LONG HOA HIGHNESS ASSEMBLY, SECOND PERIOD

The Primary Principle Period: Teaching the Great Career Vehicle (Mahayana)

One day, He had burned seven incenses and declared before the main Hall: “The Blessed one Reverend Sir, from now on, I will no longer indulge the disciples.”

From the Hinayana, He has been gradually guiding all the disciples to practice, examine, understand, and resolve all dharma, based on the courage mind to enter the Mahayana. No longer indulging the disciple means showing them the seed karma of attachment. Clearly, it belongs to the challenge sect of the immediate tradition.

"When a disciple is willing to get liberation through wisdom, he will face many challenges to overcome for the advancement. If the disciple patiently builds his virtue with advancement of overcoming challenges, he will enter the door of the gradual tradition.

The immediate tradition is a school, giving rise to wisdom, which is why the Buddha used to say: “If the disciple ceaselessly concentrates and creates himself the base of his fixed and attached virtue. He will create naturally, ignorance, without being useful to the liberation through wisdom, and will only receive the blessed reward of men and devas.” –T.V.

• It is very difficult for the Hinayana, who used to practice for the blessed reward of men and devas, to advance into the Mahayana. In its true meaning, the Mahayana preached by the Supreme Pure King incarnating Lord Supreme Maitreya, is not easy to receive. Many disciples have studied and recited the Mahayana Sutra, focusing on rites, formality, praying and supplicating and still remained in the Hinayana.

“If the disciples eliminate their attachment that continuously based on the immediate tradition, they will intentionally or unintentionally get their wisdom, but may be lost in dishonest opinions and have to receive the seed of the three evils.” –T.V.

The Devadatta, in the time of the Sakyamuni Buddha, was a man of a refractory mind. The damages he sowed could not be avoided at the time when the Supreme Pure King incarnating Lord Supreme Maitreya had taught dharma. The Devadatta's descendants were getting into Phap Tang Buddhism of Vietnam too, together with the patriarchs and the saints at the time of the Buddha. Activated by their mind, they are as evil as in the past, using violence, fabricating wicked plans, and trying to create disorder within the religion. Their false steps will lead them to hell and suffering ceaselessly in the evil life.

“That is why the disciple has to precede parallel to the knowledge and the condition – focused effort - result, as well as the form and the nature to be able to make the right contribution to the truth. This is the supreme wonderful dharma subject of liberation from reality.

For that reason, the patriarchs restrain and strengthen the dharma school in order to help the disciple progress through many lives and acquire the truth.” –T.V.

* The patriarchs are controlling their disciples, not allowing them to follow evil faculty, and reminding them to maintain the good faculty. The dharma school offers a place to recall, guiding the disciples to maintain their morality and meditate in order to stabilize their thoughts. It reminds them not to think obscurely but to do it clearly, and helps them make their way through many lives to acquire the Truth.

“Therefore, all the dharma subjects are applying to pray to the Buddha, practice tranquility, create mindful benefits and wait for the Awakened One to guide them correspondingly to the spirit of the dharma subject, for retribution. He would classify them according to their capacity so that they may be paid back for their benefits from men and devas, the Srota-apanna, Sakradagami, Anagami and arahant and being able to attain enlightenment.” –T.V.                               

• In the Dharma-Ending Age, the Supreme Pure King incarnating Lord Supreme Maitreya has clearly and meticulously taught the attestation of the patriarchs, both in the past and future. I heard: Sakyamuni Buddha has only ordained the Bodhisattva Samantabhavera, Manjusri, Avalokitesvara, Ksitigarbha and Maitreya for the attainment of the supreme truth enlightenment. The patriarchs are only attested from the awareness, great awareness to, at most, the ultimate awareness, belonging to the class of sravaka, pratyaka and arahants. The patriarchs have preached the Buddha teachings, and written about the unique career and the supreme career vehicle at the level of supreme enlightenment. Regardless of their proclamation and explanation, they were not yet attested by the Sakyamuni Buddha, and have to wait for the apparition of the Maitreya Buddha in this last period in order to be verified, checked and attested. During His 37 years of teaching the dharma, He has not yet acknowledged them, to enter the unique career not to mention the supreme career. Except the only Venerable Moggallana who’s later life was Master Hsuan Tsang in his unthinkable sutra questing journey, which will be presented afterward. He was one of the noble disciples of Lord Supreme Maitreya in the Final Law Period.

