The Ten Major Causes of Soul-Light Being Stripped Away

1.Karmic Creditors Every kind of living being you have encountered over countless past lives may now be one of your karmic creditors.Among them there may be animals, reptiles, insects, and even ghosts, spirits and demons.In the course of dealing with one another, quarrels and friction of every size were bound to arise under the influence of the seven emotions and six desires, and what remained, of course, was cause and effect.In this way the cycle of "you owe me, I owe you" and its retribution goes on endlessly, generation after generation.This is the well-known karmic retribution of samsara.Why not settle these grievances now, while you are born as a human?Know this!Of all beings, only humans possess wisdom, which is why humans are called the "spirit of all things." And is dissolving grudges and resentments not exactly a matter of wisdom!You surely do not want to keep going round in samsara!And what if this retribution carries over to your relatives or your next generation?That would be the last thing any of us wants!While you are still human in this life, you have the chance to break free from endless rebirth; do not wait until you have fallen into the animal realm and then regret it too late!By then, getting free will be even more remote.Of course, you may say: "Since childhood I have never harmed anyone, never done anything bad, and I have done a good many good deeds.Is that still not enough to offset my past karma??" Sadly, I must tell you: it does not help.Why!?Listen carefully here: the many good deeds you have done only accumulate your merit; they do not repay the debt!Let me give an analogy and you will understand: "Suppose in a former life you owed Mr.A one million dollars.After you died you were reborn as the person you are now, and some years after your death Mr.A also died, but you never repaid that one million to Mr.A.If Mr.A had treated it as a good deed and given you the money, that would be fine; but suppose that after you died he kept dwelling on the matter, convinced that he had been wronged and cheated.When he, too, died, his spirit (his thought-force transformed into karma) came looking for you.And whether you are now a great philanthropist or an accomplished high monk, and however many people you have saved in this life, the merit you accumulated by saving them has not been received by Mr.A as merit dedication, because you did not specifically dedicate that merit to your karmic creditor.It merely sits in something like a merit bank account.Mr.A, of course, still cannot let you go!" Because!If someone owed you money!and simply would not repay it!and, mind you, that person's bank account was full!!if you were Mr.A!!what would you think???Take revenge?!Be angry?!Or...wait for the opportunity...Some karmic creditors have very little spiritual power, so little that they cannot come within a step of you, so they can only wait for their chance~~~ What kind of chance?Naturally, when your fortune is down, when your own qi is weak...And now the question: when would that be?The answer is simple: at night, in places heavy with yin energy, when your emotions swing wildly (excess of the seven emotions and six desires), when much resentment has gathered (little by little it adds up), when your faith is misdirected, and when your spirit is weak.These are all easy chances for them to take advantage of you.Once such a disturbing spirit enters your body's magnetic field, it causes all kinds of damage: for example, your health suddenly declines, you develop strange illnesses that doctors cannot explain, your wealth luck suddenly drops, your moods swing faster, and nothing goes smoothly.The principle of this damage is actually very simple.A person is yang; when suddenly disturbed by yin, the body first feels unwell, which then affects mental state and emotions, and also affects wisdom and thinking, so naturally nothing goes well.At the same time, your unstable emotions invisibly affect the people, matters and things around you.In addition, the disturbing magnetic field prevents the body from absorbing so-called blessings, and the longer the disturbance lasts, the more misfortune it attracts.So, now that you understand the mysteries involved, will you still sit idly by?In fact, what they want is not your life, nor for you to repay what you owe...It is only because they cannot communicate with you, cannot tell you, that what they want is just soul-light; by staying close to your body they can slowly draw off your soul-light.Because if they lack enough soul-light, they must be reborn as lower animals...So they do not want money, they do not want your life, and they do not truly want to disturb you...What they want is soul-light.Having looked at the table of soul-light levels earlier, you will find that all kinds of beings below humans cannot produce soul-light by themselves, while humans can.How to produce soul-light, and even absorb other soul-light, will be discussed later.Karmic creditors are one of the factors that drain a person's soul-light.

