World Buddhism Association Headquarters Announcement 20170113:
Holy Buddha Dharma Can Never Be Changed
In terms of Cultivation and Learning from Buddha, almost every master who transmits Dharma would say his Dharma is the best. You can say it is hard to find one out of a thousand masters who would say his Dharma is ordinary. How do you tell which Dharma is high-level and right, and which Dharma is low-level and bad? There is nothing to go by but people blowing their own trumpets. Those who are learning from Buddha are usually ordinary folks who cannot distinguish the levels and the qualities of the Dharma at all. As such, a severe problem it has become.
Therefore, to clearly see the level of a Buddha Dharma, and whether it is correct or evil, one must pay attention and differentiate between the holy and the mundane Buddha Dharmas, as well as the fake Buddha Dharma. A ritual script in which all the words are the same may even have different natures: one is holy and the other mundane. It is tantamount to the same medicines that have no difference. The one that bears the stamp of approval by the national health department has the guarantee by the federal health department and is qualified; the other one that does not have the seal of approval would not have the backing by the national health department and is unqualified.
The texts for practicing cultivation and practicing Dharma is the same. There are three different categories of them. The same book for practicing cultivation or practicing Dharma, which has precisely the exact wording, can have two completely different natures. The first is the practice of cultivation or the practice of Dharma that has the approval and guarantee by the Yidam and Dharma protectors. This kind is the holy type of practice of cultivation and Dharma. Their goal is to ensure the meaning of the Dharma and the scripture of cultivation practice are 100% correct. (Yidam means a Buddha or a Bodhisattva in the space.) The second type is the practices of cultivation and Dharma that have not been approved by the Yidam or the Dharma protectors; they belong to the mundane kind of cultivation and Dharma practices. However, because the meaning of the Dharma is accurate, there is no drawback; it just takes a long time for one to become accomplished. As long as one is earnest and pious and abiding by the precepts, one should become accomplished, but there is no absolute assurance. The third kind is texts that quote the Sutras or the treatises incompletely and are edited or recomposed by people on their own. They appear to be Buddha Dharmas but are, in fact, evil dharmas of the non-Buddhists who pretend to be Buddhists. They are the result of evil masters and liars, whose purpose is to cheat people to collect offering money. Not only one cannot attain accomplishment by practicing these texts, but one will also be met with misfortunes and fall into the lower realms.
The difference between the practice of the holy Dharma and mundane Dharma is whether or not there is a Yidam and Dharma Protectors who are directly responsible for it. How can a ritual be a Holy Dharma that has a Yidam and Dharma Protector? The answer is the following. Many Buddhists have heard that among the high-level Buddha Dharmas, there are Trekcho, Zejue (i.e., Holy Determination), Togal Vajra Chain and observation, and so on; among the regular Buddha Dharmas, there are also divination, soothsaying, drawing lots, observing the lake, and turning the Tsampa ball. But these methods are not holy determination. As far as the holy determination is concerned, the Yidam, Buddha, and Bodhisattvas must manifest their presence on the spot and determine whether the matter submitted for holy determination is of the correct or incorrect nature. Therefore, a ritual of practicing cultivation and Dharma can only be sacred if it is determined and ascertained to be so by the Yidam in public. Only when the Yidam has personally affirmed its nature will the Yidam and Dharma Protectors especially guarantee this ritual of cultivation and Dharma practice. Its nature cannot merely be determined by the empty soothsaying, cleromancy, drawing lots, divination, or reading one’s palm.
(Attention: why is it holy only if the Yidam definitively determines it to be so? Because Buddhas and Bodhisattvas want to prevent evil teachings and fake dharmas from deceiving Buddhists. The Yidam and the Dharma Protectors only guarantee the ritual of Dharma and cultivation practice in the Dharma ritual book and not responsible for anyone. For the Yidam and Dharma Protectors to be accountable for a person who practices cultivation and the Dharma, that person must receive the Inner-tantric Initiation.)
A transmitted ritual can only be holy if it has been affirmed through a holy determination. On the other hand, all the cultivation and Dharma practices that have not gone through a holy determination or have not been approved and affirmed by the Yidam are mundane rituals of practice without exception, although they may be cultivation and Dharma practices of correct teachings. It is because they have no Yidam and Dharma Protectors who would guarantee them expressly. If a Dharma or a cultivation practice can be determined through Sending a Petition to Bodhisattva, then it is a supreme holy great Dharma or Cultivation, one the Buddhas in the Ten Directions have approved.
However, it is tough to hold a Yidam Dharma ritual ceremony and conduct the holy determination because it can only be done by a great Holy Guru, who is a Shangzun of Gold Button Level 3. To definitively determine a Cultivation and Dharma by way of Sending a Petition to Bodhisattva, a Yuzun Who is above Gold Button Level 3 and close to Gold Button Level 4 is required, because only They can successfully hold the Sending a Petition to Bodhisattva. A Great Holy Guru Who can complete Sending a Petition to Bodhisattva will have no problem building an Inner-tantric Mandala at all.
