LONG HOA HIGHNESS ASSEMBLY, SECOND PERIOD

The salvation of the Supreme Pure King Incarnating Lord Supreme Maitreya

Appearing in this saha world, He has practiced dharma for 37 years, divided into four periods:

  1. The Unprincipled Period, teaching through small career vehicle: 1957–1965
  2. The Primary Principle Period, teaching through great career vehicle: 1966–1983
  3. The Unique Principle Period, teaching through unique career vehicle: 1984–1989
  4. The Supreme Principle Period, teaching through supreme career vehicle: 1990–1993

1. The Unprincipled Period: Teaching the Small Career Vehicle (Hinayana)

In 1956 (the year of 2500 of the Buddhist Calendar), while attaining enlightenment, He has found that the truth is too difficult for the living creatures to understand. He did not want to assume teaching the dharma and kept on wandering day after day. The Brahma, gods, Dragon God, and Dharma Protector then came to request Him, but He did not accept teaching the dharma. Meeting him afterwards on my way to seek for the dharma, I heard his explanation as follows:

In the Dharma-Ending Age, people usually reason through the Buddha dharma using their judgment, not adhering to the meaning. Therefore, they know the basket of sutra passed down by the Blessed One by heart. Although, I have the opportunity to teach the monks and nuns, but they still could not receive the dharma. The fixed karma is plentiful, so it is a very difficult task for me. Everything was still pristine in the time of the Blessed One, so the teaching was easy. Living creatures were just like pieces of paper filled with all kinds of images. For the teaching, I have to erase all images on the paper, making it blank and clean. Second, I have to help them draw the decent, pleasant scenes. What a tremendous tasks that would be! I would like to wait until the end of my life and quietly leave with the disintegration of my body.

Till the 12^th day of the first month of the lunar year of 1957, The Supreme Pure King Buddha, who is the Tathagata, the Supreme Being, has come to promulgate the attestation. He had then accepted teaching the dharma.

His first true disciple was an old man with white hair and a long white beard in the hamlet of Phu Huu, village of Vinh Ich, and 20 km from Nha Trang in the direction of Ninh Hoa. His given dharma name was Phap Dao. The gods, land deities, and dragon deities gradually went seeking for the 1250 true Buddhist disciples during the time of the Blessed One, recalling and guiding them to return to Lord Supreme Maitreya Buddha.

First, He had taught the small career (Hinayana) rank and waited for the sacred disciples during the time of the Blessed One (33 Patriarchs among them). A number of true disciples later live to return to the world to practice the dharma He has sown.

At the Phap Tang Buddhism of Vietnam at 42, Hong Bang Street, Nha Trang, the Lord has officially started the dharma teaching in 1957. At Sinh Trung Street, He has marked 1956 (that was the year 2500 of the Buddhist calendar) as the first year of the Buddhist canon calendar. 1957 (that was the year of 2501 of the Buddhist calendar) was the second year of the Buddhist canon calendar.

At that time, He allowed the disciples to use the bell and recite the Amitabha Sutra, the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva Sutra, the Samanta Mukuta Sutra, and the all sided one in the sutra. The rites followed the same traditions as in the temples.

The Amitabha Sutra was recited in the requiem. The Samanta Mukuta Sutra was recited to bring peace to the suffering. He has often shown his psychic power.

◊ For example, when He went downtown with His disciples, it was raining. He looked at the sky saying emphatically: “Please stop raining so that I could finish my business in the town.” The rain immediately stopped, the clouds drifted away, and out came the bright sunshine.

◊ In the Nha Trang airport, when the plane was about to take off, the sky became cloudy, a gale wind blew, and it rained torrentially. Due to bad weather, the airport cancelled all flights and the passengers were advised to return home and wait for the next announcement. He then told his disciples not to go home and his hand pointed up to the sky. Suddenly, flashes of lightning appeared and in less than a minute the wind subsided, the clouds dispersed and the rain stopped. The passengers, after claiming their luggage, had not yet gone home. Then the airport announced that the plane was ready to take off again. The weather was fine and warm that day.

◊ One day, I accompanied Him from Nha Trang to the temple of A De forest in the hamlet of Phu Huu, village of Ninh Ich of the district of Ninh Hoa. On the way back, we were standing on the roadside, waiting for the bus. Surrounded by the open-field, the rain had begun to fall and we had nothing to cover our head and no place to take shelter. Outside the place we were standing, an invisible circle of 1.50 meter in diameter did not contain one drop of rain. The rain formed itself into a circle on the asphalt road and the water fell completely outside the circle, while the inside remained dry. When we boarded the bus, the rain started to fall inside the circle.

