Thus Have I Seen
Reposted from Thus Have I Seen by Zhaxi Zhuoma Rinpoche p.38-49
FIGURE 9: H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III tonsuring me.
Ultimate Bathing the Buddha Dharma Assembly
In order to study and learn the Dharma with H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, I moved back to California from North Carolina. The first extraordinary large-scale Dharma assembly I attended after moving was the Ultimate Bathing the Buddha Dharma Assembly held in May 2004. My roommate Akou Lamo Rinpoche and I lived near where this grand assembly was to take place. As usual, I did not have a clue as to what was going on or what to expect. Elaborate procedures were in place to create the special mandala and a very large, mysterious, and beautiful box was being prepared to serve as a pool to hold the water that would be used to bathe the baby Buddha. As I became aware of what was to happen, I learned that whenever the true Dharma goes to a new country, this Ultimate Bathing the Buddha ceremony must be performed. It was only performed once in any given country. The day arrived for this most special dharma assembly. I think about 70 or 80 people attended from all over the world. Some I knew, but many I did not. We clustered together in great anticipation. Since conditions must be absolutely right, there can be delays. Finally, the Buddha Master was ready to perform the necessary rituals and we were admitted to the actual elaborate mandala area.
The giant box was filled with special scented water to create the pool to bathe the Buddha. I believe it weighed over two tons. Ropes were under the box and the strongest disciples tried to lift it but could not even budge it, even when many of them tried together to do so. Then two disciples stepped forth and announced they would lift it. The Dharma for this ritual required that once the bathing of the Buddha was completed by all present, the water in the large pool needed to be poured into a smaller basin. These two, my young roommate and an elderly almost frail gentleman, proceeded to begin chanting and were able to lift it using the power of their mantras. We were all amazed. The super-human ability to lift this pool depended upon the level of realization of those who tried, and both of these disciples were quite accomplished. This accomplishment was necessary for the event to be a successful ceremony (FIGURE 7 page 36).
Many other awesome things happened during that Dharma Assembly including a sudden powerful wind that had been predicted beforehand and a mysterious cloud that remained in place to serve as a parasol that always shaded the statue of the Baby Buddha used in the ceremony. The roar of dragons was heard like thunder in the sunny sky. This was also my first glimpse of the Buddha Master’s Vajra Dharma Wheel that transformed into Dharma Protectors in the pool and was later used to remove karmic hindrances from a certain lama who was present. I will tell you later about my experience with that Vajra Dharma Wheel when I received the same empowerment.
Diamond Blessing
Once, while staying in a small boutique hotel with the Buddha Master and His family in San Francisco, I received a special blessing that caused a diamond-shaped mark to form on my forehead and the top of my head. It was about 3 to 4-inches on each side. The point was in the center of my forehead toward my nose. I think it happened after I brought the Buddha Master some water. Normally, I would not be the one to do that, but on that occasion everyone else was laying low and hiding in the kitchen. Something had happened, but, as is often the case, I was clueless, because I do not understand Chinese. The Buddha Master was not happy and sitting alone and, not knowing any better, I offered him some water. He blessed me at that time and touched my head. Later in that trip I remember him looking at me in a funny way and smiling. When I finally saw this blotch on my forehead, I pointed to it and asked in sign language if this was His handiwork, and He laughed again. This mark would turn bright red and pulsate from time to time. This often happened when I read English translations of the Buddha Master’s discourses to my students, but other times as well. Many of my students saw it. I understood this was done to help rid me of karmic obstructions.
Daily Life with a Buddha
It seemed something miraculous happened almost every day, especially when we traveled together. I was living practically next door to the Buddha Master. I think the backyard fence at the place where I was living touched the backyard of the Buddha Master’s home. We needed to be quite discreet. The Buddha Master actually lived in several places at that time. He needed to be protected from both his loyal disciples and people who wished Him harm. I will talk a little about how He had been and continued to be persecuted by corrupt officials in China later. My day consisted of morning chores and practice and then going to the Buddha’s home to see what was needed or happening, and there was always something going on. Perhaps I received a teaching. This would continue until sometimes quite late at night. Those of us who had the good fortune to be in the inner circle or mandala and could visit at almost any time, were expected to stay until dismissed for the day.
