After that, the servant continued to say, “Do you know? Our female lama there, oh, she is terrific! Sometime ago, some people stole her things. She simply looked into a bowl with just water inside, and from looking into the water she knew who the thief was and where the stolen things were. Then she told people to arrest him.” After hearing that, the two men dared not say more. Good, the matter was settled. OK, they left. After a while, they came back with a lot of things to make offering to the female lama. Meaning the lama from France. Then they said, “Incidentally, two of our horse(-people) are missing. Can you look into the bowl, the bowl of water, to see where they have gone, or who stole them?” Wow! That’s it. Our female lama hid in the tent and dared not come out.
Afterward, her adopted son handled the problem outside, and he also had no idea. Her adopted son told them… The adopted son, also a lama, he said, “Our great female lama is meditating inside, practicing spiritually. We don’t dare to disrupt her. No one can see her now. But if you come again next morning, she definitely will see you.” OK, so they just put the things down and leave, gone. And then the next morning. Ah, not yet. After the men leave, the adopted son quickly goes to her tent and asks, “Can I come in?” Of course she says, “Yes.” Upon entering, he says, “Just now those people wanted you to see where their horse(-people) have gone. Because the other day, that servant told them you can find missing things just by looking into a bowl of water.” Then the female lama nervously asked, “What did you tell them?” Then her adopted son said… Have you read the book? No? OK.
Her adopted son said to her, “I told them, of course you can do that, but the atmosphere should be spiritual and solemn. You can’t just see right away like that. And not just any water fetched from the river can be used for seeing. You have to get very clean water and watch it for three days. A lot of incantations need to be done within those three days, as well as many, many rituals. And many deities and many… Heavenly beings of the sort have to be evoked before it can be done. And…” He too knew that Tibetans, except for in really urgent or life-threatening situations, don’t kill people. Because they also know killing karma is very heavy. They only do robberies and rarely take lives unless they’re forced into the situation. Therefore, they also make use of that kind of mentality of theirs and continue the talk.
Her adopted son said that after the French lama, after the great lama knows who did it, she’ll give that man’s name to the high official for the judge to handle. The man will definitely die, or be beaten to death, or be executed under the death penalty. No one in this world will be able to save him because if the deity catches robbers, he will make those robbers his victims, meaning his sacrifice. They’re going to die for sure. And then he will suck out their souls. If those robbers are not killed, he will absolutely catch the one suing them instead because these deities never spare anyone. If he does you a service, he will reclaim the credit for himself. Oh. That’s why they’re scared and dare not make any request. They don’t want to kill, and they’re scared of being killed themselves. So they don’t want to… (Ask for trouble.) keep getting involved. And in three days, she had to go through a lot of scriptures, and chant many spells. It’s not just that bowl of water alone. And he also said, “But, in those three days, she won’t necessarily be here because she has been invited by some great lamas to perform rituals in other places, so she’s now short of time and won’t stay here. Therefore, three days is not enough.”
Wow, she was happy to hear it. So, in the morning, those people came bringing things to make offerings again. And she also said the same thing. The woman, the female lama, said the same thing, so they did believe it and leave. And the servant on the side laughed so hard, saying, “How dumb they are. They believe anything.” The servant knows it’s not right because he often lives together with the foreigner. He knew they have a lot of tricks so he also understands those things. He doesn’t believe that kind of stuff. He knows them. He says those people are too stupid, fooled so easily. That made him laugh for several days. He told those stories every day and kept laughing and laughing.
One day, the female lama went out to look for food and flowers, exotic flowers and rare herbs, to send back to her country for study. She went out. And when she came back, she happened to see the servant coming out from her adopted son’s… what is it? What is it called? The tent. When he was coming out, he was hiding something around his chest area with his face looking all nervous, acting sneakily as if he was doing something bad. But she said nothing. Then her adopted son came back and said, “Hmm? How strange. I was just counting money here, and someone called me out of the blue and asked me to go outside. I went out and left the money here. Now I’m back, and it’s three dollars short.” OK. She didn’t say anything.
Three days later, the female lama set up a huge Buddhist altar with flowers, fruits, and stuff, and put a bowl of water there. She wore a hat, let her hair all down, put on one of those oversized lama robes, and sat there meditating. And she waited and waited until the Tibetan servants all went to bed, or at least were all inside. Before going to bed, they all took off their outer clothes. It’s common, a common habit there. And they put all the precious things under the pillow. It’s a Tibetan habit. So, she waited till, as you all know, they’ve probably taken off their clothes and lain down. She immediately called the servant over and talked to him in a serious way. With the bowl of water in front of her, she said to him seriously, “I just saw the three dollars under your head when you lay down to sleep. Bring it here immediately.”
Wow! The servant is terrified, and bows down right away like prostrating at her feet. “Yes, yes. Yes, yes. Rinpoche, Rinpoche, Rinpoche.” And he rushes to get the three dollars and gave it to her. She saw it. That’s all. He gave it to her, trembling, as he said, “Oh, Rinpoche, could you save my life? Will the deity kill me?” And the Rinpoche told him, “He won’t. I’ll save you. I’ll think of any possible way to save you. Rest assured.” And that’s it. From that point on, he no longer dared to laugh at the… the bowl of water, or those fools, those easily fooled, gullible people. He thought it’s real. OK. This is another story. OK. Let’s get back to that story.