◊ Living in Nha Trang, He has, many times, helped the province of Khanh Hoa dissolve storms, avoiding misery to the people. The police of Nha Trang kept taking down his sign plate, forbidding Him to teach the dharma, and always waited for a reason to put Him in jail.

◊ He has also used meditation to effectively cure many diseases of His disciples and their relatives. I only noticed some of these particular cases, including that of Diep Ngoc Chau.

Mr. Chau was a southerner who came to work in Nha Trang. His 4 years old son could not sit and stand since his body was flabby and his skeleton was very weak. Mr. Chau was an atheist; thus, he named his son Diep Ngoc Hoang (that means Diep the God). His family was wealthy, but all the doctors had given up and were unable to cure the boy. One day, informed by one of his acquaintances, he came to ask the Lord to cure his son.

He had used meditation to help the boy stand and walk normally and he told Mr. Chau to change the name of Ngoc Hoang to another name immediately. Later the boy grew up and was very successful in school. Mr. Chau has since repented and become a faithful Buddhist disciple.

◊ Every time He had come to visit a province, it had torrentially rained the previous night. Nevertheless, the next morning, traffic moved smoothly on the clean roads and the air became wonderfully fresh. There were also many things He has wonderfullyutilized, and yet no amount of books could ever tell them all.

◊ Mrs. Tang Hieu in Qui Nhon was one of His faithful disciples. Her mother-in-law who was frequently ill and very weak wished to meet her son. Her mother-in-law came and asked Him to help her live for one more twelve years cycle. Her health improved and she went on to live a normal life. Twelve years passed, she was very satisfied and came gratefully to greet Him before returning to die in her native village. He asked her why she did not request more years in spite of just greeting. Mrs. Tang Hieu's husband was Assistant chief of the communist food company in the province of Binh Dinh.

◊ One day, Mrs. Phuong Thao, who resides in Ngo Thoi Nhiem Street, Saigon, invited the Chief Monk to visit to her family that afternoon so that she could offer a meal. In the morning, I came to observe. As I entered the living room, I saw the spirit of her mother who died more than 10 years ago, coming to greet me in a frustrated mood. I asked her, through my thoughts, why she had died and she said that she died of heart disease in the hospital of Grall, Saigon. Meanwhile, Phuong Thao was walking beside me without seeing her mother.

I told the story to Mrs. Phuong Thao. She was doubtful and said that the Holy House of Tay Ninh had freed her mother from suffering, and accorded her to the fairyland. I affirmed that her mother’s spirit was still living in the house, and unable to be reincarnated.

In the afternoon, the Chief Monk came and saw her mother’s spirit still living in the house, too. He told Phuong Thao to light three incenses so that He could request two (invisible) dharma protectors around Him to guide her to the Holy House of Tay Ninh where she could hear prayers all day long. Mrs. Phuong Thao then wept and asked Him, He said that: Only those who have clarified their nature of living creatures and possessed sufficient virtue and generosity of bodhisattvas’ rank upwards were able to free others from suffering. As for those who are practicing and have not yet corrected their polluted nature, they could not yet free themselves from suffering. How could they save the others?

Many of them may join forces zealously to save, but they could only make the living creature stay for a short time in the fairyland before returning either to the secular world or hell to wait for reincarnation. The venerable rank has to assemble in a large number with the dharma protectors to be saviors. But how can we meet a great number of them in this secular world? They might be fully present only in the time of the Sakya Buddha and Maitreya Buddha. Having sufficient virtue and generosity, but not yet attested by the Buddha or bodhisattva to enter the constitution, you must wait a lifetime or many lives to be attested before you are able to execute the great power of the Buddhas.

The same goes for doctors who graduate, but are not yet appointed as chiefs of health office, directors, and administrators. His or her signatures do not have enough validity to make everyone move. It is only through a long practice with the Pure King incarnating Lord Supreme Maitreya that we would be able to perceive the truth.

◊ Most human beings believe that renunciation and living in a pagoda are the only characteristics of a true dharma practitioner. The Chief Monks permitting their disciples to recite sutras coped with their circumstance. The rites were the same as those in the temple, but he always advised his disciples to correct their bad habits in daily life so that their prayers would be efficacious. The same remarks also apply to a bottle of water that filled with deposit and moss after sitting for a long period of time. If we fill it with pure water and drink it, we will become ill. Therefore, we have to rinse it out thoroughly before pouring pure water into it to avoid becoming ill.

