Issue No 77.2 by the Programme of
Joining Hands
for
Free Caodai Publications.
CONTENTS
THE GOD’S ALTAR AT HOME
From heart to heart
I. ARRANGEMENT OF THE GOD’S ALTAR AT HOME
II. THE
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TWELVE ALTAR ITEMS
1. The God’s Eye / 2. The Thái Cực lamp / 3. The vase of
flowers / 4. The dish of fruit / 5-6-7. The three small cups of liquor / 8. The
cup of water / 9. The cup of tea / 10. The incense bowl (or incense burner) / 11-12.
The two lamps
III. CONCLUSION
For further reading
Front cover photo: Chreung Yaing Hwang,
Cambodian Caodaist,
adapted from a 2017 photo
FROM
HEART TO HEART
The purpose of this
booket is to share some basic understanding of the God’s Altar at home.
In the Third
Universalism, our Master borrows the visible to lead us back to the invisible.
Caodai God says:
Clearly exposed is the Caodai principle:
The God’s Altar at
home is one of the various visible means borrowed by our Master. He teaches
that we should comprehend the altar significance to cultivate ourselves into
divinities.
The Altar is compared
to the lamp our Master transmits to guide our steps in the darkness of
ignorance. Caodai God says:
The visible Altar arrangement for worship
Whenever arriving in a
new city
Similarly, the God’s
Altar is like a map that helps us find the way to cultivate ourselves. Caodai
God says:
The God’s Altar is like a map.
Why is it necessary to
cultivate our inside?
Living in this world,
while trying to satisfy our secular desires of fame, profits, and sex, etc. our
bodies, brains, morality, and souls are gradually degenerated.
When a house declines,
its owner will have it mended. If a car is out of order, its owner will have it
fixed. Thus, it is not enough to cure diseases of a weakened body; man had
always better cure his soul by cultivating himself, leading a virtuous life,
and practising meditation. Quan Âm (Guanyin)
Bodhisattva says:
Self-cultivation means correcting yourselves,
Man is a micro-sacred
light, and God is the Macro-Sacred Light. Man is from God, for higher
evolution. Self-cultivation is a journey taken by micro-sacred lights to return
to their ancient origin, namely the Macro-Sacred Light, completing the
evolution circle. Caodai God says:
Human bodies change for evolution.
Self-cultivators had better improve themselves.
It’s like making up for the devolution,
Man (a micro-sacred
light, also a microcosmos) and Heaven (the Macro-Sacred Light, also the
Macrocosmos) have the same substance which is the sacred light. Caodai God
says:
As a sacred being on earth,
Therefore, what Heaven
owns, man does, too. Caodai God says:
As a microcosmos,
Man is not different from Heaven.
Whatever God possesses,
Gold is buried deep
inside earth and jade is hidden inside stone; without hardships of quarrying we
cannot extract them. In the same way, the divine and valuable similarities
between God and man are not obviously exposed. These sublime values are
secretly concealed inside human body, and should be “quarried” through deep
meditation practice.
Therefore, at the very
beginning of Caodaism (1926), our Master told us to practise meditation (precious dharma):
“He who keeps at least ten days of vegetarianism each month may be
taught the precious dharma.” ([8])
Due to that reason,
when making The New Law (Tân Luật),
the early Caodai Holy Assembly obeyed our Master’s teaching and stipulated
therein eight articles on Meditation
Houses (Tịnh Thất). The then Holy Assembly explained: “Meditation Houses are tranquil ones designed for the disciple’s
meditation practice.”
Today, therefore, more
and more Caodai disciples realise that exotericism does not exclude esotericism
and they have practised meditation, following our Master’s teaching recorded in
An Anthology of Holy Sayings (Thánh Ngôn
Hiệp Tuyển), or what is stipulated in The
New Law (Tân Luật).
The God’s Altar at
home is a visible means designed to convey several meditation hints. However,
this booklet is NOT a manual on meditation. It aims at sharing some basic
understanding of the God’s Altar so that, through its arrangement, Caodai disciples
can recognise the map our Heaven Father bestows upon us, showing the return way
to Him, our divine origin.
I sincerely express my deep gratitude to
Tú Đoàn, a sophisticated teaching colleague of mine, who helped proofread the
2014 English text and adjust some words.
I am wholeheartedly grateful to all
respectable donors of the Programme of Joining Hands for Free Caodai
Publications, whose noble generosity enables thousands of these copies to reach
your hands.
I beg Master to bestow great favour upon
my benefactors, their ancestors and relatives as well.
Namo Caodai the Immortal Mahabodhisattva
Mahasattva.
17 October 2017
Huệ Khải
