Announcement 20200101: Correct Reply to an Important Inquiry

        Buddhists, we will now reply to your inquiries.

        Before everything, the Headquarters must correctly tell you this. You have been listening to the recorded Dharma discourses expounded by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, reading many public announcements issued by the Headquarters, and learning Buddha Dharma for a long time. Some of you have even studied the Tripitaka, which encompasses Sutra, Vinaya, and Sastra. It is hard to believe that you remain at such a level of ignorance, stubbornness, and superstition. Why don’t you have the shallowest basis of correct knowledge and views to differentiate right from wrong? We genuinely feel sorry for inquirers like you!

        First, you must know that those Dharma kings or rinpoches who claim to be reincarnated from Bodhisattvas, eminent monastics, or greatly virtuous persons in the world are not necessarily true Holy Gurus. A faithful Holy Guru must have the physical constitution of a holy person. (Such physical constitution would manifest through Their extraordinary body and wisdom.) Why are you so often fooled to fall for superstition? Because you have not read the content of the public announcements seriously. You did not truly understand the meaning when you listened to the recorded Dharma discourses expounded by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. That’s why you ask if a particular person is a Shangzun or a Jiaozun and whether they can eliminate the pandemic.

        Frankly speaking, your understanding is too evil. How can the people you mentioned be considered holy persons? Even in the most unlikely circumstance that they happen to be a holy person, they still do not possess the ability to eliminate the pandemic. When the plague was rampant in Wuhan, China, and the city was in lockdown, His Holiness Dorje Chang Buddha III openly expounded Dharma on January 30, 2020, that was recorded, in which His Holiness the Buddha said that He would pray and bestow blessings for the quick elimination of COVID-19; and that everyone could rest assured. You must have listened respectfully to the audio recording of the Dharma discourse already. Indeed, the COVID-19 virus has been suppressed in Wuhan now; the city has officially reopened, and people are back to work. However, outbreaks have also started in many other countries in the world in recent months. Holy Gurus have collectively beseeched H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III to bestow blessings again so that people may safely get past the pandemic. Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III said He would give His all to pray but also felt humbled. He said the government has placed great importance on the situation, and there will be excellent medicine to treat the pandemic, and people will be safe.

        Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III also said explicitly that the COVID-19 pandemic was induced by causality, and therefore, it must be managed through causality. Retributions are induced by causality, like a shadow following its subject. One reaps the effect of the cause one planted. Buddhists are responsible for continuing to pray, chant scriptures, and do good deeds. But everyone must rely on the rescue efforts by the nations, such as planting the causes of prevention and treatment, including quarantine, wearing masks, social distancing, etc. This prevents people from planting the cause of passing the virus to one another. Following the arrangements devised by the government will reap the effect of minimizing the infection of the COVID-19 virus. Rest assured. The pandemic will subside for sure. It is due to causality that such a pandemic happened. Although the plague cannot be eradicated, at least there will not be significant problems. Nations will be prosperous, and society will be peaceful. That will undoubtedly be the development.

        Your master is very naive and crazy to dare profess that he could eliminate the pandemic in different countries as if a cup of water could extinguish a burning truckload of wood. How can his effort compare to the collective power of nations and the public to control the pandemic? Without the national government planting causes by issuing executive orders to implement stay-at-home orders and social distancing, if it were up to your master, how would he have the administrative power to do anything? If your master were to tell people to stay home, would that have worked? On the contrary, Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, being the supremely holy Buddha, not only does not proclaim that He can bestow blessings but, in utmost modesty, said that He felt humbled, telling everybody to rely on the states, governments and the people, and to believe in causality faithfully.