In the evening, before going to bed, we have to sit and pray to the Buddha in the same place where we sleep without having to sit in front of Buddha’s altar, when you recite sutra; you have to put your robe on properly. For the true disciples who were previously on vegetarian diets, continuously or periodically a few days a month, He advised them to observe and not violate the commandments. Those who previously had liberal customs might keep them, but they are forbidden to kill living beings. He has often said that being on a vegetarian diet is very good, but having a vegetarian mind is much better. This means that those who behave in a cruel manner while on a vegetarian diet are not as worthy as those who eat liberally and are capable of correcting their bad conduct.

◊ He has taught the old men who are unable to hear the dharma teaching to be charitable, patient and pray to the Buddha while reciting the Amitabha Sutra and the Samanta Mukuta Sutra. Those who showed an interest in practicing to quickly obtain psychic power were made to carry out all the four embracing virtues: Donation, affectionate speech, conduct profitable to others and cooperation and adaptation of oneself to others. The advanced disciples would guide the beginners. They all met in their spare time to help each other enjoy the common benefit of practicing; they have to speak affably. For those who did not carry out his order, He has softly counseled and explained with all His heart.

• He often commands the practice of the Six Paramitas, which are donation, sila, diligence, patience, wisdom, and meditation. Here is what I heard:

   √ Donation save one from Hell: Giving alms to the poor and making offers to the Triple Gem help to obtain happy blessed rewards. Faithful offerings to the sacred monk will produce good results both in the present and future. Giving dharma through saying good words helps others to relieve worry and suffering. These all make up the offerings dedicated to the Tathagata and the Buddhas. Such efforts will be useful to your own nature as living creatures and to that of others. The result will be salvation from hell and liberation from hardship and suffering. The donation without showing off, called the perfected donation, will be completely rewarded with salvation from hell. Building temples and stupas for living creatures to practice is a way of donating offerings to the Buddhas.

   √ Sila save one from Hungry Devils: He often taught his disciples to observe the precepts, “Every cruelty, no matter how small, must be avoided. Every good thing, though small, must be done.”

Hungry devils usually behave instinctively, speak carelessly, spend wastefully or miserably, and love to flatter others for wealth. They often disliked those who contradicted their intentions. That was the world of the hungry devils. He has taught His disciples to observe the commandments, correct their bad habits and utilize the seriousness to liberate themselves from carelessness and the hungry devils. They sincerely try to avoid false speech, and help others to correct themselves, which is the way to be free from hungry devils. This is known as Sila or “keep it”.

   √ Diligence save one from Animalism: Diligence is a very effective dharma subject used to dissolve the polluted mind. Diligence saves living creatures from animalism dharma. Animalism is the pleasure desire, the greed, the wishes, and the request for cravings. It originates from the love of the form such as: fame, material, money, and passion. Being fond of the form, we seek love, then the craving and we never separate from it. This is called the passion attachment. For instance, craving produces love, which is polluted. The wishes for fame leads to greed, position and reputation, which once satisfied are called the faculty of the animalism. Attached to the form, we are happy when we succeed and harbor resentment against life when we fail, losing position and reputation. Falling in the animalism, we are not far from hell. Suffering and hatred for life gives rise to the wicked acts, which in turn lead to hell in order to receive the result of our deeds.

   √ Patience save one from Asura: Anger and impatience produce ignorance, which burns away all created, accumulated merits. Being impatient, we create the karma of arguments, anger and hatred that induces the cycle of birth and death. Patience helps to overcome hot tempers and avoid Asura. Asura destroys good fortune. The patient practitioner could only save the anger of Asura. At present, the practitioner, reciting sutra for many decades and being on a continuous vegetarian diet without paying special attention to correct his hot temper, would see his karma ceaselessly increase. Once the angry temper would be annihilated, the suffering karma would not be produced and we would be no longer lost on the path of the hungry devil, the animalism and hell. The Asura path hinders and eclipses the Buddha nature, and prevents it from appearing. Therefore, the disciple must be patient to be saved.

