Dari Rulai Temple of Karuna

Living Buddha Dechan Jueren, 26 Oct 2003
Dari Rulai Temple Los Angeles
Translated by: Jaliniprabhakumara
Transcribed by: Decheng

At 11:45 we will begin the Abhiseka. Before we start let me elaborate a little bit. What’s the reason that we have this Abhiseka here? The world is in a tumultuous condition right now. You do not yet see, Asian war will start soon. New epidemic diseases are here again. This Abhiseka is to ensure your safety. However, you will not be able to protect others by receiving this Abhiseka. This Abhiseka also has that direct relationship of the Great Enlightener Dharma King teaching the Mahavairocana’s purity dharma.

As I said before, this time we will try to teach all 9 lessons of the purity dharma before I leave for China. Very possible I will return to the U.S. March of next year. It’s also possible after next March’s return to the states, once I leave again, I may be saying farewell to the U.S. I may not return to the U.S. however, I have already left the dharma here. Everything in the temple except for my own instruments and personal items I will take with me, everything else in the temple will remain here.

Perhaps some of the disciples that may have practiced dharma in the temple and learning from me, but they have yet to learn anything. I will simply inform you, if you have yet to really learn anything as my disciples, for the next 3 lifetimes you will experience an ascetic life as an ascetic monk. I will also inform all the disciples, if you became my disciples, not only have you not learned to practice, but have actually bad mouthed your teacher and the teachings, then for the next 3 lifetimes you will be mute. I will also inform all the disciples, if you take advantage of the temple and actually do bad things harmful to the people, then for the next 3 lifetimes, you will be crippled. For the remaining disciples not in the above categories, if you practice according to instructions for the next 18 months, you should attain. There will be only a small portion, a small part of the disciples that will attain in 36 months.

I will also inform all the disciples, all the disciples that have remained with the Sangha, in the time of the war in the next few years that will certainly take place, you will not be harmed by stray bullets. 3 days before I say farewell to the United States for good, I will perform an Abhiseka for all the disciples. This Abhiseka is called to “extinguish boundless bad karmas”. Whoever receives this Abhiseka, no matter under whatever situation that takes place… you will not be defiled again and you will be free from the sufferings of the world. And certainly you will be free from the sufferings of drought and flood and a lot of bandits. We will begin the Abhiseka now.

Master:  For those that have learned the first lesson of Mahavairocana’s purity dharma, I don’t know what your actual experience was like… you tell me what you feel like when you are doing the first lesson. What did you feel?

A:  I felt like there was peace in my heart…
A:  After I finished I felt like I was waking up from a deep sleep… 
A:  The saliva in my mouth tasted like purified water.

Master:  When you drank the water earlier from the Abhiseka what did that taste like?

A:  Sandalwood

Master:  Let me give you a little bit more to drink, and your cold will be gone. What did it taste like?

A:  Purified water.

Master:  Would you say that all 3 tastes were the same or different?

A:  They were different.

Master:  Because a few days ago you had a cold, but you have been practicing very well so we give you a couple more drinks. You will be fine; you will not catch cold in the future.

Now we will begin with Lesson 2, the Eye Purity. (Master teaches dharma)

As you are meditating, then your eyes may seem to be seeing many things. Its not illusion. You will see many things. By receiving the Abhiseka today and your own effort and practicing this dharma you will see everything of your past and your past lives. Everything means including this lifetime, every good deed and every bad deed, and every deed that you have ever done in this life. If you practice to a certain stage, you will at least see all the good deeds and bad deeds and the causes and the effects of your 5 past lifetimes. Once you have seen all your 5 past lifetimes, karma, and causes, then you will understand why your current lifetime is like this way, why do you have to suffer obstacles, why do you have hindrances and so on. Perhaps you think the visualization of this meditation is very simple, there’s not much to it. …

… In the sense of, whatever your earthly existence, whether this lifetime of past lifetimes, will now be revealed to you.

So if you follow the steps of the visualization… so far lesson 1… in a way already told you, you began in heaven and you were earth bound. Once you were earth bound you experienced all these lives. Can you remember: the mantra we will hand out later, so don’t worry about it yet.

Q:  Making the ground appear, is that like…just visualizing the earth?

Kuo:  Just by holding the mudra. That’s it. You visualize you are looking at the lotus flower.

Q:  What color is azure, blue?

Kuo:  Forget the color. It’s called the “Azure Lotus”. Don’t worry about the color.

Q:  I just make the ground appear and that’s it?

Kuo:  Just hold the mudra, that’s what that signifies, you don’t have to think about the ground. Again, I conversed with Master. He said, correct. Once you hold the mudra correctly the ground appears by itself, you do not visualize the ground. But you do have to hold the mudra correctly.

Master: Here comes lesson 3. (Master teaches Dharma)

…We also know, most lotus flowers have 8 petals. If you are holding a lotus flower in your hands, you will not be able to see all 8 petals holding it like this looking from the side view. You will at the most see 5 petals. If you truly enter the state of experience and see the 5 petals of the lotus flower, then those 5 petals will in a sense turn into 5 screens, like you are looking at 5 screens, and the screens will display for you your 5 past lifetimes.

Once you have truly arrived at that state of experience in lesson 2 where at the final stage you feel your wisdom eye, that third eye area becomes clear and transparent, and the lotus flower you are looking at also becomes clear and transparent, then, you go on the lesson 3 and change you mudra. Then the screens will not only show the view for you, but actually…tell you and you can hear this.

