CHAPTER IV: TRANSMISSION OF THE PRECIOUS DHARMA


A.      DHARMA PRACTICE IN CONFORMITY WITH THE SUPREME  PRINCIPLE OF THE BUDDHAS


2.       The Supreme Maitreya Buddha Witnessed and Attested to the Dharma Practice in the Period of Return and Dharma-Ending

The Lord Himself wrote the following section of sutra to hand down to future generations:

In this Current Period of Return and Dharma-Ending, the true achievement of the Dharma practice is rare. Why? In the Superior Dharma Period, the doctrine and execution existed in the Dharma practice, so there was true achievement. In the Middle Dharma Period, the doctrine existed in correspondence with the execution, and thus there was immediate true achievement. In this Period of Return and Dharma-Ending, there has doctrine but less execution, so true achievement becomes rare. Whenever Dharma sutra goes along with execution, there will be immediate individual achievement; otherwise, not yet in execution, the Dharma sutra is simply a theory: if this practice is achieved, it is only a theoretical achievement, an eloquence, and not the true achievement. —T. V.

A.      DHARMA PRACTICE IN CONFORMITY WITH THE SUPREME  PRINCIPLE OF THE BUDDHAS

When humans only worship and bow, they are very distant from the Buddhas. 

Practicing Tao Dharma that does not lead to the elimination of passionate attachment in order to obtain knowledge would not count as one day of  Dharma practice even if done for a thousand lifetimes. As living beings, we have inferior intelligence, but with enough rooted capability we should be able to meet the Buddha when He comes to the world. The rooted capability belongs to those who have already practiced Tao Dharma in seeking liberation from the birth−death transmigration through knowing, seeing, and solving; while living beings lean on favorable conditions, so they practice Tao Dharma according to their wishes, and that is the Dharma practice according to one’s expectations and wishes, without knowledge of what those expectations are or where those wishes will lead. For that reason, we must perform acts of Tao Dharma to get its countless benefits. What is an act of Tao Dharma? It is one that especially involves practicing to correct one’s nature—it is the way of fulfilling enlightenment. An act of Tao Dharma also means penetrating deeply into the Dharma precepts to be aware of them. Each Dharma precept is a nature itself. After correcting many natures, one will penetrate into rooted goodness without poisonous defilement and self-see one’s own nature, becoming aware of nature. The Tao practitioner who knows how to correct their own mistakes will obtain Buddhist intelligence, which is the most important thing for liberation through solving.

As living beings, they are naturally erroneously passionate. No matter how long they practice Dharma, they cannot escape from erroneous passion. Therefore, the mouth speaks and yet the mind does not know.

Because the mouth speaks and yet the mind does not know, the Good-Intelligent-Awakened One has advised: If the mouth speaks and yet the mind does not know, one needs re-learn those words spoken. When the mouth speaks and the mind knows, or the mouth speaks only when the mind knows, that is called mind enlightenment – Dharma awareness.

This situation still often happened in the time of The Founding Master: There were many Venerables who preached the Dharma that surpassed the wonderful level. The World’s Most Venerable then taught them: “You were relying on virtuous merits of Tathagata so that you could speak like that.” The Venerables have since realized that when the mouth speaks and yet the mind does not know, they need to re-learn the words of mouth. For living beings who are dreaming, still in illusory thoughts and unreal expectations, they are easily in wrong belief; they are still convinced that once their mouth has spoken, of course, they were enlightened what they said—they are in error whether they want to be or not. —T. V.

During His Tao-executing path, the Lord met Most Venerables, Highly Virtuous Ones, Monks and Nuns who resided in the pagodas. When the Lord taught them one sentence, they did not understand it, yet they preached to Him with ten sentences! Once, the Lord sought all the means to make a master of “begging monks” believable so that He could open “knowing and seeing Buddha” for the master, but this master did not have enough effortful and virtuous merits to perceive it. Finally, the Lord had to embody Himself to be the master’s friend. The master only praised the Lord for His good eloquence, but could not receive His teaching.

When Reverend Shakyamuni was not yet the Buddha but still a Tao practitioner, He respectfully offered, admired and worshipped the Dipanikara Buddha. The Dipanikara Buddha then ordained Him to become a Buddha in the Middle-Life Period, by the name “Founding Master Shakyamuni Buddha.” Later, the Shakyamuni Buddha incarnated, guided, and ordained the Suppreme Maitreya Buddha, Bodhisattvas, as well as unlimitedly learned and limitedly learned practitioners, so that they all would become Buddhas of the appropriate periods. These are sincere and decisive words in the Miraculous-Dharma Connecting-Flowers Sutra.

During this time, faithful Tao practitioners are innumerable everywhere, but due to their lack of rooted capability, they have rarely followed the Buddha Path. Most of them have followed the Fairy Path called the Acquired Fruit. Later, with their decrease in true faith, they have readily acquired the fruit in the Deity-Saint Path.

The Deity Path uses talismans and incantations, and trained supernatural powers. Tao practitioners of this path have become fanatics and must be subjected to birth, death, sickness, old age, and suffering. —T. V.

