On September 19, 2018, the "Victorious Fire Offering Ceremony" was held at the Holy Relics Temple in the United States, presided over by Venerable Jushengde, in the Great Hall and the square, with complete success.
There are two types of participants in this ceremony. The first type consists of high-ranking monks and abbots of Buddhist temples and leaders of Buddhist organizations, who were directly invited by Venerable Jushengde, Yuzun, Wangzha Shangzun, and Lu Dongzan Law King. The second type consists of those who participate by chance, if they happen to come across the ceremony, they join in.
The Fire Offering Ceremony is a major practice in Buddhism, especially in Tibetan Buddhism. In Tibet, India, and other places, almost everyone is familiar with this famous practice for dispelling disasters, avoiding difficulties, removing obstacles, and increasing blessings. This Buddhist practice is also known as the "Victorious Fire Altar Protection and Exorcism Practice." However, it is rare to see a true "Victorious Fire Offering and Exorcism Practice" in the past hundred years, and the ceremonies that people usually participate in are just regular fire offerings. The blessings generated by the "Victorious Fire Offering and Exorcism Practice" and regular fire offerings are as different as a step and a thousand miles.
Wangzha Shangzun and the two great holy monks talked about their personal experiences. In the past hundred years, there were famous masters like Pobangka and Kansa Rinpoche who have practiced this practice. One of the great holy monks, who had reached the second stage of realization, said, "I have learned this practice, but I have not succeeded in practicing it. It seems that my spiritual power and effort are lacking, and I still need to strive. In recent decades, I have not seen any great holy monks, great Dharma kings, or great Dharma masters who have successfully practiced the Victorious Fire Offering and Exorcism Practice. If the Victorious Fire Offering and Exorcism Practice is not successful, it will only function as a regular fire offering." So, what is the difference between success and failure? Firstly, in regular Tibetan fire offerings or East Tantric fire offerings (large-scale fire offering ceremonies), people claim to be proficient, but from what I have learned, they use manual ignition during the lighting of the fire. How can they obtain the blessings of the Buddha's sacred fire? The Victorious Fire Offering and Exorcism Practice is different. It requires the invocation of nine Tathagatas, Vajra Mothers, Prajnaparamita Mothers, and the assembly of Dharma protectors to personally ignite the fire on the fire altar, with the Vajra Mother arriving from the void. This is the true Victorious Fire Offering.
In this Victorious Fire Offering Ceremony, the participants were seated in the Great Hall, witnessing the entire process of the ceremony up close. Many different ritual objects were used on the fire altar. The fire altar was a newly constructed copper stove, without any electrical or fire appliances, just a clean copper stove. There was a flat table with all the ritual objects, including the stove, which was cleaned from top to bottom by more than ten volunteers on-site. The fire altar was placed on the flat table, and wood and sandalwood were placed inside. At that time, the flat table was brought close to the entrance of the main hall. Venerable Jushengde presided over the ceremony from a distance of about fifty meters. To the left of him was the seat for Venerable Jushengde. The "Guardian of Ignition" was a holy monk named Podi Wintu, who had reached the first stage of realization. He dipped the firewood into butter, recited mantras step by step, and walked towards the fire altar, about six meters away. Originally, he was going to ignite the fire, but suddenly changed his mind and stopped, shouting to the sky, "This Victorious Fire Offering and Exorcism Practice is presided over by Venerable Jushengde. Please let the Vajra Mother ignite the fire. If the Vajra Mother does not ignite the fire, I will do it!" Then, he bowed deeply.
Venerable Jushengde shouted loudly from a distance, "Please let the Vajra Mother ignite the fire to dispel obstacles and increase blessings for all sentient beings!" As soon as he finished speaking, the Vajra Mother appeared in the void. I saw the blue Vajra Mother point her finger and a flash of light appeared, and the fire altar ignited. The fire altar suddenly burst into flames without any fire beforehand, which frightened Podi Wintu, causing him to run and jump, turning around and bowing his head in reverence. Everyone present saw the flames suddenly ignite and immediately bowed down and worshipped, filled with excitement, and began to pray and burn offerings according to the ritual.
One Buddhist devotee voluntarily placed the Vajra Demon Subduing Bowl used in the Victorious Fire Offering upside down on a small flat table. According to the Dharma, the bowl would absorb the demonic karma of everyone present at the fire offering ceremony and subdue it within the bowl. If the demonic karma tried to escape from the bowl, it would shake with all its might. At this critical moment, a loud "boom!" was heard, and the Vajra Mother turned the demons and negative karma in the bowl into dust with a flash of lightning. The demons' souls were then taken by the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to the Pure Land for strict discipline.