Alright. Now, our principal character, main character. The story of our main character. One time, she also encountered a group of Tibetans, who belonged to a sect of black magic. Their master, or patriarch, was a very great Tibetan lama with black magic power. After he passed away, according to their tradition, his tool of some sort, his ritual implement, was handed down to the head disciple he had chosen, for safekeeping. It cannot be given to anyone else, nor can it be placed in other places. However, after the implement was handed over, many strange things happened. Sometimes people died, or animal(-people) died. Or there’d be a lot of noise in the box. It’s a small knife placed inside a box, wrapped layer after layer.
But strange things happened sometimes. The box would move or make a lot of noise. Many unfortunate things happened. They got terrified, and later came up with some way to get rid of it. They dared not give it to anyone, and no one dared accept it. Because if it doesn’t belong to you, meaning the ritual implement of black magic, or if it’s not given to you personally, and you take it by yourself, then you’re asking for trouble, not to mention it already has a record. Those black magic tools often make nonsense happen. Therefore, no one dares to take it; that’s how legend has it. So, they tried to put it inside a cave, where no one had been to before.
But the cowboys over there objected. They were against it because some ritual implements had also been placed there before and flew around uncontrollably. The ritual implement flew around in the air and killed men, ox(-people), and animal(-people). They said it had happened a lot so they didn’t allow it. They didn’t allow the thing to be put inside the cave again. They had to take it back and asked many great masters to help them make paper talismans, and paste them on the outside. They hung it up and wrapped it carefully with many layers of talismans, so that it wouldn’t fly out. Then, wherever they go, they have to carry that kind of unwanted gift which can neither be put away nor thrown out.
It happens that Alexandra… Did I say it right? (Alexandra.) Ah? (Alexandra.) Alexandra. OK. Not “elephant tooth is big.” (Chinese language pun) No. Elephant tooth is big. They met, and she really wanted to take a look. They said it’s OK to look, but the box must be closed right away afterward. Originally, they didn’t want to let her take a look, but because Alexandra was with her son, who said, “Wow. She also has quite some magical powers, and she’s like this and that. She’s powerful, and nothing will happen. Show her and maybe she can help you take care of the matter.” Of course, they wouldn’t give it to others, nor could they sell it, because they couldn’t do that. Their so-called master lama will come and kill them if they give it away or sell it. That’s why none of them dared to do that. After talking a lot, a lot, finally, they were willing to show them. But after she takes a look, they’ll close it right away and stick talismans on it at once. They were scared.
When Alexandra saw it, wow, she liked it so much, so much, so much that she wanted to make it hers. But she didn’t know how she could get it. She thought about it and said, “OK, I’ll watch the box for you, so that you can set your mind at ease and go have fun. You can come back for it later. It’s alright. Tonight, I think it’s better that you stay next to me.” To do what? “To pitch the tent.” And they also happened to see there was lots of good food, and people to chat with so they said, “OK,” and stayed with her. Then she put the box inside her own tent, and tried to figure out a way to own it, how to buy it. She kept thinking; she was so fond of it. So fond of it out of the blue.
As everyone is sitting and chatting by the fire, she got the knife, she opened the box, took it in her hand, and went out with it. She went further away by herself, and put it on the ground, pondering while meditating. She meditated for a few hours. Not a few hours, maybe one or two hours or so. All of a sudden, she felt someone approaching, and she opened her eyes. There was really a lama, who seemed to be there for the knife. As he stretched out his hand to get the knife, Alexandra thought to herself that some other lama also wanted to snatch her favorite item. She said, “How strange! How come, as a lama, he was sneaking out at night to steal?” Since there were also some lamas staying together with them. She thought one of them was also being greedy and wanted to take her item. So, she instantly jumped over there to grab the knife back. As soon as she took back the knife, the lama disappeared.
Feeling very angry, she returned to the tent and scolded, “Why aren’t you people honest? Why did you sneak there to get the knife? Who was not here just now?” It turned out that everybody was there. There were no other temples around, nor were there other lamas, none. Then those lamas, those Tibetan people asked Alexandra, “What exactly did that lama look like?” So she described him. They then said, “Oh, that was the great master of ours! Oh, amazing, amazing! Oh! You’re astonishingly great.” They all bowed down because she won against him. They said if that lama, the dead lama, who had revealed himself, had gotten hold of the knife already, he’d definitely have killed the female lama. He had never spared anyone. He’d definitely kill the one who tried to take his item. They totally respected her and thought that she had greater magical power than their master. She didn’t tell if that’s really what it was.
However, it might have been the situation where a soul exerted all his power to get his own item. It’s possible. It’s different from a manifestation body. They’re particularly into causing trouble, doing bad things, scaring the daylight out of people or harming people, nothing good. Those are the kind of ghosts which are asuras. They can’t be reincarnated, nor can they be liberated from the cycle of birth and death. They can’t cut off their greed, hatred, and ignorance so they wander around like that. A Master’s manifestations are different. When He is still alive, He can have thousands of billions of manifestation Bodies to save His disciples anytime, or to take care of them. It’s different. Understand? (Understand.) Therefore, sometimes if you find noisy sounds of chopsticks and bowls at your home or next door, that’s not Master’s manifestation Body. OK, time to rest. (Thank You, Master. Thank You.) (The stories Master told are so interesting.)
Photo Caption: “Fourth Level Saint Visits”