        The holy Buddha power of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is one of a kind and unrivaled. His Holiness the Buddha lifted the 434.8-pound Pestle with one hand and held it for 13 seconds, surpassing His base weight standard by 59 levels. So far, no one in this world has been able to break the record set by His Holiness the Buddha. There hasn’t been even one person who could lift the Pestle to surpass their base weight standard by 30 levels. Yet not only has H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III said nothing about possessing holy physical power, but He also said that His hand, legs, and back were sore from lifting the Pestle. He even said: “How can I be considered a holy person! I am an ordinary person, just like everyone!” How magnificently great, selfless, and unselfish the true Buddha virtue of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is! More so, the declaration of His Holiness the Buddha to “never accept any offering in His lifetime and serve all living beings voluntarily” is unprecedented in the sāha world. It is not just a vow; His Holiness the Buddha does precisely as He vowed. H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is truly a role model for Buddhist masters to emulate! Everyone should pay attention: Only selfish and mundane people will brag about themselves arrogantly and untruthfully and pretend to be holy people.

        You have treated the Holy Guru’s standing as a child’s play. Thoughtlessly, you readily call a specific master a Shangzun or a Jiaozun. Having such absurd thinking, you are indeed full of evil views. How difficult it is to attain the status of a Shangzun or a Jiaozun! Kaichu Jiaozun, who is 88 years old, took the holy exam of Lifting the Pestle onto the Platform. His power was unmatched by other examinees and superior to all eminent monastics and greatly virtuous persons. He attained the qualification of a Holy Guru by surpassing His base weight standard by 16 levels, beyond the Level 10 standard of the World’s Strongest Man for Lifting the Pestle onto the Platform. What kind of a concept is that? What an extraordinary feat that is!

        A Jiaozun who is almost 90 years old is already unrivaled, not to mention the world-shattering power of a Shangzun! People like you have such evil views that you truly have no sense of the immensity of the universe. You acknowledge a toddler as a strong man and an eminent monastic as a Shangzun! Your thinking became extremely disrespectful and frivolous when you inquired at the Headquarters whether your master had attained the level of Shangzun through the exam. How could you ask such a question shamelessly? By how many levels did your master manage to surpass his base standard in Lifting the Pestle onto the Platform? Or was he subpar? By how many levels did he surpass or fall below his base standard? Once you figure out the answer to these questions, you will know what level your master’s degree is.

        Be clear-headed! The Great Holy Guru status of a Shangzun is not to be taken lightly. How could there be that many Shangzuns or Jiaozuns? To tell you clearly, among the Dharma kings, rinpoches, eminent monastics, or great masters publicly propagating Dharma in the world now, none of them is a Shangzun. Keep this in mind, not even one! Only one female, a Jiaozun, publicly propagates Buddha Dharma.

        A male Shangzun must at least be able to lift the Pestle onto the Platform and surpass His base standard by 25 to 29 levels. You can determine whether anyone claiming to be a Holy Guru is genuinely a Shangzun by asking him to lift the Vajra Pestle or a barbell in any gym with one hand and hold it for 8 seconds. You can tell if he is a Shangzun just by this test. If his body weight is under 100 pounds and his age is above 86, he has to lift a 238-pound barbell onto the Platform to prove that he has the holy physical constitution and holy physical power of a Shangzun. Your inquiry said your master’s body weight is about 250 pounds, and his age is about 50. He needs to lift a 340-pound pestle onto the Platform with one hand and hold it for 8 seconds to prove that he has the physical constitution, realization power, and status of a Shangzun. You mentioned that the other master weighs 187 pounds and is 53. He has to lift a 296-pound pestle onto the Platform with one hand to reach the status and realization power of a Jiaozun. Otherwise, he does not have the physical constitution of a Jiaozun.

        Besides, the headquarters has repeatedly issued public announcements to remind everyone that you must clearly see the grade level on the Dharma attire of any master or disciple because that is the status they attained after taking the exam. The attire of a Shangzun must have three Gold Buttons. The attire of a Jiaozun must have two Gold Buttons. The attire of a Ruzun must have one Gold Button. Anyone whose attire does not have any Gold Buttons is not a Holy Guru. Whoever pretends to be a Holy Guru uses tricks or cunning arguments. They are lying if there is no Gold Button on their Dharma attire, but they position themselves as a Holy Guru. They are at most an eminent monastic or a greatly virtuous person but have not attained the level of a Holy Guru.