2.The Phenomenon of Attached Spirits Spirit attachment is a phenomenon that ordinary people can sense more readily; sometimes it happens to relatives and friends around us, so its existence is more tangible.After all, it happens in the present, not in a distant, unknown past.The most common attached spirits are infant spirits, fetal spirits, past-life spirits and external spirits, and they all cause various misfortunes and health problems for the person they attach to.A person has three souls and seven spirits in the body; if another spirit enters, it drives out some of the original ones.Westerners have a saying: "selling one's soul to the devil." It really means selling one of the three souls or seven spirits.And what would the devil want with souls and spirits?Souls and spirits are gathered soul-light; the devil (the attached spirit) needs to collect more soul-light (power) to strengthen itself.And why would humans sell their souls?The answer is simple: humans want material wealth and power.As long as each side gets what it wants, they can reach an agreement.As for infant spirits and fetal spirits, what they want is originally not power (your soul-light); infant and fetal spirits were originally a part of the parents' soul-light, and the same spiritual magnetic field attracts each other; this is what blood ties mean.When infant or fetal spirits find their parents (driven by natural attraction), they naturally follow them.But because yin and yang are separated, infant and fetal spirits not only block the blessings and good fortune the parents ought to have, but even disturb the yin-yang and five-element cycle within the parents' bodies, and of course this gives rise to unexplained illnesses, which is the well-known "karmic illness." When the parents' soul-light weakens, external spirits then take advantage of the weakness.Past-life spirits are the soul-light of your many lifetimes; they may be your sons, daughters or descendants.As mentioned, infant and fetal spirits are divided spirits of the parents, so past-life spirits too will find the present you at some point.External spirits include lonely wandering ghosts, mountain and water demons, animal spirits, earth spirits, evil spirits, residual spirits, and even spirits whose magnetic field is close to yours, all of which will take advantage of your weakness.The most serious case is the invasion of a powerful external spirit, which not only affects your health and makes your emotions unstable but can even control your thoughts and actions.This phenomenon must be taken seriously!3.Illness and Self-Harm Every organ in the human body has its five-element attribute (wood, fire, earth, metal, water), and when the cycle among the five elements falls out of harmony, the whole body feels unwell.When you take in nutrition each day, you are replenishing the energy source of each organ; that is why a person who is hungry has no strength or spirit and looks lacking in vitality.This is only a basic reaction; when you take in nutrition without moderation, it overloads the body and can even make the organs ill.Many symptoms start with nutritional imbalance, but truly serious illnesses come from accumulated toxins in the body, and the inability to expel toxins is itself caused by organ overload.The organs lose the capacity they originally had to bear the load, and with different emotions causing endocrine imbalance (the seven emotions and six desires), this is the five-element imbalance we are talking about here.The great majority of illnesses are produced by one's own diet, daily routine and emotions, and these behaviors are undoubtedly a slow self-harm to one's own body.In other words: once an organ falls ill, the five elements lose their balance, spiritual power is naturally consumed especially fast, and the capacity to produce spiritual power is also greatly weakened.For example: "A person has three million units of soul-light; once ill, the speed at which soul-light is spent far outpaces the speed at which one produces it." Then one day it will run out all the same, and a soul-light body below two million units cannot remain inside a human body.For instance, a lower soul-light is like 110-volt current being used in a 220-volt appliance (the physical body), and of course the appliance (the physical body) cannot bear it.And however strong and healthy the human body is, it will still age, and the speed of producing soul-light slows down accordingly.If the speed at which the physical organs supply soul-light can be strengthened, a person can certainly exceed three million units before death (see the soul-light table).This method of strengthening soul-light is the way of cultivating the Dharma and nurturing life.And this is precisely the main required path of our school, the "Vajra Dharma-Eye Lineage"; these principles were told to us by the ancestors thousands of years ago, yet no one had the great wisdom to glimpse them, and only a few who possess the "dharma-eye" could see through them.But I do not know when you will truly awaken to the wisdom of our school, rather than