Validation of Facts in Response to Letter of Inquiry from the Office of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III:
Our Office received the following letter from Buddhist disciples Zhi Cheng and others:
Beseeching validations
(An e-mail with the date of Sat, Jan 11, 2014 at 1:34 AM)
From: Zhi Cheng <zhicheng168@163.com>
To: “dcb3office@gmail.com” <dcb3office@gmail.com>, “hhdcb3office@gmail.com” <hhdcb3office@gmail.com>, “info@dcb3office.org” <info@dcb3office.org>
Respected Office of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, all great holy and virtuous ones,
We prostrate to you!
We, a group of more than ten Buddhist disciples, are very happy to read Public Announcement No. 41 from the Office. Thinking about the problems that we met in the process of following a master and learning Buddhism, we found that answers are all in the recorded dharma lessons expounded by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, our Buddha Grand Master. We must admit that we have not listened to all dharma lessons expounded by His Holiness the Buddha. That is why we beseech the Office to answer and explain the questions we now have. The master mentioned in the following questions is the master we are following now. He is a disciple of the Buddha Grand Master.
1. We beseech explanation: The three types of people mentioned by the Buddha Grand Master in Public Announcement No. 41 refer to what people? Are there specifically defined ranges for these people? Are all people included (in these three types)?
2. Please provide answer and explanation: The master conferred initiations on us. He then let some other people teach some methods of qigong and regimen to us. He also said that, since he had already conferred initiation on us, we can practice the dharma from people he introduced to teach us. That makes no difference (from being taught by him). Then, can we Buddhist disciples practice qigong or some special methods of regimen? Is what the master said correct?
3. Please provide answer and explanation: On many occasions, the master said that a Buddhist event was to be held and told disciples at a locality to raise a certain amount and hand over. For example, disciples in our city had to raise 300,000 yuans (about US$50,000) at a time. Additionally, sometimes we were forced to buy things from him. He said that not conforming meant violating the precepts. We felt great pressure.
4. Please provide answer and explanation: When the master held the refuge ceremony for me, we were all told to take an oath to be loyal to him in the entire lifetime. Is this eight? I felt that something was not right, but could not tell what was not right.
5. Please provide answer and explanation: The master once told us all not to read the public announcements from the Office. He said that people in the Office were all ordinary persons and that there were many demons and devils around the Buddha Grand Master.
6. Please provide answer and explanation: Does the dharma of 7-day meditation without taking any food belongs to authentic Buddha-dharma? I read from newspaper that there was a dharma of sitting meditation for 21 days without eating. Is that a great dharma that can enable one to attain accomplishment in a short time period?
7. Please provide answer and explanation: Some master is the reincarnation of an ancient great virtuous one, as recognized by a famous great dharma king. He also manifested his identity in his last lifetime using supernatural power. He said that he is a non-receding great Bodhisattva and does not need a certificate of holiness and virtue. Is his statement correct? Why is he non-receding?
8. My master publicly demonstrated supernatural power in a dharma assembly. Is he a great holy and virtuous one? Could he possibly recede from holiness to become an ordinary person?
9. Regarding the jumping of a Vajra Pill, how can we know what belongs to the true dharma and what belongs to evil dharmas? My master also has his recorded video.
10. Please provide answer and explanation: We heard from people who returned from paying respect in person to H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, our Buddha Grand Master, that no money was collected from them when learning the dharma from the Buddha Grand Master for dharma books or dharma objects. The monastics at the temple said that His Holiness the Buddha never accepted money or offerings. All were returned with empowerment. The person said that she saw personally that H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is completely a Buddha, with a very solemn and majestic external appearance and an extremely kind and compassionate inner mind. Because the Buddha Grand Master did not accept the offerings, people put their offerings at the offering table before His dharma seat. The total amount was at least several hundred thousand US dollars. However, the Buddha Grand Master seriously told them all, “I made my vow of not accepting offerings long ago. You must take your money back. Otherwise I will not teach you.” So people all had to take their money back.
Another person who came back from paying respect in person to His Holiness the Buddha told us that he attended a fish-releasing dharma assembly in America that was truly too great. H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III the Buddha Grand Master and others came to the seaside. Upon hearing a rinpoche reporting that some people who had great difficulties in life also donated money for fish-releasing and their actions truly had boundless merit, the Buddha Grand Master said, “This is really sinful!” His Holiness the Buddha wept while speaking and said to the dharma kings and venerable ones there, “What are you doing after all? You treat cultivators without compassion. I really can’t tolerate such uncompassionate conduct of yours. They already have such difficulties in life and you still raise money from them to do fish-releasing. With such conduct, are you still cultivators? What difference do you have from animals? You must return the money to those disciples who are in difficulties before tonight. I said long ago that I would pay for the expense of my doing fish-releasing. Why do you lack the mind of compassion?” At this time, the Buddha Grand Master was already full of tears on His face. Many people also cried. On that day, the Buddha Grand Master spent His own money to release eleven cabins of fishes, totally several hundred thousand. In that evening, rinpoches, dharma kings, and venerable ones returned the money to the people who had difficulties in life.
