Dari Rulai Temple of Karuna

Living Buddha Dechan Jueren 15 Oct 2003
Los Angeles
Translated by Jaliniprabhakumara
Transcribed by Dejian and Decheng

This time at the Agui Vajra Temple for the enthronement ceremony, most people didn't really know much about Buddhism, and they didn't understand the significance of this event. And certainly, when we referred to the Mahavairocana, or the Great Enlightener, even less people understood. The first question … was, when did it begin? How long has it been around in this world? In regard to this, I will elaborate a little bit more.

The actual term when we refer to this kind of enthronement ceremony is called sitting on the bed. To sit on the bed simply means enthronement for an emperor or a king. So, some may wonder, because most living Buddhas get to sit on the bed at a very young age, how come someone this old gets to sit on the bed? Actually, I was supposed to get to sit on the bed when I was 3 years old, which was the year 1953. In 1949 the People's Republic of China was founded.

For the first few beginning years that this new political entity came to be, they needed to take their time to solidify their control. Therefore, 1953 wasn't a good time for me to sit on the bed. The next opportunity came when I was six years old. When I was 6, China was also in a period of tumultuous time, there were a lot of political movements and social change too. The next opportunity came when I was 9 years old. When I was 9, that was the year the Chinese Army entered Tibet. Therefore, I was not able to have this opportunity.

Therefore, starting when I was 10 years old, I began a life of trials and tests. Basically, before I was 39 years old, I have experienced every kind of life, every kind of suffering, every kind of misfortune and disaster. In 1989 when I was 39 years old, that's the year that my master came and found me. Only starting in 1990 when I turned 40 years old, I began to transmit the dharma. And for the next 12 years, I taught many students … and these 12 years, I also journeyed experienced a lot of difficulties, and continued to struggle through all these difficulties and all limitations. Now, is the time I finally have the opportunity, I am 53 years old, 50 years after I was supposed to be enthroned. That means I will live another 54 years.

This enthronement is an official acknowledgment. I became 1st Golden Crown Dharma King of the line of the Mahavairocana Great Enlightener. Now some may be curious to know, if I'm the 49the Mahacharya, which means Great Teacher of this line, how come I became the 1st Golden Crown Dharma King. What does this title refer to? Do you have any idea where Nagarjuna was born? Nepal. Nagarjuna was born in Nepal, later he came to Sri Lanka, then from there he went on to India. Eventually he returned to Nepal again. He lived to be 846 years old. He finally passed away by committing suicide.

Here's the past life story. In Nagarjuna's time, the king of Nepal was the current Tilopa Rinpoche. So, in other words, in Tilopa's past lifetime, his root guru was in fact, the Mahavairocana. So he was in fact the Nepalese King in Nagarjuna's time that awarded him the title of the Great Enlightener Dharma King. And the King gave himself the title of Blue Crown. Therefore he was the king who started and awarded titles. And he placed the line of Nagarjuna up to a mystical… perfect teacher… bodhisattva. In other words, the physical person in this world representing the Mahavairocana is considered in the inner nations as the Bodhisattva, the Great Enlightener.

And later there was a school of Buddhism we often refer to as the Indivisible School that was developed in China. That Indivisible School really started in the Tang Dynasty, referring to the Three Great Founders, Subhakarasimha, Vajrabodhi, and Amoghavajra. These three persons, you can really consider them as a trinity, they are really one soul. The intention was from Amoghavajra's time to pass on the line of Mahavairocana to Huigou, the most well known disciple of Amoghavajra, or to Huisu, and become known to the public, but it wasn't the time then. What they wanted to pass on is what we refer to as the dharma sign of, something like the signature for the transmission, most people don't really understand what that means (Kuo: it's hard to translate). However, he wasn't able to do so, therefore in that sense when they refer to their root guru as the emanation of Mahavairocana, he has to take a physical body in this world 7 times. 7 lifetimes in this world.

