspired by Buddhist Scriptures

This is one of the most touching movies I ever watched. By the way, this is the first time I'm watching South Korean movie. Inspired from Buddhist teaching on karma, reincarnation, hell realm, it shows how various hell judges and King Yeomra (King of the underworld)/King Yama (閻羅大王) from the hell realm judged the deceased and punished them for their evil deeds. This movie is really inspiring, touching and makes you reflect on your life. 

The Plot:  A fireman died when he saved a young girl. The deceased fireman was escorted and defended by three grim reapers in seven trials in 49 days. If he is found guilty in any one of the trials, he will be punished in hell. Depending on the severity, he would be sentenced a few years to decades in the specific hell realm. In Buddhism, there is no eternal hell. Once the karma is over, he will be reincarnated either to animal or human or proceed to another level in hell. If the fireman passed all the seven trials (indolence, violence and others), then he can be reincarnated. Of course this movie is fictional, but based on Ksitigarbha sutra, there are about 37 different types of hells, like Hell of fire mountain, Hell of molten brass. 

I watched this movie in Golden Village cinema as Shaw theatres are not showing it. 

To read the different hell realms, you can read Ksitigarbha Sutra. To read on reincarnation that I shared earlier, click here.

Trust me, this movie is awesome! You have to watch it. By the way, please prepare tissue paper. You will need it. 

Why Buddhist Practitioners Don't Eat the Five Pungent Roots

In the past, I was wondering why monks and nuns abstain from eating garlic, three kinds of onions and leeks as they are plants. I only learned why from Surangama Sutra, page 230, click here to read more and sharing by Master Sheng Yen. 

Ananda, all beings live if they eat wholesome food and die if they take poison. In their search for Samadhi, they should abstain from eating five kinds of pungent roots (i.e. garlic, the three kinds of onions and leeks); if eaten cooked, they are aphrodisiac and if raw, they cause irritability. Although those who eat them may read the twelve divisions of the Mahayana canon, they drive away seers in the ten directions who abhor the bad odour, and attract hungry ghosts who lick their lips. They are always surrounded by ghosts, and their good fortune will fade away day by day to their own detriment. When these eaters of pungent roots practise Samadhi, none of the Bodhisattvas, seers and good spirits come to protect them, while the mighty king of demons takes advantage of the occasion to appear as a Buddha as if to teach them the Dharma, defaming and breaking the precepts and praising carnality, anger and stupidity; at their death, they will join his retinue, and at the end of their time in his realm, they will fall into the unintermittent hell. Ananda, practisers of Samadhi should never eat these five pungent roots. This is the first step of gradual practice.

What are the basic causes? Ananda, those practisers who wish to enter the state of Samadhi should first observe strictly the rules of pure living to cut lust from the mind by abstaining from meat and wine and by taking cooked, instead of raw food. Ananda, if they do not abstain from carnality and killing, they will never escape from the three worlds of existence. They should consider lust as dangerous as a poisonous snake and a deadly foe. They should begin by strictly observing the Hinayana's four prohibitions for monks and eight for nuns to regulate the body, and then adhere to the Bodhisattva discipline to ensure the non-stirring of mind. If they observe these precepts, they will wipe out forever the karma that leads to birth and killing. If in addition they cease to steal, they will owe nothing to others and will not have debts to repay. Those who keep the rules of pure living in their practice of Samadhi, will be able to see with their own eyes, without the aid of deva sight, all the worlds in the ten directions. 

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Purvapranidhana Sutra by Imee Ooi

I'm glad I attended today Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Purvapranidhana Sutra album launch, singing and sharing session by Imee Ooi at the Maha Bodhi School. There were other singers like Jingang, a group of male singers from Malaysia and also some Singaporean singers like Singapore Buddhist Youth. 

I first got to know Imee Ooi because I like the Heart Sutra sang by her. She has amazing voice and I felt really happy to be able to listen to her singing live today. Besides singing, she also shared with us the difficulties of producing Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Purvapranidhana Sutra album for the past two years. When she produced this album, she had been dreaming of the hell realm until the album was completed. For your information, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva （地藏王菩萨）vowed to liberate all suffering beings from the hell realm. After the completion of this album, she dreamed of her deceased grandmother becoming a male and many passengers in a big plane. According to Buddha, in the heaven realms, there are many different heavenly levels, Some heavenly realms do not have female. 

There was also a 12-min meditation with Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva sutra music. I enjoy today concert and hope she will organise another concert and hopefully she'll sing the Heart Sutra, Om Mani Padme Hum and The Great Compassion sutra. I am actually practising more on Guanyin Pusa ("[The One Who] Perceives the Sounds of the World") or Avalokitasvara Bodhisattva.

