This beautiful poem is written by a Malaysian disciple Lianhua
Qixing. Its simple language carries profound meaning and makes an
unhurried, leisurely reading.
Living Buddha Lian Shen renounced home-life,
On a lucky day, February the tenth.
Disciples of the True Buddha School should all
Remember it for annual celebrations.
In order to liberate all sentient beings,
The Living Buddha was finally tonsured.
Giving up wealth, honour and luxury,
He prefers to protect the Dharma in candle light.
It is he who lighted the lamp of the True Buddha School,
Which now illuminates the Universe and Man.
The mortals who refuse to see the ultimate truth,
Should wake up quickly and follow Him to the Pure Land.
Men's lifetime is short and time flies.
One has to pay his karma in the recycle among the six paths.
The Sage takes pity on those in the recycle,
And kindly and tirelessly helps the people in the world.
Now tonsured, his Buddha light shines,
Mortals must wake up and follow his footsteps.
You have got the human form which is hard to come by.
You have heard of the Dharma which is rare to hear of.
If you don't deliver yourself in this lifetime,
When else will you ever be delivered from sufferings?
In order to realize the kind wish of Padmakumara,
Lian Shen was born into this secular world.
Originally a Buddha in the past period,
He descended to this world to liberate the mortal men.
A mortal can attain Buddhahood by practice,
Living Buddha Lian Shen has borne this out.
Shakyamuni was also a mortal to begin with,
He became the Honoured Buddha by practising diligently.
They both show that all mortals have their Buddha nature,
Which will reveal itself in the course of whole-hearted cultivation.
Take refuge in the True Buddha Tantric School,
We will attain realization by chanting the mantras.
He will wake up to the original nature for enlightenment,
And gain the power to decide on your own fate.
Buddha Lian Shen is a true master,
Whom you can rely on in your practice for true nature.
Lian Shen was tonsured out of great compassion,
Which can be shown from his experience as a common man.
He started life as a survey clerk,
And then a low officer in the army.
He studied the Bible in Christianity,
And proved to be a good, pious believer.
While visiting temples under the guidance of his mother,
He had some strange experience in the Imperial Jade Palace.
Half-believing, half-doubting, he went back home,
And dreamed he saw the Buddha when traveling far and wide.
He toured around the Western Paradise,
Which confirmed the records in Buddhist Sutras.
There is the Maha Double Lotus Ponds,
Which is an extraordinarily splendid place, an ultimate bliss.
There are eighteen Padmakumaras living there,
At the head of whom is the White Padmakumara.
One night at the Lotus Ponds reviewed millions of years past.
By what he saw he was urged to practise Buddhism.
Every Buddhist master he requested to help him,
Told him that he saw illusion and possessed by demons.
Lian Shen, after all, was a Buddha before his birth,
Spiritual teachers came to his help in time of doubt.
Master Sanshan Joushou was his spiritual supervisor,
Master Qing Zhen presented him the best Dharma.
The blue-robed Madam initiated him to Buddhism,
Lian Shen studied hard and honoured his gurus.
He was accepted into Buddhism by proper rituals,
He took refuge in the Three Treasures and was given the Dharma
name.
Mother and son often chanted the Diamond Sutra.
The more they learned, the greater their fortune and wisdom.
The Sutras were words by all Buddhas,
The deeper you go into them, the greater the yogic responses.
With compassion and resolute wish to liberate sentient beings,
He wrote about his special affinity with the Dharma.
His spiritual books shook the demons and monsters,
Who caused one setback after another to his life and work.
His spiritual books were published continuously,
Which attracted crowds of believers in his house.
Since he was practising for saving the world,
He neither charged anything nor complained about it.
He went to work on his broken bike,
Helping others, he often had sleepless nights.
Willingly he bore the work, hardship and the complaint,
While his family lived on greens and bean curd.
He was motivated by kind-heartedness and compassion,
Not by benefit from others for his own fortune.
He always persuaded people to believe in Buddhism,
And averted their misfortunes to put them on the right path.
At last, the correct Dharma spread far and wide,
But which attracted too many visitors who made things tight.
Believers came to visit any time of the day,
Knocking at the door day and night,
The fence was knocked down and rebuilt time and again.
There were urgent calls outside in the middle of the night.
The whole family, old and young, were disturbed,
They could not live like that for long.
Since requests for "no disturbance" were ignored,
Wave upon wave of visitors crushed the gate.
They had to move to avoid such harassment.
They made several places home within one year.
There was no more place to hide in Taizhong,
To whom could Lian Shen pour out his grievances?
Disputes were provoked for no reason at all.
Evil dharmas tried to bully him.
