The United International World Buddhism Association Headquarters (UIWBAH) received a Buddhist disciple’s letter, the original text of which with the questions raised is provided below:
Please Provide Explanation and Answer for Us
(An e-mail with the date of January 26, 2016 at 7:22 PM)
From: Fan Yu <yufanwww@gmail.com>
The United International World Buddhism Association Headquarters,
Thank you for reading and responding to this letter with your important view in advance.
We don’t understand why many messages transmitted via LINE and letters are spreading such information around the world:
Masters in various places of learning Buddhism do not possess qualifications of being a vajra master and moreover have receded from their attainment to become a mundane person again. They will meet the same fate as Hsi Jao Ken Teng. People in various places of learning Buddhism were told to leave their organizations and masters to follow and rely on holy and virtuous ones who self-claim to be a Bodhisattva or an Arhat.
However, the recorded dharma lessons expounded by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III also gave this discourse: As long as your master follows and acts according to the teaching, even if he or she does not possess the qualification of a vajra master now, through diligently making the effort he or she will become a vajra master someday. You should follow and rely on the master piously.
We don’t know what we should do.
I have been learning Buddhism for several decades and have visited and stayed at various places in the world. I always followed and acted according to the Buddha’s teaching: Hold the precepts as your master; you must not praise yourself to do damage to others; that will destroy people’s good nature and opportunity to acquire wisdom. In no place in the Buddhist world have I heard about the act of having the purpose of causing other people’s Buddhist organizations to fall and using the tactics of deploying a human tide and seizing any opportunity to forcefully pull people over. Can this be an act by Buddhists? Who is really the person spreading the propaganda of self-claiming the reincarnation of a Bodhisattva to deceive living beings? The situation truly makes my heart ache and is unbelievable.
Please provide explanation and answer to us. Otherwise we will be in panic all the time and cannot cultivate with a clean and pure mind.
Buddhist Disciple, Yu Fan, Prostrates with utmost sincerity.
Replies to the questions raised above:
First, it is actually not necessary for the United International World Buddhism Association Headquarters to reply to these questions.
Secondly, the question itself is very simple. Anyone who earnestly listens to the recorded dharma lessons expounded by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III would have obtained the answer with explanation in the process automatically.
This is because the recorded dharma lessons expounded by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III and the public announcements from the Office of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III all have clearly provided the correct answers for you to rely on. Just by using the 128 views to check a master you can distinguish what is true and what is false as well as whether one is upright or evil very easily. What other answer do you need? If you are still not clear, just see in person what grade of master’s qualification is indicated by the master’s dharma robe. No falsification can be made in that. As to whether one has receded one’s accomplishment or not, no explanation is ever needed. The person’s dharma robe tells you all. Whether one is holy or mundane is not based on one’s own forged declaration. Rather, the status must be verified by undergoing a rigorous examination by seven masters and ten witnesses. The certificate and dharma attire are issued according to the result.
Also, the goal of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is to benefit living beings and to save and liberate living beings. Other than this, there is no purpose of fighting for power and plundering gains or selfishly forming a gang or faction. This is because learning Buddhism is not doing business and is not for making gains and expanding one’s own power base. Rather, a Buddhist should hope that living beings can learn in better ways and will only help others. A good master should not recruit people who are already learning true Buddha-dharma and rather should transform and nurture those who have not started learning Buddhism and cultivating oneself. Only when someone found out that his own master was not in compliance to the dharma and is seeking to learn elsewhere, can a good master accept him and provide good guidance.
Cultivators really cannot follow and learn from a so-called master who commits violations in the 128 views. Rather, one should choose a good master to learn. The fact that a cultivator has found a master at the level of Buddha or Bodhisattva is something every good master will be happy about. All good masters think from the perspective of other people’s interests and do whatever that can benefit living beings. We should pray for good fortune for this person in our heart.
However, you must not forget taking listening to the recorded dharma lessons expounded by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III as the guiding compass on your path of learning Buddhism. If not complying with H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III’s teaching, whatever spoken by other masters must be wrong. Wang Zha Shang Zun said, “Be sure not to listen to the so-called discourses given by anyone who is not a true great holy and virtuous one. From the answer sheets of taking the written examination of 100 problems this time by dharma kings, rinpoches, masters, and dharma masters from Tibet, Han regions of China, India, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Taiwan, and other places, I can only say that they simply do not have the qualification to expound the dharma and completely lack the knowledge and learning to give discourses. The result absolutely shows that giving permission of expounding the dharma to these people means exactly ‘misleading and harming living beings.’”
Finally, we remind Buddhist once again that only listening earnestly to the recorded dharma lessons expounded by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is the true correct path.
United International World Buddhism Association Headquarters
(Seal stamped on every page)
February 4, 2016