The supernatural events at Long Binh Dien-Mytho

[Lĩnhnam]

LONG BÌNH ĐIỀN (Thần bí và Đạo - Cư sĩ Triệu Phước) translated by Dian., edited by Xiaobaiyun

Story by Old Guru-Scholar Trieu Phuoc, from Trang Den Magazine in 1982.
The supernatural events in Long Bình Dien - MyTho Province

We arrived at My Tho by 8:00 am and went to doctor Quốc Hùng’s residence. Then with him, his brother and some of our religious brothers we all went to visit an ancient temple that was built over 100 years ago. Dr Q.H said this is one of the great wonders of South VN and a famous temple in My Tho province.
In the afternoon, Dr QH arranged for us to visit one of our religious brothers in the area. At his place, we went to a quiet place on the first floor where he had the Buddha altar in order to resolve some questions about the mystical phenomenon which were put forth by brother Qhung. We will only present the following two typical cases:

The first case is about brother Lam, Hung’s cousin. Lam had learned martial arts with Reverend Thich Tam Giac and was awarded the first degree (Dan) black belt in Judo. Following April 30, 1975¹, in order to avoid military service, he joined the Academy of Sports and Gymnastics in Saigon, and received further training in martial arts. Because he was gifted and endured succesfully the training regimen he was nominated to compete in martial arts tournaments in Russia. As a result he brought down a number of Austrian fighters in the preliminary rounds and won a medal for VN. In the semi-final round he was knocked out by his Japanese opponent.

Upon returning to his home country, he was wronged by the School Board officers who put his name on the list for military service, contrary to regulations, because he did not try ro “butter them up”, being straightforward in nature. Dissatisfied, he dropped out of the Sports and Gymnastics Academy and filed a complaint against the unjustified actions on his case and a number of other wrongful actions on the part of his direct supervisor. As a result, the school Board officer was reprimanded and transferred. As for Lam, he went back to working with his father on the road construction team in My Tho province (his father was an honest and able public work employee who was allowed to keep his job).
Continuing Lam’s story: About five months earlier, during a visit to Long Binh Dien Temple in My Tho province, he suddenly became possessed and totally out of control,as he performed many unusual acts. When he returned to his normal self he was very surprised to find himself sitting on one of the beams supporting the roof of the temple, high above the ground. There was no way he could have gotten up there without having anything to hold on to. He was confused as to how he could get down.

The faithful of the temple who were there at that time had to find a long ladder to help him get down. They recounted to him that while he was possessed he had performed a number of excellent kungfu style movements. The spirit possessing him had revealed himself to be the god of Binh Dien and told the villagers about his personal story: A strong and brave military leader, he had been serving General Le Van Duyet (1763-1832), and after his glorious death on the battlefield, the king issued a royal edict, promoting him to be a God for his war merits, patriotism and loyalty. A temple was erected for his worship.

The old temple keeper who had withnessed the whole incident said that the God in Lam’s body spoke in fluent Chinese (Lam does not speak Chinese at all) and said that his story did accord with history.

Since then every time Lam went to that temple he became possessed and did many strange things in front of the villagers, to the point that he did not dare to go there anymore, partly because he was embarrassed and partly because he was exhausted by the possession. It has been more than 3 months that he has stayed clear of the temple and he is no longer possessed. His story was well known by everyone in Long Binh Dien.

We briefly explained to Lam that because of his previous spiritual affinity with this God, his body was borrowed in order to make manifest phenomena which are totally mysterious to mortal minds, to give a wake-up call to the incredulous and the people in that village, thus warning them not to be so attached to this false and temporary wordly existence as to create further bad karma for their souls. By lending his body, Lam also had partly contributed to stimulating public opinions about these fantastic happenings in that village; thus he did earn some merit for himself.

We affirmed to Lam that we can invite this deity to come inside his body, first it is to give our mantra practitioners here more faith, and secondly to transfer Lam’s questions and requests to the deity.

Lam asked, if he still has spiritual affinity with this God, then could He let Lam retain his consciousness while being possessed? In that case he would be willing to associate himself with the God in saving people and earning spiritual merits. And when He made his exit, could it be done smoothly so that Lam did not have to fall over, since that was painful and looked ridiculous. Also, if possible, could the God let him practice Esoteric Buddhism.