My training was different as it usually depended on there being a willing and capable translator present. Many of the Chinese students who could speak acceptable and understandable English would not translate anything Dharma related. They did not have that special language of Buddhist terms and they did not want to risk mistranslating Dharma, and the Buddha understood when I was not getting it and would use His vajra voice to call them on it. I felt very bad for them as it may well have been my stupidity and not their lack of translating skills that were the problem. That is still the state. There are only about three or four people who are able to translate anything for me about Dharma practice. They are all very generous and helpful, but they are not always at the Buddha’s side and they are very, very busy. Because the Buddha Master was so generous with the time He spent trying to teach me, I did often receive mini-discourses. The other students knew that, so whenever I tried to tell my guru about my practice, an audience would suddenly appear. It was like trying to practice in a goldfish bowl. And I also had the sometimes annoying Western habit of always asking questions. If I did not understand something, and that was often the case, I would ask about it. I was not concerned about saving face like my more cautious and probably more respectful Chinese counterparts, but that was how “What Is Cultivation?” and other teachings came into being.
Rainbow Crystal Lights and Earthen Mandala with Auspicious Grass of the Four Jewels
There were many wonderful sights and events that just spontaneously happened while being with the Buddha Master. Magical rainbow lights appeared on the special grass at the mandala where the Buddha performed many of the empowerments that I had witnessed and received. You can see them in FIGURES 10 and 11. They were like tiny red, yellow, green, and blue jewels that sparkled independently of any external light source. Some were clear like large diamonds. The only time I had seen that sort of phenomenon was when the light beings had visited me twenty years earlier. Again, we heard the sound of heavenly dragons roaring like thunder across a clear blue sky. The sparkling lights changed color and glittered on and between the blades of grass. It was amazing! This was no ordinary site. Earlier, a special kind of grass grew there on a mound that spontaneously formed into a sacred mandala. This grass mandala naturally grew where the Ultimate Bathing the Buddha Ceremony was held.
We were told that the flowers we saw there were called “Auspicious Grass of the Four Jewels.” The flowers had four distinct very thin parts or leaves. They grew in a particular pattern and formed a perfect circle. Prior to the ceremony the area had been perfectly flat. After the ceremony, the ground became slightly elevated, forming a mound upon which these special flowers grew. These flowers grew no other place in the yard. H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III explained that this was an offering from the Dharma Protecting Deities. Now three or four years later the magical jewels could be seen on this distinctive grass.
This had been the site of the Ultimate Bathing of the Buddha Dharma Assembly that I discussed earlier. This was also the site of one of the Buddhas Bestow Nectar ceremonies performed in 2000, before I met His Holiness.
FIGURE 10: The Jewel Grass Mandala. In 2004, a few months after the amazing Ultimate Bathing the Buddha Dharma Assembly was held, the previously flat ground used for the ceremony raised up naturally and became a mandala of Auspicious Grass of the Four Treasures. This was the site where many powerful empowerments and initiations were given by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. Several years later that same spot exhibited various colored jewels as shown here. This phenomenon lasted for several days. Finally, the jewels coalesced into a rainbow and flew away with many disciples watching.
FIGURE 11: Details of Jewels on Grass Mandala.
