The Big Blue Treasure Book and Recognition of my Buddha Master
Reposted from Thus Have I Seen by Zhaxi Zhuoma Rinpoche p.50-56
Sometime during 2004 or 2005, I came up with the idea of visiting every state in the union and introducing my Buddha Master, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III to the people there. I wanted to do that out of devotion to my magnificent Buddha Master and to introduce the correct Dharma to Americans who might have the karmic affinity to learn it. I wanted to do this so that they might acquire good fortune and wisdom and be liberated from suffering. At the time we had no books about the Buddha in English. We had nothing in English that we could use to introduce this Buddha to non-Chinese speaking people. We also didn’t know yet that our Buddha Master was in fact an incarnation of Dorje Chang Buddha. At that time, my plan was to find the major temples, retreat centers, Dharma centers, and/or other suitable locations and visit them and tell them about my holy Master. When I first presented the idea of trying this out at the local Unitarian church in Pasadena where I used to be a member, my Buddha Master supported the idea. The new director of religious education at that church was also supportive.
First, however, we needed a biography or something that could be translated into English that would explain just who my Master is. There had been a biography written in China by Zi-Gong Zhuang that I hoped we could have translated. However, it was felt that this book was out-of-date and would not do. The very night I introduced the idea, the Buddha called Magnolia, a young talented woman who had been a newscaster in China, to join us and began to dictate an autobiography. On another front, the Master Wan Ko Yee International Cultural Institute was planning an exhibition of a few of the accomplishments of the Buddha for the annual Chinese New Year Celebration. I forget the timing of these two events and which came first. The New Year’s celebration was held on January 22, 2006 in San Gabriel, California. I gave the opening comments at that event, telling the crowd that the exhibition was not the work of an ordinary person.16 I did not know just how prophetic that remark was. I already knew my master was no ordinary master and that He had to be a very high holy being, but I had no idea that He was an incarnation of the supreme Buddha— Dorje Chang Buddha—even though my Buddha Master kept chiding me and telling me, “You don’t know who I am, do you?”
Indeed, I did not, but I was quite concerned over that remark. Earlier my Buddha Master had told us a story about His master, Great Dharma King Zun Sheng, who was a manifestation of Mahavairocana Buddha. His master had once told His disciples the same thing, “You don’t know who I am, do you?” Only, after saying that, Great Dharma King Zun Sheng turned into a rainbow and flew away. Although the Great Dharma King would return in his rainbow body form to teach his fortunate students from time to time, he never lived with them after that. I hoped that we would not lose our beloved Buddha Master.
The exhibition was so well received, that immediately the exhibition was expanded and taken to what had been a historic Catholic church in San Francisco that was being remodeled and scheduled to open in March of that year as Fu Hui Si–the Temple of Good Fortune and Wisdom (now known as the Macang Monastery). That exhibition was widely publicized and introduced the Buddha to the people of San Francisco. Billboards were posted on city buses and all over the city inviting everyone to come and experience art and other exhibits from another dimension.
It was then decided to further expand the exhibition, now having twenty-one categories of achievement in honor of the twenty-one Taras, and move it to Hua Zang Si, our coral-red gothic-style temple in the Mission District of San Francisco that had opened on December 26, 2004 (FIGURE 6 page 29). That exhibit lasted until November 9, 2006 and was viewed by many. I moved to San Francisco to live at Hua Zang Si and help the many English-speaking visitors experience these two exhibitions. Two publishing companies decided they wanted to publish a book documenting the accomplishments of the Buddha and further expanded the scope to include 30 categories of accomplishments. I was so moved by all of these events and the things I had seen and experienced that while I was staying at Hua Zang Si, I wrote my humble “Hymn of Praise to my Buddha Master” included as Appendix C. I wanted all Americans to see what was possible for someone who truly had the power and wisdom of the Buddha Dharma: what it was like to be a Buddha.
While work on this publication was under way, I asked the Buddha how we should explain the Buddha Dharma that we were being taught to Westerners. The result was the now famous discourse “What Is Cultivation (Xiuxing)?” that was carefully translated into English and included in this book of accomplishments. Xiuxing is a marvelous Chinese term that means to cultivate or improve oneself by reflection and correcting one’s behavior. It is the foundation of our practice. The Buddha also imparted the Sutra on Understanding Definitive Truth that was included in the treasure book in Chinese. A series of discourses that further explain the Sutra on Understanding Definitive Truth was given late in 2008 by the Buddha while the Buddha and the Buddha’s entourage traveled across the USA. The Buddha would often give discourses while traveling with small groups of close disciples in various parts of the world.
“What Is Cultivation?” (also called “The Dharma of Cultivation”) is such a special discourse that holy beings came to the mandala where it was given and made themselves known to a number of us by flashing dazzling colored lights. At first, I thought someone was using a flash camera, only that seemed very disrespectful and this was much brighter and more dazzling and had a more golden color than that of a camera. I very rudely looked around. There was no camera nor apparent source. My second thought was that I was just imagining it. Of course, no one else was showing any signs of seeing anything— they were all so engrossed in the Buddha’s discourse, and much too well behaved to respond. The lights came again many times—I lost count after the third, but I know it was more than three times. They were very bright and quite distinct. No sooner had the Buddha ended the discourse and we had paid our respects, than everyone began talking at once. Even though it was in Chinese I could gather from the hand gestures and excitement that they had seen the same thing I saw. Ven. Gadu Rinpoche of Taiwan, whose English is quite good, explained what he had seen as did several others. It appeared that everyone present had seen something, but we did not all see the same thing or the same colors. This was often the case when supernormal events occurred. There was no doubt that holy beings had come to listen to this very important discourse, and they were very pleased and showed their joy by blessing us with their presence.