merely glance at it and listen to it.4.Soul-Light Spent Over Many Rebirths Past lives may seem a remote term to which you have nothing to say, because you do not know what your previous life was, nor where you will go after this one.If you fully absorb and understand the central thought of our school, the "Vajra Dharma-Eye Lineage," I believe you will have at least a deeper and more thorough understanding of many matters: past and present lives, cause and effect, and unseen forces.Of course, not everyone can understand completely.Because among the many methods of practice, mantra recitation, sutra chanting and religious rituals, most devotees simply follow their "master" in learning, chanting, moving, doing and thinking, and very few actively ask why we do these things.In fact!The masters' own masters did not truly understand these things either, so if you ask why we do this, I believe the answer you get will be vague and confusing.You must surely agree with this by now!In fact, rebirth is like moving house: is it not tiring?Not only must you spend money (soul-light), but also physical strength (spiritual power), and without the support of a body (the five elements), you cannot produce soul-light yourself and can only use it slowly and carefully.Each rebirth as a human requires a great deal of soul-light; the basic amount needed to be reborn as a human is at least three million units.If someone is short of rebirth as a human by only a little soul-light, he can only turn to relatives or enemies to provide it.The methods of providing soul-light fall roughly into several kinds: spirit attachment and possession, burning paper money (joss paper) and gold paper, offerings to stupas, merit dedication, offerings to memorial tablets, spirit-realm study, mantra recitation and sutra chanting, Dharma assemblies, and Buddha-power blessings.The best and most effective of all is offering to a stupa, for the following reason: the Five-Element Stupa is a stupa that gathers the energy of the five elements (similar to the way the human body produces soul-light); a stupa can absorb and gather the pure spiritual power of heaven and earth, and if a deceased spirit can be invited to practice inside a Five-Element Stupa, for that spirit it is simply like winning the lottery.It might even no longer need to be reborn, because the Five-Element Stupa can purify the mind of the deceased spirit; even if this spirit did all manner of evil in life, inside the stupa it will benefit immeasurably and turn from evil to good.In this way, the deceased spirit no longer needs to seek out relatives or enemies.5.Consumption in This Life Throughout a person's life, he is forever surrounded by the seven emotions and six desires; in this mortal world his desires and needs rise and fall, are restrained a little after hearing words of great wisdom, and are forgotten again once new needs arise, and in the midst of it all joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hatred and desire are played out ceaselessly.These are the energy sources of the seven spirits.When Buddhists say the four elements are empty, they are telling everyone the principle of no desire, no craving, no love and no hatred.Every time the five elements lose balance, soul-light is consumed rapidly.People in this world often commit suicide for love, not knowing that when soul-light has been depleted by attachment to love and runs short, wisdom drops accordingly, because the five elements complement one another.So, when a person has overspent his soul-light because of love, his mind holds only love and he can no longer care about anything else.This example is only one of the seven emotions and six desires.Every kind of desire causes a large loss of soul-light, and when one is especially attached to a particular thing, the whole operation of the five elements falls out of balance and develops gaps; when such a gap appears, it is the best moment for external spirits to invade.Animals and plants, after they die, become food for all other things.Whatever food we eat, after energy is transformed and absorbed, in the end only feces are left to be expelled from the body.At that point the outward forms and mass of all things are all different, so why do they all become feces?The reason is that all things have soul-light, and by the soul-light level of each, their frequencies and wavelengths differ; different light-levels produce different forms, and this is also why all things have their own order.When we take in nutrition, we are taking in the essence of the soul-light of the food.After the food passes through the five-element organs in the body, each taking what it needs, it is transformed into spiritual power, and this spiritual power is the driving force and energy of the three souls and seven spirits.After purification by the three souls and seven spirits, it becomes precious soul-light.That is why religions have grace before meals, offering mantras, words of thanks and so on, to thank all things for providing their nourishment and spiritual power for us to absorb.And these rituals are