CHAPTER IV: TRANSMISSION OF THE PRECIOUS DHARMA

C. DOCTRINE

4. The Suchness Truth Period: Salvation at The High Level (Mahayana)

4.1 Self-Improvement

At that time, inside the Buddha’s Altar Shrine, all the Four Followers sat seriously; they were discussing the difficulties of practicing Dharma in the current environment. Suddenly, the bell rang, announcing Reverend Long-Hoa Sangha Chief's arrival for the testifying of the Great Ceremony. All the Four Followers then solemnly stood up and waited for the ceremony to begin.

The Lord was descending from His residence, accompanied by His Attendants, Venerables and Dharma Protectors to the Buddha’s Altar Shrine at the same time. The Lord then sat tranquilly on the canvas chair, which was ordinarily placed there for Him to rest and read the sutra. Because it was different from the ordinary rite, all the Four Followers were rather astonished, but we consciously arranged ourselves in order, solemnly and simultaneously bowed to Him. The Lord waved His hand for the Four Followers to sit down, He then taught, after we all settled, as follows:

C. DOCTRINE

I'd like to praise you. From the comfortable period of practicing Dharma to the difficult one, you still firmly persist, are patient and diligent in your practice, not boring of the rite; your Trust and Obedience toward the teaching subject remain the best. It is only because you are born in the Lost Dharma Period, when humankind is changing, but you are not as insanely confused as other people. The Congregation and I, we still observe the principle of celebrating the traditional ceremony on the 8th day of the 4th month of the lunar year. This is the Tao Dharma birthday of the Shakyamuni Buddha passed down through many centuries from the great antiquity.

In fact, in the Buddhist Dharma practice, the improvement of oneself is much more important than the formality reform of ceremony or worship, which gives rise to itself many contradictions, difficult reasons and facts, making Tao practitioners run after false reputations. Therefore, the mind was opposed and the spirit lost even on the birthday of the Buddha, which even was changed. How can the Dharma Sutra be free from errors? It is quite absurd. —T. V.

As for Reverend Tịnh Vương, incarnating Lord Maitreya, the Lord entered the True Contemplation of Samadhi, seeing and knowing everything very well a hundred thousand years ago. The Lord affirmed that it’s really wrong to change the true Tao Dharma birthday of The World’s Most Venerable, due to attaching to the full moon day. The Lord continued to affirm that the 8th day of the 4th month of the lunar year is the true Tao Dharma birthday.

As for The World’s Most Venerable, the Lord had to leave His golden and jade palace in exchange for His self-improvement. He accepted the suffering conditions and misery to seek for the ultimate truth to save humankind. It is today, an evidence of self-improvement rather than formality reform. —T. V.  

It is very necessary for Tao practitioners of the High Level (Mahayana) to reform themselves. It is essential because they must change their narrowness and pettiness into a generous mind and will, which knows how to love others and help others to follow the path of reforming themselves, and to join in the same practice for liberation through knowing, seeing, and solving. It makes oneself live more at ease and be free, no longer chained by devilish forces.

As for The World’s Most Venerable, the Lord still relied on the precious Dharma of natural knowledge, not being constrained to live in the austerity of passive knowledge... The Lord then went to the foot of the Bodhi-tree, sat down to meditate and attained the True Enlightenment. The Lord told Himself: “Don't put myself into suffering to seek for the Bodhi Tao[75]. Don't damage my body to seek for the Miraculous Fruit[76], which is a difficult cultivation, a difficult acquirement.” —T. V.

[75] The True Enlightenment.

[76] The Supreme Rank.                        

Only through intuition, a Tao practitioner can get the precious Dharma of natural knowledge. When a Tao practitioner corrects their nature and gives up their bad habits daily, that is truly self-improvement; at a certain point, their continuous efforts are no longer neglected and considered as the food of the Vowed Bodhisattva, suddenly reaching the fullness, the knowledge then appears naturally. There’s no need for thinking and reasoning. That is the intuition, knowing which Dharma is right or wrong by oneself, recognizing one’s own mistakes. When there are no more mistakes, one is clearly aware of and comprehends thousands of Dharmas in front of them and around them.

