The Xuanfa Institute
Reposted from Thus Have I Seen by Zhaxi Zhuoma Rinpoche p.142-146
In January 2009, before the Big Blue Book Tour was over, I needed to relocate to the Fresno area to what had been the Sanger Mission, the precursor to what became Hua Zang Si in San Francisco. It was a deserted ranch-style six-bed room home on almost ten acres of land in the midst of farmland and upscale rural subdivisions and very ordinary individual homes. I thought it was perfect. When I asked the Buddha Master what I should do there, I was shocked to hear, “Start a meditation center.” That is exactly what I had been trying to do for 20 years or more—long before I even met the Buddha Master. Ever since I became a Buddhist, I had used my vacations to go on retreats. I even acquired an old hotel-boarding house in northeast Kansas, that I converted into a retreat center with a Zen Priest friend after I left the corporate world. Now I could fulfill that dream.
Not only were there many bedrooms in this large Central California home that had been the Sanger Mission, but many of them were already equipped with double bunk beds so we could house many people. The house had been a nunnery, while a small barn on the property had been used as the temple but was now used for storage. We needed people to help get the place in working order and create a temple and retreat center. The first retreats were mostly work retreats. People came from all over, many I had met on the tour. I tried to hold the retreats over long weekends and include a few extra days to allow side trips to nearby Yosemite, Kings Canyon, or Sequoia National Parks just to make it more enjoyable. But things were about to get even more interesting at the temple.
In spring of 2011, I got a request to do a video about the site. I had established the Xuanfa Institute as a religious non-profit and was calling the place the Xuanfa Temple and Retreat Center. “Xuan-fa” meant to “propagate the Dharma,” which I thought was an appropriate name for the end results of the Dharma Propagation Tour. I am afraid, I could not figure out what it was I was to do with this video. I understood it would be used to promote what I was doing and what was happening at our temple at our annual meeting in Hong Kong that summer, but the concepts were not getting through. We were then blessed with a brilliant and resourceful director, producer, and film crew in the form of an ex-news reporter from Chengdu named Magnolia who did understand what was wanted and who was also quite fluent in English. Under her creative eye, we assembled props, looked for sites, arranged for permits, and assembled a cast. It was a very fluid process. I was amazed at what was produced, thanks to the very talented Magnolia.
The process of doing this video enabled me to better understand and connect the many many strange things that had been happening concerning the temple property. Remember, I was already used to unexplained supernormal phenomena. Often, I only learned what something meant much later—if at all—when somehow it was translated for me. I was ok with that. Now as a result of doing this video and preparing a speech to introduce the video, I was able to make sense out of what had seemed to be unrelated events.
This story begins in 2003 when I traveled to see my Buddha Master, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. Early in the morning as I left San Francisco, auspicious rainbow clouds appeared over the Oakland hills even though there was no sign of rain anywhere. Later on, I suddenly saw a colorful and large rainbow light appear in the sky. The rainbow completely circled the sun. There were also Sanskrit symbols in the sky. Just as the rainbow was fading from sight, I was able to take a picture of the bottom half of this light by focusing the camera below the sun. A dignified Buddha—H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III—appeared in the middle of the rainbow. This Buddha became my Buddha master, who was wearing a red robe and was sitting in the middle of the rainbow. The scene was awesome and extremely wonderful. The rainbow light appeared in the sky for several hours (FIGURE 8 page 37).
This and what happened after I arrived has been reported in the treasure book H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. The Buddha Master bestowed me with two red true Holy Vajra Pills. Unexpectedly, the Vajra Pills that were in my hand started to jump. At that time the Vajra Pills jumped in my hand just as if they were alive. They not only jumped but one of them started to circle around and left my hand. It transformed into a dazzling bright red light and soared into the sky. I understood that my merit was not sufficient at that time for me to keep that pill and that it had gone to a Buddha Land or holy place for safe keeping, but that when conditions were right, it would reappear. It was also at that time, that I saw my Buddha Master, who sat far away on the dais, as the dignified bright blue Buddha Vajradhara. This was before we knew the true identity of our Buddha Master.
A thought had come to me that the arrival in this world, and particularly to America, of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III was one of the most important events in the history of Buddhism. We needed a stupa to mark this event and the Sanger retreat center would be perfect. However, I did not yet know why this was such a great idea.
FIGURE 52: Vajra Wheels (orbs) fill the sky as disciple unloads sandbags to stop flooding at the temple.
FIGURE 53: Rainbows and dharma wheel mandalas appeared as yurt was being constructed.
