Restraining the Mind

 

CASE  STUDY
Restraining the Mind

 

 

Dear Luang Phaw whom I respect the most,

 

The first time I came to the temple was in year 1990 (B.E. 2533), and I came here with my friend. From then on, I have pursued perfection with our merit-making group. I got the chance to donate 100,000 Baht ($1= around 40 Baht) to build Luang Pu’s Vihara. In year 2004 (B.E. 2547), Dhamma satellite was firstly created, so I have worked hard on installing it for temples in Narathiwat province. Even though some temples were in deserted and dangerous area, I’m still not obstructed. I still go there with my workers. It is amazing because sometimes it has rained a lot in my destination area, but as soon as I arrive at there, the rain suddenly stops and the sky becomes bright until I can get the Dhamma satellite installed. This really amazes my workers. I myself feel very delighted with this work because I believe that Dhamma satellite is the thing that can bring peace back to my beloved, precious homeland. I would like to ask for Luang Phaw’s mercy to dream about my story.

 

My father was born in China. He got married there and had 2 children. Later, China changed its administration, and products people made must be sent to the government. This troubled his family’s condition very much; therefore, my father had an idea to find some good opportunity in Thailand by making a journey from Vietnam to Thailand. Back then, my father was 20 years old. At the beginning, he had a job to carry rice bags. Afterwards, he ran a business and got to know my mother, a daughter of a village headman in Chanthaburi province. After having got married, they moved to Bangkok to sell clothes until they had 2 daughters. However, their apparel business was not successful; therefore, his friend recommended him to sell rice in Sungai Golok district. From then on, his family’s status turned better in a row. 

After having obtained the good status, my father sent money to his relatives in China until that relative could build a big house. Besides, he also liked to help troubled people until he was chosen to be the association’s chairman twice. Unfortunately, before his 2nd year saw out its term, my father passed away from the asthma he had suffered since his very young age. I was later informed by my aunt that his other 3 younger brothers living in China also passed away due to asthma as well.

On the day he was going to pass away, I brought him to a hospital’s ICU because his asthma turned worse. The doctor gave him an injection to stimulate his heart. Normally, he already suffered from coronary artery disease. When he got the injection, his body became tense. He discharged urine unexpectedly and passed away immediately. His sudden death puzzled me very much. After taking his body back home, I was still puzzled, so I just spent time looking at his body. Unexpectedly, I saw a picture of his face floating in this air about 1 cm. above his real face. His forehead was very sweaty. Looking at that picture for around an hour, that picture was kept in my mind. It is strange that the sorrow I had completely disappeared, Later, I was informed by my 3rd elder sister that she also saw the same thing. At that night, I slept tight, and when it was almost dawn, I saw him sitting on the chair at the end of my bed. 

My mother was a very good housewife who took good care of her children. But she did not really like me because she blamed me that her life was almost ended because my body was very big, so it was very difficult to deliver me. Once, when I was 4 years old, she lost 3-4 Baht of money. In that incident, she hit me over and over again and blamed me that I stole her money for snack. No matter how hard I tried to give her an explanation, she did not believe me, so she broke my fingers, placed my hand on the stairs and pushed my face down to the floor. Because I was hurt, I fought back by moving my hands back and forth to protect me, but she was stronger than me, so I lost. She pushed my face to the ground which gave me an unbearable pain, so I told my mother that I could no longer stand it. Nevertheless, she did not pay attention and still tried to accept that it was my guilt. However, I did not accept that it was my guilt because I did not take the money, then she held my hands and bent them backwards, and hit them onto stairs. It gave me the worst pain and the worst tiredness in my life. I lost all my energy and dropped myself to the ground. When she released my hands, I felt like I had passed away and resurrected. At night, I went to bed with fever. That incident has long been in my mind and that caused me not to have attaching feeling to her, but I still respect her because I know that only giving me birth is already a great favor.

 

When I turned 20, I decided to live with a woman (i.e. my present wife) until she became pregnant. At first, I informed my mother that I chose her to be my wife. At the beginning, she did not accept our love. She was very mad at me until stood up, pushed me with the intention to chase me away. She kept pushing me until I had to raise my hands up to protect myself. At that moment, she lost her balance and tumbled which gave her an injury at her hip, and that stopped her from walking. She had had to use a cane until later suffered from an enlarged heart and low blood pressure until her life became ended unexpectedly at her 72 years of age.

I have 3 children with my wife—1 son and 2 daughters. I’m lucky that every child of mine listens to their parents and pays attention to merit accrual. On normal Sundays, my eldest daughter normally supports works of Hat Yai Kalyanamitta center. And because of my eldest daughter, I got to know meditation. The story is, after my wife had conceived this daughter for around 8 months, I had to be by myself until I almost could not restrain myself and violated the 3rd precept because there were 2 groups of friends offering me some invitations. The first group invited me to go to Karaoke. The second group invited me to try meditation. 

