My visit to Master Chew Part 1

I went to visit Master Chew at Katong with my wife yesterday. Waited for more than an hour because there was someone who came before us. Apparently the guy was a difficult client, as he was not convinced of Master Chew’s power. Later I discovered from Master Chew that the guy was just curious and also a staunch Buddhist. He wanted to find out what is so great about this master and possibly debunk him. Master Chew did the luck changing ritual for him but he is not convinced that it will work. He wanted more prove. So Master Chew proceeded to use his clairvoyance power to see the guy’s house and described it in details. This time the guy was taken aback and could only utter the word: "Amazing!" repeatedly. Finally, it was our turn and Master Chew foretold my future first. Everything he said about how crappy my life has been is all true. He asked me whether I have seen before the two L-shaped metal rods he is holding. It was actually a dowsing tool and he has learned about its use from a Caucasian when he went to Sydney to do exorcism. The Caucasian man used it to test Master Chew’s power and now he is testing my energy with it. The rods are held parallel to each other. If your energy is negative (yin), the rods will crossed each other. If positive, they will drift apart. For me, the rods were crossed due to my bad luck (negative energy). I stood up and walked away, the rods responded by drifting back to their original parallel position. The moment I sat down in front of them again, the rods crossed themselves much to my expectations. I was skeptical since it can be mere illusion used to mislead people. But Albert Einstein, the great scientist was convinced of dowsing's authenticity. He said, "I know very well that many scientists consider dowsing as they do astrology -- as a type of ancient superstition. According to my conviction this is, however, unjustified. The dowsing rod is a simple instrument which shows the reaction of the human nervous system to certain factors which are unknown to us at this time." To be continued...

Hyflux and Education

A little girl from a kampong in Malaysia asked her teacher one day why there are poor people as well as rich ones and what is the difference between them. The teacher told her that difference lies in education. Education is probably the most directly way to abundance. From then on this orphan girl worked very hard in her studies as she wanted to give her adoptive grandmother a good life and be freed from their poverty-stricken days. This little girl's effort paid off and she is now the CEO of Hyflux, a big company in Singapore dealing with water cleaning. The Daoists believe that our life is made up of ten main aspects and our life can be improved through manipulation of some of them. The first five of the ten are fate, luck, fengshui (geomancy), good karma accumulation and education. While the first two are not within our control, the rest definitely are. And in the example above, we see the importance of education in improving our's life.

Saw Lilian Too

I was walking past Hyatt Hotel yesterday evening when I noticed two Tibetan monks standing outside the hotel lobby. So naturally I tried to check out who is showing these monks around. And lo, behold! It's Lilian Too, the world's best selling author on Feng Shui! Pity I didn't muster enough courage to walk up and say hi. Later I went back to Hyatt Hotel's lobby to wait for my wife but didn't see Lilian Too again. Probably because I don't know how to introduce myself to her and also the monks. How do you greet someone in Tibetan language? Or maybe they understand Mandarin? Hmm...I've been studying Feng Shui intensely for the past few months. And have read all the Lilian Too's books I can get my hands on. I think I am at the intermediate level and good enough to give advice to people on Feng Shui already. Hehehe... Learned Feng Shui many years ago from my Daoist teacher but I didn't take it seriously since I was very young back then. So, in a way I am not new to Feng Shui, thus making my recent study very much a breeze...

The cost of not practising meditation

Terrible terrible. I just stopped practicing meditation for a week only and my ability to calm my mind has deteriorated drastically when I tried meditating last night. This will serve as a reminder on the nature of cultivation, which is put nicely in a Chinese idiom, "Rowing against the flow of the river, one will recede if one fails to move forth constantly".

Finished 42738 of Lakshmi bija mantra.

Desperate Quotient

How fast and well you achieve something is dependent on your DQ or Desperate Quotient. The more desperate your are, the faster you achieve the thing. The fact that if you have not achieve your goal yet is because you fail to realize the urgency of it.

Ulcers and spirits

To this day, Western science is still unable to explain ulcer or what causes it. Nevertheless, everyone has had experienced it before. Despite it has no scientific explanation, we know that ulcer is a real biological phenomena. It is a situation where technology and research is not advanced enough to give us a clue. Using the same logical reasoning, modern science is unable to give a satisfactory explanation to the existence of spirits. Therefore we cannot deny the possibility of it being factual since it is highly probable that, like the case above, it can also be attributed to the lack of breakthrough in science.


