At that time he talks to himself. Actually he’s not talking to himself, he’s conversing with the demon. And while he’s doing so, to anyone listening he sounds like a goblin. He’s conversing with the demon, but the people around him don’t see it. I’ve encountered this kind of demon before.

I once met a man who was visited by a woman every night. She didn’t come to him in the daytime, but every evening as soon as she came, everyone in the household could hear the clack-clack of a woman’s high heels on the floor boards. Although they could hear the sound, they could not see her. Whenever the woman came, the man would strip, hop in bed, and have at it, not caring whether anyone was around or not. That was an instance of this type of ghost. Later on, a shaman in the area went to his home to exorcise the ghost. That night, when the demon came, she conversed with the shaman.

“Fine,” she said. “You want to cure this man? All right, from today on he’ll be fine. But from this point, I’m going to start coming to your household. We’ll have a little contest of dharmas.” After that, she actually went to the shaman’s home, and his older brother engaged in this sort of improper activity from morning to night with the demon. I’ll tell you, this demon is really powerful.

The people around him do not realize what is happening. They are not aware of this situation. In most cases such a person will get in trouble with the law, and his activities will be curtailed by the law. But before he is punished, before he is brought to trial, he will die from depletion. While still in prison, he dies from the total depletion of his essence, energy, and spirit. The demon disturbs and confuses the person to the point of death. The demon destroys the person’s samadhi-power to the extent that he perishes.

[January 1983] When I was young, I liked to fight with demons. I fought with them until all the demon armies in the universe wanted to gang up on me. I nearly lost my life on many occasions. Because of this, later on, no matter how much I have wished to fight with demons again, I haven’t dared to use any dharma against them. Many demons come to bully me, but I always practice forbearance and don’t offer any opposition. I gather them in and influence them with kindness and compassion instead of subduing them with the Dharma of Subduing.

I remember that at the Virtue Society in Manchuria, the dean of the training school was called Xu Guilan. There were fifty or sixty students in the Virtue Society, and one of them became possessed by a demon. Xu Guilan, thinking that she had some authority as the dean of the training school, tried to get rid of the demon. She spat a mouthful of cold water at the possessed girl, but the demon didn’t leave.

It said, “Okay, you want to get rid of me? Then I’ll possess you instead, and see what you do about that!” Thereupon, the possessed girl got better, and Xu Guilan herself was possessed by the demon. Earlier, Guo Hong said he had used this method of reciting a mantra and then spitting on the possessed person, and the person had run off. Probably the demon who possessed him didn’t have enough power, and so it left. But the demon that possessed Xu Guilan wasn’t afraid of being spat on with cold water, and it didn’t go away. Then Xu Guilan started acting demonic. She could no longer live at the Virtue Society and had to move back home. The demon came to disturb her every day at her home, throwing her family into a turmoil.

What demon was this? It was a gibbon spirit, a very large one. When it came, it engaged in sexual intercourse with Xu Guilan. It would possess her body and torture her. Sometimes it would confuse her to the point that she would utter how much she loved it, and so on. Then they would have sex, and after it was over, Xu Guilan would be bleeding from her eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth. The gibbon spirit sucked away all her energy and essence, leaving her paralyzed and near death.

The Virtue Society sent someone to see our monastery’s abbot, who was known throughout Manchuria as the Filial Son Wang. They had heard that he had great virtue and could subdue the demon, so they sought him out. However, the Abbot would always ask me to take care of such matters. He never dealt with them himself, but always sent me to resolve whatever problems there were. This happened many times, such as when the family of Gao Defu in Danangou Village was in trouble.

This time the Abbot also asked me to go, and so I went. When they informed the gibbon spirit of my coming, guess what it said?

“Ah! You wasted your efforts asking him to come. It won’t work. Even if you asked Ji Gong (the “Living Buddha”) to come, it wouldn’t scare me.”

It was not afraid of anything. When I went there, the gibbon spirit came, and we had a real fight! After two days of nonstop fighting, I finally subdued it. The woman recovered. I have been through many experiences such as this.

I’m not willing to interfere in other people’s business anymore. For example, although I see that a certain person has an eagle spirit on her, and it is causing her head to shake involuntarily, I’m not going to do anything about it. I act as if I didn’t see it. Why? Because I’m cultivating forbearance! Even if someone were to defecate on my head, I would bear it and not get angry. My motto now is that I will not contend with anyone. Guo Hong, you’d better be careful not to stir up trouble in the future. You must have a few good roots, or else that demon would easily have possessed you. This is no laughing matter.

To be continued