        If they are an eminent monastic or a greatly virtuous person, they must have three Blue Buttons and five or six Black Buttons on their attire to bear the title Paramount Greatly Virtuous Person. People who can attain the Paramount Greatly Virtuous Person level with three Blue Buttons and five Black Buttons are rare. Those with three Blue Buttons plus one or two Black Buttons are commonplace teachers. Even those who have three Blue Buttons and three Black Buttons can only be considered beneficent masters with good knowledge; they are not at the level of an eminent monastic or a greatly virtuous person. Moreover, all examinees have a certificate issued by the Headquarters with their photo, on which the grade level matches the status indicated by their Dharma attire. Suppose the people you inquired about positioned themselves as Holy Gurus. In that case, you have to check their certificates’ logo and ID numbers and send the information to the Headquarters for verification. Then you will know whether they are a real or fake Holy Guru.

        You must understand that the status of a Shangzun or a Jiaozun is extremely rare and precious, yet Buddhist disciples like you think very little of the Holy Gurus. When a Jiaozun, whose status is superior to eminent monastics and greatly virtuous people, comes to our Headquarters, all of us will pay respect and propriety, including burning incense to set Their seat, not to mention if a Shangzun were to arrive. When a Shangzun arrives, They will be greeted ceremoniously. Everyone must kneel to greet Them, showing reverence and propriety, and present offerings.

        The way you treat the Dharma and the Holy Gurus with disdain and the stupidity in your head is unheard of. Members of the Group of Holy Gurus find you ridiculous. It proves that people like you are not seriously listening to the recorded Dharma discourses, and you do not study the public announcements. That is why you have so pathetically fallen prey to deceit. It doesn’t seem likely that your knowledge and views in other aspects would be correct either. We hope you will quickly pick up your effort to learn, listen to the recorded Dharma discourses expounded by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, understand the teachings therein, and read and understand the public announcements. If you can truly put that to practice, then that would be your most wonderful good news.

        As to who your master is, you don’t have to tell us because there are innumerable ordinary people in this world pretending to be holy, and they are not worth mentioning. Be mindful that all ordinary persons professing to be sacred like to say they have attained the Five Vidyas, but they have no clear proof of such accomplishments. A liar like that, who is an ordinary person but claiming to be holy, would use all sorts of hyperbole to make their lies sound real. But this is only their mental attempt to confuse people with their words. In terms of physical constitution, there is nothing they can fabricate to deceive people. They must have a holy physical constitution if they claim to be a Holy Guru. Whether they call themself the incarnation of Shakyamuni Buddha, the descending of Maitreya Bodhisattva, or the returning of Guru Padmasambhava, it is nothing but empty talk with no definitive confirmation. Simply let them perform the test of Lifting the Pestle onto the Platform, then their true colors will be revealed.

        Please give it some serious thought. If someone is an incarnation of a Buddha or Bodhisattva but does not have holy corporeity or holy physical power, their physical constitution and strength are just like that of an ordinary person, and they cannot even surpass the World’s Strongest Man for Lifting the Pestle onto the Platform, can they be a Holy Guru? Can they be the incarnation of a great Bodhisattva? They are but ordinary person, con artists, liars, or evildoers! The goal of such evildoers who pretend to be a Bodhisattva is to cheat people of their money by various means such as selling things, setting up seminars to collect fees, or asking people to pay a specific amount of money in exchange for transmission of some so-called methods of practice. You can see from their motives that they are essentially, through and through, typical charlatans; they are ordinary people who cheat people of money out of greed. Because an ordinary person has the physical constitution of an ordinary person, the body of a fake holy person is that of an ordinary person with no holy corporeity or physical power. That’s why no matter how well someone manages to lie, such a person dares not to mention Lifting the Pestle onto the Platform at all. If someone suggests it, they will for sure find excuses to avoid lifting the Pestle onto the Platform because once he puts out his hand, his true colors as an ordinary person will be revealed at once, and there will be no place for him to hide anymore. By then, all his fabricated lies and recognition certificates will be useless. He will desperately resort to serious slander. Why? Because Lifting the Pestle onto the Platform is an evil-revealing mirror. As an ordinary person pretending to be holy, what could they do except resort to slander? How would they find a way out? Therefore, no matter what, they would slander the Lifting the Pestle onto the Platform at any rate to cover their shame.