mostly the liberation of the souls of the owners of this food.But today's people overeat and waste food.These food-beings died because of you, yet you show not the slightest gratitude and do not liberate them, so of course when this food enters your body there will be dissatisfaction.In fact, if before meals we recite an offering mantra and dedicate merit to the owners of the food, we can avoid creating karma.It is like someone giving you money: if you sincerely say "thank you," the other person naturally will not feel their giving was in vain.Taking in the soul-light of food is only a tangible intake; the intangible intake of soul-light is the practice of the Dharma methods.Of course, many practice methods may be wrong or slow in effect, and it is a great pity to practice without the right method.Some have mistakenly practiced methods that harm others and themselves; some believe that single-minded goodness alone will make them a buddha; some, thinking they have grasped the great Dharma of life, become pleased with themselves and walk into demonic paths; and some trust only themselves.Whatever methods you may have practiced in the past, after reading the essentials of the Vajra Dharma-Eye Lineage, you will surely begin to doubt the various methods you have encountered.Of course, the right and wrong in all this must still be judged by the soul-light wisdom of your own self!6.Interference from Ancestral Spirits of Past Generations Have you ever imagined your ancestors calling out to you?They want to tell you how much they suffer, how hungry, how pained and how cold they are.These words are not meant to scare anyone; this is the transmission of thought-force, similar to longing, homesickness and worry, and if the person sending the thought is closely related to you, you are even more able to receive such thought-waves.Scientifically, the transmission of waves can travel very far and last a very long time; a wave can go back and forth many times and keep racing through space and time for tens of thousands of years.For example, American scientists have for many years been researching the phenomenon of extraterrestrial life, and installed many large receivers, only to receive television programs from the 1940s and distress signals sent during the First World War.This shows that radio waves that pass through the atmosphere strike objects and are reflected back to Earth tens of thousands of times.A person's thought-force, although not as strong as radio waves, can at least leave "signals" in the surrounding environment.In Chinese custom, the dead return home on the "first seventh" day after death, followed by the second seventh, third seventh...up to the seventh seventh; the number seven is the "frequency cycle of the wave." Likewise, in feng shui there are good and bad cycles that go on without end.A good spot does not exist forever; just like everything else, nothing can occupy its good side forever, each has its lifespan and wavelength.The same is true of ancestral spirits: when one dies and finds oneself suffering and unfree, the first thought, of course, is to hope that relatives can help one escape.This is the emission of a wave, which produces a magnetic field effect in the place the person hopes for (mostly the home or the place of death).The dead person's intention is only to ask for help and he does not know that such a thought can cause harm, while those who live within this magnetic field over a long time will naturally feel pain, discomfort, emotional instability, pressure...These phenomena stir up the person's emotional reactions [endocrine imbalance], and naturally illness becomes routine.Another kind of ancestral spirit interference is more direct: apparitions of yin spirits, paranormal phenomena, possession, objects moving, and all kinds of unreasonable events happen one after another.The soul-light of this type of spirit is much stronger than that of the previous kind; it is a highly active soul-light body, and generally such spirits carry resentment, dissatisfaction or a desire for revenge!Some have unfulfilled wishes, some have unworthy descendants, and some are controlled by more powerful spirits.The lucky ones are seized by the deities of temples and shrines to serve as soldiers and generals; the unlucky ones become lonely wandering ghosts hiding everywhere; those with somewhat better merit have descendants who perform ceremonies to liberate them and dedicate merit to them; and the most blessed are those whose descendants build a Five-Element Stupa for them, which gathers pure soul-light, sublimates their spiritual nature, and can even make them guardian spirits of their descendants.If a household has earthbound spirits or unstable earth spirits, offering Five-Element Stupas at the four corners of the home can balance the magnetic field of the home and transform the unstable, drifting magnetic field into a clean one.Of course, stupas are not only for the deceased: those with bad luck and continuous misfortune can change their luck after making offerings, and the effect is remarkably efficacious.