The patriarchs, from the rank of dharma protectors to the rank of venerables, all taught the faithful disciples to practice the integrity and correct their true nature to acquire the truth. They should wait for the Awakened One from the rank of the bodhisattva, maha bodhisattva or Maitreya Buddha to teach them the enlightenment by using the existent Buddha power to attest their rank. Until then, the faithful disciples could enter the constitution according to their high or low rank of attestation to be effective and efficacious, which is unthinkable.

• Just like in a nation, only the Prime Minister, Minister, General Director or Chief of Province, appointed by the king or the Supreme Leader or the President, have the authority and power to carry out the function of, assuring the citizen peace and contentment with their occupation, according to the high or low assignment. All the others, though qualified and proclaiming themselves without authoritative appointments, have no true power. Therefore, it is very difficult to meet the Awakened One in the above spirit. The disciple who is in self-attachment can't recognize the Awakened One even though He is right beside him.

“The awakened man is a leader who guides by meticulously understanding the karma seed of the living creatures. He truly knows the special exigency of every sickness of the practitioners in order to guide them into eternal ordination.” –T.V.

Since the practice of the dharma in the Dharma-Ending Age is based solely on the sutra, through study with a high degree or the writing of many books about the Buddhist dharma. The disciple who truly wishes to be enlightened has to separate from his self, nothingness, and rethink the above teaching of the Buddha. This is very practical and useful to him and he no longer needs to reason, write or preach in his dream any more.

All His disciples, from the Mahayana upward are uniquely grouped, guided and none have been originated themselves. If they were, they would remain in the Hinayana and receive rewards in accordance with their wishes.

“Once being lost in ignorance and indefinite dream, you should follow the bodhisattva’s path and receive confidence, obedience, and respect, taught by the Buddhas, to practice. Without confidence, obedience and respect, you would be caught in the self-ego, and lost in birth and death. What I said here is not for my benefit, but for yours from now to posterity.” –T.V.

The disciple in the Final Law Period, who can’t realize the insight, cannot yet be enlightened. Regardless of how good his reason is, he will be lost in the dream without the hope of liberation and still creates the birth and death cycle. You should practice in compliance with the dharma subject conception, ‘life is just a dream’, in order to avoid the mistaken ego of ignorance.

“You should practice in accordance with the Confidence - Obedience - Respect spirit.” –T.V.

    *  By Confidence: You should have confidence in the teaching in order to improve yourself, correct your mind, annihilate stupidity and believe in the dharma subject under the guidance in order to be liberated through wisdom.

    * By Obedience: Having confidence, you hear and understand more or less that you have to practice and make up your mind with a conduct-vow to carry out the teaching of the leader. That is obedience.

The fully confident and obedient disciple’s mind is developed, his knowledge is enlarged and he becomes more respectful. This may apply to the spirit of disciples trained for the liberation through wisdom in the Dharma Ending Age in accordance with the dharma canon path.

“If you believe a noble man to be a Buddha and show admiration and respect for him in order to request foolish things in your mind, you do not consent to receive the teaching or study the lessons to improve yourself. You are, therefore, not coming to the real confidence, obedience, and respect, and it is difficult for you to get true liberation through wisdom.

I wished that those who have practiced the dharma would carefully read this part of sutra, copying it for large distribution. This acts as a compass for the disciple to give up his illusive thinking and attain liberation through wisdom.” –T.V.

When alive, He had mostly taught and distributed the sutra, but few disciples tried to understand it thoroughly. Due to their ignorance, the disciples are prevented by the evil power from recognizing the sutra. If they can recognize it, they will evidently know its immeasurable value. Those who realize this would no longer regret secular matters and immediately give up their wishful, pleasurable and desirable life in exchange for meeting an awakened one and practice for liberation through wisdom.

* Scholars and taught men who have taught and written about the great career vehicle (Mahayana) and the unique career vehicle (Buddhayana), would you please consider whether Long Hoa Chief Monk Maitreya Buddha's teaching of the great career vehicle (Mahayana) is the same as yours?

This is an important teaching that He has given on the Mahayana. Here is what I heard and witnessed at the Central Assembly, at number 42, Hong Bang Street, Nha Trang:

Self-Improvement

 At that time, inside the Main Hall, all the disciples were sitting and discussing the difficulties of making a living while practicing dharma. Suddenly, the bell rang, announcing the Long Hoa Chief Monk's arrival for the testifying of the Great Ceremony. All the disciples then solemnly stood up and waited for the ceremony to begin.