Then, drawing on our experience, we carefully let him sit with his legs crossed and his back against the wall, with two persons sitting by his sides, ready to hold him up before we invoked the God at Long Binh Dien to come and talk to us.

We burned incense at the Buddha altar and prayed according to Esoteric Buddhism rituals, asking for the Divine authorization seal in order to invoke the God at Long Binh Dien. This would help to strengthen the spiritual affinity for our religious brothers (we had gathered over 10 people at this place).

Lam’s body started to move, his hands making gentle motions, his face flushed red. We greeted him and asked the Spirit who just entered the body to let us know what his name was. We proceeded by asking successive questions.
First we asked: “Can the Spirit talk through this person?”
Lam shook his head, this meant the Spirit was not allowed to speak. We continued asking: “Is this the God at Long Binh Dien inside this body?” The answer was a no with a shaking of the head.
“Then who is inside Lam’s body, are you the Deity’s assistant who was sent by him?” Lam’s head was made to nod positively.
“Why did the main deity not come by? Is it because he is busy with Heaven’s court affairs?” The head shook to mean that it was not the reason why.

We continued inquiring: “Is it because He had some important things to do at his dwelling place, therefore He cannot come here?” Lam’s head nodded yes, that was correct.

“ Is it possible for Lam to remain conscious while being possessed and not to fall over when the Spirit exits?”
The Spirit shook the head negatively.
“ Lam wishes to seek refuge with the Buddhas of the Five directions belonging to the Vajrayana Realm in Esoteric buddhism, would you acquiesce to that?”
The Spirit approved it with a nod of the head.
We repeated this last question three times, and he pleasantly nodded yes for all of them.

Finally we said our thanks to this Assistant who had come to consolidate our faith as we practice the spiritual Path. Then we asked the Spirit to return Lam’s body to normal, if there was nothing he would like to add. Whereupon Lam’s body was forcefully jolted to the side and his head banged loudly on the wall so fast that no one could stop him even though we were already prepared to do so. Lam regained consciousness, fully unaware of what had been going on. We told him all that had happened.

That afternoon, he routinely went to Long Binh Dien to spend the night there. In the morning, he went to work in My Tho, and stopped by our place to tell us the following: last night, his relatives informed him that the villagers had gathered at the Temple to prepare the altar. That night at the Temple prayers would be started that last for 2 consecutive nights to get ready for the main ceremony “the festival of Thuong Dien²”, which would officially be celebrated in two more days.
That's how we came to know that all the temples in the country customarily celebrate the “Ha Dien³” and “Thuong Dien” festivals yearly.


¹: date marking the change of regime in Vietnam.
²: Thuong Dien: festival honoring the Gods of the Land, celebrated at the end of the rainy season to pray for peace and prosperity and to give thanks for good harvest.
³: Ha Dien: Ceremony to pay respect to the Gods of the Land celebrated at the beginning of the rainy season to pray for good weather and good harvest.

[Lĩnhnam]

LONG BÌNH ĐIỀN (Thần bí và Đạo - Cư sĩ Triệu Phước); translated by Dian., edited by Xiao Bai Yun.

Article from Scholar Trieu Phuoc in Trang Den Magazine in 1982 (mysterious phenomena at Mytho Province, VN).

Following Lam’s case, Dr. QH introduced Lady Hai’s case:

She was about 50 years old. She had been sick for over a year from an illness which the Vietnamese people call ‘imaginary ’. She had gone everywhere to seek treatment with Western and Oriental medicine, and even with spells and charms. Lastly, she heard of Dr. QH and came to him for help, telling him that she often felt very tired and had insomnia, and she also briefly talked about being possessed by some invisible entity.

After examining her, Dr. QH proposed to give her a special treatment, and gave her some vitamin pills that he had silently prayed over, with the mantras, while holding them in his hands (of course, she did not know about his mantra chanting). The result of his treatment was dramatic; she was able to sleep for a whole week and felt fully revitalized for a few days. However, her symptoms kept recurring, and there seemed to be no cure for it. Thus Dr. QH introduced her to us, since we had more experience in treating illness caused by the world beyond.