Venerable Jushengde did not approach any ritual objects or tables from a distance. He then performed the "Secret Offering to the Bodhisattvas" practice. All the participants saw and heard a loud noise as the Vajra Demon Subduing Bowl, which had been tightly sealed on the flat table, made a loud sound. The flames spun around the edge of the bowl like lightning, and then the congregation turned the bowl over. There was nothing left under or inside the bowl; the "offering" to the Bodhisattvas had disappeared without a trace, right in front of everyone's eyes. The "Secret Offering to the Bodhisattvas" practice was successful! The burnt demon corpse emitted an extremely foul smell, worse than any other smell in the world. Anyone who smelled it could not resist it, and their senses were distorted. The true nature of the Victorious Fire Offering practice had been perfectly accomplished.
It is understood that there has not been a Victorious Fire Offering practice in over eighty years. All the previous practices were just theoretical, without the appearance of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. No matter who practiced it, there has not been a true Victorious Fire Offering and Exorcism Ceremony like this one in Tibet, India, and other countries for over eighty years. In other words, there was a remarkable fire offering ceremony like this one in Tibet and India and other countries over eighty years ago, and now it has appeared for the second time.
Even more remarkable is that in this Victorious Fire Offering Ceremony, in addition to the unprecedented sacred atmosphere and infinite power, the smoke from the fire altar filled the entire main hall, but the smoke detector on the ceiling remained silent. This is truly miraculous. In this main hall, as long as someone smokes a cigarette, an alarm will sound and water will be sprayed. The power of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the Victorious Fire Offering Ceremony is so extraordinary and subtle.
In this way, the extraordinary and sacred traces of the Victorious Fire Offering and Exorcism Ceremony appeared. The participants of the ceremony were very excited, and even the famous Lu Dongzan Law King lost his composure and became ecstatic. Everyone made offerings to Venerable Jushengde, but he refused to accept anything and asked them to put away their offerings.
Since then, the Holy Relics Temple has truly established an internal and secret practice site in this world, because everyone personally witnessed the "Secret Offering to the Bodhisattvas." However, Venerable Jushengde said that it would be best for everyone to find a great holy monk who has reached the "Golden Vajra Three Strikes" stage, so that there would be physical evidence of the practice to demonstrate that the internal and secret practice site has truly been established.
I personally participated in this real Victorious Fire Offering practice, and it deeply impressed me, just as Venerable Jushengde said, "Compared to the Victorious Fire Offering, regular fire offerings are like a drop in the ocean, just child's play." No wonder one Dharma king said, "The blessings generated by the Vajra Mother personally igniting the fire in the Victorious Fire Offering practice and the blessings generated by ordinary people manually igniting the fire are thousands of times different."
The fire altar, offering table, and corresponding ritual objects used in this Victorious Fire Offering Ceremony will be displayed for worship at the Holy Relics Temple.
Speaking of which, I want to add the most important thing. After the completion of the Victorious Fire Offering Ceremony on the 19th, Venerable Jushengde announced in the Great Hall, "Today, this grand ceremony has been completed. Lu Dongzan Law King has been waiting for this ceremony, and it is his last ceremony to receive blessings." Lu Dongzan Law King stated in a previous announcement from the World Buddhist Headquarters, "After the last ceremony, he will pass away as soon as possible."
▲ Lu Dongzan Law King, Chairman of the World Buddhist Headquarters, giving a speech at the Third Dajie Qiangfo Grand Ceremony and the First Heart Sutra True Meaning Launch Ceremony in 2014.
The two masters also urged him to stay and propagate the Dharma, but the Law King said, "With the presence of the Buddha as my master, what use is my limited realization! Life is like a dream, sooner or later, we have to leave. It is all due to causes and conditions, illusions, and when the conditions are exhausted, they disperse. Forget it, I won't stay!" He also said, "My life and death are my own decision. I will leave whenever I want to leave. It's different from Zhao Yusheng Holy Monk, who relies on the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to come and take him at a fixed time." This Law King truly has the freedom of life and death, and he has indeed fulfilled his words. On the second day of the ceremony, September 20th, he bathed, sat at the head of the bed, placed writing materials on the desk, and wrote a farewell letter to the Third Dajie Qiangfo. When I arrived at his home, he had already passed away, and the farewell letter was completed in front of him.
One of the sentences in the letter is "The ink is not yet dry, and I have passed away." He was able to write "The ink is not yet dry, and I have passed away," meaning that he passed away as soon as he put down his pen. This is the realm that can only be achieved with the freedom of life and death!
▼ The rare "Five-Colored Relic Flower Vajra" obtained after the cremation of Lu Dongzan Law King.