He was descending from his residence, accompanied by His attendants, the venerables and the dharma protectors to the main hall at the same time. He then sat 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 disciples were rather astonished, but they automatically arranged themselves in order and solemnly worshipped. He waved His hand for the disciples to sit down, and taught afterward as follows:

“I'd like to praise you for your perseverance. From the comfortable to the difficult circumstances you patiently and diligently train, not tiring of the formality and your confidence and obedience toward the teaching subject remains the best. Being born in the Dharma Ending Age, when mankind is in revolution, you are not as perverse 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 birthday of the Sakyamuni Buddha passed down through many centuries from the great antiquity.

In fact, our improvement is much more important than the proper formality of the ceremony and the worship in the practice of the dharma. It gives rise to the self, creating many contradictions, conflicts, and delicate arguments, making the disciples run after the false appellation. Therefore, the mind was distracted and the spirit lost even on the birthday of the Buddha, which was influenced by the difficulty of life. How can the dharma sutra be free from errors? It is quite absurd.” –T.V.

The Supreme Pure King incarnating Lord Supreme Maitreya has entered the right concentration of Samadhi, seeing and knowing everything very well a hundred thousand years ago. He has affirmed that it is wrong to be attached to the full moon to change the true birthday of the Buddha. He has continued to affirm the 8th day of the 4th month of the lunar year as the birthday of the Buddha.

“The Blessed One has to leave his royal palace in exchange for His self-improvement. He has accepted the suffering conditions to seek for the ultimate truth in order to save mankind. It is today, an evidence of self improvement rather than formality reform.” –T.V.                                                                                 
It is essentially for the disciples of the Mahayana to reform by themselves. It is necessary because they have to change their narrowness and pettiness into a generous spirit, which loves, and is concerned with helping others to reform themselves, and to join in the practice for liberation through wisdom. It makes one live more at ease and no longer chained by the evil power.

“The Blessed One still relies on the precious dharma of natural knowledge, not being constrained to live in the austerity of the being known... He then went to the foot of the bodhi-tree and sat down to meditate to attain the enlightenment. He told Himself: Don't put yourself into suffering and pray for the enlightenment. Don't damage your body because of the request for the noble fruit, which is too difficult to attain.”  –T.V.

Through Insight, you can get the precious dharma of the natural knowledge. When a disciple corrects his nature and gives up his everyday bad habits, it is truly self improvement. At a certain point, his continuous efforts are no longer neglected and considered as the food of the vowed bodhisattva. He will suddenly feel fulfilled and the natural knowledge then appears. There’s no need for thinking and reasoning. The insight is the knowledge the right and wrong dharma and the recognition of his mistakes. When there are no more mistakes, we will clearly understand all dharma before us and around us.

“From then until today, He has left behind what He has trained and practiced through the years, the Triple Canon Sutra. He has helped to relieve the suffering and annihilate a lot of stupidities, obstruction and attachments. He went quietly from being- enlightened, being-cultivated and natural fulfillment to the insight.” –T.V.

The result of the improvement of oneself that is continuously maintained by the Blessed One is called the maintenance practice. He that has never neglected any of the dharma is called the ‘training practice’. Every dharma respected and practiced to completion is called the ‘conduct practice’. All of these precious experiences are taught to His disciples so they could maintain and practice them, forming the Triple Canon Sutra.

Living in the time of advanced science, we can't escape from the demands of the better living standard, which is beyond our existent capacity and engulfs us in materialism. This gives rise to the careless mind. If the demand for better living is not met, we feel disappointed, frustrated and hateful. The extreme wishes lead us to greed, generated stupidity, and narrowness, disrupting the suchness. No matter how long or how diligently we practice, we are still subjected to being practiced and being enlightened. By abolishing the suchness and enjoying what life has given to us, we shall be at ease and in peace.

“From the improvement of himself to the liberation and the vow of saving living creatures, the disciple is classified in the vowed bodhisattva rank. I'm reminding you not to be discouraged because of the poor life standard and neglect the practice. If you embed that wishful thinking in your mind, you just create sufferings for yourself.” –T.V.

Continuously maintaining the dharma conduct while not being flexible, open and tolerant to the evolution of all dharma progressing scene makes your mind easily hot- tempered and sad. Your wisdom will be difficult to develop and will only bring you suffering for yourself. Those who know how to exterminate the dharma in order to correct the living creatures’ nature themselves are determined to relieve the mind and body and vow to follow the bodhisattvas way. This doesn't mean giving up the dharma conduct, but sometimes we have to clear the dharma to develop our mind and to get the parallelism of wisdom and virtue. The Maitreya Buddha in the Final Law Period has reminded all the disciples:

“THE PARALLELISM OF WISDOM AND VIRTUE IS REALLY THE ORIGIN OF INSIGHT.”

