Ah Seng was a young and handsome man at the age of early 20’s many years ago. he was like any other modern neighbourhood child today, he got a dream for his career, love and hopefully a family of his own, and he was a free-thinker. for some reasons, he was always feeling unwell. he cant concentrate in his job during the day becos he always felt uncomfortable and dizzy. he went to consult his family doctor but was prescribed for only some anti-biotic. he went to a hospital for a full body diagnosis and again nothing unusual was diagnosed. eventually, a friend of his suggested tat he go to visit a medium ?? in a Taoist’s temple. he was hesitated becos he lived in a christian family. but, although he was living under the influence of a mostly christian environment, he never attended church service after his secondary school day.

Out of curiousity to find out wat a Taoist’s medium can do, he agreed and went to a temple his friend familiar with. he was told by the medium in trance tat he was selected and picked by a heavenly deity ?? to provide asistance to the deity to serve in the community. another word means, he is picked to be a Taoist’s medium. ah seng did not believed of wat the medium said. he went to a few other temples to enquire the same issue and everytime he got the same answer. as a young and stubborn man, also with little or no general knowledge with taoism practise, ah seng refused to accept the facts. few months later, ah seng felt sick again during his work and eventually he collapsed in his office. he was sent to the hospital for observation and was later discharged with a clean bill for health again. puzzled and confused are all we can describe him now. he went back to the first temple which his friend was familiar with reluctantly and beg for any favorable solution beside being a Taoist’s medium. he was told to go to the Jade Emporer temple ( Head of Heavenly God Temple ) to ask for an exemption or some extension of time for him to consider the appointment. the final decision was on the card of the Jade Emperor. anyway, ah seng was not given an exemption but was given 6 months to make a decision by the Jade Emperor.

Well, nothing unusual happened to him for the past 6 months. but happy time usually passed like the speed of bullet. he started to feel like wat he used to feel 6 months ago again. but this time, for the sake of his career, ah seng decided to give up. he surrendered himself to the first Taoist’s temple he visited and he was appointed as a medium of Dai Sen Yah ( Monkey God ).

With little interest and knowledge about the practises and teaching of Taoism, ah seng joined his temple involuntarily. however, there is always some house rules to follow. a Taoism’s temple and a new medium were not exempted to follow certain guidelines and rules enforced by the Heavenly God. new mediums are required to report for his call of duty to the Jade Emperor’s Temple ( Heavenly God ) before he could start his national service with any Taoist’s temple.ah seng is included. he have to prepare a ‘lin’ flag ?? ( flag of duty/order ) to the Jade Emperor’s Temple for endorsement. once the endorsement is done, a big chop from the Jade Emperor’s Temple will stamp onto his ‘lin’ flag like an order ??. tats it, he is now pronounced a ‘P’ plate medium not only tat, the new medium’s life is now belongs to the Jade Emperor and is undetachable.

Well, as like many other new and young medium, ah seng has a dream. he hope tat he could have better luck with everything he do from now. he was hopeful for it becos he thought tat he is now a member of god and have power, privilege and authority to do things tat other may not have. but his thought was completely wrong. not only tat his living was not improving, he also has lesser time for leisure. the only flavorable changed for him now is he live healthier and can perform better in his day job. but he was not satisfied. few months down the road and things are still not improving. ah seng started to act impatiently. to my understanding, a medium’s life is usually more on the rocky side during the beginning. this is becos, to make a good medium, he must be able to feel the sorrow and the pain of all the helpless devotees comes to him. if a medium is rich and famous, he would not be able to feel it. also, if he is so rich and famous, he would usually have little time to sit on the wooden dragon chair to help other and perform his duty well. instead, he would have more time on the soft sofa chair in a fanciful nite club.

Anyway, ah seng was totally disappointed with wat he got for him now. from little interest he had to zero interest with the Taoism and his temple. he thought all these tat happened were juz a joke to him. so, to avoid a crash head-on with the Jade Emperor, ah seng went apostasy. he decided to accept baptize from a well known church in town. hoping his day as a Taoist’s medium would over. well, do you guys think it can be over?

All the taoist’s medium tat read tis would surely agreed wif me tat once the Jade Emperor’s chop is landed and filmly stamped onto a medium’s ‘lin’ flag, the bond is endorsed. Anyway, the decision was his and no one could stop him. ah seng has a group of friends tat he like to hang around with. they’re childhood friends and they shared the same interest so they were closer and they used to go outing together on their bikes. one of his best childhood friend is name ah beng and he has a girlfriend called ah lian which would usually tacked along with them.

