Grand Hall of the Buddhas at the Holy Miracles Temple, Pasadena, California, USA.
The “Holy Fire Offering Dharma Assembly” presided by a tremendously great holy virtuous one was officially held on September 19, 2018, at the Holy Miracles Temple in the United States of America. The dharma assembly took place at the temple’s Grand Hall of Sakyamuni Buddha and the big courtyard in front of the Buddha hall.
Those who attended this dharma assembly that is very rare and difficult to encounter in the entire world had two types of casual conditions for being able to attend. The first type of direct participants are holy virtuous ones, eminent monastics, abbots of Buddhist temples, and leaders of Buddhist organizations. Their attendance was determined by one Yu Zun, Wang Zha Shang Zun, Mo Zhi Jiao Zun, and Dharma King Gar Tongstan. The second type of attendees had their causal conditions arising from accidentally encountering the occasion and hence attended the dharma assembly.
A fire offering dharma is a great dharma of Buddhism. It is especially true that Tibetan Buddhism has special emphasis on fire offering, as a type of famous great dharma familiarly known to almost all common people in Tibet, India, and some other places for the purposes of halting disasters, removing hardship and difficulties, eliminating hindrances, and increasing good fortune. This Buddha-dharma is also known as the “Holy Fire Mandala Homa Dharma.” However, it is difficult to have one session of true “Holy Fire Mandala Homa Dharma” even in a long period of more than 100 years. On the contrary, the dharma assemblies that people happen to attend are all common fire offering dharmas. In terms of the empowerment generated, the difference between the “Holy Fire Mandala Homa Dharma” and common dharmas of fire offering is like that between the sky and the ground or like that between taking one step and traversing thousands of miles.
Wang Zha Shang Zun and two great holy virtuous ones spoke about their personal experiences. They mentioned that, during the last 100 years or so, this dharma was separately practiced by the famous Master Pabongka who was known as the Great Sun Tathagata and Kangsa Rinpoche who was known as the Great Moon Tathagata. One of the great holy virtuous ones who is at the level of Golden Button Grade 2 said, “I learned this dharma but am not able to practice it successfully. It seems that my accomplished cultivated power is still not good enough and I have to make more effort. During the last several decades, I did not see any great holy virtuous one, great dharma king, or great dharma master ever practiced a holy fire offering successfully. If a holy fire offering is not practiced successfully, it can only have the effect of a common fire offering.”
Then, what is the difference between a successful practice and an unsuccessful practice of the dharma? First, regular fire mandala offerings from the Tibetan tradition and the fire offerings from the lineage of Eastern esoteric Buddhism (wood-burning grand dharma assemblies) are described by people as very great. Through investigation, I found that the fire in all such fire offerings is ignited by a human action. Then, how can the empowerment from such dharmas be remotely compared with the empowerment from the ignition of the fire by holy Buddhas? A holy fire offering is different in that the dharma must beseech nine Tathagatas as well as Vajra Female Mahasattva, Prajna Female Mahasattva, and many holy dharma protectors to personally come to the fire mandala with the fire ignited by Vajra Female Mahasattva arriving in the empty sky. Only that is a true holy fire offering.
During this dharma assembly of holy fire offering, the attending kind Buddhists formed rows in the grand hall of Sakyamuni Buddha. They opened their eyes wide to see in person the process of the dharma assembly. Very many dharma equipment and instruments were to be used in the fire-offering mandala. The fire-offering mandala was a new fire stove just made for the dharma assembly. It does not use any electric device or burning device and is completely made of pure copper. A flat-surface table and all dharma instruments including the fire stove were cleaned and wiped from top to bottom by more than ten volunteers on the spot. The fire mandala stove was placed on the flat-surface table. Pieces of sandalwood were put into the stove. The table was then carried near the door of the Buddha hall.
The tremendously great holy virtuous one in charge of the dharma was contemplating to practice the dharma according to the ritual. The dharma seat of the tremendously great holy virtuous one was about 50 meters (160 feet) away. Bodi Wentu Ru Zun, a holy virtuous one at the level of Golden Button Grade 1, was the “Fire-Igniting Guard.” He soaked the fire stick with butter oil and walked toward the fire mandala stove, chanting one character of the mantra on each step. At a distance of about 6 meters away, he changed his mind from igniting the fire and, instead, stopped to shout toward the sky, “This session of the Holy Fire Mandala Homa Dharma is led and practiced by the Namo Tremendously Great Holy Virtuous One. Vajra Female Mahasattva please ignite the fire. If Vajra Female Mahasattva does not ignite the fire, I, Disciple Bodi Wentu, will ignite the fire.” He then bowed deeply to pay respect. From a distance far away, the tremendously great holy virtuous one said loudly, “Vajra Female Mahasattva please ignite the fire to perform the homa dharma to remove hindrances and increase good fortune for living beings!”
As soon as the words were spoken, Vajra Female Mahasattva suddenly appeared in the empty sky. I saw that, with the pointing of a finger, Vajra Female Mahasattva ejected a flashing ray of light and flame began to burn inside the mandala stove. While originally there was no fire inside at all, fire was burning ablaze inside the mandala stove. Bodi Wentu was astonished and jumped up. He turned around to prostrate. On the spot, everyone saw the sudden start of the burning flame and kneeled to kowtow to pay respect. All were extremely excited and followed the ritual to start praying and burning homas.