We asked Lady Hai directly about the mysterious symptoms she had been experiencing. She told us that she had visited many temples big and small to get treatment and to have her condition explained to her. She was confused because some “psychics” and mediums told her that she was possessed by so and so spirits, but at other places she was told about different ones, leaving her wondering about the exact identity of the spirit. Meanwhile her strange illness continued to afflict her, and it worsened right before the time she came to see Dr. QH.
She added that at some occasions, the Spirit made her clap her hands, and delivered an invisible power blow to the mediums who were supposed to give her the exorcism treatment, causing them to all fall on the floor. She was very proud of herself in relating this incident.

Drawing from our mystical experiences, we made the following evaluation of her condition:

She was actually having certain delusions of grandeur about herself. Having heard about us, she was just curious to find out how good we were, rather than actually believing that we could help her. She seemed presumptous; she was actually quite pleased about being possessed by a Spirit, who she mistakenly thought to be of very high status, as he had proved himself to be by giving so much hardship to the mediums she visited and sought help from.

The cause of her illness naturally comes from the invisible entities whose purpose is to influence her spirituality. They (the Spirits) caused her illness to force her to go to many places in order to learn spirituality and religious teachings from various mystics and religious practitioners. With the passing of time and by going to many places, willing or not, she would gradually absorb religious teachings.

The Spirit sometimes had to proclaim himself to be a Saint or God, just to suit Lady Hai’s self-importance and her vanity, in order to reform her religious and moral outlook. Her illness had to linger on because there was no one to reveal to her her egotistical character and to show her the correct way to change herself for the better, someone whom she would trust and listen to.

Having assessed the cause for her condition we asked her: What kind of help do you need from us? She said that she wanted to know who the Spirit was that controlled her body, is He superior or inferior in status ( here again, her persistent concern about high and low-ranking!), can we help her get rid of whoever it is that has been possessing her ( here she contradicted herself, because she often liked to tell people how the Spirit Helper had rendered her treatments (traditional cupping or bloodletting ) effective for a number of illnesses: cold, flu, vomitting, diarrhea …her actions were deemed meaningful in Vietnam in those days because of the lack of medicines and doctors.

We tried to analyze and explain to her so that she could recognize her wishful thinking and understand the law of Heaven, in order for her to accept the method that would quickly help cure her illness.

The first issue we raised with her was: “do you feel that you have progressed in the area of morality and spirituality since the Spirit possessed you and caused you to be ill?” She affirmed straightforwardly that she had progressed a lot in her understanding of religious teachings.

Secondly, we advised her not to try so hard in wanting to find out whether her Helper Spirit ranked high or low; we told her that this is not so important. The main thing is to focus fully on spiritual cultivation, to do more good than bad, and to help others to the extent of one’s ability in order to accumulate more virtue and merits.

The third thing we mentioned to her were the principles of Mysticism that we had been researching and had discovered through pragmatic experiences by witnessing many possession cases in various places in Vietnam, and by involving ourselves directly with the possessed person and returning them to normal. Thus we had systematized the principles and we wanted to help Dr. QH and our religious brothers at My Tho to clearly understand and to be able to apply them effectively in treating spiritual illness (exorcizing).

(to be continued)

[Lĩnhnam]

LONG BÌNH ĐIỀN (Thần bí và Đạo - Cư sĩ Triệu Phước); translated by ngocxuan, edited by XiaoBaiYun.

(continued)
We explained to Lady Hai and our religious brothers that these ‘modern’ spiritual illnesses tend to fall within the following three categories:

1. Those who have sown many bad karmas involving harming or taking the lives of other beings. The ghosts of their victims received orders to return and reclaim what was owed to them, according to the law of karma. They can possess the bodies of their debtors and cause them many afflictions and illnesses. In the case of murder, the possessing spirit can severely affect the hosts, driving them to insanity, and can even get their hosts to commit suicide by throwing themselves in dangerous places so as to destroy their mortal body if they do not repent soon enough.

For lesser bad karma such as bullying, oppression and other ill-treatments, the ghosts may only cause illness but cannot claim their lives. In this case, the illnesses are less severe. However, even for those who caused the death of others, Heaven’s law will prevent their being harmed by the ghosts of their victims if they truly repent and perform good deeds and offering the blessings they receive from spiritual practice to their victims, the ghosts. These ghosts will be led toward spiritual cultivation or toward re-incarnation sooner. Thus, the possessed person will recover completely. There have been many such cases in Vietnam.