Vajra Dharma Wheel Empowerment
I received a special Vajra Dharma Wheel Empowerment at this same site similar to what another rinpoche had experienced during the Ultimate Bathing of the Buddha ceremony. His experience is described in the Big Blue Treasure Book with a photo of the mark left by the initiation. Although this was a high level inner-tantric initiation and as such cannot be publicly discussed or shared with others in detail, I am able to briefly tell others of my experience so that they can learn of the true power of the magnificent Buddha Dharma. The Buddha performed this ritual for me to remove certain negative karma that was an obstacle to my becoming a holy person and the achievement of liberation. After the Dharma protecting deities arrived, the Buddha practiced the Buddha Dharma and placed the Dharma Wheel on my body. The Buddha’s Vajra Dharma Wheel quickly exhibited samadhi fire. I screamed. The impact was very intense, but in that moment, I also realized the truth of the Buddha Dharma. Although there was intense feeling—greater than anything I had ever experienced before—there was also no feeling. I realized the emptiness of that magical experience while at the same time experiencing it. It was the pain of “no-pain.” The Buddha explained to me that this experience was a precursor to the realization of the Dharmakaya.
I actually understood a little of how my Buddha Master and other enlightened beings could accomplish their amazing feats. Although there are no words to adequately describe this experience and it would be presumptuous for me to assume I understood the mind of a Buddha, it was a glimpse of the Dharmakaya—the truth of the universe! This is what is meant by “form is emptiness, and emptiness is form.” Living in this pure state, if only for a moment and through the power of my Buddha Master, I understood that the Dharmakaya is everywhere. There was no place that is not the Dharmakaya. This is what enlightened beings experience or realize at all times and They can therefore do anything! All things are inherently empty and at the same time contain the potentiality of all things! This reality exists while living in this mundane world… and, it exists for all sentient beings! We all have the inherent nature of a Buddha. We just have to awaken to that nature.
The initiation caused me to not only eliminate certain obstacles but reinforced my resolve to practice and help others learn the true Buddha Dharma. I also understood the necessity of obtaining inner-tantric initiations from a true holy vajra master if one wants to achieve enlightenment in this lifetime! Only a true holy vajra master can summon the Dharma protecting deities and communicate directly with the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to perform this sort of powerful ritual! Only a true holy vajra master can manifest the awesome power of the true Buddha Dharma. My Buddha Master, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, is such a master!
Nectar from the Buddha Lands, Shariras, Varja Pills, and Nectar Rain
I missed the grand nectar ceremonies in Los Angeles that happened right after the Buddha Master came to America and before I arrived in Pasadena. Much has already been written about them. However, I did attend another Dharma assembly held a year or so after those grand Dharma assemblies when the elderly Dharma King Wan Ko Yee, wearing red robes and having long grey hair and beard, presided over the manifestation of innumerable multicolored shariras12 appearing in a cloud of nectar. I cannot tell you I saw this, because my eyes were closed through the entire ceremony, but I have seen a photo of this happening with me sitting with Akou Lamo Rinpoche before Him, and I have seen a display of various colored shariras that I believe were from nectar ceremonies like this. After the ceremony we went to a secret location and I met this same Dharma King sitting with another Dharma King, my Buddha Master, Who I knew then also as Master Wan Ko Yee, but know now as H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. It was very strange. Some say these were the same person, but I saw with my own two eyes, these two great holy beings sitting together side by side. My understanding is that they had studied together with the same master. I do not know whether or not they might also be the same person. I also saw several beautiful glowing round shariras that appeared in hair clippings that another disciple had been collecting from when the Buddha Master had His hair cut (FIGURE 12). The disciple was organizing the various packets of hair she had collected after she had taken the Buddha Master to have His hair cut when she noticed three shiny red “beads.” She thought this was most unusual and that she should report this to the Buddha Master. I just happened to be with the Buddha Master and His wife, the Buddha Mother, when she brought them into their kitchen to ask what the ruby-like beads were. The Buddha Master announced that they were, in fact, shariras and proceeded to practice Dharma to prove it.
Later the Buddha Master gave a special discourse on this matter, stating that “This happened because of conditions and the level of fortune of all sentient beings. It does not matter where they come from. Perhaps they originated from the empowerment of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. It actually does not matter what the disciples think concerning how or where they come from. If they can appear out of nothing, then they can disappear out of nothing. The important thing is the cultivation of each one of us and the need to live in accordance with the teachings and abide by the principles of Buddhism.”
