The Great Dharma of Zen Practice

This announcement that is being disseminated contains the great Dharma of zen (dhyana in Sanskrit but generally known as zen) practice that H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III taught a group of cultivators in March of 2013 in the Hall of the Three Holy Ones at Bodhi Monastery in the United States. Today is December 4, 2013. We now for the first time formally publish this great Dharma on the internet.

Today H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III performed an initiation and transmission involving necessary mantras in the practice of zen. Additionally, this great Dharma enables everyone to understand what the standard, proper practice of zen actually is. All of you will now be able to understand what the levels of those zen practice Dharmas you encountered before this announcement actually are and whether such Dharmas are correct. This great Dharma will enable you to know whether those masters who teach you are qualified to give discourses on the Dharma. Are those masters clear about what the practice of zen is? Are they clear about what zen practice is in the entirety of the Buddha Dharma? If one does not even understand zen practice, can one understand the Buddha Dharma? If one does not understand zen practice, one of course does not understand the meaning of zen. One also does not understand the meaning of samadhi. Thus, just the fact that one does not understand the meaning of zen practice shows that one does not understand Buddhism at all. Correspondingly, it shows that one also does not understand the Buddha Dharma.

Therefore, when a group of masters entreated H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III to let them give discourses on the Dharma to their disciples, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III said the following: Anyone who is a qualified master may give discourses on the Dharma as long as he or she truly understands Buddha Dharma and transmits Dharma according to the teachings. However, those who recklessly expound Buddha Dharma are certainly not qualified to give discourses on the Dharma. Therefore, masters must pass a test. Only then may they give discourses on the Dharma. Otherwise, one is not qualified to give discourses on the Dharma no matter what one’s status may be. That is because giving discourses without understanding Buddhism and Buddha Dharma is undoubtedly an act of deceiving the public. Thus, people who do not understand Buddha Dharma are not allowed to give discourses on the Dharma. That is because the concept of discourses on the Dharma means that those Buddhists who listen to the discourses have to receive them as being the truth. If what they are receiving is evil karma, then their wisdom-roots will be destroyed.

This not only applies to not understanding the practice of zen. It applies to other problematic aspects, such as misunderstanding the sutras. All of these seriously harm the interests of living beings or even mislead practitioners. H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III will not approve of any words or actions that harm or destroy the interests of living beings. With respect to anyone who pretends to understand but who truly does not understand yet who still wants to give so-called discourses on the Dharma, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III has said that He has no right to control everyone. However, those who give erroneous discourses on the Dharma will be unable to bear the ensuing karmic consequences. That is because the karmic hindrance produced from the sin of defiling the minds of living beings for millions of eons is passed on to those people who listen to the erroneous discourses.

Just as expected, the results of the exam on zen were completely as H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III thought they would be. There were those of holy virtue who passed, including one with the status of three stars sun-moon wheel. There was a person of holy virtue with the status of two stars sun-moon wheel who barely passed with a score of 68. A person with the status of one star sun-moon wheel got a score of 61. Nobody else is qualified to give discourses on the Dharma, no matter what their status may be. That is because they do not understand even basic Buddha Dharma. There was even someone who is the reincarnation of a very famous person whose answer to the exam question was devoid of a single good point. Moreover, the answer was unresponsive to the question and full of fallacies. How can this type of people, who on the surface are figures within Buddhism but who in essence are heretics who deceive disciples, be allowed to give discourses on Buddha Dharma and thereby mislead practitioners?

Therefore, those who did not pass that exam, no matter who they may be, may only lead people in respectfully listening to recorded Dharma discourses given by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. What those of you who are masters say to your disciples can be used as a reference only and cannot be used as the basis for set principles. With respect to receiving disciples who take refuge, transmitting rituals, and transmitting mantras, this is what you should do. You should tell people about the Ten Wholesome Courses of Action, the Four Immeasurable States of Mind, the Six Paramitas, bodhicitta, the precepts, and the disciplines. However, you absolutely may not deviate from the sutras. You also may not pretend to understand that which you do not understand. Anyone who pretends to understand that which he does not understand, who cooks up tales and speaks recklessly, is definitely engaging in the conduct of a fraud, the conduct of an evil spirit.

Below is the complete content of “The Great Dharma of Zen Practice” imparted by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III in March of 2013. This is a transcription of a discourse on Dharma given impromptu.

H.H. DORJE CHANG BUDDHA III IMPARTS

“THE GREAT DHARMA OF ZEN PRACTICE”

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