Chapter 3 - The True Buddha Tantric Dharma

What is the Buddhist Dharma after all?

In fact, the Buddhist Dharma is the passage (Apparatus,tools) leading one to Buddhahood. Sakyamuni tactically said, "The Dharma is like a boat." If becoming a Buddha is compared to going to the opposite shore, the Dharma will be a boat, a Dharma boat.

What a practitioner of Buddhism should do is to learn the Dharma so as to use it to get to the Faramita (shores) of the pure land of the Buddha , which is the only way at present.

In my opinion, the Buddhist Dharma in essence is To overcome(remedy) accordingly.

What are there to be overcome (remedy) accordingly? To overcome(remedy) the various karmic roots of ordinary people.

The real essence of the Mahamudra lies in the whole process of an ordinary man s practising Esoteric Buddhism until he becomes a Buddha. The whole process is called the Maha mudra.

The Buddhist Dharma is actually to overcome(remedy) accordingly. It is like prescribing the right remedy for an illness. Eighty-four thousand kinds of Dharmas serve as eighty-four thousand remedies.

"Why do I, Living Buddha Sheng-yen Lu, advocate the True Buddha Tantric Dharma"? My answer is very simple.

"I got enlightened and became a Buddha just through the practice of the True Buddha Tantric Dharma."

The True Buddha Tantric Dharma is to overcome (remedy) accordingly.

• Reciting the Purification Mantra is to overcome(remedy) the defilement of body, speech and mind.

• Reciting the Invocation Mantra is to overcome (remedy) the estrangement to Buddhas. (Sentient beings are not close enough to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.)

• Practising the Great Homage is to overcome (remedy) the arrogance of one s behaviour.

• Taking the Fourfold Refuge is to overcome (remedy) one's wavering in confidence.

• Practising the Great Offering is to overcome (remedy) one's grudge and greed.

• Practising the Four Boundless States of Mind is to overcome (remedy) one's imbalance between love and hatred.

• Practising the Armour Protection of Body is to overcome (remedy) one's unhealthy thoughts.

• Practising the Visualization of Emptiness is to overcome (remedy) one's non-emptiness.

• Forming Mudras is to overcome (remedy) one's idleness.

• Practising Visualization is to overcome (remedy) one's wrong thoughts.

• Reciting the Mantras is to overcome (remedy) one's karma in speech.

• Entering into Samadhi is to overcome (remedy) one's lack of concentration.

Therefore, I consider the Buddhist Dharma is the ability to overcome (remedy) accordingly, which has profound meanings. Take visualization for example. One should first visualize emptiness , then moon wheel , then the seed syllabus , the lighting , the personal deity(Yidam) , the state of the master in me and I in him(Yoga) , the sprinkling on the head (Empowerment), the absorption, and entering into Samadhi.

All the above is to overcome (remedy) accordingly.

Esoteric Buddhism lays much emphasis on Visualization. Isn't visualization illusion? That s right. It is illusion.

But it is to use this illusion to take the place of other illusions.

It is nothing but using the right thought to take the place of unhealthy thoughts.

I, Living Buddha Sheng-yen Lu, hold the following:

Sentient beings --- with too many unhealthy, wrong and useless thoughts. That is why they are sentient beings.

(Buddhas) Tathagatas --- with right and pure thoughts or no thoughts at all. That is why they are Tathagatas.(Buddhas)

(For a practitioner with too many unhealthy, wrong and useless thoughts, the more he practises, the more unhealthy and useless thoughts and the more attachments he will get. There is no hope for him to get rid of them.)

(However, for one with right and pure thoughts or no thoughts at all, he will get the highest compassion, the great wisdom, the Dharma essence (Wisdom of absolute truth), the great perfect mirror like-wisdom of Aksobhya, the universal wisdom (Wisdom of equality) of Ratnaketu (Ratnasmbhava), the profound observing wisdom (Discriminating Wisdom) of Amitabha and the perfecting wisdom(Active Wisdom) of Amoghasiddhi.)

To speak frankly, ever since I got enlightened, I have attained Tathagata's Four Nirvana Virtues, which are externity, bliss, personality and purity.

I no longer make the distinction between right and wrong.