 

I made a decision to join the meditation group to restrain my mind. They turned on a cassette tape of Luang Phaw Dhammajayo’s meditation teaching. I listened to it but still barely understood about crystal ball and inner body that Luang Phaw mentioned. But after meditating for a while, I felt like I floated into the air and immediately went straight down as if I fell into a chasm. Therefore, I stopped practicing meditation. On the next day, I tried meditation again to see whether it would happen again or not. At the second time, I felt like I almost stopped breathing, but it was, in my idea, impossible, so I just allowed it to happen. After a while, my mind stopped. I saw an eye-catching fist-sized yellow ball floating in the air in front of me. And then from yellow, the ball turned transparent like a neon light which refreshed my mind as if I were in fresh air.  Afterwards, I saw myself growing bigger in my stomach. Unlike my real face, the face I saw looked smooth and flawless. In my stomach, I was wearing a white outfit like the upasoks of Wat Dhammakaya (even though I still did not know Dhammakaya temple back then.)  Continuing to look, I saw my left thumb in perfect condition with no scar like the real one because my actual thumb was marked because of an accident.) Continuing to look, I saw soap bubbles around my body, and then I confronted an air pocket, then I found another soap bubble. This soap bubble was very vivid and produced a monk’s shape. I looked at his yellow robe and breast-girdle. His yellow robe was very beautifully yellow and deeply stunning. I had never seen a breast girdle like this somewhere else. The picture of the monk I saw was very clear and bright. His nose was beautifully prominent. His chin was remarkable. He carried an alms bowl and moved. After that, I quit mediation immediately.

 

Later, my friend brought me to Dhammakaya temple. As soon as I saw the yellow robes and breast-girdles of the temple’s monks, I recalled what I saw in meditation. They were exactly the same things, so I looked at them with a delighted heart. The Upasok’s outfit was also the outfit I wore in meditation. The only difference is the Upasok’s shirt had lower pockets, but my inner body did not have pockets.   

After that, one day, an older friend of mine gave me a glass of alcohol and told me that a man must drink some. Actually, I am allergic to alcohol. When I drink some, rashes appear immediately. But I could not refuse him, so I drank some. If my wife knew that, I would be in big trouble because she told me that she did not want a drinker as her husband. Arriving at home, I meditated. In my meditation, the soap bubbles I saw became black, but I still kept looking until I saw a picture of myself. It was dim as if it were in a dark room in the light of a flashlight. My body appeared dusty. I sat still and kept looking at it until I felt stable, and then I enlarged the body until it turned bigger than the room and that enlargement expanded on and on. Since that time, while working, I’m always with myself. 

One day, while sitting still at my work table, I saw a picture in my mind. It was a picture of my ex-teacher who taught me in the 1st grade, and we had not met for a very long time. He was standing at my front gate. I looked at him like I looked at something in meditation, i.e. I looked at him from the top downwards until I realized that he was my teacher and I suddenly felt gloomy which never happened to me before. On the next day, I visited him at home and saw people setting up a tent, and then I perceived that my teacher had passed away at the same time when I saw him. That incident really puzzled me. 

Three days after that, while meditating, a picture of a little boy, around 4 year-old, appeared in my meditation. Then, I opened my mind and thought to myself that it was only an imagination, but I still saw him in my stomach. To me, it seemed like he was telling me that he was going to be born in my neighbor’s house. On the next day, I found a couple who were my neighbors. They had been married for 7-8 years with no children. So I told them that I believed they were going to have a boy. They were surprised, so they asked me how I could know because they were about to get a pregnancy check since they wondered that the wife was pregnant. And it was real that they gave birth to a boy. Now, this boy is 10 years old and looks just like the boy I saw in meditation. The only difference is this boy is chubbier than the boy I saw in meditation.

These are my questions:

1.    What retribution did my father do which gave him asthma? He passed away because of the asthma or the stimulant? What kamma made him die like this? Since his 3 younger brothers also died because of asthma, will this asthma disease be handed down to his descendants? Is there any solution for it?

2.    What begot my father’s picture in the air and his forehead was filled with sweat? Why did my elder sister and I see the same thing? And why did my sorrow disappear when I saw that picture?

3.    Where did my father go after death? Was it real that he came into my dream? I cast him a personal Buddha image and made other merits for him? Did he receive them?

4.    Why did not my mother like me and blame me that she almost lost her life because of me? What kamma took an action to me that caused me to get cruel punishments from my mother when I was 4 years old with the accusation that I stole money until I cannot erase this experience from my mind up to now?

5.    When my mother pushed me, she accidentally tumbled until she could not walk and needed a cane’s help for many years until she passed away. Will I get any retribution of that? After death, where did my mother go? Did she receive the merits I transferred to her?

6.    In meditation, I saw myself in my stomach, wearing the upasok’s white outfit, and a monk, wearing a yellow robe and a breast-girdle, reaching out his alms bowl towards me. They are exactly the same things Dhammakaya temple uses. Why did I see that picture?

 

7.    What makes me allergic to alcohol and get rashes after I drink it? What caused the incident that after I had drunk alcohol and meditated, I saw my body dusty and not as clear and bright as before? What are the ill effects that alcohol gives to the inner experience? And I would like to know about one who usually drinks alcohol, what is the color of his inner body?