This is the vow of the Bodhisattva. The disciple aiming at natural insight is guided and helped by all the past, present and future bodhisattvas. He will surely meet the Buddha.

“To clear through the liberation mind, you have to follow the example of the Blessed One, giving up the narrow mind in exchange for the generous one. You must remember that leaving behind present narrowness and difficulty leads to the attainment of the development.” –T.V.

The disciples, who yearn to be liberated, should diligently practice with utmost determination. Once abilities and merits are fully created, they will certainly be enlightened and relieved from the cycle of birth and death. Like the Supreme Master, who sacrificed all to seek the dharma, he has given up all his property and precious things and left without regret. He has gone from the narrow mind to the generous one, which is truly unique.

“Today, you meet me and pay homage to me. Isn't it coming from my usual honest words? I am always improving myself so I have the determination to lead you to true enlightenment and help you to get out of the cycle of birth and death. I know well what the true dharma is and how it can lead to true enlightenment.” –T.V.

One time, at the Central Congregation, I heard: “What is the true dharma?” The Lord asked.

None of us could answer. He has then pointed to a disciple and told him to answer according to his own knowledge. The disciple hesitated for a minute and replied:

“All the Triple Canon Sutras and teachings of the Blessed One are true dharma.” The Long Hoa Chief Monk sweetly said: “The Triple Canon Sutras and the teachings of the Sakyamuni Buddha are all true dharma, but when passed down to you, they are no longer true dharma. Why?

In the practice of the dharma, every thought, word, and act of yours is generated from your confused conception. The Blessed-One's sutra that you are learning, studying and writing leads to becoming enlightened. You practice according to your judgment, which results in being understood.

You have to seriously reform yourselves to get your true nature. The Blessed-One's sutra passed on to you then becomes the orthodox precious dharma.

So, listen: The true dharma is the dharma without attachment.” –T.V.

That is why the orthodox Mahayana disciples are vowing: Taking neither the wrong for right nor the right for the right. Such a practice is full of abilities and merits, and may directly lead to true enlightenment.

“I have myself lived in pain and suffering and tried to build up my merits relying on the suchness insight. Therefore, I am free from wrong reasoning, my teachings are all perfect and they neither strictly follow the sutra nor seperate from it. They provide a complete condition guide, which is the orthodox true enlightenment.” –T.V.

In His existence, the Long Hoa Chief Monk did not allow the dharma protectors and venerables to strictly follow the sutra when they preached, but they had to rely on their true nature.

During His journey of teaching the dharma in this saha world, He always asked His disciples to vow to resolve when they encounter all the painful and suffering dharma. Once resolution is completed, you are no longer in ignorance. The clear sighted solution was not inscribed in the Buddhist sutra, so it is called the unidentical sutra. Resolving all dharma to perfection, the formers as well as descendants have an identical point known as the orthodoxy, also called inseparated sutra. Since hearing, seeing and knowing are all dharma, everything in this secular word is connected to dharma. The disciples who could resolve righteously, roundly and clearly will get deep natural insight when reading Buddhist sutra and no secular brain can compare.

A disciple attaining righteousness is precious. He is truly happy 24 hours a day, which is unthinkable in the present and future. Facing difficult situations (all dharma), I resolve righteously that they are mine; it is the true mind and the orthodoxy. Wherever the disciple is, there is always peace and joy, no matter what life it is. The true enlightenment cannot be expressed in words.

“If 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 and also wish for liberation through wisdom. It's the same as carrying a heavy load, and not consenting to give it up to be comfortable. You keep on bearing it and wish for a light load, which will never happen.” –T.V.

When the disciple wishes to be enlightened and liberated from the cycle of birth and death, he has naturally to resolve all painful, difficult dharma, but not by complaining and praying to end that difficulty. Whatever dharma subject one follows, he must take the same way through the path of resolving the evolution of all dharma in order to be considered as orthodox Mahayana.

“You may not understand what I am saying now, because you may not have enough ability. You must keep on practicing, and don’t neglect it until you get enough ability and your mind is no longer creating more dharma and wishful thinking. Whatever the situation may be, it remains the food given to you by the liberation through wisdom.” –T.V.

The imperfect mind, which is still the mind, wrongly activated, will give rise to stupidities. If the disciple patiently and diligently resolves all dharma, he is on the right path of past bodhisattvas. The result of attaining enlightenment may be fast or slow, depending only on how soon or late the disciple improves himself.