Purple Lotus Publisher > Journal > Volumn NO. 11

Reminiscing About Chichi

The Twelfth Anniversary Celebration of Purple Lotus Society

Written by Sue Zhang
for the True Buddha News Issue 221, May 13th 1999

Translated by Janny Chow

May 2, 1999 was the twelfth anniversary of the establishment of Purple Lotus Society. This year, the celebration was very unusual. Under the leadership of Master Samantha, a group of monks, nuns, students, and volunteers from Purple Lotus Society (altogether there were one hundred-sixty-two of us), made a trip to the Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple in Redmond and the Rainbow Villa to pay homage to our Root Guru. On May 2nd, at the newly constructed Fire Puja Auditorium at Rainbow Villa, H.H. Living Buddha Lian-sheng, our dear Root Guru, especially conducted a Red Jambhala Enhancement and Magnetization Fire Puja on behalf of the Purple Lotus Society. The goals of the fire puja were to supplicate for great lineage empowerment so that the building of the Purple Lotus Thunder Store Temple and Wa Kwong Purple Lotus University will be speedily realized.

Since its founding twelve years ago, the Purple Lotus Society has been disseminating the Buddhadharma and promoting the teaching and practice of the True Buddha Dharma in the San Francisco Bay Area, enabling many people to embark on a wonderful spiritual journey towards self-mastery and liberation. Over the last twelve years, Master Samantha has traveled extensively throughout the world to teach the True Buddha Tantric Dharma, and her selflessness and compassion have touched the hearts of numerous students. Due to this reason, many students living outside San Francisco have also come to attend this anniversary celebration. Some of them have traveled from Houston, New York, Los Angeles, Ohio, North Carolina, Canada, Indonesia, and Taiwan. Close to four hundred masters, venerables, and students attended the fire puja.

In order to make this fire puja a complete success, Master Samantha and the society have spent a great deal of time and energy into preparing and decorating the shrine for the fire puja. The chief colors for the offering items were yellow and red. Around the shrine were more than two hundreds pots of pink lilies decorated with ribbons. Two Red Jambhala statues were enshrined behind the fire puja altar each holding a banner: one read giving Money is Nice and the other read having Self- Mastery is Even Nicer. In front of the mongoose of each Red Jambhala was a pile of gemstones and jewelries, signifying the inexhaustible abundance of Dharma resources. At one corner of the shrine was a display of the seed syllable of the fire puja main deity formed by more than a hundred golden miniature sized Red Jambhala pins.

Before the fire puja, Master Samantha, on behalf of all members of the Purple Lotus Society, made an offering which included a five-colored kata and five pure gold nuggets to His Holiness as a sign of our highest reverence. Amid the powerful chanting sounds of the Red Jambhala Heart Mantra, His Holiness lit the homa fire and started feeding the fire with the carefully chosen offerings. With the skillful play of Dance of Mudras, His Holiness invoked the Main Deity to bless and fulfill the wishes of all participants.

After the fire puja, His Holiness gave the following brief teaching, the decoration for the shrine was exceptionally fine today. Before the fire puja was even started, the main deity and other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas had already descended to the shrine. Since the main deity is Red Jambhala today, I have decided to wear a red ceremonial robe and a red ceremonial hat. I really cannot get myself any redder than this. A few days ago, my eyes suddenly turned red. Master Lian-hsiang and Master Lian- ning took me to see an ophthalmologist, but he could not find anything wrong. My eyes are still a little red today. The Red Jambhala told me that since it was a Red Jambhala Fire Puja today, the red eyes were just a sign of logic response? If the main deity had been Yellow or White Jambhala, my eyes might have turned yellow or white. [audience laughter] The Purple Lotus Society goal for this fire puja is to build a Purple Lotus Thunder Store Temple and University. There is a Chinese idiom that says that its gloriest moment, red turns into purple, so it makes sense that the Purple Lotus Society is asking the Red Jambhala to help them. I believe the main deity for the fire puja today will bless everyone so their wishes will be fulfilled.

After the fire puja, the venerables from Purple Lotus Society and the students from the elementary school of the Purple Lotus Institute put together a variety show for everyone present. A particularly entertaining performance was a Hawaiian dance performed by monks from Purple Lotus. The highlight of the programs took place when His Holiness accepted our invitation and performed a series of Vajra Fists Movements to the music of a popular martial arts song. Later, when His Holiness was asked about what he thought of the Hawaiian dance, he humorously said, ne cannot just view the movements of the Hawaiian dance without appreciating its inner meanings. The various gestures and movements are symbols telling people about the beaches, waves, coconut trees, and fishes in the ocean, etc. When the dance is performed by young girls, one pays attention to the movements of their hips. When it is performed by women of your age, watching just the hands is sufficient. Upon hearing this, there was an uproar of laughter from the students.

Afterwards, everyone was treated to a lunch prepared by volunteers from the Purple Lotus Society. Eighteen booths, in the style of outdoor vendors, had been set up serving Taiwanese snack specialties and other delicious ethnic dishes. Most of the equipment, utensils, and raw materials had been transported from San Francisco to Seattle by the monks in a bus and U haul. When His Holiness finished his meal, he came out to greet the volunteers at each booth. When he saw the donation boxes at the booths, he casually dropped some of the red envelopes offered to him by students into the boxes and said laughingly, it depends on your luck. If you are lucky, you might find a love letter inside. If you find one, please give it back to me. Everyone broke up in laughter again.