My Controversial Religion - Beginning Part 1
Being a Chinese, it is inevitable that certain traditions, whether influenced by religion or superstition, has crept into the Chinese way of life. From the belief that the colour red is auspicious to black means death, from giving mandarin oranges during Chinese New Year to wearing little square coloured cloths pinned to the sleeve of the deceased’s surviving relatives - we see the many do’s and don’t’s that govern our way of life, that are given as instructions which are not supposed to be questioned.
I come from a typical Teochew family (my dad is Hainanese but since his side of family are all in Malaysia, I have been closer to my maternal grandma) which is moderately enshrouded by such Chinese traditions. Even from a young age, I have no inclination to make a mental note of what is the right thing to do and I often attracted the frown and (sometimes murderous) glare from my mum. However, one thing that delighted me was Buddhism and its many varied interesting believes.
Some pure Buddhists may slam me for the inability to differentiate Taoism and Buddhism but I am relating the way I was brought up, my encounters and experiences, exactly as they are. I remember my mum befriending this lady from the wet market. We all called her "popiah mmm" - popiah aunty because her family makes one of the best popiah skins in Singapore. She is a devotee of Pureland Buddhism - a branch of Buddhism based on a certain sutra and aims to be reborn in Amitabha’s Western Paradise. This Popiah aunty had the roundest cheeks and the kindest eyes and she often came to my house to teach my mum the various sutras and mantras. Months before the Hungry Ghost Festival (which is the whole lunar 7th month), I would be watching alongside my mum and Popiah aunty as they folded prayer papers into the shape of ingots and they would have this huge stacks of yellow paper with little round trimmings and red words printed all over it. After all the folding was done, they would each hold one piece of this yellow paper and a burning incense stick and with every one complete chant of the "Chao Du" mantra, the red end of the incense would burn a tiny whole on the yellow paper (somewhere in between the red words) until the whole paper was decorated with little holes!!! Hearing the mantra hundreds of thousands of times, I could memorize it in no time. I learned my first mantra - "Chao Du" mantra when I was barely 6 years old. For the sake of record, it goes like this :
Namo Ah Me Duo Po Ye, Dor Ta Jia Tuo Ye, Dor Di Ye Ta, Ah Me Li Dor Po Be, Ah Me Li Dor Sit Dai Po Be, Ah Me Li Dor Be Jia Lan Di, Ah Me Li Dor Be Jia Lan Dor, Jie Me Li Jie Jie Na, Zi Duo Jia Li Suoha.
This mantra has the ability to reduce bad karma and help the receiver of this mantra to have a better reincarnation. Of course, I didn’t care so much then and was just happy to be able to help them chant and burn little pretty holes on the paper. All this preparation would eventually lead to a display of ritualised offering to the ghosts and at the end, wrapped up in a fasinating bonfire…
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