Of these past 7 lifetimes, one was the master Won Kong of the 3 Pagodas Temple in Wu Tai Shan, the Five Terrace Mountain, a very well known old temple. Another one, #2 was in fact Tsong Khapa from the Xining in Qing Hai province. #3, the master Ling Jing of Inner Mongolia of the Woma Temple. Next one, #4 became master Fen Cheng, also of the Five Terrace Mountain of the Qing Liang Temple. The next one, #5 was master Ling Zhen of this temple you did visit, Tan Zhe Temple in Beijing. Next one, #6 was an emperor, and number 7 is now. Then, it will be revealed to the world.

Throughout these times, every living Buddha, they all sense this person is in the world. The 18th Tilopa Rinpoche, the previous one. He was in fact in the US, he passed away in the US. The 18th Tilopa's children, his son and daughter, and his wife are still here in the US. They are now completely Americanized, they don't speak any Chinese.

The 19th Tilopa came here this time to be my guardian, in the sense of a subject, like a kings knight. And I will also tell you this, from the stand point of this whole thing, Karmapa should not have left Tibet. The reason that Karmapa decided to leave Tibet is not what people think. It's because he didn't know where I was. Suddenly he had this intuition, he realized that I'm not in China anymore, and he decided to look for me. Karmapa is currently in India, in fact he has yet to meet me.

Of course many living Buddha Rinpoche that come to me have been very gracious. The Golden Jewel Crown was an offering mainly from Tilopa and Karmapa. Of course, now we will refer to a Buddhist school that is even less known to the public, we call it the line of the Tsajia Dharma King, Tsajia means the mixed school or the mixed dharma teaching. The headmaster of the Tsajia school just passed away about a month ago. He was the 75th headmaster of the Tsajia school. Kapa Rinpoche, actually a very well known name, is the 76th headmaster now. He is a young guy.

There is a very famous temple, a very old temple in Beijing, the Five Pagoda Temple. It reopened the 29th of last month, and they had a formal ceremony for a whole month. The 24th of last month I went to Kulun, so I wasn't able to make that grand opening at the Five Pagoda Temple in Beijing. I returned to Beijing on the 2nd of this month, and on the 3rd I participated in a ceremony at the Five Pagoda Temple. October 8th in the morning, they finished up that part of the ceremony and Kapa Rinpoche had to leave. With the other Rinpoches of the school he came to me. They came to my residence in Beijing and presented to me their master's (the one who just passed away a month ago) yellow robe.

That robe is hundreds of years old, it was meant to pass on to the lineage holder. At the same time at my residence they also held a very formal, solemn ceremony for this. Of course, along with the robe there is also a crown but they only gave me the robe, the crown is still to be worn by Kapa Rinpoche. For those who can understand, this kind of behavior speaks for itself, it represents something. The presentation of the robe represents the handing over of the whole school to me. That robe, they don't wear it every day, it's meant to pass on to the next lineage holder, they wear it only once a year, for one hour, so it will stay in good condition.

I remember when I first came to the US, I sort of mentioned my status to a few people but I didn't say too much. Most people think that I'm just being boastful. But I say that it's that time, I am in fact the 1st chair, the 1st person, the highest master of Buddhism.

Most of you have heard of this term, Rinpoche, the Tibetan term. Do you understand what Rinpoche really refers to? If you want to translate Rinpoche in that sense, then the rank of a Rinpoche is only an arhat, which is even below a boddhisattva. Do you also realize, if you became my disciple, and received your dharma name, and received an abhiseka from me, your rank is actually bodhisattva, not as an arhat. Of course, most people don't understand this point at all, but this will be understood soon, therefore I will no longer give initiations.

So as long as you are my disciple, then you have 18 months to work on yourself to attain. There is an old Chinese saying, the master may show you the door, but the next step is up to you. Other places in the US, I have already promised a few people initiations, it was meant to happen a few months ago, but I was not able to make it at that time, therefore I will still give initiation to those people.

And also, sometime a few months back, we did a bodhisattva abhiseka, for the 33 people that are to receive the bodhisattva crown. Originally I intended to hold this ceremony for the crown on the birthday of Avalokitesvara. But now I have decided to move the date back to the grand opening of the Dari Rulai Xing Yuan Temple in Inner Mongolia.