About the time I made this intention known, strange and wonderful sights began to appear at the Xuanfa Temple and Retreat Center we were establishing near Sanger. Students came to the future temple site to meditate and work on various projects. While erecting a small yurt, circular light mandalas were recorded on many photos taken of students working there (FIGURE 52.) A rainbow even appeared together with many of these mandalas inside the yurt that we erected (FIGURE 53). Here we could see them in broad daylight.
Other mysterious rainbow light beings manifested from time to time. Sometimes they were visible to the naked eye and sometimes they could only be seen via our digital cameras. Columns of bright neon pink and sometimes vivid green light could be seen in the viewfinders of our digital cameras and students from China were even able to record this in a video. This phenomenon appeared several other times at the retreat center and several students actually saw these lights. I had also seen two of these beams of light once before at a very powerful empowerment ceremony held in the courtyard of where my Buddha Master was living.
Ghosts or spirit beings appeared and made their presence known. Lights flickered, cabinet doors opened and closed—all quite mysteriously. It seemed they meant no harm, but they only wanted to be noticed and to hear the Dharma. If their actions were a problem, I asked them to stop and they always did. I invited them to come and listen to Dharma Discourses. The ghost beings came to the Xuanfa Temple and Retreat Center to seek empowerment and learn the Dharma just as many from other realms would do.
On November 4, 2010, a magnificent Buddha Light filled the sky. It lasted all day and was very beautiful. Many people saw it in the Fresno area. It was even reported on the local news. Once a disciple looked up and saw a rainbow in the sky overhead outside the range of the Buddha Light. Other rainbows appeared in the sky as well and some disciples saw the Buddha Light repeatedly during the following week. These Buddha Lights appeared at other times as well to the delight of the students who visited the temple.
However, it was on November 8 of that year that the most amazing event occurred. We were discussing removing a pole remaining from the former chain link fence that had been part of the old dilapidated shed. I think that it had been part of a dog run. Suddenly the pole started shaking violently—like a giant tuning fork. Could it be an earthquake? When we looked around nothing else was shaking. This was very strange and scary. That plus all the unusual lights and visits from other dimensions were telling us something, but what?
I did not think it wise to remove that pole and suspected it was something quite extraordinary. So, the next day I went to see my Buddha Master, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. Even though the Buddha Master was very, very busy, I was able to explain what had happened. The Buddha Master just laughed and said that I absolutely should not cut down the pole; the Dharma Protectors had come, and they were making their presence known. This was a sort of Vajra Pole that the Dharma Protectors were using to tell us how pleased they were with what was happening here. This was all most auspicious, and I should record the holy event for others. However, I found out later that this was a sign of something even more significant and wonderful that was beginning to manifest at the site. The true nature of this place as a holy place for enlightenment was being revealed. I learned that this was a sort of portal to another dimension whereby deities could communicate with living beings in this realm.
When I returned, I felt very bad that we had not filmed the mysterious shaking pole event. I was wandering around the now quiet Vajra Poles. They were not shaking at all. I muttered about how sorry I felt for not having a video that I could show to my Buddha Master and it seemed the Dharma Protectors understood as the Vajra Pole suddenly started to shake again! I was so happy to have a chance to record this unbelievable shaking Vajra Pole. This time we got the video camera and we recorded the visit. We also arranged the second building so that the second pole that had also started to shake would not need to be removed either.
On the way to see my Buddha Master, the thought had occurred to me that the new yurt we had just constructed should be used as a chapel for the Dharma Protectors. Now, this was before I knew that we had been blessed by their presence or had any understanding of what a holy place this was. For some reason, somehow, I just knew the yurt we had built was not to be used for housing disciples as was originally planned. We would build a shrine at the pole where the Dharma Protectors had communicated with us and dedicate the beautiful new yurt to them.
Why were my good students and others who visited this site experiencing such beneficial effects and life affirming experiences? Why were all these supernatural events happening here? What I found out was that the red Holy Vajra Pill that flew out of my hand during the empowerment ceremony in 2003 had flown to Sanger. All I knew then was that it had flown to a holy place for safe keeping until I was ready to receive it. This was truly a holy site and it was my destiny to develop this site into a holy retreat center where many would come and learn and practice the Buddha Dharma to transform their lives and become enlightened. In fact, one disciple who did come to stay at the temple to read the preliminary translations of the Buddha Master’s sutras was able to progress very rapidly and reach a very high level of accomplishment. Others also reported making rapid progress when they did this, even being able to receive direct guidance from their yidam. I will share more on this later.
So, this would be a perfect site to establish the retreat and build a stupa marking the Buddha’s coming to this world. I explained all of this at a Dharma assembly held at Hua Zang Si in San Francisco.