Testing in the Holy Realm

        In 2014, the World Buddhist Association Headquarters (WBAH) first began a program to test the qualification of venerable ones, Dharma kings, rinpoches, monastics, masters of Dharma listening, Dharma masters, laypeople, and others. This was to help Buddhist cultivators choose masters who possess virtue, cultivation, accomplishment, and Buddha Dharma. There were 3,273 people who officially took the written test of 100 problems on sutras, vinayas, and shastras (commentaries). However, in the end, only 1,085 of them were qualified to take the examination in the holy realm. It was a complicated process. Even after reaching a high enough score on the written test, there were other tests and finally the examination in the holy realm, which was executed in the Eight Winds in Samsara Battle Position and the Vajra Battle Position. Manjushri Bodhisattva and Mahamayuri Vidyarajni Tathagata are the yidams of the Holy Test. Each session of the exam was witnessed by seven holy ones and ten additional witnesses. I was one such proctor and as such was able to witness the tests in both the large and small battle position.

        After practicing Dharma, divining pieces are given to the candidate taking the examination to drop privately to receive the divine forecast by Manjushri Bodhisattva. Then, the candidate enters the Eight Winds Battle Position to demonstrate his/her cultivated abilities and accomplishment from practice. One has to break through the destination zone to walk into the land of safety to pass a certain grade level which will be indicated by the corresponding buttons on one’s Dharma attire. You may keep taking the exam as often as you can advance. You reach a level where you can progress no farther. At that point you are able to check what Manjushri Bodhisattva predicted in His divination and it is always the same as the level you just reached. There has been not even one disagreement in a candidate’s grade level between that determined from breaking the battle position and the prediction by the divination. This general description is true whether you perform in the small or large battle position.

        The grades ranged from three levels of blue buttons to three levels of gold buttons. The highest, a three gold-button Shangzun level, is considered a non-receding Bodhisattva who is not required to take the examination. However, the presiding proctor overseeing the battle positions, Venerable Wangzha Shangzun, even though he did not need to do so, wanted to set an example and requested on His own initiative to take the examination. All those with gold buttons belong to the category of holy virtuous ones. Another level was added that fell between gold buttons 2 and 3, called a lotus level.

        Originally, the highest level below a gold button level was a Blue Button Grade Three Plus 2 Black Buttons called Da De or Great Virtuous One and below that was a Blue Button Grade Three Plus 1 called a Xuan De or Propagating Virtuous One, which is what I achieved when I first took the test in the holy realm. When my work was reviewed later, I became a Da De, the status I hold at the time this book was written. That of course can change either up or down. Any of us below the highest three gold-button category can recede and fall to a lower level if we violate the precepts and do not continue our cultivation and practice.

        A student asked the gurus at the World Buddhism Association Headquarters (WBAH) about the use of sutra debate as practiced in certain Tibetan schools as a requirement in receiving a geshe⁴³ degree to test one’s level of accomplishment. They were told that obtaining a geshe degree “…does not mean that they possess true Buddha Dharma because a geshe is merely a scholar of empty theories. The degree absolutely cannot represent the holder’s accomplishment in true realization power. Only the written exam of 100 questions based on sutras, vinayas, and shastras and the most sacred and solemn holy exam can be ironclad proof of one’s true knowledge and realization power.⁴⁴

        A very wise student observed after taking this exam in the holy realm that there was no doubt that you were being observed and the Dharma protectors were there keeping an eye on you—you could not fool them or lie to them. This may be one of the most important aspects of this effort. It gives us faith and evidence that there are higher beings out there who know what we are doing and not doing.