I have thought about it, for the few people I did promise to give initiations, and I have decided to leave the door open a little longer. Anybody who wants to take initiation with me, they can all come on the same day. This is the last time, I will not take any more disciples. I will tell you, in China I have already closed the door, I no longer initiate anybody. There are a lot of people that talk to other Rinpoches trying to persuade them to take them on.

For those who have been in Agui Temple this time on the trip, did you see all those disciples in China? Bus loads and bus loads of them. Did you realize that from each place in China, they only have three spaces, from each city only three spaces, other disciples don't get to come. I don't know whether you paid any attention to the disciples in China, or noticed. What did you think of the disciples in China? Leonard?

Leonard: They were very devoted, loving and respectful.

Also they ….each other, they come from different places in China, most of them don't know each other. I don't know whether you paid attention, if they were told to stay in line, to stay in one spot, they stay, they don't run around. Of course in the US … it's differences in the eastern and western cultures. Eastern culture is, if you lay down the rules, they will accept the rules, they will follow them, they will not bend the rules. They have the attitude, if there's a big group, they follow the group, they have to stay in the group, otherwise it's difficult to manage.

A rough count of the disciples from China who participate at Agui Temple is about 300. For the disciples that come from the US, just under 50. Of course, this time in Agui Temple, it was up to Tilopa to make all the arrangements, and they are not so experienced in doing these kind of events with so many people. Otherwise, my arrangement would be, to have everyone stay at Agui Temple, instead of staying in hotels. I would pitch Mongolian tents, and people could stay in the tents, live there, eat there, everything would be there.

For next year, in August for the opening of our Dari Rulai Temple in China, we are making arrangements to accommodate 50,000 to 100,000 participants. And we have to pitch hundreds of Mongolian tents to accommodate all these people, the towns population (in Kulun) is only about 30,000.

For this event next year, I have thought about how we are going to do things. In this area called Kulun, in Inner Mongolia, they have a very rich culture. In the daytime, we will have the ceremonies in the temple, then at night time we have fun, enjoy the local culture and their performances. And I have to make the arrangements, so disciples from anywhere, from China or the US, they get to stay together and get to know each other. Except for the formal ceremonies in which you will participate, for all the other time slots, sing, dance, play, have fun.

So on Oct 9th, I met with the head secretary of Tongliao city government. 1st, let me explain something to you, in China jurisdiction is different. In US, the city falls in the county boundary, in China the county falls in the city boundary. So the city has higher jurisdiction over the county. So this county we are talking about that the temple is in is actually Kulun county, but it is under the jurisdiction of Tongliao city. So I spoke with the head secretary of Tongliao city, which is the #1 person in the city government. The city government has given this a lot of support and they want to promote this. The government has agreed to our proposals, but they want to participate in promoting it, making it a big event that they will support 100%. And certainly, you will not only experience a Buddhist ceremony in the local culture, but also experience Mongolian culture.

We intend to have the great opening of the temple take place on August 15th, because on August 18th, there is a big event in Inner Mongolia, in Kulun called the ?Nagamu? Conference. Nagamu Conference is a once a year major event in Inner Mongolia for all the Mongolian people. Realize this is a Mongolian people's conference. So their conference is not set in the … at all, it's horse racing, wrestling, and archery competitions. And also a lot of performances of Mongolian dancing and singing, a lot of competitions going on. Understand, the best horse you can get is actually a Mongolian horse, this is the fastest horse.

So the next trip to China, Inner Mongolia in August 2004, anyone who signs up will get to stay at the temple, close by the temple in the tents, and we will live there and eat there. Except for some of the banquets, the city government will definitely invite the American disciples to be at some banquets, we will have Mongolian disciples prepare Mongolian delicacies. So we have some time before Aug of next year, if you have any doubts or comments you would like to share, or any suggestions.

While I am in the US for this couple of months time, I will continue teaching the Mahavairocana Purity Dharma, remember that one, the 1st lesson? For those who went to China, you learned this one. There are actually 4 dharmas, the Mahavairocana Purity Dharma, the Will Roundedness Dharma, 6 Siddhi Power Dharma, and Wisdom Dharma. There are 4 different dharma practices in the whole system.