From then until today, the Lord [Shakyamuni Buddha] handed down what He went through every level with maintaining practices, training practices, and executing practices, forming the Three Constitutions of Sutras. The Lord helped solving careless mind and sadness on suffering circumstances; uncountable erroneous passions and obstructive attachments were also resolved by Him. These transformed the place of passive enlightenment, passive practice into that of tranquility, self-mastery, and reaching the intuition. —T. V.

The World’s Most Venerable always maintained the results of His self-improvement, that is called the maintaining practice. The Lord never neglected any Dharma, that is called the training practice. The Lord was always mindful of each Dharma until He fulfilled it, that is called the executing practice. The Lord taught all of these precious experiences to His Four Followers so that they could maintain and practice them, forming the Three Constitutions of Sutras.

Living in the time of advanced science, humans could not escape from demands of a better living standard that is beyond one’s existent capacity. This gives rise to a careless mind, then to unsatisfiedness, one becomes disappointed, miserable, and complained of life. The wishes beyond one’s capacity lead a Tao practitioner to greed; the practitioner immediately has erroneous passion blocking the mind, causing narrowness and disrupting the suchness. No matter how long they have diligently practiced, they are still subjected to passive practice and passive enlightenment. By completely resolving, the suchness appears, the knowledge is open by oneself, and one feels comfortable at peace.

“From the self-improvement morality to the resolving, becoming the conducting vow of saving living beings, such a Tao practitioner is classified in the vowed Bodhisattva rank.” I am now saying these words to remind you not to be discouraged because of the suffering, and not to neglect the practice because of the poor life standard. If you embed that concept in your heart, you just created suffering for yourself. —T. V. 

Continuous maintaining the morality, the Tao practitioner is not flexible and their Buddhist intelligence is difficult to develop. It does not expand and harmonize with thousands of Dharmas proceeding into scenes, making one’s mind hot-tempered and sad, causing one’s body to suffer. Those who know how to resolve the Dharma aimed at saving their own living being natures, who determinedly vow to resolve for the comfort of their mind and body, are the Tao practitioners vowing practicing the Dharma by following the Bodhisattva. This doesn't mean giving up the morality, but when there is Dharma, a Tao practitioner needs to solve it completely to develop their Buddhist intelligence and to possess corresponding virtue and intelligence. In the Dharma-Ending Age, the Supreme Maitreya Buddha reminded the Four Followers:

POSSESSING CORRESPONDING VIRTUE AND INTELLIGENCE

THE INTUITION OF THE ORIGINAL TRUTH

That precisely is the Bodhisattva vow.

Those, who follow the natural intuition, are all protected and helped by the past, present, and future Bodhisattvas. Later, they will surely meet the Buddha.

If you want to resolve by a liberation mind, you should follow the example of the Lord of Supreme Will[77]; that is, giving up the narrow place in exchange for the generous mind and will, practicing from the present narrow difficult place to attain the fruit level of development. You must remember these things. —T. V.

A Tao practitioner with the spirit of seeking for liberation through solving, once their effortful and virtuous deeds are fully created, they will immediately be enlightened and relieved from the transmigration of birth and death. Like The Founding Master, who sacrificed everything to seek the Tao Dharma perseveringly. The Lord gave up all His property, treasure, and precious things; He exchanged all to leave without regret. The Lord therefore went from the place of narrowness and petiteness to the generous mind, that is truly unmatchable.

Today, you meet Me and pay homage to Me. Isn't it coming from My honest words? I still often improve Myself; so I have the determined effortful merits to lead you to True Enlightenment and help you to be liberated from the cycle of birth and death. That is because I know well what the true Dharma is and how it can lead to the Enlightenment of Truth. —T. V.

[77] The Shakyamuni Buddha.

One time, at the Central Association, the Lord taught and I heard Him say these words: 

What is the true Dharma? The Lord asked.

