Blessed!

A local Taiwanese friend had invited us for a vegetarian Taiwanese dinner at her place with some of her friends and with my 5% of Mandarin and her 50% of English skills I think I understood that she wants to take us somewhere for blessings after dinner because 'we are very nice people'. So I am all dressed for a casual dinner at a friends place on a Saturday night. She came to pick us up sharply at 6:45pm. We stopped in one of the busy areas, outside the lobby of a skyscraper and we took the elevator to go up to the floor that we were supposed to. Everything was going very well so far. But as soon as the elevator door opened, we were greeted by at least 5-6 men and women in white and navy blue formal western clothes. They gave us wet towels to clean our hands and escorted us inside the apartment, we crossed a little passage and on our right was a room which was shut and the next door was open so I peeked and there were more men and women, cooking and cleaning in the kitchen. We kept walking straight and ended up in a big hall with chairs lined by all walls except one where there was a high pedestal with traditional Chinese carvings  carrying an idol of one of the version of Buddha and decorated with traditional religious paraphernalia, incense and lamps. This Buddha is known by the name of Ji-Gong Living Buddha. In the center of the room was a huge dining table with at least 20 different dishes being set up for dinner. Once the 1x1 introductions were done we were given a seat with my friend on my side and a translator on the other and everybody else were back to their activities such as chatting, giggling and setting up food for dinner. Everybody in the room was smiling and looked peaceful in what they were doing except my husband and I looked at each other in a complete bewilderment. I also felt like a colourful sail in the sea of whites.

In our small little group, we started chatting about what this place really was. Who are all this people and what are they really doing here? It turned out to be a group of people who believe in the way of life of Dao, they don't call themselves following a religion but somebody who wants to adopt the way of good life as led by Buddha. I think she was saying a potato is a potaaato but anyways at that point my curiosity superseded all the suspicions and I thought sure, there is absolutely nothing wrong in leading a good and peaceful life. Few minutes into our discussion, an elderly lady walked in with a microphone and started saying something in Mandarin. Then she said something about two new Indian friends in Mandarin and I recognized that she was welcoming us and asked us to start the dinner. We got up like some chief guests and helped ourselves with all the delicacies in our Chinese dinner bowl. Rest of them followed us and then everybody went back to their seats enjoying dinner and chatting.

I wanted to learn more about the place and people. Two more young women sat with us this time. They both spoke very good English and we found out that they actually live in New Delhi and teach Chinese and Dao Sutras at a Dao temple built by this group. They explained that they are focusing on opening the gate to our soul and letting good thoughts enter our body and soul through the gate. They are focusing on preaching people to do good deeds and charity because we are eventually going to go back to ashes. Not very different from Hindu culture, I thought. And they kept saying that they love India and Indian people, "very smart people but food is very spicy!" . I guess we have heard that many many times before :) 

After we enjoyed our delicious dinner and exotic fruits, we were taken to another room across the passage and were asked to rest ( in my mind I rebelled with "why"). Whether it was the food or the smell of the incense but by this time I was simply felt carried away. Soon after that, from an adjoining room which was mostly closed during our dinner, a very neatly dressed man in his fifties walked out and everybody bowed and made way for him. Clearly he was a person with high importance. He had very pleasant smile and manners. He walked towards us with my friend and the translator. Introductions were made. We were introduced again as "very nice people from India". He was introduced as the Master of the temple. He was very delighted to meet us and said "I feel I have some affinity with you." I could only smile, not being able to speak the language a lot helped. He took us into his room which looked like an office and we were very surprised to see a big Map of India on one of the walls. He told us about all the temples his community had built across India in Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and few more in smaller villages in Tamil Nadu and Bihar. They try to do charity work in India and learn about the culture and sutras. He said all the sutras and teachings were originated from India so there was no better place to learn about it than in India.

Now the time for blessings had come. Some of the women in white dress came to us and asked us to write our names on the paper where it looked like some religious mantras were written. We were taken back to the main hall where we had our dinner. It was now cleared and setup for some kind of ceremony. Men had changed into the Chinese robe and stood neatly in 5 rows of 2 on one side. My hubby was asked to stand in the first row. Similarly women lined up on the other side and I was asked to stand first in the row facing Buddha. Just by the pedestal there were 6 small sitting stools. 5 men stood on each side of this group of pedestals facing each other. Ceremony began with a loud cry by a woman on the back and she announced the arrival of the great Master. He walked in between the group of men and women and everyone cried welcome Master in one voice in Mandarin. Ceremony began. Ceremony was for us!

Chanting and bowing continued, incense and candles were lit. Fruits and teas were presented to the idol by a row of people in a very formal manner. We felt like a bride and a groom. We were given blessings by the God via Master. Master lit the candle and asked us to focus on the main candle while he touched our crossing at nose bridge and forehead and opened gate to our soul. We were asked to chant in Mandarin a special mantra which can never be said out loud unless you are in front of the idol with 3 candles lit (which apparently meant that we are thanking God for its mercy and asking him to open our souls so we can brighten our life and be a better person). At the end, we were asked to make a silent wish. My friend was given the title of 'Introducer' and the one who I kept calling translator was announced as our 'Gurantor', she guaranteed to the community that we are nice people and we deserved to be blessed in this ceremony. We got up from kneeling from the pedestals and walked to the Master to thank him. We were asked to thank our friend and my guarantor without whom we would not be blessed.

Master touched my husbands forehead and did a gesture of Namaste to me, blessed us one last time with a very pleasant smile. All the disciples walked in towards us and congratulated us. I was simply awed, my spirits were floating in the air. I looked at my friend with "i simply can't believe that you arranged all this for us" . Later my friend and the guarantor explained to us that this ceremony happens once in a life time and is limited to the people of the community. Only because our friend spoke so highly of us we were given the much deserved blessings. They brought us a bag of fruits from what was offered, I immediately said out loud, this is like Prasad and also gave us couple of English books nicely wrapped so we can learn more about this community and what they believe in. In the end, we were given an individual wallet sized card with Ji-Gong Living Buddha picture on one side and other side was filled with details such as date, names of our guarantor, introducer, Master and our names. This was kind of a proof that we were blessed.
I gathered my souvenirs, gave bows and hugs to all the new friends, exchanged email and phone numbers with English speaking friends that I made and hurried to take the first elevator down. My heart was simply overwhelmed by this surprise. We were quiet all the way. I guess we were internalising what had just happened and what it meant. I haven't found out yet and maybe I never will. But mix feeling of awe, bewilderment, suspicion, disbelief, delight, warmth and smiles lingered around me through the night ...