Why do I do so? Because sentient beings are sure to have contamination, ego-attachment, greed, hatred, ignorance, doubt, pride, wrong action, achievement by action, pleasure, anger, sorrow, joy, envy, hatred, love and complaint. Because sentient beings are just sentient beings and they are so by origin.

So I don't complain why they are so.

Just because this is the true colour of sentient beings, it is normal that they behave this way. I consider all the aspects of sentient beings to be normal, as a result I no longer make the distinction between right and wrong.

I teach sentient beings the True Buddha Tantric Dharma,

To teach them how to get purified from defilement.

To teach them how to change ego-attachment into emptiness.

Through my teaching, the people with greed, hatred and ignorance will become Buddhas, Vidyarajas(Krodhadevatas) and Bodhisattvas.

The achievement by action will become achievement by non-action.

Pleasure, anger, sorrow, and joy will become the equality between those they love and those they dislike.

I said, "The True Buddha Tantric Dharma is exactly true kindness."

Ever since a long time ago, I have frequently thought what kindness is.

Kindness includes the following deeds:

• Giving water to a thirsty person.
• Giving food to a person in hunger.
• Giving help to a person in need.
• Giving medicine to a person in illness.
• Giving clothes to a person in the cold.
• Giving shelter to a person without it.
• Giving people pleasure, hope, convenience and confidence.

As far as kindness is concerned, one should not only be good to human beings but also treat with kindness the beings in the Six Realms of Existence. For instance, kindness should also be applied to animals,

• Providing fish with water.
• Setting birds free to return to forests.
• No killing but freeing captive animals.
• No treading on insects or ants.
• Protecting life and anything living.

Up to this point, I realized at last, Kindness is to lead to harmony.

In other words,

Kindness is sweetness.

Kindness is delicacy.

I tell the readers with great honesty,

The True Buddha Tantric Dharma is genuine kindness.

This Saha world is like a dream and a shadow and it is illusory with nothing authentic. In this world, time flies very fast like lightning, and nothing is permanent. It is like a castle in the air with everything empty. Only if one practises the True Buddha Tantric Dharma can he understand the truth of the Universe and the ultimate reality. For this reason, the True Buddha Tantric Dharma is genuine kindness.

• The purification of body is kindness.
• The purification of speech is kindness.
• The purification of thought is kindness.

The integration of the above three kinds of kindness is exactly genuine kindness , which leads to true Buddhahood.

In this world, there are few people who can explain this reason so clearly and get the integration of it and Sheng-yen Lu is one of them.

What does the practice of the True Buddha Tantric Dharma lead to?

My answer is, "Independence.(Liberation)"

What is independence(Liberation)?

Another name of Vairocana is the Great Independent-King . The independence I referred to is the enlightenment of Asamasama, superiority and great brightness.

Words cannot provide a complete explanation of independence.

Somebody tries to explain in these words, "independence is indifference to everything; one feels like floating, care-free, extensive, natural, seething...."

Another explanation is,

"Independence is the free application of supernatural powers.

At this point, I come to understand at last,

I am the most revered both in heaven and on earth.

I am the truth.

I am the path and the beacon light in front.

I am the salt of the earth."

The highest realm of the True Buddha Tantric Dharma is "no practice".

There is no form, no shape, no self, no attachment and no practice.

I tell the readers with great honesty,

For great truth, no practice is needed; when there is no truth, practice is wanted.

There is a spell, which says,

"For great truth, no practice is needed.

He who does not practise does not go in for practice without practice

nor does he go in for practice with practice,

nor does he not engage in non-practising with practice,

nor does he not engage in non-practising without practice.

There is achievement with practice and there is achievement without practice.

That is what non-practice means."

If one can understand the above paragraph, he will know the meaning of non-practice.

When every practising method of overcoming has overcome the objects to be overcome , one will get to the state with no more need to overcome and then the non-practice process is about to begin.

At this time non-practice is also practice.

At this time practice is also non-practice.

When one can get achievement either with practice or without practice, there will be no difference between achievement and non-achievement! I am the great truth and the great truth is me.

I can certainly understand the highest realm of this kind. I wonder how many practitioners in this world can understand all this.