        On February 9, 2020, the Exam of Lifting the Pestle onto the Platform was held for Buddhist disciples to test their physical constitution and holy realization power in the Hall of Shakyamuni Buddha at the Holy Miracles Temple, USA. Three Vajra Pestles and a barbell with weight adjustment were at the exam site on that day. The particular class Supreme Holy Vajra Pestle weighs 434.8 pounds; the exam barbell weights 280 pounds; the Vajra Pestle used by the World’s Strongest Man for Lifting the Pestle onto the Platform weighs 248 pounds; and the Toddler Pestle weighs 200 pounds. H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III was the supremely honored noble guest who was respectfully invited to observe the exam proceeding. It turned out that the Holy Gurus in the World Buddhism Association Headquarters Exam Division had set up a complex problem. The congregation beseeched H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III repeatedly to resolve the conundrum. To enable the exam to proceed, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III resolved the situation by lifting the Supreme Holy Vajra Pestle off the Holy Seat with one hand and holding it for 13 seconds, surpassing His base standard by 59 levels.

        When the innate Buddha-level holy power of His Holiness the Buddha was manifested, heaven and earth were awed, and ghosts and Gods were moved. All kinds of Dharma-protecting beings arrived to pay their respect and congratulations. A sudden outburst of winds started gusting and roaring. The wind pulled out the big tents of more than a 100-person capacity inside the courtyard and the tables and chairs inside the tent. Many of the 3-inch thick steel poles supporting the tents were also bent. Nothing like that had ever happened before. The earth has shaken due to H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III manifesting holy power. It is such a sacred miracle unprecedented in history! About 100 people participated in the Dharma assembly of the exam on that day, including Tsui Leitat (徐蒞達) and Jin Yanping (金豔萍), who personally witnessed the holy power of His Holiness the Buddha. An attorney was appointed to witness and validate the facts of the proceeding, and reporters were invited to observe.

        Tsui and Jin were interested in exploring whether, among the world’s population of 7.7 billion people, including strongmen and Bodhisattvas, anyone other than a true Buddha could lift the Supreme Holy Vajra Pestle and hold it for 13 seconds to surpass their base weight standard by 59 levels. They announced to the world their pledge to give a reward of US$20 million to whoever can break the record set by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III in surpassing His own base weight standard by 59 levels. Their Statement on the Pledge was notarized by the Governments of Los Angeles County and the State of California and published in print media and the Internet. So far, no one in the world has been able to break the record of Lifting the Pestle onto the Platform set by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. There hasn’t been one person who can demonstrate the physical constitution and strength of a Jiaozun, a middle-level Holy Guru. How incredible is a true Holy Guru! Would anyone be so ridiculous as to readily and randomly put the titles and status of Holy Guru on people the way you did? Buddhist disciples, will you still believe in people who only have the empty talk? Isn’t it about time you think thrice, or at least twice, before believing in what they say?

        Please note that in the statement published by Tsui Leitat and Jin Yanping in the newspaper, it was said that the weight of the Supreme Holy Vajra Pestle lifted by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III was 420 pounds. When H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III lifted the Pestle, a monastic said that it weighed 420 pounds, and as a result, that was the weight reported by the press. After the attorney personally used different scales to measure the weight and verified it on-site, it was confirmed that the correct weight of the Supreme Holy Vajra Pestle was 434.8 pounds. The actual level that H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III achieved surpassed His base weight standard by 59 levels, not 56, as reported in the news media. The Statement of Witness by the attorney is attached.

World Buddhism Association Headquarters
April 13, 2020

(Eric Huang last revised the English version of this announcement on 2024-08-30.)