Master Xuanhua---explains the eight divisions of heaven, dragons, and ghosts

The eight divisions include Yaksha, Gandharva, Asura, Kinnara, and Mahora There are eight groups of ghosts and gods, such as Jia, Garuda, etc., protecting this ashram. So that’s what I’m talking about today. You must do your part to support this Buddha’s dojo.

The eight parts are: God, this is one, Naga is one, Yaksha is one, Gandharva is one, Asura is one, Garuda is one, and Nāra is one, and Mahārāga is also one.

Then for these eight groups, there are gods in the sky, and they must also protect this dojo. Wherever there is the real dojo of the Buddha, they have all vowed to support the dojo of the Buddha in the past.

The dragon is a spiritual creature and one of all living beings. Why did it become a dragon? Just because when cultivating the Tao, it takes advantage of the emergency and slows down. Vehicle means Mahayana and Hinayana. They are willing to practice Mahayana, learn this Buddha Dharma, and be brave and diligent; but they are willing to take shortcuts, go fast, and have supernatural powers, so they look for Buddhism and Tantric Buddhism everywhere. You must practice Tantra. How about practicing Tantra? He does not pay attention to the precepts and does not keep them. A person who upholds the precepts should abstain from doing any evil and practice all good deeds. People who practice Tantric Buddhism sometimes steal other people's skulls to chant mantras and practice Tantric Buddhism. Sometimes, he would steal the tablets of other people's ancestors, and he would practice Tantric Buddhism and use the other people's ancestors to manipulate ghosts and gods. Cheng Ji, he goes forward bravely and vigorously, faster than the rocket, it is so powerful, so it is called Cheng Ji. He does not abide by the precepts. He does not abide by the precepts. He does not abide by the precepts. He does not abide by the precepts. He does not abide by the precepts of adultery, lying, killing, stealing, etc. Got it! You see, he steals other people's skulls to practice Dharma, steals other people's ancestral tablets to practice Dharma, steals trees on other people's graves to practice Dharma, and uses all kinds of twists and turns to use greed to seek Dharma. This is called taking advantage of an emergency and being cautious.

Because he was in a hurry, he fell into the body of a dragon and had supernatural powers. Jie Mian, although he has magical powers, is still a beast, and this dragon is one of the beasts. But the dragon is a kind of divine creature, because it has magical powers, so it can be made big, small, invisible, and visible. It can be big, you can see how long this dragon is, but it can also become very small; it can be invisible, and suddenly it disappears; it can be visible, and suddenly it appears again. Why is it like this? Just because it cultivated magical powers and fell into the body of a dragon, it has this magical power. But this dragon is very afraid of the sun. If the sun hits it, it will be as painful as fire, so it will rain some rain and take a shower. This is a dragon in the sky.

Yaksha is the speedy ghost; speedy, the one who walks very fast. There are yakshas in the air, yakshas in the earth, and yakshas in the water. There are yakshas on land, sea, and air. It moves faster than a car, faster than an airplane, about as fast as a rocket, and a rocket is not as fast. It can reach you thousands of miles away with just a thought, and it has such great magical power. This is Yaksha.

In this Yaksha, there are thousands and thousands of kinds, and there are thousands and thousands kinds of dragons, and there are also thousands and thousands of kinds of gods in the sky, which can’t be exhausted. . Just like people, we have many kinds of people, white people, black people, yellow people, there are many kinds of people. Within each of these categories, they are divided into different categories. You are a southerner, I am a northerner, he is an easterner, and he is a westerner. The languages ????are also different, and the writing is also different. There are thousands and thousands of types of people, gods are the same, yakshas are the same, dragons are the same, but they are not all the same; dragons include golden dragons, fire dragons, blue dragons, and white dragons. There are also black dragons, and there are thousands of different kinds of dragons. There are thousands and thousands of kinds of living beings of every kind. You see, in this world, there are tens of thousands of sentient beings of so many types, organized into this world, and each type of sentient beings has thousands and thousands of different forms, so this world is so wonderful, you There is no way for people to fully understand the secrets of this world.

You said: ‘Now you will understand, if a man lands on the moon, everything will be achieved! ’ ‘When everything is realized, everything will be gone.

