Mothers' Day Special Report 3 (母親節特別分享)

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Just a few days ago. I met with a teenage boy, age of about 17 years old, after some chit-chatting, suddenly I asked him about, how will he celebrate this coming Mothers' Day.

As immediately, he replied: No, this year I'm not free, cos I joined in a Religious Group and on that day, I will be out with them to do Temple-visiting.

Upon getting this reply, I was shocked and disappointed.

A lot of the Folks always got this impression of just by giving the necessary respects to Deities or Beings, one self will be blessed with Good Luck, Good Fortune and Good Future, even if one self is not doing any self-cultivation, ignore the importance of the Family Bonding, Not Filial and/or show no Loyalty to the Country, etc.

If you will want me to comment, that I will said, those who think that way are Extremely Wrong and sure that No Deities will provide the necessary for such people.

Firstly, no Deities will want someone to sacrifice the bonding between Family Members to pay respect to them.

Secondly, a Person who is not Filial, not Loyal & not Upright will not be blessed neither their requests will be answered.

Thirdly, if a Person who just wanted to use the method of paying respect to Deities to show their Wealth and Power, such people will also wont be able to get any form of Blessings.

And so, from the above 3 mentioned points, how many people can escape from that? I think that quantity will be very small.

Here, I will like to share a story that being passed-down by my Ancestors, who migrated from China, Hokkien Province, Jing Jiang Area (中國福建省晉江) to Singapore in about 200 years ago. The story happened in late Qing Dynasty (清末年間) and in the Area where my Ancestors staying.

One year, in Jing Jiang Area, a vicious flood happened and after the flood ceased, various diseases outbroke in the area and caused many innocent lives to end.

In the town where my Ancestors stayed, there was a little Temple that being built dedicating to Fu De Zheng Shen (福德正神) aka Deity of Earth, according to my Ancestors, the Fu De Zheng Shen was very Spiritually-effective and so a lot of the town-folks would visit the Temple to make their requesting.

One day, a young man of age about 30 years old approached the Temple and started his requesting and soon, he was being granted the blessing.

After the wish was being granted, one day, the young man returned to the Temple to repay his Gratitude to Fu De Zheng Shen, on that day, the young man brought a lot of offerings, such as Chicken , Ducks, etc. Those who saw that were shocked and puzzled – due to the chaotic situation that happened after the flooding, it was impossible for the young man to get the food stuffs in the town.

Just as the young man laid the offerings on the Altar and starting to kneel down in front of the Altar to make his respect, a loud Splitting Sound was heard and immediately, the Sky turned dark and a loud Thunder Roar in the Air.

Everyone was shocked and after staring at the Sky, one of the town-folks turned to look at the statue of Fu De Zheng Shen on that Altar, to his horror, the statue split into 2 pieces.

Upon seeing that, the young man was also shocked by the incident and immediately, he made several kowtows in front of the Altar, in his mouth, mumbling Sorry for uncountable times.

Everyone standing around him was puzzled by his actions and an elderly-man approached him, slowly pull him up from the kneeling pad and advised him to take a sit at the threshold at the small Temple. After the young man calm himself down, the elderly-man started his conversation with the young man, asking him what had really happened.

Just as immediately, the young man broke down to tears and started to mumble: I know that I have done something wrong and now Fu De Zheng Shen is here to punish him.

Upon hearing that, the elderly-man comfort him and then asked him to calm down.

Soon, the young man speak-up. This was how the incident happened:

Upon getting the wish being granted by Fu De Zheng Shen of being able to win a little money in one of the private gambling den, this young man went to another town to prepare some good offerings for the paying of gratitude ceremony. Just as immediately after he came out from the shop, he saw another gambling den, and so, his hands started to itch again and so, this time round, he thought that with the blessing of Fu De Zheng Shen, he would be able to win a Big Wealth, but to his disappointment, he lose all his money.

After leaving the gambling den, he walked back to the town where he stayed, upon reaching the doorway, he saw his mother passing some money to the daughter-in-law, in-order to get some eating stuffs from the market (after the flood, all items' price increased and so, the days will tough), immediately after the young man saw the money, he dashed forward to snatch the money from the wife.

Just as immediately, the mother walked forward to stop the son from snatching the money away from the daughter-in-law, the son pushed his mother away, causing the mother to fall onto the ground, hurting her legs and got a deep cut.

At that moment, the son had ran out from the house and dashed towards the other town to do his gambling again.

This time round, his wish was being granted the 2nd time and so, he took the money, went back to the shops and got the stuffs from Fu De Zheng Shen.

After getting the stuffs, the young man happily went back to the Temple to pay his respect.

Upon laying the offerings on the Altar, the young man started to make his respect and on the moment, Split Sound and Thunder Roar were being heard and immediately at the moment, the young man saw an Old Man standing in front of the Altar, saying this sentence to him:

Take back All your offerings, All these offerings shall belongs to your mother and not me, cos the money that you use to pay for these offerings come from your mother.

PS: The statue split into 2, why? Reason, Fu De Zheng Shen rather destroy his own statue than to allow an Un-filial son to pay his respect to him.

The young man was shocked when he saw and hear that and immediately, he made his kowtows and mumbled un-countable times of Sorry in front of the Altar.

After telling this incident to the elderly-man, the elderly-man understood the whole incident and so, he comfort the young man and advised him for not repeating the wrong-doing again.

As a son, one self must be Filial, once a person is Filial, one self will not need to buy any offerings to offer the Deities, the Deities will also be able to provide the assistance for one self – this is what we called Sincere.

Sincere in Heart with Filial, Loyalty, Upright and Kind.

Okay, back to main point.

This story is not to promote how Miracle Fu De Zheng Shen is, or how Spiritually Blessed Jing Jiang Area is, just that, this story is to tell the Folks that, Deities wont accept any forms of respect from one self if that one self is not Upright in the way that one self does.

You can be rich, you can be poor, you can be far away or you can be at home, as long as you have the Faith in the Deities and the Sincerity in the Heart to pay respect to the Deities, you need not to show any form of Big actions, the Deities will still be there to look after you and also, to grant your wishes.

Last, ponder on the hidden-meaning of this Story, see how this story is being associated with the Folks that are in our Religious Society now.