Record of Inspirations Related to Reverent Carving of the
Seal of Ji
Written in Chinese by Upasaka Wang
Translated into English by Dr. Yutang Lin
Prostration to Guru Yutang Lin!
On January 6, 2004 I saw a seal of the Chinese character Ji
in a dream. The character on the seal was in red color; its
style was ancient and plain, forceful and broad; and its left,
right and top sides were rimless. In the dream I copied the
character by rubbing lead on a piece of paper over the seal,
and I also knew that it is a Dharma seal of Guru Lin.
Guru graciously taught that the word Ji signifies showering
Dharma nectar equally on all sentient beings so as to benefit
them, and that later all in the world will share the cloudless
sunny sky (signifying the attainment of Dharmakaya), and ordered
me to carve it into a stone seal at my leisure to commemorate
this revelation through a dream. (See Guru Lin's poem,(" Seal
of Ji ".)
I was fortunate to have received this important assignment,
so I dared not incur any mistakes. According to the dream revelation
I searched through dictionaries but could not find the same
expression. I sketched it many times but was incapable of presenting
it satisfactorily. I realized that my learning had been shallow,
so I regressed to study various famous collections of seals
so as to expand beyond my incapacity. Furthermore, after my
Dharma practice sessions I would earnestly pray to Buddhas
for their blessings on this endeavor.
On April 10 in a dream I saw: a classmate by the name of Chun
Yu, Spring Rain, drew a white crane for me, and my father obtained
a Chinese brush named Ji. Guru taught, The Chinese brush should
be related to the seal of Ji. The white crane signified Guru
Chen. Chun Yu is short for Chun Feng Hua Yu, a Chinese coinage
with the meaning of being extensive as spring wind and transformational
as timely rain, to indicate receiving blessings through learning
Dharma teachings.
On June 28 I noticed by chance a rectangular piece of Qing
Tian (Green Field) stone offered on my altar, and the top of
the stone is carved into a winding dragon playing its precious
ball. I pondered over whether it could serve as the stone for
the Ji seal. That night I saw in a dream the following scene:
on my altar there was a white seal stone with dragon top; its
height was about three inches and the face of the seal was
about one square inch; its texture was clean, bright and refined,
seemed like Shou Shan (Longevity Mountain) stone. Upon receipt
of this dream revelation I felt joy mixed with worry. I rejoiced
in having learned in the dream, through Guru's grace and Buddhas'
blessings, the seal stone that would match the Dharma seal.
I worried over the fact that then I did not have spare money
to purchase such a nice seal stone. Nevertheless, in order
to perfectly accomplish the construction of the Dharma seal
I simply pleaded for Guru's blessing so that I would soon find
and buy the seal stone as seen in the dream, without mentioning
anything else. Unexpectedly, two days later Guru told me not
to wait any longer but just use the Qing Tian stone that was
already in my possession.
On July 4 I reverently drew sketches for the seal. In the
afternoon I felt a bit sleepy, so I took a nap while visualizing
Guru as presiding above my head to grant blessings. In only
fifteen minutes I woke up and felt my body tranquil and mind
clear. The sketch for the seal was completed in one smooth
sequence. Soon afterwards suddenly it became windy with heavy
rainfall, intermixed with lightning and thunders. As the shower
just paused my wife came home and said that she saw a rainbow.
A Buddhist friend phoned and mentioned that there were two
concentric rainbows.
The next day I presented the sketch for the seal to Guru for
guidance. I thought that the seal had no border on three sides
should signify limitlessness. Considering the matter from visual
sensation this seal should have the bottom border to represent
the Earth.
Guru pointed out key things to revise in his reply, and revealed
the secret significance as follows: the seal of Ji should have
the bottom border to represent the Earth and symbolize sentient
beings on Earth are receiving the blessing of Dharma raining.
The vertical strokes in the Qi-character part should be connected
with this bottom border so as to look like plants growing up
from the ground, and thus to symbolize Dharma sprouts are shooting
up. The three drips in the Yu-character part (Yu means rain)
signify Tantric blessing in the sense of the third initiations.
This is because Tantra is the Path of Greed, and all matters
therein are based on the concepts and practices of the secret
initiations. Buddha's teachings grant blessings to all sentient
beings, and thereby Dharma sprouts shoot up and grow up. Thus
the secret significance is completely absorbed in the Seal
of Ji. The thunderous shower and rainbows were omens serving
as auspicious prelude to the carving of this seal. Guru ordered
me to start carving the seal at once.
On July 7 a little while after the 15th hour it was sunny
sky with white clouds, and thunders were indistinctly audible;
they sounded like Dharma drums that were approaching ever nearer,
with ever closer intervals and ever heavier pounding. Fifteen
minutes later, rain came down pouring. With such special signs
present I silently prayed to Guru for blessing and applied
carving knife to construct the seal. While carving the Yu-character
there were three loud thunders and those were the only thunders
during the rainfall. Guru said that both the thunders and the
rain were auspicious omens.
On July 10 while it was raining I took the opportunity to
refine the carved character on the seal. Right when I was hesitating
about whether the two sides of the Yu-character should be broken
off from the Qi-character, suddenly in the air above there
fell straight down a shocking thunder, and it shook my mind
blank. I figured that it was a blessing from Guru to indicate
to me that they should be broken off. Later Guru graced me
with the instruction: after the broken-off the resulting figure
signifies that, even though Dharma is blessing all beings continuously
like rain, nevertheless, for sentient beings there are still
distances from the realm of enlightenment, and hence they need
to go through solid and painstaking practices to transcend
their own egos and then realize saintly purity.
On July 11, while big rain fell heavily like pouring basin,
carving of the seal character completed. Guru said that the
two sides of the Yu-character seemed like rain had completely
covered the whole earth, and that the three vertical parts
of the Qi-character resembled people folding their hands above
their heads during great prostration.
On July 12, cloudless sunny sky, I reverently carved in Zhen
Shu, Authentic Strokes (meaning standard font), Guru's Chinese
poem, "Seal of Ji," and its commentary on the four
walls of the seal. Thus the construction of the Dharma seal
was completed and it happened to fall on a Chen Ri (Dragon
day), a Dakini day, and the day when Guru started on his trip
to propagate Dharma in Asia.
Above is my recording of the process of my reverent construction
of the seal of Ji. I pray that nectar of the lineage would
nurture beings in the universe, and may all those that have
the opportunity to develop pure faith be blessed by Gurus and
Buddhas to sprout their Bodhi seed, grow up, and attain realization
soon!
Written in Chinese on September 13, 2004
A day when Buddhas are pleased
Translated on October 9, 2004
El Cerrito, California
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