8.       Reverend Long-Hoa Sangha Chief, Incarnating Lord Supreme Maitreya Buddha, Wept for Monks and Nuns

One day, the Lord told me to go to Vũng Tàu to meet the true disciple Pháp Hương. I brought a lecture of the Lord to Pháp Hương and asked him to offer it to Most Venerable Thích Thanh Từ. This Venerable read it and made a negative comment.

Two years later, the Lord accidentally read in the Enlightenment newspaper, published in Saigon, an article by Meditation Master Thích Thanh Từ on causes and conditions. Lord Long-Hoa Sangha Chief said that taking a table or a chair as an example means there is a sighting only if there is a form, and no part of the article indicated the Self-Nature. The Lord then told me to offer another of His lectures to this meditation master.

I went to Vũng Tàu to meet Ms. True Disciple Diệu Minh. I gave her the Lord’s other lecture, “Thousands and Thousands of Dharmas with the Living Beings,” to offer to Meditation Master Most Venerable Thích Thanh Từ. This meditation master read it and said, “How strange this writing is!” Then after decrying it, he gave it back.

It turned out that the meditation master has been learning and studying sutras but not cultivating himself for Self-Nature, so he could not understand the lecture. So how could he write the key to practicing the Buddha path? I went back and respectfully reported this to the Lord, and He kept silent.

Another story: Ms. Diệu Phát was a Buddhist disciple of Most Venerable Thích Thông Bửu of the Avalokitesvara Temple in Saigon. She followed Reverend Long-Hoa Sangha Chief to practice meditation. Knowing that, Most Venerable Thích Thông Bửu scolded her and said, “You practice heterodox meditation and will go mad. Do not come back and do me such a disservice in the future!” Then he sent a temple deputy to Ms. Diệu Phát's house to place talismans over all the doors to cast out the devils! Later, Ms. Diệu Phát went back to visit the temple, and the Most Venerable got angry and boisterously rebuked her for not stopping the meditation practice of the Lord, Reverend Long-Hoa Sangha Chief.

Tao practitioners must be prudent in their practice: When preaching Dharma as wonderfully as Sacred Monks, or Fairies’, Deities’, and Saints’ thoughts, but they themselves cannot understand their teachings or have not attained the corresponding fruits, and thus they should not hold on to their egos. For this reason, the Buddha has taught that Tao practitioners should rely on the virtuous merits of Tathagata to preach Dharma.

When their talking comes from self-enlightenment, their words are the Buddha’s words. Otherwise, their words are only illusive thoughts and devil preaching. It is necessary for Tao practitioners to pay attention to this passage.

Because of these facts, the Lord lamented:

Monks and nuns nowadays apply themselves only to learning and studying sutras, and readily oppose any Dharma that is contrary to their thoughts. Is it possible that learned people are enlightened?

Then the Lord sat down and wept.

In the future, if monks and nuns come, you[71] tell them that I have been waiting for them too long. —T. V.