That fellow disciple also said that he heard several people who knew the inside story talking. They said that people should not have wrong impressions from seeing His Holiness the Buddha paying for releasing so many fishes. Actually, His Holiness the Buddha treats Himself in hardest and simplest ways. Wherever He traveled to, He ate at the same common restaurant with others who were with Him and stayed in an ordinary room in an hotel or even motel. However, that fact gave hardship to people who had the responsibility of guarding. They were concerned about the security of the place and would come to the door to serve as watching guards after His Holiness the Buddha began His rest. However, they would be seriously criticized if being discovered by His Holiness the Buddha the next day. Sometimes, at two or three o’clock after midnight, His Holiness the Buddha would come out to send the people on guard to go back to sleep.
On the contrary, when we beseech the dharma from the master, in addition to the offerings we made by our own wish, the master also instructed that offering was required for learning the dharma. Without money, one cannot learn. Moreover, it was divided into four separate occasions of meeting, taking refuge, receiving the precepts, and teaching the dharma, each requiring a large sum of offering. He said that without offerings there would be no effect from learning the dharma! Additionally, we were required to buy Buddha statues and other dharma objects. Each piece could easily cost several thousand yuans or tens of thousands yuans. Each page of the dharma manual costs 100 yuans. I truly doubt whether such a master is a genuine Bodhisattva or not. However, the Buddha Grand Master praised him before. Therefore we make our inquiry to the Office. Also, why doesn’t H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III accept offerings?
11. Please provide answer and explanation: Can having a Vajra rope empowered by the Buddha Grand Master eliminate all disasters? What is the actual price for beseeching one? The master already has the Vajra ropes for sale.
We as a group of more than ten Buddhist disciples have been plagued and deluded for quite long, but we dare not to question the master. It is because we recently read the Office’s public announcement and validations of facts from letters received that we summed up the courage to beseech the Office to provide explanations and answers to correct our knowledge and views. We are very grateful.
Buddhist Disciples: respectfully Zhi Cheng and others
Validations from the Office of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III
Our Office hereby provides validations and replies one by one to the questions raised in the letter received from Buddhist disciple Zhi Cheng and others, using the numerical sequence of the questions. When reading the validations, explanations, and replies, please refer to the original text of the corresponding questions in the letter.
1. At the beginning of the Office’s Public Announcement No. 41, the range was clearly defined to include people who are masters and disciples of these masters within Buddhism. Generally speaking, it referred to the conduct of Buddhists within Buddhism. As to the belief, speech, and conduct of people outside Buddhism, we do not have the right to comment on from the stance of Buddhism.
2. It is clearly stated in the precepts received by a Buddhist at the time of taking refuge that one shall only take refuge in the Three Jewels and shall cultivate the true dharma of Tathagata. Buddhists do not take refuge in any heretic belief and do not practice heretic methods. Otherwise, it would be a violation of the fundamental precepts. The so-called heretics refer to any method of cultivation that is outside Buddhism. There exist complete dharmas of regimen within Buddhism that are all very best. A Buddhist can learn dharmas that are within Buddhism that are transmitted in accord with the stipulation of holding an initiation but cannot learn methods of heretics.
Buddhist disciples should know that, regardless of what holy status a reincarnated one was recognized to have and what power of the dharma he or she may have, a holy and virtuous one who has not reached the level of one Sun-Moon star does not possess the holy realization of holding inner tantric initiations for disciples. That is to say, any inner tantric initiation claimed by a master who has not reached the level of one Sun-Moon star is a false inner tantric initiation!
3. No master at any level is permitted by Buddhism to set up quotas to collect money from disciples, request disciple to do things or ask disciples to buy things. Doing so belongs to evil conduct! Whether a disciple fulfills such quotas or not has nothing to do with violating precepts or the disciple’s accomplishment and liberation.
4. Regardless of what master, one who requires disciples taking oath of being loyal to him or her without ever defecting shows the conduct of accumulating the three poisons and five skandas to set up a power wall due to selfishness. Fearing disciples to defect and follow other virtuous ones goes opposite to the mind of compassion and practice of Bodhi. Regardless of what identity of reincarnation he or she may have, this master is definitely an evil one!
5. Personnel working at the Office of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III are all humbly engaging in self-cultivation and cautiously and conscientiously serving living beings without selfishness. They are all holy and virtuous ones who underwent the proof of examination and genuinely deserve the title. Their lowest level is having three Sumeru wheels and highest level is having two Sun-Moon wheels.
Your master was correct in saying that some disciples of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III who are masters are truly swindlers, demons and devils, or people who receded from holiness and returned to ordinary persons. That is why you all were repeatedly reminded to read public announcements from the Office and to inspect the genuineness of the certificate of holiness and virtue. In particular, Public Announcement No. 41 was in response to the situation of evil masters and swindlers being extremely rampant and even daring to forbid cultivators from reading the public announcements and do damages to the recorded dharma lessons. That is truly outrageous. Therefore, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III announced in person the definitions of the three types of people within Buddhism.
In addition, we ask you all to pay special attention. If you find masters or ordinary Buddhists who belong to these three types of people and who do not repent deeply and correct their faults after you persuaded them or see people who know some other people who belong to these three types of people and still mingle with them without leaving them immediately, please report the names of people who are in these two categories to the United International World Buddhism Association Headquarters, to have them listed in the list of “people who have the karmic hindrance of working with evil ones to destroy living beings’ opportunities of acquiring wisdom.”
6. The 7-day meditation without eating, drinking, and getting off the seat is the Starving-Seven Practice of meditation and belongs to authentic Buddha-dharma. However, if eating or drinking is permitted for once or twice within the seven days, the practice would be the method of Bigu (meaning refraining from eating grains) of heretics, or the hunger-filling method of cults. As the Commentary on Traditional Medicines stated, “The meridians of San Jiao is peculiar within human body. The related enveloping membranes belong to an important part. One who swallows the food of Bigu is certain to cause the injury of fatigue to the five internal organs.”
The Starving-Seven Practice of meditation of Buddhism requires one to have a rather solid ability in meditative concentration to be able to sit in the practice. One who does not have such ability will not be able to sit. Sitting in a forced starvation cannot be maintained. When unable to sit, one would get off the seat to go to the toilet or eat. Actually, the Starving-Seven Practice which is a regular practice of the Zen School does not have much merit. There is truly a dharma of Vajra Meditation of Great Enlightenment that is practiced for 21 days without eating or drinking. This dharma is at a much higher level than the Starving-Seven Practice of meditation. Still, it is not an ultimate dharma for perfecting one’s learning Buddhism and cultivation. Rather, it is just a manifestation of the power of cultivation. The ultimate goal can only be achieved by truly learning Buddhism and cultivating the self and benefiting living beings. These are the homework, conduct, and practice required by the authentic Buddha-dharma.
The method of Bigu is eating a kind of so-called food of Bigu and will bring the consequences of five fatigues and seven injuries. As to the hunger-filling method of cults, there is no need to describe how harmful that is. Additionally, returning to regular eating after seven days, the body will be seriously damaged. In the end, no realization will be gained and no ability will be established.
7. Only great Bodhisattvas at the level of three Sun-Moon wheels or higher are in the realm of non-receding. One who says no certificate of holiness and virtue is required definitely has problem(s) with a one-hundred-percent certainty, unless this person never received a certificate of holiness and virtue and never posed as a holy and virtuous one for even once. Otherwise this person is an evil one. However, as of now, among the people who are propagating Buddha-dharma to the public, no master is at the level of three Sun-Moon wheels or higher, not even one.
8. As long as one is not a great holy and virtuous one at the level of three Sun-Moon wheels or higher, regardless of what supernatural power was used to demonstrate one’s status, one who falls into three or more of the 128 views will recede from holiness and become an ordinary person.
9. The origin of Vajra Pills can only be from practicing the topmost supreme great dharma of the Vajra Division. The utilization of a Vajra Pill can only be applied as the mental power for decision by selection in inner tantric initiations and holy inner tantric initiations. As described in the dharma manual, the behavior of a Vajra Pill shows clearly the level of the manifested realization of the holy and virtuous one. The size of a Vajra Pill is like that of a small grain of pea or a big grain of mung bean.
To tell the genuineness of a Vajra Pill, it should be held in the hand of the disciple and be pressed forcefully while chanting the Six-Character Great Bright Mantra 108 times. After finishing chanting the mantra, throwing the Vajra Pill to the stone-surfaced ground will not cause it to break. However, when taken by the disciple through the mouth, it would break with just a little pinching, showing the inner white color inside the red-colored surface. This is the first criteria for distinguishing.
Note that the Vajra Pill must be held by the disciple and must not be in the master’s hand. Moreover, it must be a distance of more than 16 feet (5 meters in metric units) away from where the master sits. After the master begins to practice the dharma, the Vajra Pill will be caused to jump and move or even transform itself. It may even fly away from the disciple’s hand. Now, when you bring it before the master’s seat or lay it on the dharma seat, it should still listen to the master’s direction to dance according to the steps of the Vajra dance to manifest the master’s mighty power of realization. Following this process means the initiation is an inner tantric initiation of true Buddha-dharma.
If the Vajra Pill can only jump when the disciple is within the disance of16 feet from the master, the dharma does not belong to the true dharma of Buddhism. Rather, it belongs to heretical practices. The dharma of Varja Pills was expounded in great details in the recorded dharma lessons. If the Vajra Pill can only jump in front of the master, the dharma is certain to be an evil and illusionary dharma.
Remember, this must be the dharma that your master manifests when conferring an inner tantric initiation on you. The recorded video you mentioned must be a recording of his Master practicing the dharma to confer an inner tantric initiation on him. That only proves that your master received an inner tantric initiation and does not indicate that your master has the qualification of conferring inner tantric initiation to others. For example, Dharma King Gar Tongstan and Kaichu Rinpoche conducted inner tantric initiations when taking the examination of holy and virtuous one with one Sun-Moon wheel. While they sat at a distance of more than 16 feet away, their Vajra Pill danced the vajra dance in the hand of their disciple rinpoche.
10. Regarding the issue of offering, a real offering is the conduct of sincerely cultivating and learning Buddhism, upholding and carrying out the teaching of the dharma by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III in accord with the dharma, enlightening the self to become accomplished and enlightening the others, and benefiting all living beings. Disciples should make some proper offerings to masters who transmit the dharma. If a disciple has difficulties in life, not only he or she should not make offerings, but also the master should use money to help. However, no master has the authority of telling disciples to make offerings to him. It is even worse that a master tells disciples to buy dharma objects. Requiring disciples to buy dharma objects is something that should never have happened. One who has such conduct has a selfish and greedy mind and is too far away from becoming a Bodhisattva.
It is true that H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III did praise some masters. However, He did not say that they were so-and-so Bodhisattvas. Moreover, many of the people who were praised have already violated the precepts. Some committed serious violations against the precepts and caused damages to living beings’ interests. Among them, some have receded from holiness and returned to ordinary beings long ago. Of course, some have not receded yet and are still holy and virtuous ones who diligently and rigorously abide by the precepts.
H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III regards living beings as parents and family members, thoroughly understands living beings’ hardship and difficulties in life, and does not wish to see them feeling the slightest pressure. Therefore, His Holiness the Buddha made the vow of not accepting offerings. Instead, His Holiness the Buddha applies the bodhicitta of great compassion of a benevolent one to bestow special empowerment. In the history of Buddhism in this earthly realm, He is the sole extremely great holy and virtuous one having such individual conduct.
For example, when H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III and disciples travel together, all are treated equally. On average, 3 of the 10 meals are paid by disciples for His Holiness the Buddha as offerings. The other 7 times are paid by His Holiness the Buddha to treat all disciples. Even a special rule was created. No matter how many people are traveling with H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, His Holiness the Buddha will pay for 80% of the cost of the meal, while all disciples pay for 20% of the cost together. His Holiness the Buddha not only does not accept any offerings, but also cares and thinks about His disciples to such extent.
11. There have been dharma masters and dharma kings who brought some cords for empowerment when receiving dharma transmissions from H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. However, they took away the cords after the dharma assembly. Therefore, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III never had such a thing of Vajra cord and has never sold it not even once! H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III thinks that the cords He used during initiation would not have power of empowerment, because He is a humble one.
Vajra cords are a kind of cord that was wrapped around a dharma object during an initiation at the level of inner tantric initiation or higher to transmit a Vajra dharma. If used by a person who engages in good self-cultivation, it will have power of empowerment. If used by someone who does not cultivate well, it will be just an ordinary cord. In general, Buddhists should not rely on Vajra cords for empowerment. Rather, one should rely on one’s own mind of great compassion and conduct of bodhicitta to cultivate in truly benefiting living beings and should have the virtue, character, and conduct of Bodhisattvas. That will be true empowerment. Only by abiding by laws and rules, being a good person, and cultivating well, can one be free of disasters.
From the Office of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III,
January 11, 2014