Few years later in a sunny day, ah seng was hit by a taxi from behind when he was trying to ‘cup corner’ make a bend along bedok reservoir road. he fell and skidded more than 10 m away. this was happened in the eyes of his other friends riding behind him including ah beng and ah lian. they rushed forward to extend their helping hands to him and his pillion which was his girlfriend for few years. his girlfriend managed to stand up by herself with only a few visible scratches wound on her leg but ah seng was not so lucky. he was unconcious and lying flat on the road without any visible injury. worry tat they might injure him further without proper assistance, the group could only gathered around by his side anxiously while waiting for ambulance to arrive. suddenly, ah lian cry out loudly, sobbing and screaming looking at ah seng’s body while she was holding on tightly to ah beng’s arm and says this ” uh…..(sobbing) ah seng is gone….waaa!) you know why? becos ah lian has a pair of ‘yin yang eyes’ ??? and she can see spirits and she saw ah seng’s soul walked out of his physical body few minutes after the accident. she never tell anyone tat she has 3rd eyes except her boyfriend ah beng becos she was told not to mention anything she saw. ambulance arrived few minutes later and the paramedics pronouced him dead on the spot.

A chirstianity wake for ah seng was held by his family members. everything was done inaccordance to a christian style. songs and prayers were inevitable. all believes tat ah seng is now in the hands of jesus christ joyfully.

Sometime early 2005, ah beng keep dreaming of ah seng in his sleep. he dreamt ah seng with a bare body facing him silently and the background was blur, too blur to identify the place. after 3 days of dreaming ah seng continuatiously at night, ah beng decided to pay ah seng’s parents a visit. he told them and elaborate the scene he saw in the dream to ah seng’s parents. unsurprisingly, they blushed off ah beng’s claimed and were confident tat ah seng is now living in peace with god.

Ah beng is confused but he remember ah seng was once a medium with a Taoist’s temple, so juz to try his luck and render his help to ah seng if required, ah beng came to our temple thru a friend of his. after he described the scene he remember from the dream, Dua Ya Peh ??? made a quick check on his abacus. Dua Ya Peh saw a skinny young chinese man wandering around on the street in his last accident area without any clothing . a talisma ?? was given to ah beng for him to put under his sleeping pillow at night. this was to help him to dream ah seng clearer and thus to find out wat ah seng intended to say. one week later, ah beng came back to our temple again. he said he saw ah seng bare body facing him and claimed tat he has no food and clothes for the last 3 years since after the traffic accident. he asked ah beng to help him to look for help from a Taoist’s temple becos he was denied entry to the gate of hell.

Generally, every Taoist’s temple will extend their help to all the souls tat come to us. weather u are black or a white, a living or a dead soul, a rich or a poor, there’s no boundery between us. ah seng was included. eventhough ah seng apostasy his religion, the Taoist’s deities never hold any grudges against him. his death was definitely a ‘jie’ ? a disaster fated for him and was purely an accident. ah seng has commited himself to the Jade Emperor and thus ah seng is belongs to the Jade Emperor alive or dead. in the eyes of the god, ah seng is a Taoist and he still is even he baptized. ah seng has an incomplete duty with Taoism in his last life, he didnt make it to repay. therefore, he will come back to make his repayment next life. he can run but he can never hide.

A date was fixed to perform a ritual for ah seng at the scene in bedok reservoir road. As usual, we pay respect to the ‘tu ti gong’ ??? mayor of the ground there and the other wandering spirits ?? within the vicinity before we start our ritual. tis is a common practise for Toaism doing ritual outside. we rounded up a circle of well with loads of incense papers for ah seng. his many favourite foods were also specially prepared for him by 3 of his best friends tat attended the ritual but not ah lian. ah lian did not attend the ritual becos she juz couldn’t bear to see ah seng at the present stage and she dont wish to see ah seng leave without any farewell message to them yet again. (sob)

His 3 friends tat attended the ritual were asked by Dua Ya Peh whether would they be interested to see their best friend for the last time. they were all agreed. their eyes were cleansed by Dua Ya Peh hoping tat they could spot him somewhere before ah seng walked nearer to us and into the circle we built with incense papers. no, no one see ah seng beside only Dua Ya Peh. ah seng was directed into the circle well of incense papers we prepared for him. ah seng was also told to take his time for the food his best friend prepared for him before Dua Ya Peh bring him down to the gate of hell. while everyone of us were there waiting for ah seng to enjoy his food, Dua Ya peh turned and says tis to his 3 best friend. “does any one has any news with his girlfriend?” they looked puzzled. Dua Ya Peh then turned and looked into the direction we all assumed ah seng was sitting and a moment later, Dua Ya Peh turned back to his 3 best friends again, he said “she has long hair and was the pillion when ah seng was hit in the traffic accident”. oh, recalled ah beng, he said she was not seriously hurt in the accident and was now lost contact with her after ah seng’s funeral. i was told by Dua Ya Peh later tat ah seng sob after he heard tis and he said he missed her alot. now, he have to live without the woman he used to love, tat’s really pitiful.

Well, although the ending for ah seng was sad but at least he has a new lease of life to look forward to. lets hope he has a wonderful life when he reborn again.