Answer 35 On Day 35 of the Lunar year
Masters who are still in the range of the Blue Button levels and have yet reached the Gold Button levels can indeed teach people, but you must examine them with the 128 Evil and Erroneous Views. Other than the Great Holy Virtuous Gurus that are Gold Button Level 3 or above, even the Holy Virtuous ones at Gold Button Levels 1 and 2 need to be examined against the 128 Evil and Erroneous Views. That way, you can see if the master’s views and understanding are correct or evil and wrong.
Anyone who understands Buddhist knowledge and does not violate the 128 evil and erroneous views can teach people. If a master who has severely broken the 128 Evil and Erroneous Views teaches people, then that master will undoubtedly take people to the evil realms!
One who is a Gold Button Level 3 is a Great Holy Virtuous Guru and a non-retrograde Bodhisattva. Sometimes, They conduct themselves very seriously, and sometimes, They are playful. Therefore, it is difficult to tell who They genuinely are. Take, for example, the lunatic lama Yishi Yangga* (Chinese: 益西揚嘎), or the son of Rigu Wenbo* Rinpoche (Chinese: 日古溫波仁波且), or Wangzha Shangzun. They sometimes act so weirdly that it is difficult for people to tell.
We hope everyone takes great caution to prevent fake masters from ruining your entire life, causing you to descend into the three evil realms, and causing you to endure endless suffering. For your own sake of attaining liberation and accomplishment with the perfect fortune and wisdom, please read and understand these replies from the Holy and Virtuous Gurus and Eminent Monks repeatedly!
Separately, someone mentioned that we should not make offerings to any temple other than the Ancient Buddha Temple. They say the other temples and their abbots have no blessing powers. Making offerings to them yields no meritorious credit. This kind of statement contains erroneous views. The correct understanding and belief should be that if you donate to an organization that does proper Buddhist work or even makes any goodwill effort, you will have worthy credit no matter what temple or individual that is. You can have merit even if you chant Buddha’s name once or have compassion towards one living being. However, there is indeed a difference in the levels. If you offered one bowl of rice to Shakyamuni Buddha, that would yield real colossal merit. On the other hand, if you make offerings to a rinpoche or a dharma master, how could your merit be compared to making offerings to Shakyamuni Buddha? Making offerings to the World-Honored one is so much easier said than done because it depends on whether you have the karmic origination.
Everything happens due to karma. For instance, at 12:30 noon on November 14, 2016, a frigid day in Budapest, Hungary, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III and those who went along walked to the parking lot after visiting a beautiful attraction. They were about to board the car for the next scenic place. Suddenly, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III turned around and approached the hilltop. As such, the Gold Button level Holy Gurus, the well-learned ones, and other humans and non-humans alike followed quickly. The tour guide said: “There is nothing to see up there; the scenery isn’t outstanding.” However, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III kept on walking. When they were midway up the hill, people smelt a stinky odor, which was so unbearable that it made people want to throw up. It turned out that a bad-smelling fertilizer was applied on the ground to stimulate the grass’s growth. The weather was so cold, and the air smelt so bad, but H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III would not turn around but kept going. People couldn’t understand why. They had to cover their noses. They chatted: “It smells so bad!” The tour guide said: “Let’s turn around! It is not very pleasing.” H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III seemed not to have heard it at all and went on. People had no choice but to follow the Buddha and climb uphill.
The lousy odor was all gone When they almost reached the top of the hill. Then Buddha stopped. At that time, a young white couple was with a baby boy about one-year-old. With his legs stretched apart, the baby boy walked a few unsteady steps toward H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. He was delighted, and his face was full of a smile like a flower. He tried to bend down but ended up sitting on the ground because he was not too steady. He grabbed a handful of sand in his palms and offered it to H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III touched his head by hand and blessed him. People who came along were all astounded; they immediately made great, pure vows.