   √ Wisdom save one from Man: Man’s attachment is the first in the six paths. Man treasures compassion, righteousness, civility, knowledge, and loyalty. Being contradicted, we feel shocked, hateful, denigrated and become solidly attached. Therefore, the more educated we are, the more we believe ourselves to be right and become attached to our self-conceited ways. Man makes use of his intelligence to study and become an intellectual. He lives in conformity with his reason, and gets attached whenever contradiction exists. Thus, he is trapped in the dharma commandments. Being attached naturally means clinging and is difficult to be dissolved. It is a serious sickness, which makes the educated man doubtful, and confused, and unable to get results in his practice. Attachments and doubts are so numerous that it is impossible to enumerate all of them. The practitioner has to make use of his intelligence to dissolve doubts and attachments to guide the living creatures in order to get the basic intelligence and follow the wisdom path. Once the attachment is recognized, there is no more fallacy and confusion. The training of the dharma will be no longer separated from one’s nature and it is practiced close to reality. The use of knowledge from education only helps to practice for the benevolence merits.

   √ Meditation save one from Heaven: Meditation is a method of overcoming the heaven path by awareness and salvation. The practice by supplicating and praying is that of the Hinayana. According to their conditions, He has usually allowed the disciples to sit semi-cross-legged to pray to the Buddha for one year before He taught them the meditation along with the doctrine teaching. He makes the practitioner perceive that meditation in an attempt to fix the thoughts and temper. It is used to help resolve family and office affairs more reasonably, not to get a miracle.

Not yet realizing that the object of meditation is insight, we easily go beyond meditative purpose and easily become mad because meditation is a very dangerous practice. Practicing the right way is immeasurably useful, so it is important to learn meditation from those who have been confidentially passed down. They are present in this Dharma Ending Age. From now on, we should not be afraid of losing the way because during his 37 years of teaching, The Supreme Pure King incarnating Lord Supreme Maitreya who was Long Hoa Chief Monk, in the name of the Dharma Three Solution, has carefully, clearly and meticulously handed down to the posterity. The path now showed the object evidence: The part of man is to be sincere and insistent so that he could meet a bodhisattva who saves him efficiently.

After one year of observation, when possible, He would teach the meditation. The true disciple, who is sitting, praying to the Buddha and entering meditation, usually shakes his body. This is tantrism, not an apparition. Later, even those who have no more faith would teach others His meditation carelessly. Anyone who does sitting meditation would shake his body, but it is not the transmitted mind, sealed mind, or confidential legacy. He who does not know the tantrism motion and the meditation map or next steps will not be able to advance higher. The Buddhist path never includes conjuring. Meditation by conjuring will produce the repeating dharma of enjoyment, which belongs to heresy. For example, the concentration of ideas is used to drive away a cloud to make a Buddha appear, a saint created by that repeating dharma appears. By perfecting it, we can produce rain and wind and make exact predictions about life and family matters, making the living creatures believe it to be a superb truth.

Such meditation practice is called dharma attachment. It clings and does not know the way to end the cycle of birth and death, the transmigration, or liberation through wisdom. There will never be enlightenment... What is the reason?

By not seeing or knowing the ignorance, we can't dissolve it. We only live wrongly in a dharma dhatu and die at the end of our life, which is birth and death. In this Final Law Period, the Supreme Pure King incarnating Lord Supreme Maitreya has carefully taught His disciples and nobody from the dharma protector rank to the venerable or higher rank practices conjuring.

The practitioner who falls asleep while praying to the Buddha, reading sutra and meditating has to observe the uposatha (Buddhist Sabbath) and makes offerings to the bodhisattvas. Based on these merits, he is released from his karma; he then makes his great vow to practice liberation through wisdom.

Those who practice mind training know how to correct their bad and wicked nature, dissolving all the dharma from hearing, seeing and knowing, until they perfect and attain purity through pure eyes and ears. Those who do not know the mind training method usually find the dharma incompatible and disdain those who save living creatures. Those who lean on all dharma for practicing often keep away from dharma they dislike. This is known as the Hinayana Dharma, which is sweetly and calmly restraining the pure mind.

There is a remarkable difference between those who practice and those who do not practice the mind training method. They are as separated from each other as those who live in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. Without mind training, we would never attain Mahayana. Why?  On the one hand, it kills the dharma and restrains the mind in order to purify it, thus making it calm. This calm mind has to keep away from contrary and shocking sounds that make the whole body suffer as if it were tortured. And the seeing has to avoid turbulence of the mind, which makes the whole body paralyzed because it is receiving discomfort. Such a practice scarcely leads to any result.