’ You remember this sentence, everything has appeared and nothing is gone, because the play is over! On this earth, you can go to other planets. When other planets communicate with your earth, an atomic bomb explodes, a hydrogen bomb explodes, or an earthquake occurs, or a volcano erupts. This is enough to destroy this world. All human disasters, whether man-made or created by nature, have these problems. Therefore, the more prosperous the world becomes, and when the prosperity reaches its extreme, it will become dark again. What does this look like? It's like when we wake up early in the morning, it's daytime, the daytime reaches its peak, it's evening time again, and it's time to sleep again at night. When sleeping, everyone closes their eyes and sleeps there, and they dream, but they are confused and cannot understand anything. This is the truth. In this world, everything is the same, everything has a cyclical truth.

Gandharva, it can make music, and the music is very beautiful. Once it is put to music, the god will sit there in a state of intoxication, as if he is drunk, wandering around, unwilling to move in heaven. It is good at making music, but it is not easy to teach it to make music. However, it also has a weakness. The Jade Emperor listens to its music happily because he has its weakness. What is its weakness? You are willing to smell the fragrance. Once you have the fragrance, it will come from thousands of miles away. When it comes, you are willing to smell the fragrance. There is a kind of incense at the Jade Emperor's place, which is specially used to summon this Gandharva. Then when you go to the Jade Emperor's place and smell the fragrance, it will dance, jump around, play music, and sing, so this Gandharva is called the God of Smell of Fragrance. The dragon kings mentioned earlier have eight dragon kings; this gandharva has a total of four gandharva kings.

Asuras have the biggest tempers. It seems that we have Asuras to support us when we have such a big temper. He has a very bad temper and often loses his temper. He loses his temper even when things are right, and even loses his temper when things go wrong. He has the greatest temper. He belongs to Asura. Asuras call Wujiu in heaven. How about Wujiu? He has no wine to drink in heaven. Also called Feitian, they are not citizens of heaven. They are citizens of heaven who have entered the country illegally and are not legal in heaven. Asuras are members of the Three Good Paths. They are not legal in heaven, so they often want to compete with heavenly soldiers and generals for territory. They want to overthrow the Jade Emperor. He wants to become the Jade Emperor and Shakti Huanyin.

There are four kinds of Asuras. They have heavenly blessings but no heavenly rights. They can live in heaven and enjoy the blessings of heaven; but they have no rights as gods in heaven, just like these illegal immigrants in the United States. Yes, you can eat steak and butter bread here in the United States and enjoy the blessings of the United States; but you cannot manage the affairs of this country. He is not qualified to participate in the government. That is what it is, this is Asura.

Garuda is the golden-winged bird, it can be big or small, it can hide or appear. Its wings are as big as three hundred and thirty yojanas, and one yojana is as far as forty miles. Three hundred and thirty yojanas, look how big it is! If this wing flaps, it will dry up all the water in the sea and make it disappear. Then as soon as the water in the sea disappeared, the dragon was exposed, and there was no water in the Dragon Palace to protect it, so it ate all the dragons - the big dragon, the little dragon, and the old dragon. You have such great ability, look! Said: ‘Can it be that big? ’ That’s not a big deal. Therefore, this Garuda also has the greatest supernatural power, and dragons are the most afraid of it. However, because they have all converted to Buddha, they all live in peace and harmony, and they do not kill each other. There are four types of Garuda, but if you want to know what are the names of these four types? If you look at the first preface of the Lotus Sutra, it is very clear.

This is Garuda, he has such a great ability. Let’s talk about the Golden-winged Dapeng. Its magical transformation is really incredible. With one flap of its wings, it can dry up the sea; with another flap of its wings, it can flatten all the mountains. If you fan the mountain, you can use it to fill up the sea. It has the ability to move mountains and seas.

So what does this Kinnara do? It can make music. It has a horn on its head, so its name is Suspicious. It can make music very well.

Mahou Luojia is a big python. This is because the Eight Tribes of Heavenly Dragons were all demons and monsters in the past. In the future, they have corrected their evil ways, protected Buddhism, and served as the protectors of Buddhism. From this point of view, this evil person will sometimes do good deeds when he turns back. Therefore, it is said that "the sea of ??suffering is boundless, but when you turn around, you will find a shore." ’ A person who has committed the Ten Evils and Five Rebellions will still be a good person if he changes his ways.

Then these eight groups of ghosts and gods all felt that they had destroyed Buddhism in the past and came to harm Buddhism. Their consciences found out and they felt sorry for Buddhism, so they vowed to be the protectors of Buddhism, which are the eight deities and dragons. This is the rough meaning of the Eight Parts of Ghosts and Gods.