Maturity of Causal Conditions for
Bodhisattva Earth Treasure's Fire Puja
Yutang Lin
After Guru Chen entered Nirvana in 1987 I performed fire pujas using only rituals composed by him. Only until 12 years later, after he appeared in a dream and gave instructions, had I composed accordingly a fire puja ritual for making offerings to Guan Yin. Shortly thereafter, due to petition from a faithful Buddhist and immediately subsequent auspicious omens, I composed another one for making offerings to Manjusri. This is because fire pujas are salvation activities and they cannot be effective when done out of personal intentions without qualifications; only with blessings from Buddhas and Bodhisattvas can fire pujas be truly beneficial to beings seeking help.
Over a period of more than a decade in the past there were frequent requests from disciples and Buddhists for fire pujas to Bodhisattva Earth Treasure. And yet I had not started to compose such a ritual because I fully understood that it would be meaningful to undertake such an endeavor only after auspicious omens had appeared. During the Asia trip I took in June and July of this year Bodhisattva Earth Treasure graced us with his holy presence during several Powa services performed at various places. At the fire puja to Green Tara performed in Chu Shan, Nan Tou, Taiwan, it so happened that a disciple set a statue of Bodhisattva Earth Treasure on the altar table. In Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia a Buddhist offered me a Hundred-years-of-age bowl that was a souvenir from Jiu Hua Mountain, the holy land of Bodhisattva Earth Treasure in China. In Guang Zhou, China a faithful Buddhist came from He Bei and offered me Fo Cha (Buddha Tea) of Jiu Hua Mountain. In Kun Ming, Yun Nan, China we encountered a Tibetan style statue of Bodhisattva Earth Treasure at the Lian Hua Jing She (Lotus House, Building of a Buddhist Society), and there a disciple offered me a Thangka of such a holy image. Auspicious omens kept arriving one after another; thus we saw that the causal conditions for composing such a ritual had become matured.
Hence, I will soon compose it. And I wrote this short article to record the causal conditions for its making. Later I will attach this article to the end of the ritual to help the public understand why we are so careful in performing Dharma activities. And I hope that Dharma practitioners in the future will comprehend such profound sincerity and learn to wait patiently for maturity of causal conditions, and thus be spared of frivolous and hasty attempts.
Written in Chinese on August 3, 2008
Translated on August 8, 2008
El Cerrito, California
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