Chapter 1 - I Am a Buddha

Someone asked me, "Sheng-yen Lu, are you a Buddha?"

I answered, "It's you who are a Buddha."

This answer confirms a sentence from Nirvana Sutra, "Sentient beings have no difference in terms of the Buddhist nature".

When a practitioner with great achievement has reached the realm of egolessness and has removed the attachment to self, he can say, " I am a Buddha. And so are you".

What are the Tathagata's five kinds of great wisdom?

My answer is,

1. The great perfect mirror like wisdom - One is free without any fettering by origin.
2. The wisdom of equality (sameness) - Everything is empty by origin and there is no such a thing as good or evil.
3. The wisdom of wondrous observation (Discriminating Wisdom) - Nothing exists in the world in the first place.
4. The wisdom of accomplishment (Active Wisdom) - There is no decrease or increase by origin, accomplishing without intention.
5. The wisdom of knowing the quintessence of all existence (Wisdom of pure absolutely) - Everything is unable to be spoken about and even you do it is inappropriate either.

I, Living Buddha Liansheng, have got the Tathagata's five kinds of wisdom.

I should say this, "Just because I possess them all, I possess nothing; and just because I have nothing, I can have them all".

Someone asked me, "What is the natural form?"

I answered, "Who knows? This answer is one without any sense, but it is very witty and perfect and goes right to the point."

This is the highest pithy formula for becoming a Buddha. It is true in any time, at any place, and for everyone.

Sheng-yen Lu is not Sheng-yen Lu at all.

Living Buddha Liansheng is not Living Buddha Liansheng at all.

And the Buddha of Brightness and Independence is not the Buddha of Brightness and Independence at all.

When everything becomes nothing, we will get the "natural form".

Why did I come to this world?

Why are sentient beings living in this Saha world?

These are questions that many people cannot understand.

Many people even fail to give a slight thought to it.

But I do know the reason.

My answer is,

Eating and sleeping.

In fact, eating and sleeping are nothing but superficial phenomena. My actual work is to build up supernatural existence.

But what is it to build up supernatural existence? Therefore this answer is also hard to understand, since supernatural existence agrees with real emptiness.

To build up supernatural existence is just like,
Following the dreaming realms in a dream;
Achieving success like flowing sand.
To build up supernatural existence is to play supernatural games.

What on earth is a Buddha?

The Great Mahvairocana Sutra says:-

The one who has got enlightened is called a Buddha.

Samyuktagama says: -

The one who knows the rising and declining of various things and has exercised all the practices needed and got rid of all those to be removed is called a Buddha. A Buddha in the world is like a lotus flower emerging unstained from the filth. He lives in the world but without attachment to it. He should get rid of all kinds of worries and get the realization of the sameness of birth and death.

Nirvana Sutra says:-

It is like someone finding a thief and stopping him from doing anything.

Buddhas and Mahasattvas can put up with countless worries - They are enlightened and worries can no longer trouble them.

That is the reason why they are called Buddhas.

Nirvana Sutra also says:-

A Buddha is made of kind-heartedness and kind-heartedness makes a Buddha.

The above are quoted from some sutras.

My Vajra Dharma words are the following:

A Buddha is one with the realization of emptiness.
A Buddha is one with no need to practise.
A Buddha is one who transcends birth and death.
A Buddha is one who is free from worry.
A Buddha is one who contains the greatest kindness and compassion.

A more profound expression is:

A person with greed, anger and ignorance is a Buddha; a person who practises
precepts and concentration and who has wisdom is a Buddha; and so is a person
with illness or a person taking medicine. In the world there exist no such things
in the first place as greed, anger and ignorance, nor precepts, concentration,
and wisdom, nor illness or medicine.

One who has got such enlightenment can be said to have got the highest right enlightenment.

This kind of realm is one of perfection and complete freedom.

Somebody asked me with a laugh, "Who can prove that you, Living Buddha Liansheng, have become a Buddha?"

I told him, "Only Buddhas can recognize Buddhas."

According to The Lotus Sutra, it is extremely difficult for a layman to understand a Buddha, who has achieved the Dharma; only Buddhas can fully understand the true meaning of various Dharmas.

Vairocana Buddha knows me, so do Butsugen-butsumo(Locana) and Padmakumara, And I know that I myself know me, so do Sakyamuni, Maitreya and Guru Padmasambhava.

All the past, present and future Buddhas in the ten directions know me, so do all the Bodhisattvas.

Buddhahood is my own treasure.

I show the Buddhist nature by myself.

At present, I can understand and have a clear view of the temperament of all sentient beings. The purpose of my writing the one hundred and seven books is to make sentient beings enlighten themselves.

To make sentient beings realize that by themselves is to convert them. In fact, the so-called to convert them is not to convert them, and just because it is not to convert them, it is called to convert them.

As it turns out, I am Vairocana Buddha, Butsugen-butsumo (Locana) and the Padmakumara. A Buddha a long time ago is now lowered to become an ordinary man, Sheng-yen Lu. I am very afraid of being alienated from sentient beings. I have many incarnations, the present of which is just the root Guru of the True Buddha School.

One with the ability to understand water can teach others to swim.
One who knows literature can teach others to write.
One who knows art can teach others to draw.
One with crafts can teach others skills.

There are uncountable kinds of skills and trades for convenience. I am a Buddha, so I can teach others to become Buddhas.

Today, there are many so-called great Buddhist masters, who have never shown any Buddhist nature and got no possession of any virtue. What they do is nothing but stay in high places over other sentient beings in the name of the Buddha Dharma and call it by the fine-sounding name the right belief. Even if those people usurp Sakyamuni's position, they are only deceiving themselves as well as others.

I am a Buddha, a real Buddha.

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