From a Life of Killing to the Western Pure Land

This is a record of an interview with Lian Zhengwen, who sought Chao Du at the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre in Australia. He now resides in the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss. This account reflects upon his life and his subsequent service in the hell realms. Recorded by the chief writer, Shi Fa, on November 25, 2022.

Lian Zhengwen speaks:

"Namo Amituofo. So, this is the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. Everything here is so magnificent and beautiful. The little birds are constantly singing to me, and every single view before my eyes is something I will never forget. If it were not for Practitioner Su, we would never have been able to reach such a wonderful realm. Countless lives are filled with vitality here. In the Buddha's land, every scene and every object makes one feel pure. I am filled with gratitude to the Buddha, and I am also deeply grateful to Practitioner Su for bringing us into this beautiful realm.

A Childhood Defined by the Sea

I am Lian Zhengwen. I lived by the harbour, and our entire village was always permeated with the fresh, salty scent of seafood. Some visitors from out of town could not stand it, but for those of us in the village, we had long since grown accustomed to it. To us, that smell was the smell of home.

From a very young age, I loved eating shrimp. Every time a plate of shrimp was placed before me, I was always the one eating with the greatest relish. By the end of a meal, there would be a tall stack of shrimp shells in front of me.

During festivals and holidays, my uncles and elders would line up, and we would begin to hold shrimp-eating competitions. After each competition, we would have consumed nearly a hundred shrimp. My technique for eating shrimp was incredibly refined. After pulling off the head, I would put the rest into my mouth, and when I finally spat it out, only a perfectly clean shell remained.

The Rhythm of a Fishing Village

Naturally, our childhood leisure activities were integrated into the village's fishing industry. We would find places to play where we could catch fish and shrimp, and we could spend the entire day there. We would laugh with joy as we scooped up fish from the water. Sometimes, we would accidentally fall into the river and end up soaking wet from head to toe.

My grandfather, father, and uncles were all fishermen. Some engaged in medium-range fishing, where the boats would go out and return within a week, while others went on long-range trips that lasted a month. Originally, my father worked the long-range lines; he earned more money, and the fish he caught were larger and fetched a better price. However, after he met my mother and they were married, she insisted that he could not be away for so long. She demanded that beyond his career, he had to look after the family.

My father was completely under my mother's thumb. He listened to her in everything. Whenever my mother raised her voice, my father would simply nod. The neighbours all laughed at him for being henpecked, but my father truly loved my mother. No matter what others said, he insisted on listening to her. It was my father's willingness to yield to my mother that kept our home in a state of peace.

Growing Up Under a Stern Hand

We had six children in our family—three boys and three girls—and we were all under my mother's management. She would assign us chores, and if she ever caught us slacking off, she would begin to roar at us. The consequences of my mother's roaring were never pleasant, because she held control over all resources—my father, my grandmother, and even our school teachers. She could think of any way to punish us to make sure we listened.

I was the most rebellious child in the family, and I was the one my mother scolded the most. I enjoyed going against the grain to seek excitement. Although the fishing village was not large, I could always find all sorts of new and fun things to do.

Every few years, there would be a shipwreck accident in the village. In truth, our whole family lived with a sense of anxiety, deeply worried that my father might one day go out and never return.

A Haunting Vision

Every morning, I would go to the Mazu temple at the harbour to pray, pleading for all the fishermen in the village to return home safely. When I calmed my heart to pray, I knew Mazu heard my inner voice, but sometimes when I went to pray, my heart felt particularly chaotic, leaving me with a sense of unease. I only hoped that nothing would happen. Yet, even though I thought this way, the things that were destined to happen often did.

When accidents occurred, my young heart would always wonder: 'Why must everyone endure these potential disasters? Could we not choose more stable jobs?' But I was still small; I did not know how to help everyone change.

When I felt lost and helpless, kneeling before Mazu, I always felt that she could give me some guidance. One day, while I was blowing in the wind at the harbour, I accidentally fell asleep. In a state between dreaming and waking, I heard crying—a sharp, piercing sound. It sounded as if something truly heartbreaking had occurred. I looked ahead in confusion, and to my surprise, I saw a woman crying, saying that many of her children had been taken away. Sometimes she lost five children, and sometimes she lost a whole crowd of them.

