Yuan Zheng Tang - Perfect Enlightenment
(No: 9) The Secret Speech of True Buddha by living Buddha Lian-Sheng by Living Buddha Sheng-yen Lu RESPECT YOUR GURU (Page : 68 - 69) I have mentioned it many times, in Tantrayana, the relationship between disciples and teacher is very direct. I have stressed time and again, once you take refuge in a Tantric guru, you must not convict a breach of Samaya commitment. If later you find your guru incompetent in his Tantra, unable to explain fully the difference between outer Tantra, Inner Tantra, The Supreme Tantra and the Great perfection Tantra, or worse still; your guru uses the Dharma to cheat others, in which case you may slowly leave your guru, since you do not benefit from him. In the Samsaric world, if you known your teacher are a Vajra guru who has some shortcomings, what should you do? In accordance with the Tantric teachings, you must not see the weakness of your guru in the first place. If you learn the Dharma from your guru wholeheartedly, the Buddha, Bodhisattva and protectors will empower you from the void. If you keep seeing his weakness, remembering his faults, and thinking that he has no virtue, you will not respect him when he teaches you, and as a result you will not treasure the Dharma taught; it will be very difficult, if not impossible for you to have a spiritual response. In Tantrayana, it is impossible to have spiritual response if you do not respect your guru and treasure his Dharma. Even if your guru has some shortcomings, it is important that you do not make it a big issue; you must always remember his virtuous behavior. To learn his Dharma, it is imperative that you must respect your guru. Spiritual response will only come when you respect your guru and treasure his teachings. This is reaffirmed in the Fifty Stanza of Guru Devotion. It is impossible for a Vajra Guru to be faultless. Seeing his fault will affect your spiritual response. If your guru has accomplished the Tantra, upon his empowerment, the root deity, protectors, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas will energize you even if your guru has some imperfections, your spiritual response will not be affected. The reason is that your teacher is a mirror that reflects on you. Learning from his strengths and ignoring his weaknesses, you will be more like a Buddha. Otherwise you are bound to be on the losing end since you do not wish to learn the Dharma from him anymore. As a disciple, the most important point you must remember is to see the strength of your guru and not his weakness. If you learn from his strength, value his teachings, all the protectors Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will energize you, and you will have spiritual response. This statement has been said since time immemorial. On the other hand, if do not treasure his teachings, you lose the chance to have spiritual response. That is why it is said that as a tantric disciple we must respect our teacher, treasure his teachings and internalise the cultivation. *********************************************************************************** DREAMS (page : 74 -75) Lately I received a lot of letters from my disciples. They described in detail what happened in their dreams and wanted me to interpret them. The dreams are lengthy, complicated and the description trivia. Some of these dreams were not necessary to bring to the attention of the grandmaster. As a Tantric cultivator, you must know when to ask your grandmaster to interpret your dream and when to ignore your dream. You must pay attention to dreams that concern you, your cultivation, or prophesies your future; and ignore those dreams that are not instrumental or without a theme. How do you discern your dreams? The first type of dream leaves a deep and lasting impression. You must be careful since most people cannot recall their dreams clearly. If your dream is deep and you can recall it very vividly, the dream may be very important, you can ask a guru or the grandmaster to interpret the dream. The second type of dream occurs between four and six o’clock in the morning. The dream will be more accurate. If your dream starts once you went to bed and lasts as long as eight hours, the frightening details will be long enough to be written into a book. Most cultivators will only have dreams between four and six o’clock in the morning. Some of these dreams are very logical and connected. You don’t have to bother about dreams like suddenly knocking into other person, bitten by a dog, falling into a drain, and eating all kinds of rubbish. Suggestive dreams are mostly simple and logical; you must take heed of them. If you dream about such chores as brushing teeth, washing face, going to toilet, reporting to work, having lunch, you can ignore them. Some dreams are extraordinary. Since you do not have such experience if your dream that you are flying in outer space, it can be considered unusual. So are meeting the Buddha, and Bodhisattva