The Thunder God’s Gratitude: Saving Taiwan from Drought

This is a record of an interview with Li Jianchang, who served as a Thunder God in Central Taiwan. He sought deliverance at the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre in Australia and now resides in the Western Dharma-Nature Land. This account reflects upon his experiences during the 2021 drought in Taiwan. Recorded by the chief writer, Shi Faxin, on April 25, 2021.

Li Jianchang speaks:

"Namo Amituofo. I am Li Jianchang. For a long time, I had been observing the severe water shortage in Taiwan. As I watched the streams and rivers slowly evaporate, I knew in my heart that a great disaster was looming. The massive earthquakes that struck were already a warning to humanity: stop destroying the environment for the sake of material living. When factories were first established, the once-clear skies began to be polluted, and the natural ecology started to shift. The birds that used to circle above no longer visited this sky. Everyone began to fight for their own survival, and as industries flourished, the destruction of nature only intensified. It was an inevitable consequence, but the failure to know when to stop meant that the beings harmed by this development harboured deep resentment and hatred. This negative energy accumulated in the air, manifesting as a heavy, dark cloud of resentment.

The Impending Disaster

I felt a deep sense of anxiety. I kept asking myself, 'What can be done? What can be done?' I knew a disaster was coming, but I never expected that this particular wave of suffering would be the agony of a drought—a world without rain. I saw that it was not just humans who were suffering; many other creatures were also becoming anxious and crying out in pain. Animals began to migrate, searching desperately for water, because it had not rained for such a long time.

Although I held the position of a deity, I was a local at heart, and seeing these scenes made me just as nervous as everyone else. In my family, we used to worship Guan Gong, and I knelt before him, praying with the utmost sincerity for his protection. Suddenly, the sky was filled with a brilliant, radiant light. I saw the Buddha, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, and Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva manifest before me. The Buddha waved his sleeve, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva sprinkled nectar from her willow branch, and beside Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva, there were many luminous lotus flowers. Seeing this scene before my eyes, I knew that Taiwan was saved. Although I was more familiar with Guan Gong, I could still recognise the Western Three Saints. I knelt alongside the local deities, our hands pressed together in prayer, pleading, 'Please, I beg of you, please!'

The Light of Deliverance

After that, I saw a figure that was incredibly fast and bright, followed by many points of light. This figure moved incessantly, darting into the earth and then back into the sky, illuminating the entire region. It swept away the grey, murky energy, and the space over Taiwan became visibly brighter. This was not something that could be seen with the physical eyes, but I felt such joy and gratitude. This light, which helped Taiwan, did not come just once; it came every day during that period, purifying the magnetic field of Taiwan layer by layer. Later, I learned that this swift and brilliant figure was none other than Practitioner Su.

Suddenly, I received a notification from the Rain God, telling me to wait for further instructions regarding the rain. I asked the Rain God with great joy, 'I have consulted the heavenly records, and there is no rain predicted for the near future. How can we prepare?' The Rain God replied, 'Practitioner Su, who resides at the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre in Australia, has realised the Dharma Body and is currently helping Taiwan by seeking rain through the process of Chao Du.' Upon hearing this, I was filled with gratitude. Seeing Practitioner Su’s Chao Du, which reached out to beings in a boundless and infinite way, I knew Taiwan was saved. The heavy stone that had been weighing on my heart could finally be set down. I am truly grateful to Practitioner Su.

A Childhood in Old Taiwan

I am Li Jianchang, a native of Taichung, Taiwan. In the past, Taichung was not like it is today; the roads were not this wide, and most of the area was still farmland—a vast expanse of green fields. From our front door, I could hear my mother calling me: 'Chang-zai! Chang-zai! Go and ask your father to come home.' I would shout 'Coming!' and use my fast legs to sprint to the fabric shop on the main street, calling out, 'Father, Father, Mother is looking for you!' When my father heard that my mother was looking for him, he would immediately drop whatever he was doing and rush home. He thought to himself: 'If I am late, A-Zhan will be angry, and if she starts shouting, the neighbours will hear, and that would be so embarrassing.' When he returned home, my mother would say to him, 'Xin-lai, go and buy a big watermelon; the child in my belly says he wants to eat watermelon.' My father would scratch his head and say, 'Alright.'