While the so-called sciences of yesteryears had became the superstitions of today. So too may our modern sciences become the superstitions of tomorrow.

Laksmi Mantra

The word ''Lakshmi'' is derived from the Sanskrit word Laksme, meaning "goal." Lakshmi, therefore, represents the goal of life, which includes worldly as well as spiritual prosperity.
There's three methods of chanting mantra:

1. Mansika- Chanting of mantra in mind.
2. Upansu-Whispering of mantra so softly that no one can hear you. Only lips move in this kind of chanting.
3. Vachika-Chanting of Mantra loudly.

I chanted 41670 times of the Lakshmi bija mantra.

What is Fate?

Fate can be changed since it is simply our karma. Karma is the latent potential of something happening in a particular way. It is a seed brought forth to this present existence. It will grow and manifest itself when the time and conditions allow. Our luck, which is our energy level (whether high or low) interacting with the cosmos energy, provides the conditions for these karmic seeds to sprout along our lifetime. Thus, to change fate, we must know our karmic tendencies (the seeds) that are innate and make conscious effort to create (good tendencies) or prevent (bad tendencies) the conditions in our life that allow their manifestations.

Dreamt of the Gayatri mantra

Had a bad dream a few days ago. Dreamt that I was in a shopping mall and someone handed to me a baby. Mysteriously, I came to realize that the baby is possessed by some malignant spirit. I began reciting the Gayatri mantra to exorcise the spirit as the baby writhes in pain in my arms. The Gayatri mantra did not seem to work well for exorcism purpose and I was contemplating to use the Lakshmi bija mantra or Durga bija mantra. Then suddenly I was awaked before I can change to another mantra. I read somewhere before that if one is able to recite a mantra in dreams, especially nightmares for protection, it means one has achieved some level of siddhi with the mantra. The imageries in the dream will also reveal the specific level of mantra siddhi one has reached. Hope this is true. The Tibetan Buddhist monks believe that dreams are creations and effects of our Karma.

Stop my meditation class

i stopped going for my Qi-meditation class already coz there's nothing much to learn. In fact, with the yoga fad around recently, meditation classes are blooming like mushrooms and all the leotards-claded poseurs are rushing to attend them. But what do these people really know about yoga? They think that Yoga is a mere exercise and people of different religions can join without any conflict with their original faith. Wrong! In sanskrit, yoga means union with God, so if you are atheist, forget about yoga. For the poseurs, they only come in contact with the basics and knew nothing about the spiritual aspects. As for Christians and Muslims, the Vedic concept of God may be too different for them to assimilate. Asanas (the physical postures in yoga) are designed to strengthen the body so as to enable it to handle the energy involved during advanced training. It is a mere prerequisite. Most of the poseurs don't even know what kind of yoga they are learning, whether it is Bhakti yoga, Kriya Yoga, Raja Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Karma Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Tantric Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Mantra Yoga, or even Swara Yoga. The highest form of yoga is not the physical sorts but yoga of the mind, which is meditation. But can these pseudo practitioners sit down and meditate? No way, they will be too busy shopping around in their modern yoga gear and gym bag with a embroidered Om symbol on it, hah.

Back to the issue of meditation classes, the schools that conduct these classes are highly commercialised and are mere leeches out to suck your bank account dry. And they hardly teach any real stuffs. They play a tape or you follow the instructor's verbal instructions: "Breathe in, and chant So..........Breathe out and chant Ham...........". Bloody hell, the verbal instructions is in itself an obstacle for you to dive deep into the abyss depths of your mind. Serenity and sharpness of the mind cannot be bought with the money in your hand. Maybe that's why the commercial yoga schools come into the picture. To help get rid of yor money and put it in their safe hands.

Teachings of Harish Johari

Harish Johari is a painter, sculptor, composer, gemologist, chef, educator, author, and Renaissance man of ayurveda:

“Ayurveda says the universe is made of five elements. In the beginning, there was one absolute God, from whom came akasha, or ether, then air, fire, water, and earth. The whole world and the whole body are made of these elements, which we call tattvas. Because these elements are everywhere, we have them in our body as the three temperaments, or humors, which ayurveda calls doshas.”

