Market Friday: a ceremony for remedying a bad astrological year.
After my conversation with the friendly monk at my frequently visited temple (Wat Samphraya), I realised that the old monk was worried that the supply of Ivermectin I gave him last year was running out. So, I had to bring three more bottles to be delivered at the temple. I had waited for about six months from the first time I delivered Ivermectin last year; I didn’t want to be affected by all the spike proteins (and now hydras) which newly vaxxed would be shedding around their bodies. I had been badly affected by other people’ shedding of ‘BioWeapons’ a few times with three different bodily reactions.
So, I had become quite an expert on explaining how other people were showing signs of being affected by shedding substances. My gardener was quite impressed by my detailed descriptions. Recently, this kind and rather skinny monk has started to be affected by other monks’ shedding in closed air-conditioning rooms. Most senior monks had their third booster jabs and some have started to complain about difficulty in breathing and being exhausted very easily. So, I had to make certain that this friendly monk had adequate supply of Ivermectin for himself and others in the near future.
This monk was always very kind and courteous to me. He knew I could communicate with the grand old Buddha statue (called Phra Buddha Kasorn) so he opened the main hall to receive me; he also prepared some candles and incense for me to pay respect to the Buddha statue. This Buddha statue was quite old and brought to Bangkok from outer province during the reign of King Rama III. There are two much older Buddha statues in the other hall in this temple. But I always found this Phra Buddha Kasorn to be very kind and compassionate. The old monk also liked to pray and meditate in front of this old Buddha statue. He could feel the healing vibes from this beautiful Buddha.
After my ceremony of offering to the monk, I noticed three teenagers were hesitating in front of the hall. So, I invited them to come inside. They told us that they wished to have a special ceremony performed to appease the wrath of Rahu (an Indian guardian) which would negatively affected some astrological signs this year. The three youngsters were still at universities and one of the girls was very anxious to get a proper ceremony to improve her life. She said she seemed to be having bad luck several times this year.
A few years ago, a famous astrologer used to come to this temple to perform Hindu ceremonies once a month to appease Rahu. Many of his followers descended on the temple for monthly ceremony with lots of offerings in black colour! Some astrologers decided that as Rahu’s body was in black colour, so people should bring along food and sweets made with black colour ingredients. So, the rule for the ceremony has been established to include eight items of black things for offering to Rahu. I found this to be very strange but it did bring lots of business to vendors who catered for these followers.
Since the lockdown and changes of rules at the temple, the Rahu statue has been removed and astrological ceremonies were no longer allowed inside the temple. These youngsters just looked up an old website and came straight to the temple hoping that some monk could help them out. The kind monk then had to explain the Buddhist approach to such a predicament. That poor girl was very unhappy with all bad little things happening in her life. So, she really needed some psychological support and spiritual guidance.
The kind monk suggested that they could have a Buddhist ceremony of making merits and sending good karmic vibes to Rahu and all those spirits that had grudges on her. In this way, all negative vibes could be pacified with merit sharing and special Buddhist chanting to bless them all. So, there was a change of ceremony and I helped them to organise all the offerings on several trays.
The monk was already tired after my long discussion with him; but he did show much kindness to these youngsters. They were quite unsure of what to do and was guided through the ceremony. I couldn’t help recording this incident for my own reference in the future. These youngsters brought several items for offering to the temple; they needed more than five trays! While the boy-friend places each tray on the orange cloth ( which monks used to receive offerings), other girls touched his arm so that they became a part of the offering gesture. The linking of intention to perform the ceremony was transferred to the offerings and orange cloth which reiterated the whole community of Buddhist monks and temple. So, the vibes of their merit making should expand and flow to the intended receivers in other dimension.
The final chanting for spreading the good karmic vibes to Rahu and other spirits involved pouring water during the prayer into an empty bowl or glass. People would join in the flowing of this vibes by touching the person who’s actually pouring water. In some situation, people would have their own separate sets of water bottles and bowls. Some people would want to send the good karmic vibes to their dead family’s members or specific old enemies!
I could see that they all felt a big relief after the ceremony. The affected girl went out to pour the water onto the big tree trunk in the temple yard. The tree trunk would carry the water into the earth so that Mother Earth could carry these karmic vibes and spread them around till reaching their destinations. Looking at these timid youngsters, I felt quite sorry for their bad luck at the beginning of the year. So, I asked the old monk to do a special prayer of blessing for them. He kindly nodded his head and started chanting a very strange old prayer which I never heard before. I could feel the powerful energy from these ancient Pali words. I couldn’t believe how powerful this prayer was; he didn’t tell me from which scripture he got this one.
The three friends were advised to pay respect to the other two oldest Buddha statues in the hall at the other corner of the temple. I walked around the temple taking some photos to record changes at this old place. I saw the three youngsters walking slowly around the temple, they were much more relaxed and happier. I took my leave from the monk and thanked him for such kindness and beautiful ceremonies.
I took a few photos of the wall murals of the main hall. These were originally painted by Chinese immigrants during the reign of King Rama III. They have been renovated twice by artists who were grand children of those original painters. I think it would be quite impossible to find qualified renovators or painters to do preservation work on these works of art in the future. People will be living and performing ceremonies in Metaverse and virtual reality and the idea of temples, monks’ chanting would seem like fairytales.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.
@dswigle