2. The family’s ancestors (up to nine generations), having spent much time cultivating with the Celestial Divinities, receive orders to guide their descendants toward spirituality. First by performing mysterious phenomena to give them faith and the awareness of the afterlife, and secondly to lead them to the spiritual and moral life. They usually choose a member in the family to possess until the family realizes the underlying message, and may even cause their chosen ‘hostage’ to experience prolonged illness until the family submits. This phenomenon is also quite common in Vietnam nowadays.

3. Those who in their past lives had established a predestined affinity with the Divinities (genies, gods, and saints who once were mortals) by giving offerings to them while they were cultivating the spiritual Way. Those people always have silent guidance from these Divinities until the time has come for the Divinities to manifest themselves clearly by performing some mystical phenomena, and by doing so to encourage and guide their ‘protégé’ toward spiritual development so that they can catch up with the era of evolution set by Heaven’s Plan.

For less spiritually-minded people, the Divinities’ role is simply to prevent them from causing further bad karma and to perform good deeds. For those whose hearts are pure, who devoted themselves to the spiritual path, the divinities will perform miracles on their behalf to influence the entire population. According to our pragmatic experiences, this latter case is an unusual sign that signals a new era in which Heaven seems to be taking an active role in reshaping the spirituality of Vietnamese people at that time.

Still, there are people who are naturally devoted to the religious way and seek spiritual cultivation on their own; these people do not need to be possessed or made to be ill in order to prove to them the existence of the Spirits’ world. Examples are:

1. Spiritual practitioners from various religions and sects, having favorable conditions to cultivate themselves properly and preaching their faith. They will, at a certain stage of their religious practice, receive some ‘revelations’ and other divine gifts from the high Spirits (saints, immortals, Bodhisattvas from Heaven) that enable them to perform a number of miracles. Although these people are very happy with their sudden ‘empowerment’, they can’t help feeling confused and worried at the initial stage, as they had not been prepared for it.

On the other hand, there are those who become so excited at their wonderful performance that they wrongly think they have reached the peak of their cultivation practice and have attained some high ranking in Heaven’s hierarchy. We have actually seen these cases in Vietnam. In time we will gradually write about each of them.

2. Furthermore there have been many esoteric teachings which have been passed down from time immemorial, such as Esoteric Buddhism or other esoteric sects which Theosophy collectively named ‘The Dharma Gates”. In the past these teachings were secret, and the selection of disciples for its transmission was rather stringent. Today, Heaven has allowed the once secret teachings to be propagated widely to clearly prove to human beings, to those who have faith in the religious way but are not yet strong enough, and even to those who do not yet believe in life after death but who have a good heart, its existence, so that they can immediately experience spiritual phenomena in just half an hour or so, enabling them to prepare for the spiritual life just in time, and if possible, to become an officer with good morals and virtue, serving Heaven’s plan.

After analyzing the various mystical phenomena currently happening in Vietnam, we asked Lady Hai to sit cross-legged in front of the Buddha’s altar and to let us invoke her possessing spirit to come and possess her and to make clear the situation.

The invoked spirit came and took control of Lady Hai’s body, her arms started to make gestures of paying respect to the Buddha, her face flushed.
We started asking the spirit “could you please tell us of your association with this person?” (Lady Hai)

Speaking through her, the spirit answered: “there are two of us; one is her great aunt, and the other her own sister.”

We asked again: “Was the reason for her being possessed, and made to be ill, for her to know about the spiritual Way?” The spirit said that it was so.

We made our request: “if this person follows our advice, which is to strictly observe the five Buddhist Precepts (Lady Hai was a Buddhist), to read scriptures, to chant Buddha’s name every night and to do good deeds, would you then allow her illness to heal completely?”

The spirits promised that they surely would.

We thanked the Spirit(s) for having revealed to us and Lady Hai’s family the truth of the matter and what needed to be done. Afterward, we asked the spirits to return Lady Hai back to her own self. Suddenly, the possessing spirits made her clap her hands very loudly and they left.

Ms.Hai regained her consciousness, completely unaware of what had happened. Her family recounted everything to her. She promised to carry out properly all of our instructions so that she could soon be healed.

A month later, Dr. Quoc Hung informed us that Lady Hai had completely recovered.