8.   When my ex-teacher died, why did his picture appear in front of me? Where did he go after death?

9.    What caused me to see the picture of the little boy, acting like he would like to tell me that he was going to be born? And is the young boy of that couple the same boy I saw in meditation? Where was he from?

10.    What merit gives me good children, and all of them listen to their parents carefully?

11.    In the past life, did my wife, my 3 children and I pursue perfection with our merit-making group? How was the meditation experience of each person, especially me who could meditate easily and obtain inner experiences quickly? 

Thanks a lot to Luang Phaw whom I respect the most.

 

 

Luang Phaw's Dream

I closed my eyes, dreamed and woke up with these answers.

When you tell anybody the story like a tale, it will make anyone know more about retribution (Law of Kamma)

1.  Your father suffered from asthma because in his past life, he was a soldier who was in charge of constructing the Great Wall of China. He commanded prisoners, prisoners of war and people to work hard with no break. And when some people took a break, he would whip those people until they lost all energy, and many of them lost consciousness and died. This retribution took action.

• Your father died because of asthma.
  

• Your father’s 3 brothers died from asthma because of their own previous kamma when they were born in the agricultural society. In that life, they made their slaves and animals work so hard until they lost their energy and died. This retribution took action.
• Asthma cannot be passed to descendants unless they have they same retribution as mentioned earlier. This retribution causes them to be in the same family.

2.  The picture of your father’s face in this air with sweaty forehead was begotten from your own mind that you looked at your father’s picture until your eyes saw overlapping pictures.

• That you and your elder sister saw the same thing was because of the mind as mentioned earlier.
• That you saw such picture and your sorrow disappeared because you began to accept that your father had passed away.

3.  After your father had died, he became a general earth-sprite and roamed around to seek for a new place to be born, and he was just born as a human not a very long time ago. So now, he cannot receive any merit transferred to him.

4.  Your mother did not really like you and blamed you that you almost caused her to die because in one life, your mother was the mother of a slave under your control in that life. You forced that slave to work so hard that the slave’s mother got angry. When you both became mother and child in this life, this kamma caused problems from nothing to happen to you.

 

• You, at 4 years of age, were given severe punishments by your mother due to the accusation that you stole her money until this experience never disappears from your mind because of the remnants of retribution in the life you forced slaves to work too hard as mentioned earlier. You blamed that slave that he stole food even though he did not steal it, and gave severe punishments to that slave. This retribution took action.

 

5.  That your mother pushed you and accidentally tumbled until she could not walk and needed a cane’s help for several years until she died, you will get some retribution because of that because you waved your hands to protect yourself a little too hard until she tumbled.  

• When this retribution takes action, you will just encounter the same situation because you did not intend to make her tumble. You were just upset.

• After your mother died, she became an earth-sprite and became a follower of an earth-sprite from the ogre clan.
• Receiving merit transferred to her, her life became better in every way, but she is not still a follower of somebody else.

6.  That you saw yourself in your stomach, wearing the Upasok’s white outfit, and saw a monk wearing a yellow robe and breast-girdle and reaching out his alms bowl towards you was an omen of goodness, caused by your previous merit that you made with our merit-making group.

7.  You are allergic to alcohol and get rashes after drinking because in your past life, you were drunk and cursed people, no matter if they were your own children or friends, but when you later found our merit-making group, you understood about the ill effects of alcohol, so you made wishes not to get into the circle of alcohol again, and whenever you drank alcohol, you wish something happened to make you quit drinking.

 

• That when you drank alcohol and saw black soap bubbles in meditation, saw yourself sitting in the darkness, your body was dusty and not as bright and clear as before, was because of the current of unwholesomeness that you saw in meditation.

 

• Drinking alcohol causes people to partially lose their control which will weaken their meditation and worsen their inner experience. 
• About one who drinks alcohol, his astral body will become dim until it turns black, and when he dies, he will go to the unfortunate realm.

8.  When your ex-teacher died, his picture appeared in your meditation because your mind was delicate enough to perceive the stories of people related to you.

• After death, he became an air-sprite in the group of wisdom of heavenly magician’s clan due to the merit he gave knowledge to his students.

9.  That you saw a picture of little boy acting like he was telling you about his upcoming birth was caused by the power of meditation that reached a level, so you could perceive what was going on. It was meditation in the level of astral body.

• That boy coming with those couple is really the boy you saw in meditation. Before he was born, he was an earth-sprite. 
  

10.  You have good children who listen to you carefully because of the merit you respected the triple gems, were gentle to ascetics, nuns, clergymen and people who observed the precepts.

11.  You, your wife and your 3 children pursued perfection with our merit-making group in the provisions division, but you ordained with our merit-making group for a while and meditated until your mind became contemplated in a level which caused you to meditate easily and obtain inner experience quickly. But later, your mind became jumbled up, so you left the monkhood to have a family.

 

 

• The meditation experience of your whole family is you at least could attain the clear crystal ball and crystal Buddha image which was enough to bring you back to the special zone of Tusita (the 4th level of heaven).
• Since we have met again in this life, you need to pursue perfection with all your might and make a wish to follow our group to the special zone of Tusita, the land of Bodhisatta, and never stray away from our merit-making group.

 

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