A Buddhist took the initiative to put the Vajra demon-subduing bowl used in the holy fire offering on a small flat-surface table upside down. According to the dharma, the bowl would gather and capture the demonic, opposing, and malicious karmas of everyone present at the fire offering site. The demonic beings would be suppressed inside the bowl. The demons tried to escape from the bowl. At this absolutely critical moment, a sound of “hong” was heard. A lightning launched by Vajra Female Mahasattva turned the malicious demons and dark karmas inside the bowl into crushed powders. The demonic souls were then brought to the Buddha-land by Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, to be taught and reformed under rigorous control there,
The tremendously great holy virtuous one was always a far distance away and never got close to any dharma instrument or dharma table. Next, the great dharma of “Secretly Sending a Petition to a Bodhisattva” was practiced. All attendees at the site saw that with a tremendously loud “hong” from the Vajra demon-subduing bowl, the edge of which was air-tightly closed by the surface of the table, lightning-like fire light instantly rose from the edge of bowl and immediately diminished. The attending crowd then turned the bowl up. There was nothing inside or under the bowl. The “one petition” to be secretly sent to the Bodhisattva had already been taken away. It simply disappeared without a trace while under the watch of the crowd with their eyes wide open. The dharma of “Secretly Sending a Petition to a Bodhisattva” was successfully performed! Meanwhile, the cremated demonic corpses generated an extremely strong and peculiar foul smell, which was much worse than whatever stinky smells that exist in the world. All those who sniffed the smell could not resist the foul and had their facial organs dislocated on their faces. The reality of the holy fire offering dharma achieved the perfect state.
According to the available information, the holy fire offering dharma did not appear during the last more than 80 years. Only the theory was talked about. Regardless who practiced the dharma, there was no appearance of a Buddha or Bodhisattva. There was no holy homa dharma assembly with such true manifestation of the dharma taking place. In other words, in Tibet, India, and other countries in the world, such magnificent dharma assembly of holy fire offering occurred more than 80 years ago. This is the second time, which enabled us to see and experience in person on the spot the supreme magnificence of the true dharma of the Tathagata.
There was another fact from this dharma assembly that is even more magnificent. Other than the unprecedented magnificent state and boundless mighty power, the smoke from the fire offering mandala rose in the grand hall and densely occupied the top of the grand hall. However, there was no sound at all from the smoke detectors installed on the ceiling. This was truly miraculously strange. Normally, if one lights a cigarette inside the hall, when it is burning half way, the alarm will sound, and water will sprinkle down. The power from the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas during this holy dharma assembly was so magnificent and subtly marvelous.
Such was the supremely magnificent holy feats from the holy homa fire offering. The attending kind Buddhists were very excited. Even the famous Mo Zhi Jiao Zun lost his calm and dislocated his facial organs due to excitement. They all presented their offerings to the tremendously great holy virtuous one, but the tremendously great holy virtuous one did not accept any and simply told them to take the offerings back.
Since then, a true inner-tantric mandala has been established in this world, at the Holy Manifestation Temple. This is because “Secretly Sending a Petition to a Bodhisattva” was seen by people in person. However, the tremendously great holy virtuous one said, “You had better find a great holy virtuous one to present the ‘Three Vajra Phurbas,’ since only then there will be real objects to be worshipped as the evidence of truly establishing an inner-tantric mandala.”
I personally attended this great dharma assembly of holy fire offering. I felt deeply what a great holy virtuous one said, “The comparison between a common fire offering and a holy fire offering is like that between a hair from a cow and nine cows. The former is truly just kids’ stuff.” No wonder a Jiao Zun said, “The merit of fire offering from a holy fire offering with the fire ignited by Vajra Female Mahasattva from the empty space is several thousand times greater than that from a common fire offering.”
The mandala stove, offering tables, and related dharma instruments used in the holy fire offering this time will all be worshipped at the Holy Miracles Temple, for people to view respectfully and pay homage to.
At this point, I would like to add something that is the most important. Right after the perfect completion of the holy fire offering dharma assembly on September 19, in the grand hall of Sakyamuni Buddha, the Namo Tremendously Great Holy Virtuous One announced, “Today’s grand dharma assembly has been practiced. This is what Dharma King Gar Tongstan has been waiting for. This is the last dharma assembly that he received empowerment from.”
A recent announcement from the World Buddhism Association Headquarters mentioned that Dharma King Gar Tongstan had said that he would like to pass away in a state of perfect accomplishment as soon as possible after a last dharma assembly. Two dharma masters visiting him also persuaded him to stay to propagate the dharma and save living beings. The dharma king said, “With the Buddha Master staying in the world, what use can be made from one who has my realization! Human life is simply a dream. One will leave sooner or later. When causes and conditions gather and combine, existence is manifested illusorily. When the conditions come to an end, one will leave. That will be it. I will not stay!” He also said, “My freedom from birth and death is decided by me. I can go whenever I want to. This is different from holy virtuous one Zhao Yusheng who had to rely on the Bodhisattva to be received at a defined time.”
It turned out that Dharma King Gar Tongstan truly fulfilled his words on the freedom from birth and death. On September 20, which was the day after the dharma assembly, he put on his robe after taking a bath and then laid out stationary before his dharma seat. He wrote a farewell letter to H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, which mentioned that he would “pass away in a state of perfect accomplishment before the ink dries.” His words of “pass away in a state of perfect accomplishment before the ink dries” means that he passed away in a state of perfect accomplishment right after putting down his pen.
September 20, 2018,
(Reported by Nangqiong Nuosang)
Translated from a news report published online in Chinese at http://www.taiwantimes.com.tw/ncon.php?num=24764page=ncon.php