New Year Blessings from Bodhisattva Manjusri

Bodhisattva Manjusri

I hope that the New Year of the Water Dragon will help us bring forth more compassion and wisdom into our own lives as well as into the lives of others. This is the true way to invite the God of Happiness into the Lunar New Year. For some strange reasons (because I am not a Fengshui master), one relative of mine asked me which direction should we face to invite the God of Happiness in this New Year. I answered that I do not know about these things. But as a Buddhist, in my heart, I would have answered the person that the direction is the direction of the heart. The God of Happiness comes from inside our heart. Not from external. The external deities do not last very long. What is more important is the deity or God in the heart. Whatever religion you believe in, I think it is also true. As you can see from the picture I took of Bodhisattva Manjusri at Musang-sa Temple, Korea, great wisdom shines forth from the heart of great compassion. I really like the picture because the light from the camera reflected exactly from the heart of the Bodhisattva. And there are light reflections at the side that was probably from the light reflections elsewhere. These look like a bright sun, a cloudy moon and one or two crescents. Can you see the photo as if it is emitting light? It is like there is an aura of light shining forth around it. I can assure you that this picture is unadulterated. By the look of it, you probably realise that it is crooked a little bit. I could have touched it up with photoshop or something, but decided not to. Let it be in its natural state. Rigpa, right? Hahahaha!

Just like the Great Bodhisattva Manjusri, we must live our lives with compassion and in doing so, also show wisdom in our actions. I hope by sharing this photo of Manjusri, indirectly you will also obtain great blessings and connection with him. You can visualise the light shine directly from Manjusri's heart into your heart. Or, if you prefer it to go to your crown first, then you visualise that. Or, it can go simultaneously to your crown, throat and heart (or even the other cakras if you know where it is). You can recite his mantra as you do that. His mantra is Om Arapacana Dhih. If you are more comfortable with chinese, then Na Mo Wen Shu Shr Li Pu Sa. Or, simply Namo Arya Manjusri Ye. It's up to you. By doing that, I hope it will result in bringing out the great wisdom and compassion inside YOU! Happy New Year and GONG XI FA CAI!