One of these sharira was placed in a crystal stupa and placed on an altar where we often held ceremonies and I believe the others were returned to the disciple who discovered them. She told me that one disappeared. Her account of this matter was publicly reported in the Big Blue Treasure Book.
FIGURE 12: Perfect red shariras that grew out of the hair of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III.
Nectar has miraculously manifested during Holy Buddhas Bestowing Nectar Ceremonies conducted by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. This nectar was not like anything in this world. It was truly from another realm. The Buddha Master was able to have different Buddhas bestow different types of nectar on different occasions that could be used in various ceremonies and initiations. I personally attended one such ceremony with another rinpoche where we saw the nectar manifest in a bowl that we had washed just before the ceremony. We were able to taste this nectar, albeit in a diluted form. This is the same type of nectar that is used to make the nectar and vajra pills we use in many of our higher empowerments and initiations. The tiny blue Vajra Bodhi pills I have given to many living beings (human and other) also contained nectar.
One night we made bright red nectar pills that were used the next day when the Buddha practiced the Torma13 Offering Dharma. These nectar pills were made from holy nectar bestowed by the Buddhas at the invocation of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III and mixed with barley flour and butter. This nectar came from the Buddha Lands, it was not of this world. These pills were placed inside a jade bowl in the middle of the offering tables along with an array of many brilliant fresh flowers, rare fruit, and other offerings. The Buddha empowered all of us by giving us a portion of those pills leaving the jade bowl partially empty. However, when the offering ceremony was completed, we all noticed that the pills had increased so that the jade bowl was again full of pills and had formed a dome that rose above the brim of the bowl (FIGURE 13). How could this be? We also heard the laughter of Dharma protecting deities at the end of this Dharma assembly.
Other rinpoches talk of producing a type of nectar pill, but these are not made from true nectar nor do they have the power of nectar that comes directly from the Buddha realms. This is worldly nectar made from certain mundane ingredients, such as betel nuts and saffron to which five different types of substances are added. After all of these ingredients are combined, the nectar mantra, as well as other mantras, are recited. The Dharma is practiced to empower these kinds of nectar pills. Sometimes shariras or clothing or other artifacts from holy beings or fine medicinal herbs are added. They are not at all like the holy nectar pills made from true nectar bestowed from the land of the Buddhas. These pills produced by other rinpoches are called nectar because ordinary people have labeled them as such. They are merely pills made from medicinal herbs, things from a human body, things from an animal’s body, etc. Sometimes there is reference to the essence of ancient nectar pills being added to these pills. These might have been made from true nectar, but rarely can you find evidence that true nectar is being manifested in modern times except by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. When people speak of nectar or nectar pills, they are generally referring to this type of man-made worldly nectar pill and not the holy nectar pills made with nectar from the lands of the Buddhas.
I once heard a vajra pill chant and dance. I later participated in a number of ceremonies involving these vajra pills. I was also able to use my practice of the Buddha Dharma to cause a Vajra Pill to move and do a little vajra dance inside a clear transparent container on several occasions.
I remember when I first saw a video of the Buddha requesting and receiving such holy nectar, I could hardly believe it. That was before I had met the Buddha. The Buddha was on a dais some distance from where the nectar was to descend. Everyone chanted mantras and beseeched the Buddhas to bestow the nectar. Suddenly, a red flash of light appeared and penetrated the crystal bowl that contained the special nectar bowl. When the crystal lid was removed there was shimmering white nectar inside. This time it was the Nectar of Long Life from Amitayus, the Buddha of Longevity, but there are other examples from other Buddhas. The video was filmed in southern California in the year 2000 right after the Buddha first came to America. You can see this video at most of our Dharma centers and temples. FIGURE 14 shows a photograph of this nectar. It is not of this world.14
FIGURE 13: Jade Bowl containing Holy Red Nectar Pills that miraculously multiplied during a Torma Offering Ceremony after some of the pills were distributed to disciples.