When the neighbours saw the way my mother spoke to my father, they would privately say, 'Xin-lai, you have it hard. Who would have thought the matchmaker would introduce you to a tigress? You have to endure it; that is just how marriage is.' Hearing this, my father would laugh and say, 'It is not like that! Our A-Zhan just has a loud voice; everything else about her is wonderful.' After hearing my father say this, the neighbours would give him a thumbs-up and ask, 'Do you want to run for a model citizen award?' My father would just smile his honest, simple smile again.

The Harmony of a Simple Life

I had five siblings, and I was the fifth. I especially loved looking at the sky. We grew vegetables and fruits at home. My eldest sister loved bok choy, my second sister loved oranges, my third brother loved grapes, my fourth brother loved wax apples, and my mother loved guavas. My father ate everything. To maintain harmony in the family, we planted a little bit of everything. Our field was not large, but it was rich in colour. The neighbours often laughed at us: 'You want to plant everything, but you do not have enough of anything to sell for money?' Although the neighbours said this, our family was harmonious, and our lives were secure. We were not wealthy, but every day was lived with a sense of groundedness.

When I was seven years old, Uncle A-Gua, who lived two houses away, passed away. I was deeply shocked. I asked my mother, 'Mother, why is Uncle A-Gua lying in a wooden box?' My mother said, 'Chang-zai! That is called a coffin. A coffin is for holding the dead. To die means one can never wake up again.' I said, 'Never wake up? Then... he cannot talk or go to the fields anymore?' My mother nodded. The words 'never wake up' kept circling in my ears. I muttered to myself, 'What if Mother never wakes up? What if my eldest sister never wakes up? What if I never wake up?' I thought of so many 'what ifs,' but I still did not know what to do.

The Reality of Impermanence

Suddenly, I heard wailing from next door: 'Oh—Father, oh—Father.' I rushed out to see what had happened. I saw Uncle A-Gua’s family wearing hemp mourning clothes. They had hired professional mourners, and their cries were so piercing, calling out, 'Father—Father—' It made my heart ache, and Uncle A-Gua’s family was also in tears. A year after the funeral, everyone returned to their normal lives, as if the event had passed. A few years later, Aunt A-Juan, Uncle Wu-Lai, and Aunt Duo-Xiu left our lives one after another. Time and again, I experienced the reality of death.

'Chang-zai! Chang-zai!' My mother woke me from my sleep and asked, 'What happened? Why were you screaming so loudly?' I was gasping for air and told my mother, 'Mother, I dreamt that someone was coming to catch me. They looked terrifying, and I kept struggling.' I was trembling all over as I spoke. My mother pulled me into her arms and patted my back, saying, 'Chang-zai, it is alright now. You are safe, you are safe.' Being patted and called by my mother, I finally regained my senses. From that day on, I had nightmares almost every night. My mother was frightened by this and took me to a temple to have my soul calmed. The Taoist priest shook his bell, 'Dang-lang, dang-lang, dang-lang—' and called out, 'Li Jianchang, come back! Li Jianchang, come back!' After shaking the bell a few times, he said to my mother, 'Your son is walking the path of the underworld.' My mother asked nervously, 'What does it mean to walk the path of the underworld? What should we do?' The priest said, 'Your son is very special. He was once a judge in the underworld. Now, the hell realms are overflowing with beings, and they need him to go back and help. But your son is still attached to the human world; he believes he still has unfinished causal conditions here, so he goes to the underworld to help in his sleep. Seeing so many suffering spirits, his heart is soft, and he feels very sad, which is why he screams in his dreams.' My mother asked me, 'Chang-zai, is what the priest said true?' I told my mother, 'I have a vague impression of it, but the memories become blurry after I wake up.' I promised my mother that I would stay in the human world and would not leave so soon. Only then did my mother nod, feeling relieved.

