Yuan Zheng Tang - Perfect Enlightenment (No: 8)
Quarterly/August 1994, (pages 53-55 & back page)
Quarterly/August 1994, (pages 53-55 & back page)
The Secret Speech Of True Buddha
by Living Buddha, Lian-Sheng
Rules on Receiving Empowerment
In Tantrayana, there is such a rule that receiving empowerment must be from the lower level to the highest level. For example, if you are a Malaysian, you could receive “Ksitigabha Bodhisattva deity yoga” empowerment from a local guru then proceed to Seattle and receive the same empowerment from Grandmaster himself. In short you could receive empowerment and energizer from any gurus then the Grandmaster himself.
On the other hand, if you have received a “Master Padmasambavra” empowerment given by the grandmaster himself, then when you go back to Brunei or Taiwan, it is wrong for you to receive the same empowerment conducted by other gurus. As you have received the empowerment from the highest level, you should not receive the same from a lower level.
To quote another example, if you have received the “Five directional fortune gods” empowerment carried by the grandmaster himself then you receive the same kind of empowerment from other gurus in Hong Kong again, this is definitely wrong, as the rule clearly states that empowerment procedure must be from the lower to the higher level. It does not matter how many empowerments you have received as soon as the grandmaster empowers you, you should stop receiving empowerment from other gurus on the same yoga. This is because the “Five directional fortune gods” empowerment will lose its power once you receive empowerment from a lower level of guru. Your power will be lowered to the level of an ordinary guru. It is all right to go from the lower to the higher level; but not the other way round. Many disciples are going against this rule when they receive all kinds of empowerment from different gurus, regardless of whether they have such an empowerment before.
If you do not have a porcelain picture of the grandmaster, and you want to visualize receiving empowerment from him, you may visualize the face of your root deity turns into that of the grandmaster when you cultivate the deity yoga.
Likewise, if you want grandmaster to energize you or to do a remote empowerment on you, and you do not have a picture of Master Padmakumara, you may first visualize the face of your root deity, and then substitute it with that of the grandmaster. This is because Buddha Vajradhara can assimilate all the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and deities. If you want to receive empowerment from all patriarchs of Tantrayana and are unable to visualize their looks, you can visualize the face of your grandmaster. This is the tantric rule.
TRUE DETACHMENT
Speaking of renouncement, we always think of going to the mountain, to be away from the mundane world, to forget about all the worldly issues and do cultivation. This is outwardly correct. But, actually renouncing the world is seeking non-attachment.
I have been to one temple situated in a mountain when I was still in Taiwan. The monks were either ex-soldiers or generals. They must have chili for their meals otherwise tables will turn. Although they have renounced the world and become monks; the fact is they still have attachments. They do not really understand the true meaning of renouncement, which is why we hear of the infighting of monks and murder of nuns.
A true renouncement is non-attachment. As far as a cultivator is concerned, he should eat whatever he can get whether it is tasty or otherwise. Likewise for his attire, if he can dress in his best he should do so; otherwise he should wear the old and tattered clothes available. He may live in a luxury house such as the Rainbow Lodge, and sleep in a big and comfortable bed. But if it is unavailable, he should be able to sleep on the floor, under the trees, inside a small cave. He could drive a Rolls Royce as well as a small Japanese car. This is true detachment. In short, to a person who is truly detached “nothing is good, nothing is bad”. Everything is fine. Remember, “Eat what is tasty as well as tasteless; wear what is beautiful and what is ugly; Live in places that are cozy and never reject places that are uncomfortable; a big car is fine and a small car will still do” If you are carefree to this extent, you will no longer seek to differentiate, have no love nor hatred, view all sentient being as equal; only then, will you reach the stage of care-free perfection.
What is liberation? To gain enlightenment as an arhat, Bodhisattva, and Buddha? Not necessarily. If you can do what I have just said, you have attained instant liberation. If you think that you will be liberated after ordination, then you are wrong. You will only become a monk. To truly renounce the world truly, you must not have any attachment.