Like most Yankee dairy farmers in the vicinity, Johari gets up very early, about 4:00 a.m. The predawn hour of morning is traditionally called amrit-bela, which means "time of nectar" and refers to a surfeit of rejuvenating atmospheric prana, says Johari.
"The prana available at 4:00 a.m. is completely detoxified and pure. Ayurveda says the divine energy descends on us before dawn. The gods come and give energy to whatever is needed, then leave. I learned about dawn from the saints who came to my house in my childhood. No spiritual life is possible, they said, without waking up before dawn."

Not only does Johari get up before the sun, he doesn't spend a lot of time in bed either. He says he sleeps about three hours maximum. "People who sleep seven to nine hours aren't sleeping. They dream and waste energy. When you start dreaming, it means the rest period is over and the mind starts its flirtations." One way to sleep less, says Johari, is to eat a more sattvic diet and do less "fantasizing" before going to sleep.
“We are made of sound. The first thing that came out in Creation was sound, then from sound came akasha. There is a sound essence, or tanmatra, behind each of the five elements. But inappropriate music can cause all kinds of problems, can even make people go crazy. Good and bad music directly and profoundly affects the body's seven subtle psychic energy centers, called chakras, which are spinning energy wheels arranged vertically up the spine from sacrum to crown.”

"Yantra is a visual tool of tantra that serves either as a centering device or as a symbolic composition of the energy pattern of a deity such as Lakshmi, Durga, or Kamla, as seen by tantric seers in their visions. A yantra is a geometrical pattern made of universal abstract symbols that both preserves or contains the essence of a thought or object and liberates us from bondage. As a tool, yantra is used to withdraw consciousness from the outer world and direct it to the inner world.

"Durga, for example, is the invincible wife of Shiva, with all manner of weapons and decorations - the unified symbol of all divine force. Meditation on the saffron color of Durga's yantra produces a calming complementary blue color, which fills the aspirant with serenity and purity."
"Usually people don't know what they want. If you want 200 things at the same time, your energy goes off in 200 directions and you can't do anything. You have to want just one thing. When they know their single desire, then we can work with that energy, then the bodymind is free to attain it."

"Whether you write, sing, cook, or paint, the breath is always there. Your breath will not be taken care of by any of the other tools of tantra. You must work on breath directly. The nostril breathing patterns serve as indicators of cerebral dominance and may help you anticipate your response to given circumstances. Swara yoga clearly states that certain activities are best performed when a particular nostril is operating. The nostrils should be checked around dawn before getting out of bed. In the event of wrong nostril dominance, one should not leave bed until the correct nostril starts operating. You can change nostrils by forced breathing on your side through the congested nostril."

Benefits of the Gayatri Mantra

There are seventy million supreme mantras contained in the Gayatri Mantra, thus chanting it will:

1. Protect you from harm wherever you are.
2. Reduce the effects of the wrong acts one does every day. There is no accumulation of karmic (result of action) debt, since each day's karma (action) is atoned for that day itself by reciting the Gayatri mantra.
3. Wards off all misery.
4. Relieves from all diseases.
5. Various kinds of powers will emerge in one.
6. Recited before taking one's meal, the food will get sanctified and become an offering to the deity.
7. Brings luster to the aura and promotes the accumulation of spiritual light at the cellular level.
8. Builds a cumulative quality of protection referred to as "spiritual armor." It gives protection to those who have become prey of black magic, and antieffects of demons instigated by black magic
9. Assures you a long life.
10. Gives immediate relief from bites of poisonous insects and creatures (scorpion, snakes etc.).
11. It is believed that for any one frightened in the dark, immediate chanting of the Gayatri Mantra is advised to get over the nervousness of the fright.
12. It is also believed that on starting any important and great work if a person detects some bad omen, that person must immediately sit down and chant eleven times the Gayatri. If on starting again, he meets with a new set of bad omens then he is to sit down again and chant the Gayatri for sixteen times, to remove the effects of the bad omen encountered.