7.Living in or Passing Through Bad Magnetic Fields (Earth Spirits) As mentioned above, even the best feng shui and the best magnetic field will eventually turn bad.This is because the Earth's rotation and changes, together with the pull of the sun, moon and stars on its magnetic field, follow fixed cycles.For example, the endless changes of dynasties in Chinese history; even kings and nobles have a day when they become prisoners.The time of such change of dynasty is the cycle of the magnetic field's fluctuation!And because each person's own magnetic field differs, the interference they receive also differs, and because of the strength or weakness of each person's soul-light, "the same rice raises a hundred kinds of people." The geographic environment where you live is also very important.In a tangible example: if the neighbor next door or the floor below runs a factory, a karaoke club or a bar, would it affect you?I think the noise, light and air pollution alone would be enough to affect the quality of your living environment.In the same way, the intangible influences are also so: earthbound spirits and earth spirits are your invisible neighbors, and they likewise cause great harm to your soul.You absolutely must not take this lightly.Sometimes when you pass a place, or even enter an unfamiliar place, have you felt creepy and odd...that uneasy feeling that even gives you goosebumps?Perhaps you are just too sensitive!?Then why don't you feel this way in other places?The answer is simple!This is the feeling brought by earthbound spirits and earth spirits; of course there are other factors, but mostly it is earthbound spirits and earth spirits.This kind of spirit carries a negative charge and when it comes near a person it produces a phenomenon like static electricity, making your hair stand on end.Generally, negatively charged spirits are quiet, passive, unfree, cold and absorbing in nature, while positively charged spirits are the opposite.The human body has both positive and negative charge, which is what makes the five-element cycle possible (a later chapter will mention where the positive and negative charges of the spirit-body lie).In other words, when you live in or pass through a very yin place, your body's positive charge weakens and is consumed, and the balance within gradually collapses: first you cannot concentrate and your emotions are unstable (because the body's positive charge, "movement," is fighting the negative charge, "stillness" [earth spirits]), so at this time a person becomes irritable, restless, short of breath, with a racing heartbeat and so on.This of course causes a great loss of your soul-light!Therefore, one must learn to absorb soul-light on one's own; cultivating soul-light is the most fundamental method.8.Unclear Religious Beliefs Have you heard the news stories of religions swindling money and sex?I believe you hear of them from time to time!In today's society, temples and shrine halls fill every street and alley.If you carefully observe the aims and central ideas of such a temple or hall, I believe you will surely discover some clues.The so-called masters, high monks and lay practitioners are all human, and as long as one is human one has the seven emotions and six desires, more or less.These masters and high monks all ask the public to "give rise to the aspiration for good." In the past, giving rise to this aspiration only required sincerity from the faithful; today it has become a synonym for donating money!Some big temples even belong to a corporate foundation or a business group, and are closely tied to certain political parties, even chartering buses to take people to vote at election time...Why?Does merely donating money to build bigger, more beautiful temples accumulate hidden merit?What about the karmic creditors of past lives?Can empowerment and blessings eliminate this past karma?Or can mere love in the heart dissolve grudges?Can wearing amulets and objects that ward off evil solve the problem?Of course not!How long can you hide!?Honestly, some people are truly very loving and kind, very devout, running to the temple every few days to make offerings to the temple's masters, strictly observing the precepts, listening to the wondrous Dharma...That is a good thing!Yet no one helps this good person resolve his past sins, or teaches him that he must first help himself get rid of unseen obstacles before he can truly be liberated.Can you become a buddha by listening to the wondrous Dharma every day?By eating vegetarian and chanting the Buddha's name every day?That is a big question mark!Who knows what to do once a person dies?Is life only for becoming a buddha?And what then, once you have become a buddha?Most people, most of the time, do not know the answers!So all kinds of religious theories appear one after another, leaving people ever more lost and