For a short period of time after that, these lights would miraculously appear. Once I saw them flash most auspiciously when the Buddha was talking to Ven. Gadu Rinpoche. At that time the Holy Beings were indicating approval of the design proposed for the cover of A Treasury of True Buddha Dharma (the draft version of the book H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III). The sparkling lights showed up right after the Buddha agreed to the design composed by the rinpoche. I just happened to be standing near the Buddha when this happened. They also flashed one Sunday morning at the hermitage where I lived when I was reading one of the Buddha’s discourses in preparation for a class that would be taught later on that day. They came at another time when the Buddha was giving a discourse, but this time I was told to not be distracted and pay attention to the Buddha, but I must confess that before I was reprimanded, I searched the mandala thoroughly for any possible sources of light. There were none. These were truly blessings from another dimension. These were the manifestation of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who came to show their respect to our great Buddha Master!
After a preliminary draft of this book was compiled, it was sent to high level, Buddhist leaders—some who were world renowned Dharma kings and some not, but all of very high spiritual esteem. Eventually more than one hundred wrote back to either recognize the Buddha Master as an incarnation of Dorje Chang Buddha, corroborate the recognition, or offer congratulations on the magnificent achievements of the Buddha.
Now, how did these incarnated holy beings know that Master Wan Ko Yee, as this Buddha was previously known, is an incarnation of Dorje Chang Buddha? When they were sent this earlier draft version of the treasure book, they were asked to read it. That book contained over thirty categories of accomplishments that indicated the Buddha’s achievements in the Five Vidyas and His mastery of both exoteric and esoteric Buddhism.17
So, these accomplished Buddhist leaders looked at the evidence of what Master Wan Ko Yee had done in regard to craftsmanship—creating beauty and joy in the arts and the area of technology. His paintings sell for millions of dollars. A recent auction sale of one painting sold for the highest price per square foot of any Chinese painting in history. There have been several museums constructed to showcase His work in both China and now in the United States. They looked at what the Buddha had done in regard to healing—both humans and non-humans as well as fixing broken, inanimate objects. They looked at what the Buddha had done in regard to sound, both in music and debate as well as all forms of communication in the human and in other realms. They looked at the Buddha’s understanding of cause and effect or Buddhist logic. Finally, they looked at the Buddha’s level of inner realization as expressed through His demonstration of supernormal powers and the supernatural events that occurred in His presence. The latter include manifestations of beautiful rainbow “Buddha Lights” around the sun and moon or on the clouds after or while the Buddha expounded the Dharma or in conjunction with events associated with the Buddha. It also includes having the Buddhas bestow nectar from the sky into a bowl in front of disciples.
These same Buddhist leaders also investigated Master Wan Ko Yee’s understanding of the principles of exoteric and esoteric Buddhism. Some determined on the spot that this had to be the work of a Buddha. No ordinary being could accomplish what was shown in that book. Other more highly realized ones actually went further and used their own supernormal powers to determine just who this magnificent holy one was by entering into a deep samadhi state and traveling to the Dharma realms to investigate. They determined this holy being was the third incarnation of Dorje Chang Buddha. H.H. Dodrupchen Rinpoche, (FIGURE 15) H.H. Penor Rinpoche, (FIGURE 5 page 26) and H.H. Omniscience Jamyang Lungdok Gyaltsen who was also known as Lama Achuk (FIGURE 36 page 97)—all Dharma Kings of the Nyingmapa Sect; H.H. Jigme Dorje, Dharma King of the Jonang Sect (FIGURE 16); H.E. Chogye Trichen (FIGURE 17), Dharma King of the Sakya sect; and H.E. Shamarpa Rinpoche, (FIGURE 18) Dharma King of the Kagyu sect were among the Buddhist leaders who recognized H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III.
FIGURE 15: H.H. Dodrupchen Dharma King (1927–), of the Nyingma Sect, sole holder of the complete Great Perfection Longchen Nying-thik, the highest dharma for transforming into the rainbow body.
Some years later as confusion arose over whether or not H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha was actually a Buddha, Great Holy Wangzha Shangzun conducted a Jin Gang Fa Man Ze Jue Dharma Assembly to perform a Dharma of Selection to also verify His status. This astounding event is described in detail later in this book. This is one of the highest holy inner-tantric “selection” Dharmas used to determine correct results among alternative outcomes and is used to determine the true or false status of any holy being.
Of course, no one in this world truly has the ability to recognize a Buddha, nor is it necessary for them to do so. H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is a Buddha because of His level of realization and not because He has been designated so by anyone’s recognition.
Footnotes
16 See page 215 for more on this speech. ↩
17 Exoteric and esoteric Buddhism: The exoteric includes the open or public teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha that serve as the foundation or fundamentals of all forms of Buddhism, while the esoteric includes everything in the exoteric plus certain secret practices that are usually only transmitted orally from master to disciple. Theravada, Zen, and Pure Land traditions are examples of the exoteric while the various Tibetan and Chinese Vajrayana sects and the Shingon tradition in Japan are examples of the esoteric. ↩