A true detachment is instantaneous liberation. To you, everything should be fine, equal and indifferent. And you should not know of love and hatred.
CULTIVATION AND MUNDANE MATTERS
Today, we are going to talk about cultivation and mundane matters. We have a lot of worldly matters in our life, there is hardly and free time for us to do cultivation, which is why in Tantrayana, we cultivate while doing our routines,
One of the gurus told me before that he did not have time to cultivate. Similarly, other True Buddha disciples who work in the daytime, deal with the bosses, entertain the customers, study at night, and claim to have no time for spiritual cultivation. Clearly their earthly life has not ended!
Tantrayana advocates cultivation while doing uneventful matters. In other words, we can cultivate at any time and any place. There is a yoga known as “Hui Gui” in Tantrayana, teaching us to cultivate while doing mundane matters. Apart from the forty minutes we spend daily for our spiritual cultivation, whatever we do can be considered mundane matters. “Hui Gui” teach us to cultivate while doing our ordinary chores, so that we can cultivate all the time.
For instance, taking our meal. We eat three meals a day, spending half an hour to one hour on each. Thus, we are wasting almost three hours out of the twenty-four hours a day. If we treasure our time while taking our meal we can make offerings to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and cultivate great offering ritual. Moreover we are making offering to ourselves – future Buddhas. It is said eating is part and parcel of cultivation in Tantrayana, because while eating we must make offerings to the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and all the heavenly beings.
What about putting on clothes? It is also part and parcel of cultivation. Because we can carry out armoured protection ritual. Visualizing the clothes to be armour and the hat to be the steel helmet, we chant the mantra, then put them on; the ritual is then completed.
What about sleeping? It is also an integral part of cultivation. There is a sleeping yoga that is not known in Sutrayana school. Once we are dreaming in our sleep, we can ask our root deity, and guru to empower us. We can chant mantra, visualize, and mediate in our dream – an advance stage of cultivation. In our dream, if we see something bad, we alert ourselves to refrain from doing the bad deed, which is also known as cultivating the sleeping light – to radiate lights while asleep. Only Tantric cultivators are taught to cultivate Maha sleeping mudra in their sleep.
What about taking a bath? We can also cultivate then. While taking a shower, we can visualize Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and heavenly beings using nectar to purify us. Taking a bath, we can use the water to empower us. This is how we cultivate when we are taking a bath.
Don’t tell me we can cultivate when we visit the toilet? The fact is we can. Tantrayana had it that the filth from our body is edible. Faeces are known as the great fragrance and urine is known as small fragrance. They can be used to make offerings to ghosts. Don’t think nobody wants to eat this kind of rubbish, in fact in Taiwan; most stray dogs survive on this kind of filthy food. Some of the souls actually thrive on this. In fact, Tantrayana has different kinds of mantra to change this filthy food into sumptuous feast and nectar before making the offerings. So going to toilet is no exception.
You may think we can’t cultivate while driving? You are wrong; it is the best time to cultivate. We can visualize the road as the Bodhi path that is full of lights. Moreover, we can chant mantra and recite the names of Buddha when we drive. We can do likewise when we walk on the road – the Bodhi path.
To cultivate while we eat, clothe, sleep and walk is generally known as the “Hui Gui” yoga.
This yoga teaches us to cultivate through doing all the mundane things, so that we can spend more time on cultivation. We must not be ordinary folks all the time and change into our root deity only during the half an hour or one hour when we cultivate the deity yoga.
We must adopt a flexible approach in our cultivation. In other words, while doing all kinds of mundane matters, we must take the opportunity to do our spiritual cultivation. As a cultivator, if we are able to view ourselves as Buddha and root deity all the time, our cultivation will improve tremendously. In no time, we will have a breakthrough in our spiritual attainment.
Amituofo
Lotuschef
Pure Karma
True Buddha School
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