Yu's Reincarnation Stories: The Yogic Practitioner’s Protection
A member recently asked us how she and Yu Menglong became connected through reincarnation. With her permission, we are sharing this reincarnation story with everyone:
In one lifetime, you were an Indian ascetic practicing 「buried meditation」, also known as “meditation within the earth.” This was one of the most extreme practices of yogic practitioners—a life-and-death cultivation in which the body’s vitality was reduced to an extreme state and the practitioner sought to become one with the earth.
Before entering the earth, you instructed your senior disciple who was responsible for guarding you—one of Yu Menglong’s deputy primordial spirits—to protect this place at all costs during your time underground, not allowing any human, demon, or animal to enter the area. The senior disciple promised to do so and began preparing for the ascetic’s burial practice.
Several days, or even weeks, before entering the earth, the practitioner would stop eating solid food and consume only small amounts of water or milk. Through the yogic cleansing practices known as Shatkarma, the digestive system would be thoroughly emptied to prevent toxins from forming underground due to bodily waste.
He had the other disciples dig a pit just large enough for the practitioner to sit cross-legged. The bottom of the pit was covered with a straw mat, spices, or ashes.
On the day of the burial, the practitioner entered the pit in the lotus position (Padmasana) and entered meditation. Your senior disciple responsible for guarding you led the other disciples in completely filling and compacting the pit with earth. They then placed wooden boards over it, built an altar above, completely sealed off the air, and meditated around the buried area to protect and support the practitioner.
On the first day, demons came. They wanted the essence of energy cultivated by the practitioner and rushed over while he was unable to move underground, hoping to absorb it. However, they were blocked by the protective boundary established by the senior disciple and could not enter.
On the second day, a demon possessed the body of a black cat and infiltrated the protective boundary while the disciples were not paying attention. Because the senior disciple was also a long-time yogic practitioner, he immediately saw the evil spirit within the black cat. He formed a powerful hand seal and struck the black cat’s evil spirit out of the protective boundary. Once again, the demons failed.
On the third day, the demon transformed into the senior disciple’s wife.
The senior disciple had married before beginning his cultivation practice. His wife was beautiful, virtuous, and highly perceptive. When she learned that her husband wished to cultivate, she willingly took on the responsibility of supporting the family.
Now, however, his wife appeared at the place where he was buried, looking sorrowful, and pleaded with him to return home.
The senior disciple simply coldly told his wife to leave. Other disciples who did not understand what was happening saw this and accused their senior brother of being heartless and ungrateful. But the senior disciple remained unmoved, and his wife could only leave dejectedly.
On the fifth day, the senior disciple’s wife brought the villagers with her to attack him, accusing him of being irresponsible toward his family. If he had wanted to cultivate from the beginning, why had he married in the first place and wasted his wife’s life? And there were children as well, all of whom were being raised by his wife.
The villagers became furious and began throwing stones at the senior disciple. The other disciples were also swayed by the villagers and one after another left the place where the practitioner was buried.
On the sixth day, the angry villagers and the other disciples who did not understand the situation bound the senior disciple where he stood and decided to take him to the authorities the following day, the seventh day, for punishment.
Abandoning one’s wife and children was considered a very serious crime at that time. When they tried to move the senior disciple, however, he was as immovable as a stone. Unable to carry him away, they had no choice but to leave him where he was.
In fact, the senior disciple knew very clearly in his heart that all of this was interference from demons. Their purpose was to take away the essence of energy his master had cultivated.
As for his wife, it was even more impossible that she would come there. His wife’s maternal family was a family of cultivators who deeply understood cultivation and strongly supported her husband’s practice. She would never have come to the burial site to cause such a disturbance.
On the seventh day, the authorities arrived. Since everyone had been unable to move the senior disciple, they brought the officials directly to the site to conduct the trial.
When the official announced the verdict, the senior disciple was sentenced to death by stoning for abandoning his wife and children and refusing to heed repeated attempts to persuade him otherwise.
Everyone was to take stones of different sizes and throw them at the condemned man until he died.
Suddenly, a loud “Bang!” came from beneath the earth.
The yogic practitioner had completed his buried meditation practice. He leapt out of the deep pit and formed an extremely complex hand seal.
The skin of the officials, villagers, and wife was stripped away, revealing that they were all demons!
The practitioner joined forces with the senior disciple to form a hand seal for eliminating demons, and the demons disappeared in an instant.
Just as the senior disciple had suspected, the so-called wife had been a manifestation created by demons.
The yogic practitioner gazed at the senior disciple with admiration and said that he was going to attain liberation—that is, reach completion—because the Universal Great Dharma King (the Creator) had already reincarnated into the Central Plains. He had to follow and avoid missing this opportunity.
The senior disciple asked, “Who is the Universal Great Dharma King? Why should I follow Him? What am I supposed to do after you leave?”
The yogic practitioner said that through this buried meditation practice, he had realized a profound principle: the yogic cultivation system of India was not the highest or most profound cultivation path.
If the senior disciple was willing, he could follow him toward liberation and go in pursuit of the Universal Great Dharma King. Of course, he could also remain behind and become a yogic practitioner.
As soon as the senior disciple heard that there was a more profound cultivation path, he followed the yogic practitioner toward liberation without hesitation, and they reincarnated in the Central Plains.
Many years later, in the present day, the yogic practitioner of that lifetime has also entered the cultivation path created by the Creator. The senior disciple who once protected him became one of Yu Menglong’s deputy primordial spirits. Although he lost his physical body together with Yu Menglong, under the Creator’s care, he also became a member of the Dragon God Clan.
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