I’m 72 years old this year and have been
learning Buddhism for 23 years. On the surface, I appeared to be a
‘senior’ Buddhist disciple. As a matter of fact, I was spending those
years aimlessly pursuing the formality of Buddhism and carelessly
allowed time to elapse until 6 years ago when I realized what authentic
Buddhism was by participating in an event of chanting sutras for the
deceased.
I used to consider myself as a Buddhist
practitioner who recites the holy name of Buddha. I managed to play
common dharma instruments and chant the verses of praise despite the
fact that I was illiterate. I became a leader of the laypeople. I did my
best in making charitable contributions to Buddhist temples. I jumped
on every opportunity to follow dharma teachers to participate in
Buddhist affairs and help others together with a group of laypeople.
While I thought I accumulated merits from what I did, I benefitted
little from my Buddhist practices.
There came a karmic affinity when I was
invited to do chanting for a Buddhist brother who passed away. Buddhist
brothers and sisters from various areas gathered together to do the
chanting continuously day and night for the deceased. However, their
chanting was quite different from mine. What was it? I wondered. Then, I
witnessed an auspicious feat where relics were found after the
cremation. I have helped in many chanting occasions for deceased
practitioners and yet, have never seen anything like this before. After
contemplating on the feat, I came to realize that the relics were
manifestations of the achievements of the deceased Buddhist brother. Who
was his master? I wanted to learn from him as well!
The
thought stayed in my mind even after the event. I found out by asking
around that the Buddhist brother listened to the prerecorded dharma
discourses expounded by H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III.
He accumulated great merits and achieved accomplishment by practicing
the dharma in accordance with the teachings. I couldn’t wait to visit a
center to participate in listening respectfully to the Buddha Dharma
expounded by H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III.
The Buddha expounded the Dharma comprehensively and thoroughly, which
really fascinated me. I embraced myself with the teachings of the
Dharma, which quenched my thirst, satisfied my hunger, and seemingly
created a sea of Buddha Dharma for me to dive in. I gained great joy
from listening to the dharma. Therefore, I called and invited my younger
brothers and sisters to visit the center. They listened to the Dharma
expounded by H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III
with my assistance. My two younger sisters, two sisters-in-law, and I
all passed the exam and became Masters of Dharma-Listening Sessions.
Together as a family, we learned Buddha Dharma and cultivated ourselves
to benefit living beings.
The teachings from Namo H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III
allowed me to understand the relation between the cause and the effect
and how if there was a cause, there would be always its effect. In the
past, I didn’t understand the true meaning of the Dharma and thought
self-cultivation meant chanting sutras. Cultivating
oneself means that practitioners take the Buddha as their role model
and mind their physical, verbal and mental karma by following those of
the Buddha’s to modify their own words and actions and to correct their
habitual behaviors. I benefitted a lot from listening to the Buddha
Dharma. I not only practiced it but also promoted it. With the
collaboration among a lot of people over the years, more than twenty
Buddhist centers of various sizes were established. There were more than
twenty group cultivation sessions held each month. I was grateful for
the empowerment from Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, which caused the positive
karmic affinities of the living beings to come together so the Bodhi
seeds were planted and waited to blossom one day.
Life is impermanent and time awaits no
one. I respectfully listen to the Buddha Dharma every day. I oblige
myself in leading everyone to the Buddha Dharma listening sessions and
to learn from precious books such as the ‘The Supreme and Unsurpassable
Mahamudra of Liberation” and ‘Learning from the Buddha” regardless of
inclement weather conditions such as heavy rain or snow. It requires
determination and persistence on the path of self-cultivation.
There were times that some Buddhist brothers and sisters dissipated,
regressed, or strayed away from following the Dharma. I would bring it
to their attention and advise them on that. Together with other Buddhist
brothers and sisters, we did our best in chanting sutras for the
deceased whenever we got the chance to participate. We donated the
proceeds from those events to releasing living beings.
I also advocated at home the practices of no-kill and releasing living beings.
There was a time that a friend bought us a
box of crabs. My husband was happy and ready to indulge himself in
having a meal of those crabs. I asked him nicely to release them back
to the wild when I sensed that they were about to suffer but he refused.
Every living being was my family. How could I not do anything when they
were about to be cooked?
My husband asked me to make dinner around
dinner time. I laid in bed crying with my limbs moving randomly in the
air. My husband was in shock and asked me what happened. I rolled myself
around in bed even more and told him that countless crabs were asking
me to save them and how they pinched me when I didn’t agree to it, which
hurt very bad. I asked him to release those crabs to save me for the
sake of me being his wife. He agreed reluctantly to release them after
he saw how much I suffered. My “sufferings’ were instantly alleviated.
It was my way of improvising a rescue plan for those crabs. It was also a
result of listening respectfully to the Buddha Dharma that I started to
have benevolence and compassion, refraining myself from killing lives
and protecting them.
Time flies. The result over the past six
years of learning Buddha Dharma and cultivating myself has surpassed
that of the past sixty years of dream-like lifestyle. In comparison with
the haze of confusion in the past, the goal of my cultivation
has great clarity, which is to benefit living beings and end the cycle
of birth and death. I’m thankful for the opportunity of learning
orthodox Buddha Dharma. I’m determined to diligently cultivate myself to
achieve liberation to benefit myself and others. It would be very
foolish of me not to take advantage of this great opportunity to learn
the Buddha Dharma and cultivate myself, wouldn’t it?
Cifen/Kuixin
Significant
Differences between my 17 Years of Actively Pursuing the Formality of
Buddhism versus 6 Years of Listening to the Buddha Dharma of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III
link: https://dharmafromhhdorjechangbuddhaiii.wordpress.com/2019/10/10/buddha-dharma-of-h-h-dorje-chang-buddha-iii/
#HHDorjeChangBuddhaIII #DorjeChangBuddhaIII #DorjeChangBuddha #MasterWanKoYee #MasterYiYunGao #Cultivation