What is the Acquired Fruit in the Fairy Path? It is specialization in learning, studying sutras, behaving elegantly, residing in a neat and spacious place, keeping a vegetarian diet, practicing tranquility, and not practicing unrested Dharmas. It also involves enjoying favorable situations and avoiding contrary ones [with dislike]; choosing cleanliness and rejecting dirtiness. After practicing in this way, at the moment of death the practitioner will enter fairyland and enjoy the blessed reward of being a Divine Human. After the lifetime in fairyland ends, they will be re-incarnated into human beings or other worlds and re-practice Tao Dharma from the beginning.

Any meditation master who emerges from contemplation to go to fairyland can witness the truth: Food, clothes, and utensils are already available. It is not necessary to work for food. Everything wished for is immediately obtained due to the supernatural power to metamorphose desire. Things and utensils are very beautiful. Notably, there is no sunlight in fairyland. The light flashes from the mountainsides and is always mild, and the air is like that of an air-conditioned room. The outside air is just the same.

Fairy people are generous and compassionate, but their nature is still hot-tempered. As for disciples: No one dares to disobey their master. Everyone you meet is affable in their speech. The following two verses were written by Reverend Tịnh Vương, incarnating Lord Maitreya:

Drinking of Divine Fairy wine is still craved,

A few spring seasons have passed by in this human world.—T. V.

Before a party of chess and drink is over in fairyland, three or four years have passed in the human world. One year in fairyland must be a hundred years in the human world!

The Deities in heaven usually make use of talismans and incantations. Their nature is compassionate but very hot-tempered. The air in heaven is also as mild and cool as in an air-conditioned room. There are also Deities living in the human world, such as in village communal houses and shrines, and at the feet of old trees, mountains, and rivers. Once their lives come to an end, they are also subjected to the birth-death transmigration. Therefore, the Dharma practice of the right enlightenment path is immeasurably difficult! Because of this difficulty, a Tao practitioner must have a path or Dharma subject guided by the Good-Intelligent-Awakened One, who has been enlightened. Otherwise, the Dharma practice will not lead to any result, or it will be a practice only for a blessed reward.

Why is this? Because they are unconscious, whatever practice is theirs also remains in unconsciousness. Even if they learn by heart all the Buddha’s sutras and study all the Buddha’s words, they also remain in passive knowledge, still on the unconscious path.

It is same as with a person who enters a warehouse of all medicines. They are happy, freely using all the medicines they want. Moreover, they even show the medicines to other people to use. As a result, both of them not only fail to cure their disease, but the disease becomes worse.

It is also same as a person who loses their way and cannot find an escape route. If this person guides another one, both of them will remain lost, and finally both will just become friends of one another, nothing more or less. Thus, in this Period of Return and Dharma Ending, Tao practitioners must rely on the Dharma subject, which was handed down to the Enlightened One by Reverend Tịnh Vương Nhất Tôn, incarnating Lord Maitreya, to reach True Enlightenment.

Also in this Inferior-Life Period, there are uncountable Dharma subjects to practice but no one among them that can lead people to True Enlightenment. Therefore, the Supreme Maitreya Buddha had to return and correct the way of practice so that it had a definite way, making the Dharma subject clearer and more explicit and aiming at bringing living beings to liberation from birth, death, old age, and suffering.

Every true disciple has their own rooted karma. The leader then uses the great means to guide them. As for faithful Tao practitioners, they have to correct their own natures to create rooted goodness and endure all the challenges of thousands of Dharmas, which are sometimes favorable and sometimes unfavorable, in aiming at knowledge. Being clearly aware of Dharma immediately leads to being clearly aware of the mind. The awareness of mind is the enlightenment of Dharma. This is the essential point of the Dharma practice path, which has been shown by Reverend Tịnh Vương, incarnating Lord Maitreya, so that there will be no more wrongful practice. The Lord founded the Dharma subject: The Dharma Constitution, meaning Long-Hoa, exactly following the Tathagata Dharma Constitution, also called the Only Buddha Level (Buddhayana), using “the Buddhist Dharma [is] without leaving the secular world to be enlightened” to perform great means. 

All faithful Tao practitioners, including Bodhisattvas, Bodhisattva Dharma Protectors, Arahants, Venerables, Dharma Protectors, and Living-Being Dharma Protectors, whether they were either ahead or behind, have all followed the practice path of liberation through knowing, seeing, and solving. Reverend Tịnh Vương, first of all in the practice, trained these practitioners to be tenacious and courageous in order to be aware of the Tathagata Constitution, also called the Suchness Constitution, making their Dharma practice path free of interruption. Then the Lord taught the basic practice of Precept-Contemplation-Result[57] to become harmonious and open-minded to determinedly accomplishing enlightenment, great enlightenment, or full enlightenment. The higher practitioner would attain the Supreme Rank True Enlightenment.

In the Period of Return, the Dharma Constitution has established the Sitting Meditation Dharma in particular for being aware of Dharma and thus of the mind. Through the only sentiment of the Dharma Constitution, the Lord determined that faithful practitioners must have trust-obedience-respect under the guide of the Bodhisattva. Why? Because in the Dharma-Ending Age, too much learning and studying causes rebellious reasons. Thus, must have trust, obedience, and respect so that reasons and acts are not rebellious, in order to practice until achieving True Enlightenment. Following is the Disclosed Order handed down by the Lord.

[57] This Result is the result of supernatural power.