Qi-meditation class

Currently I’m attending a qi-meditation class at Bukit Ho Swee Community Centre. The guy is around 40 years old and has a moustache. The classes are very informal. Most people come to meditate only. The teacher did not mention the name of their method and he said that he was not able to find the method in any books also. He asked me if I practice Dantien meditation but I told him no even though that is what I have been experimenting. The three instructors walked around to help students in meditation guide their qi up the spine. The pose is not important, but relaxation is the rule of the thumb. A straight back is not emphasized at all. Basically, we just interlock our fingers, sit in the Egyptian pose. Interlocking the fingers is said to have the ability to absorb any shock if there is a thunder or other forms of distraction. I meditated for 45 minutes. During the meditation, the instructors took turns to use their qi to guide mine. The first time they did it, I felt a gush of energy coming down from the top of my head, all the way down my torso and a lot of it going to my interlocked hands. I can feel my hands getting extremely warm and packed with a lot of tension. It is like tensing the muscles in your hands, the only difference is that my hands were totally relaxed. When you feel this kind of tension even though your hands are relaxed, you are actually feeling the qi. After the session, the teacher mentioned that my qi is very strong, thus I must not waste my potential. By the way, he mentioned that he could sense the qi intensity of other individuals when they are within a few meters and such ability can be achieved naturally with prolonged meditation. It is like a magnet’s sensitivity to the magnetic fields around it. Meditation increases such energy sensitivity in people. I guess that why my Daoist teacher can detect other masters even when strolling on the streets. These experts are sensitive to each other’s qi.

My problem with Dantien meditation

Whenever I concentrate on my Dantien or practice Vijja Dhammakaya, my focus will always shift to the left side of my abdomen instead of the centralized position. Maybe because of some previous experiences that left a deep imprint in my mind, creating the unconscious tendency to shift my focus to the left of my torso. In the end, my qi always goes to the wrong spot. Through months of experimenting, I discovered that concentrating on the navel is the best method to prevent the shifting.

Extracts from the article: The Mysteries of Mantra

Extracts from the article: The Mysteries of Mantra - Transformation by Conscious Sound by Muz Murray

Medical researchers in Paris have found that certain repetitive sounds played to cancer cells will eventually destroy them. This is a fascinating breakthrough, for all involved in sound-work. Over the past few years, having had several cancer patients in my mantra workshops, I have begun to receive letters from those who have been able to avoid operations after the effects of a workshop. One lady who was due for a mastectomy soon after a mantra workshop found the malignant growth had diminished after the five-days of chanting, so that the operation was deemed unnecessary. Five years later she is still chanting and still has her breasts. Another woman with cancer of the throat and barely able to speak had a remission and stabilisation with improved ability to speak afterwards. Clearly something powerful is in operation here.

If lifeless repetitive electronic sound can make cancer cells disintegrate in the laboratory, how much more effective the living sound of one’s own voice can be in toning the cells with the repetitive vibration of healing. Mantra is known for its vibrant pulsation of subtle healing frequencies which purify both mind and body. Because of its capacity to resonate in consciousness, it is considered by the great sages as the most efficacious method of unburdening the subconscious and cleansing it of residual traumas.

Accurate pronunciations of mantra Part 2

An interesting simile given by Master Guobin (a famous monk from Taiwan) I read somewhere: Mantras are like phone numbers. Mantras are direct links to the Buddhas just like phone numbers are direct communication means to homes. Without dialing the right numbers, one will not be able to call anyone. Sometimes, we may be lucky to get through even though we dialed a wrong number but it is definitely not the person we intended to call. Similarly, chanting a mantra incorrectly may still yield some effects but nevertheless, it is probably not the result we desire.

We all heard of the story of a man reciting Om Mani Padme Hum incorrectly as Om Mani Padme Niu. Despite the wrong pronunciation the man still managed to achieve a certain level of mantra siddhi with it. This story is not illustrating that pronouncing Hum as Niu is correct and it should be taught as such. Remember this happened in ancient times where people possessed better karma then now (long story to explain why, so don’t ask me). With little distractions and good karma, it was easy for him to get the mantra siddhi. On the other hand, we cannot possibly assume that we all have the same good karma and start chanting the mantras anyway we like. We mustn’t take any chances and waste our efforts.

Here’s another story told by a Rinpoche:
In ancient Tibet, there was a monk named Kuchintachahua and he practiced a special kind of sadhana. His mantra siddhi enabled him to carve words on rocks with his pestle with ease, like knife cutting through tofu. One day, a great monk came by and told him that his pronunciation was wrong and taught him the correct one. Upon changing to the new version, Kuchintachahua lost his power of writing on rocks. This was because he began to have doubts about the mantra.