The second type is the mundane rituals of practicing cultivation and Dharma. Some of them do comply with Buddhist precepts and disciplines; still, there is absolutely no Sidhi power from the direct Yidam and Dharma Protectors empowering the rituals because they have not been approved and affirmed by the Yidam. Therefore, no Yidam or Dharma Protectors directly guarantees them. In Buddhist history, nonetheless, there were Cultivations, Dharmas, and Sutras that were approved and affirmed through holy determination by the Yidam.
Nonetheless, there are practices of cultivation, Dharmas, and Sutras that have been affirmed by the Yidams and Dharma Protectors in Buddhist history. For example, the Diamond Sutra, translated by Wei Mo Teng,* and the Heart Sutra, translated by Dharma Master Xuanzang, are holy in nature. On the other hand, the scriptures translated by others that have identical meanings 99% of the time with only a tiny bit of change in the text could not be affirmed by the Yidam at the time of the holy determination and became the Heart Sutra without the guarantee by the Yidam and Dharma Protectors. Therefore, a little bit of change can result in a humongous difference.
Additionally, for a specific complete ritual of cultivation practice or Dharma practice, as long as there is one sentence in it that is not approved by the Yidam Who is a Buddha or a Bodhisattva, it will not pass the holy determination. In that case, the ritual is not a sacred ritual of cultivation or Dharma. If a cultivation scripture or a Dharma that has passed the holy determination and been affirmed by the Yidam is changed one sentence in it by a goodwill practitioner or a person of an evil cult, the Yidam will then leave that ritual of cultivation or Dharma. The posterity of the devil will also take the opportunity to enter it to derange the practitioners. That is why there is such a thing as being obsessed with the devil. You must keep it in mind and carefully prevent it.
All the ritual and Dharma impartation by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III are practices of cultivation and Dharma that have been determined and affirmed by the Yidam during Dharma ritual ceremonies held by the Great Holy Gurus and Tremendously Great Holy Gurus. They belong to the holy class of cultivation practice and Dharma practice that is guaranteed by the Yidam and the Dharma Protectors. For example, the Impartation of Absolute Truth through the Heart Sutra was not only determined through a holy selection to be holy, but the Buddhas also came to bestow holy amrites to manifest their affirmation.
Someone once changed one sentence in the 128 Evil and Erroneous Views and brought it to the Shangzun for a holy determination. The Yidam and the Dharma Protectors didn’t give their affirmation. Only after the original sentence was changed back did the Yidam and the Dharma Protectors gave their affirmation. They changed it back and forth and submitted it for holy determination three times; the results were all the same.
Whoever it is, he cannot change any sentence in the cultivation and Dharma practices that were impounded by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. Otherwise, the Yidam and the Dharma Protectors will not give Their approval, and the evil people will take the opportunity to invade and disturb the practitioners.
A great virtuous one of Blue Button Level 3 with three black buttons—the highest rank in the Blue Button levels, added the following sentence to the Diamond Sutra: “there are no forms of the myriad things in the past, the present, and the infinite future.” It seems there is nothing wrong in the text, but when it was put through a holy determination, the Yidam would not approve it. When the text is changed back to the original on the spot, the Yidam approved it right away. Then, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III asked him to change the sentence to “No form of the past, the current, and the future” and had the Shangzun hold the holy determination ritual ceremony again. The Yidam approved it immediately. That is, no other holy being can understand the mind of the Buddhas; even a first-stage Bodhisattva can never understand the state of a second-stage Bodhisattva. “A person of ordinary structure cannot understand the views of the Holy One; they pretend to be holy Amrit, but it is just rainwater in the bowl.”**
The Buddha’s impartation of Dharma is holy. How could an ordinary person understand the inner meaning of it? Even a Great Bodhisattva cannot change one sentence of it, how could an ordinary person who does not have any understanding and capability in the five vidyas do so? They have violated Shakyamuni Buddha’s Dharma stipulations for Bodhisattvas and do not have the essence of a Bodhisattva. They don’t even have the understanding and capabilities of an Arahat. How can they understand what the true Buddha Dharma that contains Buddha’s true meaning and is approved by the Yidam is?
The Buddhist world is full of evil cheaters and non-Buddhists who pretend to be holy nowadays. They run amuck everywhere. One person, with his ordinary man’s views, dared to rewrite the 128 Evil and Erroneous Understanding and Views and What is Called Cultivation. The holy gurus, holding no bias, submitted the text that this person changed to a holy determination. The upshot is the Yidam did not accept it. Not only is it not a sacred Dharma scripture, on the contrary, but it was also defined to be “a text of evil views of an ordinary person and must not be learned.”
Therefore, we ask you all to be extremely careful. Pay attention to this grave matter and never ignore its importance. You must clearly understand the difference in the essences of the holy, the ordinary, and the evil, lest you choose the evil arguments and build up a calamity that hurts living beings and results in yourself descending into the three lower realms without the possibility to practice true Dharma.
World Buddhism Association Headquarters
December 21, 2017
Translators notes: *The name of the translator in English needs to be further verified. **The meaning of the last sentence is unclear and needs further clarification.
(Translated by Zunba)