helpless.Some temples in the marketplace have become hideouts for yin spirits, evil gods and demons, yet ignorant people worship at every temple they pass, not knowing that when they press their palms together to pay respects, they have already offered their soul-light to that god.That is why some yin temples are very efficacious, and if you make a wish there, you must be even more careful, for there is no free lunch in this world; invisibly you must pay with soul-light, which is just what Westerners call selling your soul to the devil.A true Buddhist temple can purify your own soul-light while you worship the Buddha, and when your soul-light is raised, you can naturally make correct judgments and rational decisions, keep your emotions stable and peaceful, and avoid acting on impulse.9.Agitation and Depletion of the Three Souls and Seven Spirits The three souls and seven spirits circulate within the body, relying on the spiritual power produced from a person's food to supply their energy.This energy is stored in the heart chakra (by day) and the small intestine (by night), and gathers into soul-light.The three souls are "positive ions" and the seven spirits are "negative ions," and the physical body keeps turning between positive and negative; the most important thing is to maintain [balance].When this soul-light gathers into powerful energy, it nurtures a spirit embryo, which is what is commonly called the golden body.This golden body is not bound by space and can come and go freely, because it has wisdom, and it is not bound by the cycle of the six realms of rebirth.What the immortals of old called refining the elixir really means refining the golden embryo, and this golden embryo is stored in the dantian.Later generations misread "refining the elixir" as making an immortality pill, thinking it was something to be eaten, and believed that eating it would bring eternal life.Not everyone can refine a golden embryo; it also takes the guidance of a correct method, the support of the acquired environment, and the hardest of all is the interference and depletion caused by the seven emotions and six desires.That is why the immortals of old chose deep mountains and wild ranges, then found a cave with abundant spiritual energy, absorbed the essence of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and then gathered it into the dantian.Another name for the seven spirits is the seven emotions and six desires, and the seven spirits circulate around the center of the human body, with the three souls providing energy to nourish them.When the seven emotions give rise to joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hatred and desire, they also stir up the six desires of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind, the negative ions increase and drive the positive ions (the three souls) to release positive charge; this process is the release of soul-light, which is also its depletion.This also explains the Buddha's teaching of having no attachments and emptiness of the four elements, though no one has been able to explain the reason.The essential teachings of our school, the Vajra Dharma-Eye Lineage, discuss this in great detail, and set out clearly the positions of the three souls and seven spirits within the human body.Since a person cannot escape the shackles of the seven emotions and six desires and depletion still occurs, would it not be better to find a way to increase soul-light?Exactly!That is the aim of this school: to find the true cause of each person's loss of soul-light, and to begin real practice only after resolving all the karmic forces of the past.Only this is the true solution, not merely relief from suffering for a moment.That does not address the root; we must not put the branches before the roots.Many people know how to eliminate disasters and misfortune, but there must be a real solution, don't you agree?10.Improper Vows and Willpower Everyone has the power of intention, and this thought-force can indeed produce a magnetic field; the stronger the thought-force emitted, the stronger and wider the magnetic field it forms.Whether it is the deceased or the people of this world, all can create magnetic field effects.Sometimes we make a casual vow as a joke, make a wish, or even curse someone, and all of these must be paid for with soul-light.I hope you will no longer make vows, swear oaths or curse at random.The mantras, sutras and Buddha names we chant all have spiritual power poured into them and sent out; this is why consecration ceremonies, eye-opening rituals, mantra recitation and talismans must be conducted by masters of high attainment, because their cultivation is high and their soul-light is naturally much stronger, and only then can the effect appear.The same is true of empowerment in Tantric Buddhism; in fact one can empower oneself, only by a different method.