To read the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva sutra, click here

Imee Ooi also sang The Great Compassion mantra. Frankly speaking, I don't understand but I feel happy after listening to it.

I got to know Imee Ooi because of the Heart Sutra. I hope she sing Heart Sutra if she is going to perform at the Esplanade concert. 

Master Hsu Yun on Karma

Hsu Yun (simplified Chinese: 虚云; traditional Chinese: Xūyún; born Xiao Guyan simplified Chinese: 萧古岩; : Xiāo Gǔyán; 26 August 1840 – 13 October 1959) was a renowned Chinese-born Chan Buddhist master and one of the most influential Buddhist teachers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

From: 

https://www.buddhistdoor.net/features/the-legacy-of-chan-master-xu-yun-1840-1959

Master Xu Yun had an extraordinary and very long life. He lived into his 120th year, and his life spanned two centuries and three dynasties. It is a belief within traditional Chinese culture that the purer the character, the longer the life that is lived. Master Xu Yun’s long life is attributed to his following of the Buddhist monastic vows including a vegetarian diet – and the fact that when young and still a layman, he refused an arranged marriage. More than this, however, but his father, fearing that his son would not follow in his footsteps and become a scholar-official, hired a Daoist master to teach Xu Yun the secrets of that religion. Xu Yun studied the Daoist teachings but did not agree with them – as he much preferred the Buddha’s teachings and yearned from an early age to seek further instruction in the Dharma, and to become a Buddhist monk. 

 

He left home at the age of 19 and permanently turned his back on the world of delusion. Even as a monk, the world can present expected and unexpected temptations.  When Xu Yun was 38 years old (1877/78), he was riding on a small boat travelling between Ningbo to Hangzhou.  At night a young woman made advances toward the master, who in response sat-up in the meditation posture and started reciting a mantra.  At that moment the woman could not move, and the situation did not progress any further. Through thick and thin master Xu Yun remained a monk for the next 101 years.

His life time witnessed tumultuous changes in the political and cultural life of China. He was born during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and experienced the collapse of the imperial feudal system which had existed in China for over two thousand years. He saw the establishment of the short lived Republic of China (1912-1949) and the eventual victory of Mao Zedong’s Communist forces in 1949.  In the New China, the strength of his character and the depth of his spiritual attainment helped Chinese Buddhism begin the transition into the modern age. Many good and fine masters, who were his disciples, such as Sheng Yi, Ti Guang, Ben Huan, Hai Deng, Yi Cheng, and Jing Hui, and many others, lived into recent times, and have kept the legacy of Chinese Ch’an Buddhism very much alive.  This is because master Xu Yun almost single-handedly revived the Ch’an tradition, breathing a new and dynamic life into its various lineages.  Indeed, master Xu Yun is viewed as being the rightful heir to all Ch’an lineages, and in so doing is considered the Right Dharma Eye for this Generation.

Venerable Master Sheng Yen: Learning to be a Farmer

The Diamond Sutra Chapter 3 The Orthodox Doctrine of the Great Vehicle

From The Diamond Sutra Chapter 3, pg 77.
http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/prajparagen2.pdf

The Buddha told Subhuti, “all Bodhisattvas, Mahàsattvas, should thus subdue their hearts with the vow, “I must cause all living beings — those born from eggs, born from wombs, born from moisture, born by transformation; those with form, those without form, those with thought, those without thought, those not totally with thought, and those not totally without thought — to enter nirvana without residue and be taken across to extinction. Yet of the immeasurable, boundless numbers of living beings thus taken across to extinction, there is actually no living being taken across to extinction. And why? Subhuti, if a Bodhisattva has a mark of self, a mark of others, a mark of living beings, or a mark of a life, he is not a Bodhisattva.

The Buddha told Subhuti how all Bodhisattvas should subdue their hearts. All can mean “many," the entire host of Bodhisattvas, or it can refer to each individual Bodhisattva; or it can refer to just one specific Bodhisattva. Many is just one, one is likewise many. Two comes into being based upon the existence of one. Adding one, two, three... eight, nine, ten and so forth, there arises the many. Thus all is said to mean one.

“Which one?
The Bodhisattva who subdues his heart. And if you
really want to know who that Bodhisattva is, you are that Bodhisattva. 

The Merits of Reciting Sutras

Reciting sutras benefits oneself and one's family and represents spreading the teachings of the Buddhadharma. It can also benefit other sentient beings who are hearing the recitation. Its ultimate purpose is that we observe the teachings of the sutra and act accordingly.

Personally for me, after reciting Om Mani Padme Hum, my desire to eat meat and seafood has reduced. Before I recite the mantra, every week I would indulge in fried prawns and seafood. Now I feel guilty if I eat meat. So for me, reciting mantra reduce my desire for meat. Now I eat more vegetables instead.