What these stories are trying to say is that correct pronunciation is very important. But it is still secondary in comparison to one’s faith and sincerity. For the very moment you have doubts about the mantra or the guru that transmits the mantra to you, you will lose grasp of the mantra’s power. Thus, both faith and correct pronunciation must not be overlooked. Many Tibetan masters transmit their mantras each with their own local accents and pronunciations but their disciples still reap the results because of their faith and confidence they have in it.
For those who practice the mantras in other languages and have not gotten any results should try doing it in Sanskrit. Why deny yourself of the opportunity to achieve optimum result from your sadhana when a more accurate pronunciation is available?

The Difference between Namo and Namah

Namo is just a sandhi form of namaH, the visarga H changing to o before a soft consonant. ‘NamaH’ before words beginning with k, kh, p, ph. ‘Namo’ before words beginning with g, j, d, y, r, l, v, h (namo gaNapataye, vaasudevaaya) H changes to s : namaste, etc. H is elided before a vowel: nama iishvaraaya. H changes to avagraha ( ~ S ) before a : namo.astu te.
Both 'namo' and 'namah' mean the same. There is a sutra in Panini's 'Ashtaadhyaayi' --- 'hashi cha'. It means that if the visarga is followed by words belonging to 'hash' group, then the visarga becomes 'u' and then to 'o'. The alphabets which are in 'hash' group are: ha,ya,va,ra,la, jna,ma, nga, Na,na,jha,bha,ja,ba,ga,Da,da,gha,Dha,dha. Examples: om namo bhagavate vaasudevaaya. Here 'namah' becomes 'namo' because the visarga is followed by the alphabet 'bha' and this belongs to 'hash' group. om namah shivaaya Here 'namah' does NOT become 'namo' as the visarga is followed by the alphabet 'sh' which does NOT belong to 'hash' group.

Accurate pronunciations of mantra

Take for example that you saw a friend of yours in a distance across a river. His name is John but you can't recall it at that moment. So you started calling to him: "Harry!", "Tom!", "James!", etc, etc. In fact, you tried every name you know except John. Do you think your friend will respond? You maybe sincere and determined to call him but without shouting the correct name, how can you get his attention? Similarly, without reciting a mantra correctly, how can you expect to get a respond promptly from the Bodhisattvas and gods? So you think that with sincerity alone and a mouthful of gibberish, you can invoke deities? Think about this.......

Based on the arguement that accurate pronunciation is not important, can we assume that chanting Om Mani Padme Hum BACKWARDS will have the same merit? Hum Me Pad Ni Ma Om, Hum Me Pad Ni Ma Om, etc, ... If this is true, mantras and dharanis will serve no purpose. Then why do we bother to preserve them?

Yes, I do agree that there are cases of people reciting their mantras incorrectly but still achieving some power with it. But can you imagine the greater effect they can acquire if these people were to use a more precise pronunciation?

The Four levels of Sound

Extract from David Frawley's book:

These Yogas of sound are not concerned merely with the gross articulated sounds. Four levels of sound are recognized in Vedic and Puranic literature. The Rig Veda (I.164.45.) states, "Four are the levels of sound. Three hidden in secrecy cannot be manipulated. Mortals speak only with the fourth". These four are called Vaikhari, Madhyama, Pashyanti and Para. Vaikhari dwells in the throat and is our gross, articulated sound. Madhyama dwells in the heart and is our mental pattern or idea behind the sound. Pashyanti means seeing. It dwells in the solar plexus.
It is the essential meaning behind the sound, its archetypal content. Para means the transcendent. It is the essence of all sounds. It dwells in the root chakra. (Note that the powers of sound dwell in progressively lower Chakras. This is not because they are progressively lower powers but because they have the power over progressively deeper and more difficult parts of our nature.)
Hence the Yoga of sound is meant to take us back from our gross sounds to their idea content to the perception they represent and ultimately to the pure being behind that perception. It is not a process of merely saying sounds or thinking about words but tracing the origin of sound and meaning back to awareness itself by the power of meditation.
Sanskrit is the language of mantra, of spiritually empowered sounds. Its usage is to bring our minds back to the consciousness and power of mantra. Mantra is not just concerned with sound but with meaning. According to the view of the Yoga of sound, there is only one meaning in life, which is the Divine or our own Self. Each thing ultimately means all things. Each object is a symbol for the universe itself. Words represent this universal meaning broken down, fragmented and compartmentalized. To cognize any individual object we must first recognize its ground of being, which is the Divine. Yet we fail to notice this as it is immediate and before the activity of our thought and choice. If we hold to this primacy of being as the meaning of all objects, all things become doorways to the infinite.
While ordinary language seeks more precise and differentiated meanings, spiritual languages seek an expanded and integrated comprehension until one is all and all is one. They aim to free meaning from its imprisonment in words and their arbitrary conventions. In reality, all things are meaningless in themselves, or each thing means the entire universe. It is only the universality of meaning which allows for specific meanings to occur. This inquiry into meaning is the essence of the Yoga of sound. It involves freeing our mind from its attachment to particular sounds and to the tyranny of names.
All learning involves the energization of the mind. It is by the power of attention, the concentration of the mind that one comes to know anything. As long as we are distracted or our minds are wandering, we cannot come to really see anything. Hence the real object of learning is not to learn anything in particular but to gain the mastery of the mind through the power of attention. Then we can find truth in all things.
This energization of the mind is the true purpose and meaning of mantra. Whenever we have a deep insight or profound realization in life that thought has a special power. The empowered thought is mantra. Hence the more deeply we can think and inquire into things the more our thoughts become mantra, the greater our power of observation, the more mantric force enters into our minds.

The importance of chanting in Sanskrit

Why bother to learn the Sanskrit version of all the mantras and dharanis?If we are to look at how the Sanskrit language came about, we will surely understand why we should chant the mantras and dharanis in their original form.Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas. The Vedas are probably the earlier literatures written by Man and were the holiest texts regarded by the Hindus. It originates from the rishis, who were spiritually refined saints. During their deep meditations, the rishis tuned their minds inwards on the subtleties of their body. As a result of different levels of attainment and focus, the rishis could hear and feel the corresponding vibrations in the body. By vocalizing these vibrations, the fifty letters of the Sanskrit language were formed. Each of the fifty letters corresponds to one petal of the lotus flower residing in the seven chakras in our body. Reciting a letter will bring a respond from the related chakra, which is why chanting in Sanskrit is so important. This sacred history of the language is seldom mentioned in books until recently, in Deepak Chopra's book 'Sychrodestiny' in which he gave a short account of it. To emulate the vibrations closely, the tongue and mouth positions are greatly emphasized, making it the only language devised according to where in the mouth the sounds are made. It is therefore a language greatly dependent on its vibratory nature. Being a language of sacred origin, Sanskrit has more words for the Divine and more precise terms for defining consciousness and meditative experience than any other language. As a result, it is rarely used in conversation but for religious verses and texts, both Hindu's and Buddhist's.Sanskrit mantras are primarily found in Hinduism but due to their power, the Lord Buddha too used the language extensively, especially in the mantras and dharanis. From the origins of Sanskrit, we realized that other than the emphasis on the depth of our sincerity, the pronunciations are equally important and not to be overlooked in order to fully manifest the mantra’s or dharani’s power.Remember, a mantra is like a bird and one’s sincerity and accurate pronunciation are the two wings of it. Without either one, the bird cannot soar into its actualization.

Happy to meditate? Or meditate to be happy?

Watched a documentary on Discovery channel yesterday about happiness and its relation with the brain. In the show, a Caucasian monk who lives and meditates for years in Tibet was invited to the United States to help scientists in the study of the brain and emotions. They discovered that his (the monk) part of the brain that is linked to the sense of wellbeing and happiness is always turned on. Despite being bombarded with visual and audio multimedia stimuli of inhumane and violent acts, the monk's mental serenity remained unwavered. Through years of meditation, he is able to control his emotions absolutely and thus stay in a perpetual state of bliss. The scientists cannot help but declared the monk to be one of the happiest person in the world. This is the power of meditation and gradually modern science is beginning to give the practice a second look.

Quote of the day:
It is important to enjoy meditation, or else one will inevitably begin looking outside for enjoyment. - Venerable Chandako