They doubled their efforts to attack him,
Accusing him groundlessly of being a demon in origin.
They all claimed that Lian Shen was either a monster by nature
Or he was possessed by evil spirits.
As the evil believers couldn't see Lian Shen's Buddhahood,
They tried a hundred and one ways to kill him.
Lian Shen was born with good fortune and a long life,
Various Buddhas often came to help him in time.
Dangerous situations appeared one after another,
Which were averted by chanting mantras and the Dharma.
Heretic dharmas and evil believers harboured murderous intent.
They lay a trap to send Lian Shen to the other world.
They little expected that Lian Shen was an immeasurable Buddha,
Who would survive any danger and live secure.
Lian Shen, out of compassion, ignored the demons,
Indifferent to them and bore no grudge against them.
With respect he left his motherland for the time being,
And made his new home in the United States.
He chose Seattle in America,
Where he set up opened up a piece of pure land for the True
Buddha.
He found some peace for himself at last,
So he practised Tantrayana in seclusion.
His patriarchal guru was Padmasambhava.
He founded The True Buddha Tantric School.
He received long lineage and genuine true Dharma.
As a Living Buddha, he had perfect responses.
He was once very close to the Patriarch of Tantrayana,
Who taught him the Tantra.
His realization was prophesied by Shakyamuni,
Bodhisattva Maitreya crowned him with the Red Crown.
He is now the Holy Red Crown Vajra Master,
Which shows that he is a Living Buddha.
The True Buddha Tantric Quarters shines far and wide,
So that chapters have sprung up all over the world.
The light of the Living Buddha illuminates the Universe.
People came to take refuge under his influence.
Now chapters are set up to spread the True Buddha Dharma,
Demons and heretic teachings are at a loss what to do.
All sentient beings are clear what is the correct Dharma.
They take refuge on the first and fifteenth, lunar calendar.
There is no racial discrimination among disciples.
Their letters for taking refuge fly in like snow flakes.
The western postmen are surprised with admiration:
The Living Buddha's mail comes in several bags.
In order to embrace the multitude taking refuge,
He gives remote empowerment across Space.
Those with affinity will receive personal instruction in dreams.
Those with good luck will receive ways to make a fortune.
The Living Buddha now makes no distinction among men.
He reinforces everybody with Buddha light.
All disciples should carry forward his Buddha Dharma,
And cultivate diligently and honour all precepts.
They must honour their guru masters according to the fifty
rules.
And abide by the fourteen precepts for Tantrayana.
At first disciples of many nationalities practised different
ways,
It was difficult for them to follow the same procedures.
The Living Buddha's compassion once again surged forward,
And he took up his magic pen to write books on the Dharma.
The title is Secrets of the Secrets of the True Buddha,
Which unifies the Tantric practice procedures.
The book gives a detailed exposition of Tantric practice.
Its primary purpose is to help humans and subdue demons.
It explains how various Buddhas' teachings apply.
Disciples who have taken refuge must follow strictly.
Every sutra or every mantra presents one personal deity,
You must practise for realization and Buddhahood.
Sentient beings should wake up from their dreams,
Before they fall into the recycle among the six paths.
Parents are the closest relatives one has,
But they cannot stop the child from going to the nether world.
Death sends one to the other side of Darkness,
Who knows whether the relatives are heart-broken!
Wealth and rank in this world are nothing but clouds.
The soul takes nothing with it when it leaves the body.
The grandeur now before you is illusory.
You are advised to see this truth as quickly as possible.
You should take refuge in Buddha Lian Shen,
And practise diligently what he teaches.
When you wake up to your original nature in enlightenment,
You can decide on your own fate and become a Buddha.
You can deliver many people to the world of ultimate bliss,
Where they will live a free, unfettered, and happy life.
Of the True Buddha Assembly, Maha Lotus Ponds,
Lian Shen is the transformation body of the True Leader.
(Living Buddha Lian Shen is now the Vajra Master, the Secret Ruler
of the Realm of Vajra-mantra, the General Revered One. There are
traces both in the East and in the West to show that he is the incarnation
of a Buddha. His direct lineage embraces five true Dharmas and he
is knowledgeable in Sutrayana, Tantrayana, Taoism and the Five Arts.
Many Living Buddhas have compared him to the incarnation of Master
Padmasambhava, to the incarnation of Master Milaraspa, to the incarnation
of Patriarch Tsongkhapa, or to the incarnation of Amitabha. His
great compassion and great wish and his miraculous changes have
shaken the Realms in the ten directions. He has the greatest number
of disciples. His great spiritual influence will definitely illuminate
the whole world.)