Just as the woman was speaking through her tears, in an instant, I saw her transform into a large fish, and then in another instant, she turned back into a woman. My heart was filled with doubt, but I also thought that if I could help this woman, I would certainly do my best.

The Realisation of Karma

As soon as this thought arose, I immediately saw the woman turn back into a fish, swimming in the sea. The fish looked at the hull of a boat from afar. The boat cast its nets, dragged them, and started its engines. Not long after, when the boat stopped, the nets were already filled with many fish. Looking at these fish, I realised that many of the large and small fish were the woman's relatives and children. The woman watched in such sorrow. This kind of thing happened constantly, and every time, she had to endure it and accept it.

In an instant, I woke up, but the images from the dream were so clear—the old woman's face, the appearance of those fish spirits. My intuition told me that this dream was real.

That day, I went to the harbour to blow in the sea breeze and look at the ocean. I asked myself, 'What should I do?' For the first time, I felt powerless looking at the vast sea. Without thinking, I walked to the Mazu temple and sincerely asked Mazu for guidance. Suddenly, a voice told me: 'Do what you can to change.' So I thought, what could I change? In that moment, I suddenly saw that I was surrounded by many shrimp. I had an 'Aha!' moment—I was wrong. I had harmed so many lives in the past. Although it was not on the scale of fishing, where so many lives are harmed at once, I had still done it in my ignorance. I repented. From that moment on, I knew that besides humans, other lives are also lives, and they should also be cherished.

Transforming the Village

Once I understood this principle, I began to think about how to help the entire village transform so that everyone could stop committing the karma of killing. I decided to be honest with my father and tell him everything I had seen. To my surprise, my father said he had also had similar dreams. Although he felt very repentant in his heart, we were all still young at the time, and to raise us, he had no choice but to continue.

I was astonished to hear this. I had always been clever, so I worked with my father and mother to research ways to turn the seaweed we produced into cakes, creating a unique local specialty. When we successfully transformed and brought in some tourism, we influenced other villagers to follow our example and stop killing.

Some started small snack businesses, while others created shell crafts, using our local advantages to transform. A few years later, our small village successfully turned into a tourist fishing village. Most people no longer went out to sea to fish. Instead, they decorated their small boats—some painted in three colours, others in the colours of the national flag. Each boat had its own unique character. Some even allowed people to experience dining on the boats, creating many business opportunities for tourism.

Coming to the fishing village, there was still a strong scent of the sea, but the village now had many different colours. Because of this, after the transformation, we no longer had to live with the constant possibility of losing those around us.

A Life of Service and Deliverance

The Mazu temple in the village became even more prosperous than before, and visitors from out of town would always politely come to the temple to pay their respects. Our whole family was very happy about the successful transformation; it was, in a way, a way to atone for our past sins. The people in the village also learned to cherish life.

When I was in my fifties, I was elected as the village chief. Everyone thought I was worthy of the title, but in truth, what I cared about most was that no more lives would be harmed. Every day, we would perform Chao Du at the Mazu temple for the lives we had once harmed, hoping they could receive this merit and no longer suffer.

I lived to be seventy-two. As I blew in the sea breeze, my body no longer had much strength, and I passed away. A stone tablet was carved at the entrance of the village to commemorate me. In the darkness and confusion, I arrived in the underworld and saw many lost and bewildered eyes. When I came before King Yama, he told me that in this life, I was originally destined to die with my body itching, bitten by fish spirits. My father was the same. It was only because I turned to cherish life and truly helped other beings that I was able to resolve this disaster. At that time, there were still too many people in the human world living in ignorance.

King Yama was compassionate. Seeing that I had a heart to help all beings, he gave me the position of a hell guard to serve the masses. In the hells, I calmed my heart to listen to Practitioner Su give Dharma talks. Just as I completed thirty years of service, I was given the opportunity to be reborn in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. My heart is filled with gratitude. It is a world of supreme beauty, without fighting or grabbing; there is only peace and gratitude in my heart.

Thank you, Practitioner Su, for leading us sixty hell guards to the West.

Namo Amituofo.

Lian Zhengwen, with palms joined."