I have seen two kinds of nectar manifest: the rare magnificent holy nectar bestowed in a bowl from a Buddha Land mentioned above and the substance that rains from the heavens when there are no clouds in sight. The first time I experienced the raining of nectar was when I was living with Dorje PaMu in Southern California.
I remember the event quite vividly. H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III had been visiting us and was sitting quietly beneath a tree in a wicker chair when we noticed that although the sky was perfectly cloudless and it had not rained for some time, there was something raining through the tree. It was sweet to the taste and did not touch the tree but came from above the tree. However, it did not rain anywhere else. It also did not rain on the Buddha. Some of those present could smell a beautiful fragrance as well. People came from Taiwan and other places to witness this miracle. In fact, so many people came to this private location that those of us who lived there had to leave in order to have some privacy. Since where we lived was a closely guarded secret, people had to be blindfolded and brought there by bus and caravan to assure our privacy. Many people wanted to preserve the tree and move it to a place where it could be adored by everyone and enable anyone to receive the blessings from this holy event. The large tree was pruned, its roots carefully boxed, and with a tall crane, lifted over the house onto a large truck to be taken over four hundred miles to the temple courtyard of Hua Zang Si in San Francisco. It rained nectar just before we started the Dharma Propagation Tour under that same magnolia tree after it had been moved to San Francisco. (FIGURE 25 page 71)
FIGURE 14: Detail of the Long-Life Nectar from Amitayus Buddha from Los Angeles Nectar Dharma Assembly held in 2000.
The following year, as students performed skits and other shows in honor of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III’s birthday, the beautiful jacaranda tree over the veranda where the Buddha and the Buddha’s family and several of us rinpoches were sitting began raining nectar as well. The nectar continued to be visible for many days. Many of us watched the nectar as it fell in front of the large thangka of the Thousand-armed Kuan Yin Bodhisattva that was hanging in the jacaranda tree. Sometimes the nectar would appear as needle-like streaks, sometimes like fluffy snowflakes. Sometimes, you could feel it, sometimes you could not. It was very mysterious. A still camera cannot capture this heavenly substance. I asked for permission to photograph it with my digital camera and was told I could, but it would be a waste of time. It was. Only the video cameras could record this miraculous event. Many of our Dharma centers and temples have a video of this event. Of course, this is no ordinary place. His Holiness has practiced the Dharma at this site many times. Many disciples have witnessed holy states there.
It has also rained nectar at the H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III Cultural and Art Museum when the Buddha Master conducted Dharma Assemblies there as well as at the Holy Heavenly Lake site. The disciples love it and try to capture as much as they can—on their tongues, bodies, clothing, whatever. It is always magical, no matter how many times I see and taste it. I finally got to smell it the last time. As for so many of these manifestations, different people experience them differently and some never see, smell, taste, or feel anything. There are also written accounts of nectar raining in China at the dedication of an art museum devoted to the work of the Buddha Master.
There were many other strange and mysterious events that I was able to experience that have been written about elsewhere, so I will not describe them here. The nun Shi Zheng Hui who lived at the same place as my Buddha Master has documented some of them in her autobiography Revealing the Truth15.
Footnotes
12 Shariras are holy objects in Buddhism usually left in the cremated remains of holy beings. They are proof that the being has attained enlightenment. They may appear as precious jewels or in other forms including a net-like form. They may also appear in holy nectar or be left by living holy beings as shown in FIGURE 12. See FIGURES 83, 84, and 92 for examples of shariras left by disciples of the Buddha Master that I have personal knowledge of. ↩
13 Objects or cakes used as offerings in tantric rituals, usually hand-molded and traditionally make from yak butter and roasted barley flour. Often, they are cone shaped and may be painted or dyed different colors and richly adorned. ↩
14 There are more examples of holy nectar in True Stories About a Holy Monk, a book about Elder Dharma King Dorje Losang, a disciple of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, that was published in English in 2000. ↩
15 Shi Zheng Hui, Revealing the Truth, Great River Books 2016 ↩