Those who know how to raise their mind are able to tolerate hearing and seeing. All hearing and seeing is possible and is capable of identifying everything and accepts to penetrate into the obstacle and the separation in order to convert obstacle and separation.

Through seeing and hearing of all dharma, such as form, sound, smell, taste, touch, there are no more contradiction and separation between the two aspects of hearing and seeing. They are unified in one aspect of Insight known as the insight of purity seeing and purity hearing.

• Greed - Hatred - Ignorance

The Buddhas are very much concerned with greed, hatred and ignorance. They make use of all means to teach living creatures to completely dissolve all kinds of greed, hatred and ignorance. The same thing happened during the time of the Supreme Pure King Chief Monk incarnating Lord Supreme Maitreya. One day on the wooden loft of number 42, Hong Bang Street, Nha Trang, which is the Central Assembly, I heard his following teaching: “How to end it to become enlightened?”

“The Hinayana disciples are very afraid that greed leads to illusion, so they try to annihilate the greed. Whenever you are still doubtful and perverse, the greed still remains and its origin is not yet cleared. Full enlightenment, not destruction, will end the greed.” –T.V.

• Why is it said, “The more the Greed is Destroyed the more it is originated?”

Let's take an example: If you press on a spring with your hand, it will remain still. When you are careless and move your hands slightly, the spring pops up because of its nature. You have ignorantly pressed on it. It is impossible to press on it continuously and you have to instead lean on its natural character.

The society of this Final Law Period gives rise to so many kinds of complex and perverse things in comparison with the simple society in the time of the Blessed one. If the living creatures do not know the dharma well, they must be diligent in demolishing ignorance and attachment in order to crush out the greed’s source. Where there is no greed, there is no hatred. Where there is no hatred, there is no ignorance.

The following story told by the Supreme Pure King Chief Monk would give an adequate explanation of greed, hatred and ignorance. “A wealthy man has a fruitful orange tree right in front of his palace gate. A monk who found the tree beautiful and attractive came to see the wealthy man and asked him for the orange tree in order to plant it in the front court of the temple. The wealthy man thoughtfully said to the monk: “I can neither give you this orange tree nor can you dig it up, then transplant it and keep it alive in the front court of the temple. If you want to have the oranges, I'll give you one orange so that you can use the seeds to plant twenty orange trees.” The monk did not understand and became angry and harbored resentment against the wealthy man for being stingy by not giving him an orange tree instead of an orange. This can also be labeled as ignorance, which produces ill will. It is also called hatred, because the mistake leads to the attachment of “greed”.

The monk should know that from an orange, he can grow 20 orange trees and would thus profit by 20 times his asking, righteously and reasonably, without being considered greedy. Without greed, the anger could not find its foundation and there would be no more ignorance and craziness." –T.V.

It is extremely difficult for the practitioner to realize what greed, hatred and ignorance are. It is not as simple as the living creatures think. Where there is no perversion there will be no greed, which is why He has frequently reminded the disciples in His teaching: “Your crazy ambition and shocking stupidity turn into countless dharma, which become the repeating dharma of ignorance. I know it meticulously and beyond. I am clean, without accumulation in mind. When there is no accumulation in mind there is any origination of birth and death and without the arising of birth and death, there would be equality and tolerance mind. The origin of the greed, hatred, and ignorance created by the perversion is called ambition.” –T.V.

The monk has happily eulogized Lord Supreme Maitreya Buddha for His wonderful and unthinkable dharma teaching. The monk and all the disciples stood up, bowing to the Chief Monk for his teaching on greed, hatred, ignorance, and origin of the stupidity not yet awakened.

He has taught his true disciples about greed, hatred, and ignorance through many unthinkable means. For the disciples living far away, only seeing him a few times in their life, He has used kind words to teach them, attempting to make them believe and respect Him. This way, they would remember Him even though they live far away and would diligently practice according to His scriptures and teachings. For the surrounding disciples who make up their mind to practice dharma, yearning for enlightenment, he would usually use wonderful, unusual teachings.

The contrary or unfavorable dharma was used to teach disciples who are greedy for money, wealth, fame, and love... They engaged in business, gaining function and title until they were completely lost, caught in debt, losing their function and title. They flounder in the mid-stream, incapable of moving forward or backward. They screamed, getting angry, depressed, discouraged, and neglected the dharma practice. Then, certainly recognizing their greed, they returned to repenting and continuing their practice and gradually came to their senses after their greed.