We believe that this baby boy had a vast holy cause and connections of making offerings to Buddha with a palmful of sand. Although he had no material wealth to make offerings to Buddha with and had to only make offerings to Buddha with sand in his palms, his pure mind certainly generated numerous merits. Without the karmic cause or condition, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III would not have suddenly turned around and walked toward the hilltop. There was no scenery or tourists, and it was when people decided to get in the car and leave after visiting a scenic place. People were baffled at the time and thought: “Why do we come here instead of going to see the next scenery?” A kind and virtuous person said: “I see! After all, Buddha came here to receive the offerings of a palmful of sand from the baby boy! That is the same karmic appearance as Shakyamuni Buddha receiving the offerings of a palmful of sand from a boy!”
H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III said: “You cannot randomly guess it or carelessly comment on it. I am an ordinary Buddhist. What qualifies me to stand side by side with Shakyamuni Buddha? Besides cultivation, I am only humbled. How would I have the power to know I would run into this baby boy? It was purely an encounter by chance! Do not exaggerate or mystify it!”
But do you believe it is merely an encounter by chance? Why did He walk such a long way to climb to the hilltop where the weather was cold, the air was stinky, and there were no sights to see instead of going to the beautiful scenic attraction place? Only idiots would believe that that was an encounter by chance.
There is no exaggeration in what we said because they are facts that all the people who went along saw in person. Buddha is too selfless, too humble, and also holy and pure! He is indeed a Tathagata who has an infinite level of perfect enlightenment! Maybe you would wonder, is this holy and pure? That is right! Before all these ironclad facts, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III didn’t say that He is an Ancient Buddha descending to this world and that He went there to specially receive the offerings of a palmful of sand from the baby boy. Instead, He said He is an ordinary Buddhist, and the encounter happened just by chance. If the virtue of this kind of superior brightness is not holy and pure, what is it? He is not only sacred and pure but also the Buddha who has supreme, non-differentiating, and perfect enlightenment!
Let’s put aside that the height reached by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III in the Five Vidyas is unparalleled in Buddhist history, or Buddhas bestowed holy amritas to prove that Expounding the Absolute Truth Through Heart Sutra is a Dharma expounded by the Buddha. Just the thirty-two elegant marks, which only Buddhas have, are ironclad proofs that H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is a Buddha. They include the real Buddha’s visage of the red coral color that emitted a light so bright that people could not open their eyes, and the wisp of bright light between His eyebrows that changed in form, size, and amount and gave out the lightrays of blessing. People saw them in Him.
H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III attributes every good to others and shoulders every bad from others. Compared to that, some ordinary people boast about themselves as holy beings. They attribute things that have nothing to do with them or glorious stuff to themselves. These kinds of people are too low and too vicious.
The product that H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III invented and developed by himself and approved as Number One by the Department of Health in China, the Powerful Hair Nourishing Liquid (AKA Fabisheng), has been embezzled by someone for thirty years. H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III even took the rap and was mistakenly thought by people to be given money from it. Had the embezzler not revealed her selfish and vicious state of mind this year, people would have believed that H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III was no more than simply volunteering to serve people without receiving any offerings. That itself is amazing enough, for He is the only one in the entire Buddhist history who does that. People would not have known that the Buddha was also so selfless and without greed and was in such a bright Buddha state that it transcended any attachment to the wealth He deserved from His invention and creation. Who on earth has attained such a sublime holy state? Having His rights taken away from Him for thirty years without being given a penny, the Buddha does not have a single word of complaint. H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III does not pursue fame or profit; He has no selfishness or avarice. He is humble, equal, generous, and cares about others more than Himself. The sublime and bright virtues, ethics, and instances are merely innumerable. There are just too many actual instances that we are collecting and organizing. We can only say the auspicious light from the excellent state of Buddha’s enlightenment is too awe-inspiring! Too awe-inspiring! Too touching!
We wish everyone to abstain from doing all that is bad and do all that is good. We want everyone to successfully attain the high power of realization, develop great wisdom, realize the bodhi state soon, and have prosperity and fortunate retributions forever and without measure!
The Inquiry Center of the World Buddhism Association Headquarters
Written on behalf of the great holy gurus to answer questions raised
March 22, 2018
translator’s note:
* need to confirm the names Yishi Yangga and Rigu Wenbo in English
(Eric Huang translated this announcement into English. It was last edited on 2024-08-30.)