I got one sentence from The Lotus Sutra:

"It is the Dharma that stays at the Dharma position."

After thinking it over and over, I know it is the True Buddha Tantric Dharma that stays at the position of the True Buddha Tantric Dharma.

From ancient times,

Guru Padmasambhava used pleasure (Bliss) to practise the Dharma.

The Kagyupa Guru Milarepa used pain to practise the Dharma.

Living Buddha Jigong used alcohol and meat to practise the Dharma.

Maitreya used the cloth bag to practise the Dharma.

Avalokitesvara used compassion to practise the Dharma.

Manjusri used wisdom to practise the Dharma.

The practitioners of the True Buddha Tantric Dharma use truth to practise the Dharma.

This is what we call every method is made full use of its nature and everything is put at its own rightful place.

The three words, truth, kindness and beauty, can be fixed at their respective positions and can also be put together to be fixed at their positions. Being fixed is not being fixed and not being fixed is being fixed.

I want to say the following:

Truth is right; right is kindness;

kindness is appropriateness;

and appropriateness is beauty.

Truth, kindness and beauty are nothing but the full use of nature.

I want to say the following,

Mountains are still.

Water flows.

Birds fly.

Fish swim.

Plants are static.

Animals are dynamic.

They are all in their appropriate states, which is truth, kindness and beauty.

To practise the True Buddha Tantric Dharma is to go into one s own origin, which is one s own master (Yidam) , or the source of existence.

This is to get one's own appropriateness .

This is not to oppose reason with self-contradiction.

There are eight grand Yidams in the True Buddha School. Their method of practice is just keeping the Dharma at the Dharma position , which means to make full use of nature.

Amithaba used one mind,

Avalokitesvara used compassion,

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva used conversion ,

Maha Cundi used clarity and purity,

the Yellow Wealth God (Jambhala) used charity ,

Guru Padmasambhava used pleasure (Bliss),

Padmakumara used truth,

and Bhaisajyaraja used medicine.

From the above we can know the eight grand Yidams just made full of their own nature!

The True Buddha Tantric Dharma is in fact the essence of the Esoteric (Vajrayana) teachings , with the word essence being the key.

The sequence begins with the four preliminaries, then the correspondence with the master (Guru's Yoga), the personal deity (Yidam), the treasure vase wind, the dull fire (Tummo), the opening of the middle pulse (Channel-Avadhuti), the opening of the five wheels (Chakras), the five Vidyarajas (Krodhadevatas), the supreme secret (Annutarayogatantra) and finally comes to the great perfection (Atiyoga-Dzogchen)

This is exactly the sequence of Esoteric Buddhism, which begins with the external method , then the internal method, "the Esoteric method and in the end the supreme Esoteric method."

The key to the practice of the True Buddha Tantric Dharma is not only to keep to the essentials, but also profoundness, which refers to the profoundness of thought, since one has to use the most profound thought to keep on practising.

The key to the practice of the True Buddha Tantric Dharma is not only stressed on the essentials and profoundness, but more importantly the extensiveness, since there are so many methods of practice (Sadhanas) and various kinds of explanation. My books alone have gone to one hundred and seven. Isn t that extensive enough?

Therefore, I say,

"The key to the practice of the True Buddha Tantric Dharma is essentials, profoundness and extensiveness."

The ultimate purposes for the practice of the True Buddha Tantric Dharma are to control one's birth and death and enlighten one s mind and see one's own nature . There is nothing wrong with that. He who can control his birth and death is a Buddha and he who gets his mind enlightened and sees his own nature is a Buddha, because he has understood the nature of emptiness and attained the Dharma body.

However, the expressions "control one's birth and death", "enlighten one's mind and see one's own nature", "nature of emptiness", and "Dharma body" sound too technical and academic, so I will use some more common words to explain them.

The ultimate purposes are:

1. Naturalness and independence;
2. Games;
3. Transcendence of pleasure.

I, Living Buddha Liansheng, tell the readers with great honesty to follow me and I will not deceive you.

I am a man with great independence, a lover of games who transcends pleasure. I have got to the realm of clarity and purity and great perfection (Atiyoga-Dzogchen).

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