None of us could answer. The Lord then pointed to a true disciple and told him to just answer according to his own knowledge. This true disciple replied: All the Three Constitutions of Sutras and teaching words of The World’s Most Venerable are true Dharmas. Reverend Long-Hoa Sangha Chief mildly said:

The Three Constitutions of Sutras and the precious words of The Founding Master Shakyamuni Buddha are all true Dharmas, but when passed down to you, they are no longer true Dharmas. Why?

In the Dharma practice, every thought, word, and act of yours is generated from your confused conception. Therefore, you become ‘passively enlightened’ when you are learning and studying The Founding Master’s sutras and writing your books. You practice the Dharma according to your judgment that is called ‘being practiced’. Your summary result is ‘being understood’.

You need to reform yourselves seriously in order to get the Self-Nature. The Founding Master's sutras passed on to you then become the original transmitting precious Dharma. So, listen:

The true Dharma is the Dharma without opposition and attachment. —T. V.

That is why the orthodoxy High Level (Mahayana) practitioners are vowing: Taking neither the wrong for the right nor the right for the right. Such a practice, once full of effortful deeds and virtue deeds, immediately reaches the Enlightenment of Truth.

I Myself lived in a bitter and hard place. I tried to build up My effortful deeds, relied on the Natural Intuition, and thus was free from mistaken reasons and facts. My teaching words therefore are all perfect words and they neither strictly follow the sutra nor separate from it. They provide a perfect attainable guide, which is called the words of True Transmision True Enlightenment. —T. V.

In the time when Reverend Long-Hoa Sangha Chief was still incarnate in the world, the Lord did not allow the Dharma Protectors and Venerables to strictly follow the sutras when preaching the Dharma, but they had to rely on their Self-Nature.

During His journey of opening the Tao Dharma in this human world, the Lord always directed the Dharma practice to take a vow of resolving when encountering thousands of the bitter and suffering Dharmas. Once a resolution is brightly proper, its material was not noted in the Buddhist sutra, so it is called the unidentical sutra. Resolving thousands of Dharmas brightly and properly without any defect that could be criticized, that is a characteristic where the former practitioner is the same as the succeeding one, known as the True Transmission, and thus it is called unseparated sutra. Since hearing, seeing and knowing are thousands and thousands of Dharmas, everything in this secular word is not outside thousands and thousands of Dharmas; The Tao practitioners who could resolve properly, perfectly, and brightly will get natural insight profoundly when reading Buddhist sutra and it is hard for any other secular brain to compare.

A Tao practitioner attaining brightness and properness is so precious that nothing could compare. This practitioner is truly happy in 24 hours a day, in the present as well as in the future unthinkably. Facing situations (thousands of Dharmas), resolving them brightly and properly, that is really MINE; that is the True Mind, True Transmission. Wherever this practitioner appears, there is always peace and joy, no matter what life it is. The Authentic Enlightenment cannot be fully expressed in words.

When you complain about the chaos of life and the world, you are naturally contracting the Dharma precepts of severity and desire.  You are putting up a barrier for yourself, yet seeking for liberation through knowing, seeing, and solving. It's the same as carrying a heavy load, and not consenting to give it up to be comfortable. You keep on bearing it while wishing for a light load, which will never happen. —T. V.

When a Tao practitioner with the spirit of seeking for enlightenment and liberation from the transmigration of birth and death, they naturally have to resolve bitter, severe Dharma precepts, but not by complaining, praying and supplicating to end that severity. Whatever Dharma subject one follows, they have to take the same way through the path of resolving the evolution of thousands of Dharmas in order to be considered as the orthodoxy High Level (Mahayana).

You may not understand what I am saying now, because you still do not have enough effortful deeds. You just keep on practicing, and don’t neglect it until you get enough effortful deeds, your mind will naturally no longer generate Dharma. Since then, whatever the situation may be, it remains a dish of Liberation [through Knowing, Seeing, and Solving] dearly given to you. —T. V.

The mind generating Dharma is still the mind unsettled, often giving rise to erroneous passion. If a Tao practitioner diligently and perseveringly resolves thousands of Dharmas, they are on the right path of past Bodhisattvas. The Tao result may be fast or slow, depending only on how soon or late a Tao practitioner reforms themselves.