in your dreams, since you can never see them in broad day-light; such incidence can only occur in your dream at night. Other dreams like being robbed, climbing mountain, and taking a ship are not so common; you may record down the main points. It is considered most peculiar if you could hear the voice of Buddha and Bodhisattva or see them touching your head. The following dreams are the ones you must tell your guru or your grandmaster. You dream that you have become a monk, you see rays of radiation, and you sit together with Buddha and Bodhisattvas at the altar table. Since these dreams are uncommon, indicative of renouncing the material world and concern your cultivation, you may tell your guru and grandmaster and ask them to help you interpret the dreams. After the publication of the book entitled “True Buddha dream of dreams”, many disciples wrote in to tell me their dreams. Unless you have attained Bodhisattvahood, most people will have dreams, all kinds of dreams. While dreaming, we actually enter into another Dharma realm, when we are awakened, we are in a different Dharma realm. Although dreams are not tangible, we have carried out any mental activities while dreaming. In this Samsara world, although nothing can be considered real, anything that has certain form is mistakenly considered a truth. On the other hand, since there is nothing concrete in our dream, it is always considered untrue. The fact remains: there are many different Dharma realms. When a cultivator has attained a high level of achievement in his cultivation, he is able to enter into other people’s dreams and give them assistance. This is the case for Buddhas, and Bodhisattvas. Moreover, regardless of day or night, they are able to enter the Samsara world and the Dharma realm you exist to guide you. You need to tell me or other gurus and seek our explanation on dreams that are unique, deep, logical and full of renouncement of this material world. You need not write in to me for other types of dreams. That is all for today. *********************************************************************************** The Commentary Sword of True Buddha by Living Buddha Lian-Sheng TABOOS TO THE CULLIVATORS (page: 70 – 71) In his teaching, Buddha wanted all of us not to have hatred, contention and libel towards others. Contrary to his expectation, most cultivators fall prey to sectarianism, as a result of which slander and lawsuits are not uncommon, and endless religious wars are waged. Cultivators must refrain from falling prey to three circumstances: First, being slandered for cheating money. A cultivator must be cautious in handling money matters, even if he does it for charitable cause. My motto is “as you wish” (based on your free will). I have never asked my disciples to give me any monetary reward. If there is such an incidence, I am willing to return on hundred fold of the sum so demanded. Second, being slandered for sexual misbehaviour. As sex is one of the desires in life, a cultivator can easily get involved in an illicit relationship with the opposite sex. He must adopt a prudent attitude and avoid unnecessary involvement. He must preserve his purity and lead a clean (decent) life. Third, being slandered for being boastful about one’s mysterious powers. As we know, all the major religious mention mysterious powers. Buddhists talk about the six mysterious powers and ten mysterious powers a cultivator might possess. The powers, which can be developed through deep meditation, are inconceivable, unpredictable, and invincible. To the believers, these powers exist. To others, they are hoaxes. The issue is highly controversial, and can cause great suspicion. I know the mind-powers are beyond imagination and they can be put to good use such as curing the sick, eradicating calamities, increasing mutual loving kindness, and accumulating good fortune. But to those who choose not to believe, frequent references to the mysterious powers will surely invite slander. I want to warn all my disciples now. I want them to be cautious in handling money, not to have illicit relationships with the opposite sex and last but not least, not to talk about mysterious powers without concrete evidence, especially to those non-believers. The aim is not to leave any plausible grounds for them to cook up a pretext for life long slander. (An excerpt from The True Buddha News – 46 editions) ****************************************************************************** SPIRITUAL HEALING BY LIVING BUDDHA LIAN-SHENG You are known as Living Buddha, how do you heal your patients without medication? Curing a sickness is an expedient way as far as Buddhism is concerned. It is not the most important aspect of the teachings. To cure the sick is to develop his confidence after his recovery, so he will take up the faith in Buddhism. Such healing method is formless. It is a totally spiritual way of healing. The healing can be seen in three respects: the confidence of the