Seeing the Unseen

After that conversation with the priest, I was suddenly able to see spaces I could not see before. I saw many large and small ghosts attached to people’s bodies. My mother had them, the aunt next door had them, everyone had them, and even my own body had them. It looked as if the human body was like a house, with all sorts of different beings living inside. When I first saw this, I did not know how to react. I was afraid that if I spoke about these visions, people would be terrified, so I kept it to myself.

When I followed my mother to the market, I heard the wailing sounds of various animals. The painful, piercing sounds of pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, and cows being slaughtered and dismembered made me feel terrified. That night, I saw stewed pork on the dinner table. As I looked at the dish, it immediately manifested the form of a pig before my eyes. After seeing that, I felt physically ill and ran to the latrine to vomit; I could not eat anything at all. That same evening, I told my mother about this. She was shocked by what I said and immediately ran to the kitchen, knelt down, and repented to the animals that had been slaughtered, making a vow to become a vegetarian.

My mother stopped cooking meat, which angered my father, who loved eating it. My father said, 'It is not as if we do not have money; why are you not cooking meat?' My mother told him everything I had seen, but my father did not believe it, so my mother had to temporarily go along with him. My father insisted that he had eaten meat since he was a child and that he would have no strength to work without it. As he said this, I saw pig spirits present in his internal organs and on the surface of his skin. They were already angry and resentful, and hearing my father say that made them even more furious. They twitched on my father’s face, and I saw the pig’s head manifest, which gave me a fright. I looked at myself and saw that I also had pig spirits on me. Anyone who had eaten meat had the spirits of those animals on them. After seeing these sights, I kept thinking about what I could do. I visited many Taoist temples and Buddhist temples, taking my own money to perform Chao Du for them. I did everything I could.

The Sacrifice of a Thunder God

One day, I had a premonition that a disaster was coming. I begged the Taoist and Buddhist temples I knew to intensify their Chao Du ceremonies, but the disaster could not be stopped. The floodwaters surged in, the heavy rain continued to fall, and the thunder and lightning in the sky would not cease. I knew this was the karma that everyone had to bear, but I still knelt and prayed to the heavens. I knelt with great sincerity for three days. I told the heavens that I was only one person and that I was willing to sacrifice myself. I did not want families to be separated, nor did I want everyone’s lives to fall into anxiety and panic. I begged the heavens to fulfil my wish. On the third day, I began to kowtow continuously. Finally, the rain stopped, but a bolt of lightning struck me. I was knocked unconscious by the intense electrical strike, and my body became charred. However, a light came to lead my soul, and I arrived at the Heavenly Court. The Jade Emperor asked, 'Have you fulfilled your wish to help the civilians?' I nodded, because I knew that with my departure, the floodwaters had receded. The Jade Emperor brought me back to the Heavenly Court, and my job became that of a Thunder God. I guarded this land, and my most frequent task was to bring the northwest rain to the earth. When the gods of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning received the imperial decree from the Jade Emperor stating, 'Due to the karma of Taiwan, rain is temporarily suspended,' I obeyed the order, but the number of days without rain caused me great worry.

Just as I was preoccupied with this, the Western Three Saints shone with brilliant light across the sky. Practitioner Su led the assembly in Chao Du, resolving the karmic beings of Taiwan layer by layer, and also reached an agreement with the Jade Emperor to irrigate the reservoirs to relieve the suffering of the people. The Jade Emperor naturally ordered the gods of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning in our region to cooperate with one another. When the time was right for rain, we did our best to perform our duties. After the rain fell, I saw the people and creatures of Taiwan cheering. I am so grateful to the Buddha and Practitioner Su, as well as the Taiwan Rain-Seeking Chao Du Assembly held by the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre. Now, the murky energy that had accumulated in Taiwan is gradually dissipating. As someone who was once a Taiwanese, I, Jianchang, am grateful for what Practitioner Su has done for Taiwan, and I kneel and kowtow on behalf of the people and spirits of Taiwan.

Namo Amituofo, Namo Amituofo.

Memorial Tablet: Unlocking the many spaces in Central Taiwan, where countless mountains, forests, animals, and insects long for the light. Representative: Thunder God Li Jianchang (seeking restoration and peace of mind).

Entered the Western Dharma-Nature Land of the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre.