Through Buddhist intelligence, we can resolve doubts and intransigence, resolve separated barriers by being patient digesting an insult, being patient making a concession, and enduring. Then, we transform the separated barriers, that are called “advanced Buddhist intelligence,” in order to be liberated through solving. The Tao practitioners—who do not make use of Buddhist intelligence to resolve, only to peacefully hold onto their compassion and philanthropy, and accept being killed by anyone—are called the Gentle Saints; but they cannot completely help living beings. The Tao practitioners who do not have advanced Buddhist intelligence simply fulfill their compassion and philanthropy; even though they possess supernatural power, they remain caught conservatively in the Dharma flower and will not be liberated. They might, at most, reach the heavenly world, but cannot get out of the universe. One—who is clearly aware of natures—can even see and know the form without its presence due to frequently and brightly examining (one’s own and others’) natures, and is thus aware of the formless. Thoughts contain groups that give birth to natures i.e., chaotic expectation and ambition give birth to natures. Whenever there is a scene, one’s nature immediately is born because ego gives birth to nature. The nature, once being born, will soon be destroyed, so there are too many natures that are generated and then are destroyed or are destroyed and then are generated, which are called the transmigration of birth and death.

The faithful practitioner, who seeks Tao Dharma, needs to have a correspondence of Sutra’s doctrine and resolving of natures. Possessing the corresponding virtue and intelligence, neither increasing nor decreasing, the Tao practitioner gains insight profoundly and solves the precepts of Dharma flowers completely. Many Tao practitioners are caught in the detachment and attached to nothingness, which is still the Dharma flower of nothing precept; that is really a disaster. For even one heedless mistake, one must stay on THE PLATFORM OF FLOWERS OF DHARMA PRECEPTS for uncountable lives. Therefore, uncountable strata of Tao practitioners peacefully have held on the flatform of flowers of Dharma precepts, giving rise to the Three Thousand Great Thousand Worlds and to the Three Realms and Six Paths. The vowed Bodhisattva is the one who leans on thousands of conducts, completely eliminates offensiveness and opposition, and harmonizes themselves with the agreeable and contradictory, without destroying contradictory Dharmas. The mind is not fearful, absorbing all Dharma precepts of the Six Paths for salvation, penetrating Dharma precepts in order to be awakened and thus be completely form-enlightened, liberated from the platform of flowers of Dharma precepts, and attaining the Supreme Rank True Enlightenment.

In the Dharma-Ending Age, all Dharmas are at their extremes everywhere. The Lord knew that it would be very difficult to construct because Buddhist practitioners were not concerned about the flowers of Dharma precepts. Hearing such explanations of Long-Hoa, many Tao practitioners, who did not seek enlightenment, would not immediately see anything they desired —They were often clinging, often intransigent, and often conservative of their individuality; Their love and hate were often changeable; Their Dharma practice was following a fixed orientation of their will; They still believed in Buddha, but their Dharma practice was only in expectation of metaphysical and strange things to happen. It also did not happen to their preconceptions, including strange illusions in planchette writing such as, “the Thất Sơn Mountains will explode, the sky and the earth will darken for seven days and seven nights, and then Lord Maitreya will come out from the mountains in a bright halo...”

As for Fairies and Deities’ intelligence: their virtuous natures were reflective thoughts, practicing meditation with fixed thought, selecting the noble and beautiful Dharmas, and eliminating and filtering the rough, bad, and dirty ones. Then they absorbed the selected ones for training and thus, also did not really know how the arrival of Long-Hoa into the world and the explosion of the Thất Sơn Mountains were.

One day, Reverend Tịnh Vương incarnating Lord Maitreya taught, and I heard the Lord say these words: “If I myself were not born by my mother but from the explosion of the Thất Sơn Mountains and came out of the mountains with a bright halo, many people would certainly come in crowds to see me. In this case, all of my movements such as eating, drinking, walking, standing, lying, and sitting would be so carefully observed by their curiosity that I would soon die without being able to establish Long-Hoa.” The Lord wrote the following verses as a reminder:

How precious it is! The Founding Master Shakyamuni Buddha skillfully and profoundly knew the place of Return and Equal Salvation. The Buddha ordained Lord Maitreya from the Tusita Heaven to be reborn into this human world: the Lord would conduct His vow to practice and fulfill Tao Dharma through saving the Fairies and Deities’ rank, and completely salvaging living beings; He would attain the Buddha Fruit. That is why Tao practitioners with faithful minds, who have great cause, without objection or intransigence, could meet Long-Hoa coming to life in this province of Khánh Hoà. Some were puzzled by Tao practitioners who practiced the Dharma while married, having children, and not shaving their heads or being vegetarian; they conceived these practitioners as carrying heavy karmas —it is because they did not recognize that hearing, seeing, and knowing are thousands and thousands of Dharmas; they therefore reproached these practitioners and conceived of these practitioners’ practicing path as a counterfeit Tao, abandoned it, and thus could not follow to practice in Long-Hoa.

Buddhism is nowadays a religion widely known in the world and has gone down in human history. But those, who are eager to meet the way to enlightenment, find it very difficult to find a master who can satisfy them. Reverend Tịnh Vương Nhất Tôn, incarnating Lord Maitreya, returned to the world this time to hand down to present and future generations a Dharma subject of practice: You can practice Tao Dharma right in your family and in your works, and yet still be enlightened. It is a modern enlightened Dharma subject, and the pride of any living being seeking liberation through knowing, seeing, and solving in the present life. This way of practice, though new and strange, is in fact exactly the supreme principle of the period of The Founding Master Shakyamuni Buddha, the Amitabha Buddha, and the Eastern Salvation Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata, and is supported by all the Buddhas of the Ten Directions. 

The Lord abolished all verbose ceremonies. The Tao newcomer acceptance ceremony and all other great ceremonies were held simply, but seriously and solemnly, without any superstitious dogma. The daily Tao Dharma practice and fulfillment of true disciples were clearly taught, aiming to make the Tao practitioners perceive and then apply them practically in daily life. As a result, they would no longer suffer in the present.

One day, the Lord asked a Most Venerable practicing in a temple who came to visit Him:

“How long has Venerable practiced Tao Dharma?”

“I have practiced for 47 years.”

“What does Venerable practice every day?”

“I recite sutras in the morning and evening, I am on a strict vegetarian diet, and I study all the sutras of the Buddha.”

“Should correct your natures, eliminate bad habits, and be joyfully detached to create your virtue. In reciting sutras, must understand their meanings, which is only the doctrine part. Still need to practice meditation to get intuition.

“Generally speaking, there are three subjects: Virtues, Doctrine, and Sitting Meditation. The equal development of all these subjects in the practical life of humankind will avoid dangers to practitioners and their families. This way of practicing Tao Dharma will lead to enlightenment.”–T. V.

This Venerable perceived it and affirmed that this Dharma subject is the practice for enlightenment. On his way back to the temple, the Venerable, by negligence, fell into a hole left by a buffalo’s hoof in a rice field, sprained his ankle, and limped back to the temple. It took him a whole month to recover. Later, every time he wanted to visit the Reverend Lord, there was always an unpeaceful and noisy thing happening in his temple, preventing him from coming to the Lord.

For those Tao practitioners, who conceive that the way they are following is the right way, even the Buddha could not resolve this fixed conception unless they transfer themselves, search, and judge by themselves. The practitioner who seeks enlightenment always relies on the Bodhisattva if they are not in great condition to meet the Buddha. It is only by frequently getting in and out of the precepts, and being harmonious and open-minded without retention and intransigence, that the Tao practitioner can practice the way of liberation through knowing, seeing, and solving.

Karma covers living beings in the past, present, and future. There will immediately be a karma obstacle whenever a Tao practitioner wants to advance in their practice. It is formless but powerful. We have to practice in “the Universal Door Chapter” with a strong will in order to overcome the power of karma. It prevents the Saint from becoming Bodhisattva, and the Bodhisattva from becoming Buddha. We can only defeat our own karma power by ourselves. It is the same at all times: living beings cannot meet the Buddha because of their karma power.

If we believe that living beings are born from the Almighty, who has the authority to determine all destinies, no living beings could change their own karma power; it will contradict the Buddha's teachings.

The Buddhas offer the guidance and living beings themselves determine their way of practice: enlightenment or ignorance, happiness or suffering. The difference in each living being’s karma gives rise to this difference: living beings meet living beings, but cannot meet the Buddha.

The oracle scripture of Fairy and Deity said:

“Open up Long-Hoa to recruit the holy virtue,

Prosperously spreading truth leading to a high blessing.”

This oracle scripture was inscribed right at the time when Lord Maitreya was opening Tao Dharma to the Four Followers who sought and came to practice Tao Dharma with Him. In about 1990, I sent the sutra “Special-Principle Unsurpassable-Rank, Volume I” to a Tao practitioner in the Tây Ninh Holy House. Reverend Tịnh Vương wrote this sutra during His entering into True Contemplation. After the ceremony of the first day of the lunar month, the Tây Ninh Holy House was informed by a divine miracle that Lord Maitreya was returning with the name Tịnh Vương and was teaching Tao Dharma in Nha Trang. The Holy House immediately invited the Lord cordially, but at that time there was not enough good cause for His manifestation. The Lord promised on another occasion that when He comes to the world, He will let humans know to visit Him.

Later, the planchette writing of the Tây Ninh Holy House said: “As the Fairies and Deities’ rank like you are, you could not see the Lord at this time; only the Bodhisattvas and Venerables could be near Him during His hidden time. You have to wait to see Him later.” The Holy House then invited me, but I also could not come, and must wait for a favorable occasion.

The oracle scripture also wrote:

“Try to practice to meet the Long-Hoa Association.

Once a life misses, thousands of lives will be depraved.

Although all things have changed,

Tao practitioners will be protected by the Buddhas and gods.”

Living beings with miserable situations practiced Tao Dharma in the temples everywhere in numerous amounts, but His sutras were not read much by them, though the Lord had written and published many sutras. There were certain people who had the opportunity to have the Lord’s sutra; once they held it to read, they immediately felt sleepy or interrupted by unexpected events. Therefore, they put it down, took it away, or returned the sutra. On average, only one of 100 receivers of the Lord’s sutras came to practice with Him.

Nevertheless, she could not meet Lord Maitreya while she was writing these poems. It is true that even Deities and Fairies could not meet the Lord; only the Patriarch rank of Fairy or Deity could come to learn the Tao Dharma with Him!

Mr. Tám (Lương Sĩ Hằng) also said the Buddha appeared in Vietnam, but on one day, Lord Maitreya said: 

“Mr. Tám has practiced at the level of the Deity path, but did not reach the Fairy path.” Therefore, he also could not meet the Reverend Lord. Only the Patriarchs of Fairy or Deity, who have sufficient virtuous merits, could meet the Reverend Lord.

The Founding Master Shakyamuni Buddha taught: “Those who see the Dharma doctrine see Tathagata.” What was the Dharma doctrine of Tathagata? As mentioned previously:

• Virtue: Correcting bad natures, giving up bad characters, and being joyfully detached;

• Doctrine: The Buddha's sutras, listening to preachers;

• Sitting meditation: Practicing Tathagata meditation. 

By this way of practice, when the Buddha comes to the world, Tao practitioners will immediately meet Him. The Buddha has taught His true disciples that they should practice in accordance with His such Dharma doctrine in order to look for the truth. The oracle scripture was preaching right at the time when Lord Maitreya came to life, but those Tao practitioners—who did not know what the doctrine subject of Buddha was, and who also were ingrained with prejudices—were not able to meet the Lord.

The Lord taught self-enlightenment to His true disciples, and did not utilize His supernatural power to make true disciples come to Him for their learning —It is only in very necessary cases that the Buddha shows His supernatural power to save those Tao practitioners worthy of being saved. Suppose that if the Thất Sơn Mountains exploded and numerous people were thrust into chaos, how many living beings could be enlightened by the Lord?

There will not be a Dharma-preaching stage that makes living beings completely attain all Tao Dharmas. On the contrary, each true disciple must be applied miraculously to thousands and thousands of Dharmas, and it is very difficult for a faithful practitioner to receive. If one is enlightened only by hearing a sentence of the sutra, that is the enlightenment of the sutra, not the enlightenment of the Buddha; because there still is the very difficult task of transporting thousands and thousands of Dharmas.

In the Gentle-Life Period, when The Founding Master[34] taught, many Tao (visible) practitioners and countless invisible practitioners were enlightened. But in this Inferior-Life Period, when material things twist the human mind, it is very difficult to build the foundation of True Dharma. Therefore, very few practitioners can be enlightened. These two verses clearly manifested Lord Maitreya’s state of mind:

It is the same as in the time of The Founding Master Shakyamuni Buddha: True disciples themselves must keep their practice firmly in order to get results. “You have to make an effort; The Buddhas are only your instructors.”

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