patient, my role as the solicitor who, with utmost sincerity, invites the universal energy to descent and radiate, in order to heal the patient. In this universe, there are many ‘energies’. When these energies are being applied on the patients, their sickness will be cured. To say such thing in the twentieth century sounds unbelievable. But this is a truth, the miracle occurs in a blink. It is effective without long term and frequent consultations, and the patients are not restricted to only my own disciples. For example, in the ceremony held last year in Hong Kong, I told the participants to touch the affected parts of the bodies with their hands, and visualize the Buddha and Bodhisattvas radiate to empower the affected parts. The results were wondrous: a tumor disappeared from one’s head; after a loud bang, one’s bent spinal cord was back to normal on his way home; a wheel chair bounded child was able to walk there and then; a blind person could see; a deaf could hear; and all kinds of miracles had happened. It was just as simple as that! Is this any different from other mystic powers? This can be considered as a form of mystic power. The only difference is that it is achieved by long term practice on daily meditation, chanting and visualization. Is it possible for those who are seriously ill, for instance those suffering from cancer, to be fully cured? The recovery rate is not one hundred percent. The crux lies in the confidence of the patient, his causation and the extent of his unwholesome karma. As the saying goes, ‘One’s sincerity can move the heaven and earth’. If you are very sincere, you will be able to move the spirit to help you. If you are doubtful, it will be ineffectual. Apart from this, the seriousness of the sickness is an important factor too. For instance, if you have one breath left out of the possibility of ten, you will sure die; or if your unwholesome karma can be quantified to be five hundred pounds and the eradication by the Bodhisattva is only to the extent of three hundred pounds, the problem will still remain. While praying and doing spiritual healing on behalf of the patients, I have to take on the suffering on their behalf. For the ceremony held in Hong Kong, I was sick for three days on behalf of the participants. When the ceremony was over, I was back to normal. Living Buddha Lian-Sheng later demonstrated the spiritual healing to the reporters. He stretched out his left hand with palm facing upward and chanted, “Spirit please descends. Please…” In just a few seconds, his palm was trembling as if electrified. His fingers were moving left and right, and his palms opened and closed automatically and rhythematically. The audience was very impressed. At the same time, he looked at his palm and continued, “The Dharma stream descended from the void and caused the tremble in the palm. The tremble represents certain signals, through which a video screen appears in my mind, and I am able to see the problems faced by the patients and so, I am able to give convincing answers. Are miracles only confined to Buddhism? Is it possible to achieve enlightenment within seven days? Basically, Christianity and Buddhism both teach the path of believing, accepting, worshipping and practicing. Both religious agree that if you believe in the truth, you must practice it. ‘Believe and Vow’ means that after believing, you make great vows. That is why you are able to attain enlightenment in seven days. Previously, Jesus Christ used miracles to convince people. It was recorded in the Bible. He made the blind see again, the crippled walk again. But his miracles were even criticized by Christians. I have the mission to succor sentient beings. Many Bodhisattvas and protectors are constantly surrounding me. That is why our sect is thriving. Because of our popularity, fraternities of traditional Buddhism attack us. The strange thing is, the more we are being attacked, the more popular we become! The audience broke into laughter. Why don’t you hold a ritual in Vancouver to heal the sick, for the benefit of everyone? Miracle happens based on some amazing conditions. When ritual is well attended, many miracles will happen. When only a few people are praying, the power will be less influential for the much spiritual energy to descend. Since in the States and Canada, there are few immigrants who are Buddhists, their connection with the Buddha will not be close and therefore can never be compared with those staying in South East Asia. Having said that, it is still possible to hold a ritual here. His Living Buddha ended the conference with the following message: I did not wish to see the media giving too much publicity to our sect. Too fast a pace in expansion will upset our plan of salvation. I firmly believe that we should coordinate well with the media based on our strength, in order for our sect to grow steadily and naturally, which will be a more ideal way.
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