However, on caution for you, you must follow this rule, this caution. The caution is very simple. By doing this practice, in a short period of time, you see and hear all your past lives, you will understand everybody sitting with you in this room, what relationship you had in your past lives. This caution is this. Once you attain to this stage and you now know the past life relationship of the people here with you, you should never tell them or reveal to anybody. You may try, and you will turn to mute in 3 days. This caution, again, remember, you may not reveal anything that you have learned. What you have seen or heard once you attain to this stage, they are divine. They should not be divulged.

I can also inform you, this particular dharma practice of Mahavairocana’s in the old days only one master would take one disciple to the cave in the mountain to do the practice. There was nobody around. If the disciple were to attain to this stage, he had no one to talk to anyway so he didn’t have to worry about this caution. In this case, you are already warned.

Another thing is, many of you, in the past, still haven’t realized this particular dharma is a very important practice. A secret teaching in that sense, you are not qualified to teach or to reveal to anyone else. A real practitioner understands about obeying the commands of the teacher. When you don’t understand about listening to your master’s words and obeying his words, whatever consequences, that’s your own doing, your karma, you will have to suffer.

Plenty of disciples in the room today knew this. Ever since I came to L.A. I have revealed 3 times divine secrets; I divulged too much that I shouldn’t. I fell sick 3 times. Many of you know this. I was taken to the hospital. They stripped me naked and stuck all kinds of tubes in my arm. They completed a full body check up and concluded, not heart attack. 3 days examination in the hospital, the doctor finally concluded and, told me through the results, “I have no idea you had such good health, but yet looking at you with my own eyes your symptoms clearly indicate you are sick”. Now if we were to say this is a cold, but it’s not the season, nobody has a cold right now. When the temple was still in El Monte, most of the students knew this. After I returned from the hospital I was staying the home for about a month lying on the lazy sofa. For that whole month, unable to get up. I find out you should know, I have very good past life, good karmas, and I still suffer like this by breaking the rules. By comparison, do you think you will fare better than I did?

I remember a few of my disciples in China, a few Chinese disciples had told others, “I have treated Master so well, how come Master has not taught me real stuff?” Very simple, when you as a disciple have yet to understand obeying the words of your master, and listening to what your master says to you. In a sense, if I were to teach you any real stuff, you would only hurt yourself. You do not understand following your master’s command.

When I first taught the first lesson of the purity dharma at Denlo County where Agni Temple is located. In a way, I am also saying to you, starting from that day on, whatever you may learn in the future about reality, do not divulge what you learn. I remember I often say this to you. I have said this many times in previous lectures.

Is there anyone in this world who truly knows the past lives of people? Yes, there is. However, he will never divulge everything to you. He who dares to tell people your past life was this, this, this, and this is what happened, let me tell you, he doesn’t know. Because he is an intelligent person and figured out everybody would like to hear that. So that’s the way he will do it and he will do quite well. For a simple analogy, if you were the one who knows the top secrets of this country, of this government, if someone were to threaten by killing you, you would still not divulge it. Because you know the consequences are even worse. What I have taught you today, if you learn it well and actually practice it to that stage then you will know everything about the past, the present, and the future. Not just about yourself but you will also know everything that everybody else will think.

Let me tell you a story. This story I learned when I was in the third grade. It’s called Hunter Haliboo. The hunters name was Haliboo. The story goes like this. In the Yuan province of China, Yuan literally means south of the cloud. In an ethic group called”Dai”, there was a very well known warrior there. One day he got on his horseback and went hunting. Suddenly he saw an eagle with a snake in his beak fly up to the sky. The snake was struggling. So the hunter saw this and right away, he was a good archer so he shot and arrow straight into the eagle. Then the eagle fell and the snake also was saved. The moment the snake hit the ground it turned into a very beautiful woman. The hunter Haliboo was quite surprised. The beautiful woman said she was the daughter of the dragon king from the golden sand river, the largest river in that region that actually flowed down all the way to…

She said, “You have saved my life, my father the dragon king will appreciate it very much”. Haliboo believed what she said, but yet he still could not believe this was for real. She told Haliboo, “You are a hunter, and my father will reward you generously”. She also told him, “If my father were to reward you with treasure such as gold, silver, jewel pieces, refuse it. But if my father insists on rewarding you with something, then you should request the piece of stone he holds in his mouth”. Haliboo asked, “What can this tiny piece of stone that he holds in his mouth do?” She told Haliboo, “If you were to get this piece of stone and hold it in your mouth then you will understand the talk of every bird and every animal. It will certainly be very helpful when you go hunting. You will understand their language.

However, one caution. Whatever you heard, the conversation of the animals, you should not divulge to anybody else. If you were ever to divulge even once, then in an instant, you yourself will turn into a stone.”

So as they were having a conversation, conversing with each other, they were also walking toward the riverbank. Then the dragon king appeared from the river with his queen and many of their subordinates, their subjects welcoming. When hunter Haliboo brought back the princess, the dragon king and queen were very happy and emotional. The dragon king held the hunter Haliboo’s hand and sincerely said, ”Everything I have in my palace, whatever you like is yours.” Haliboo said, “No need to thank me, I am a hunter, it just happened, I would have done this anyway.”

However, the dragon king continued to hold the hand of Haliboo and insist, “At least you should take one thing as memorabilia if you don’t want anything else,” so Haliboo said, “If you insist on giving me one thing, then I will ask for this thing, however, I am afraid you may not want to give it to me.” The dragon King said, “whatever you want I will give to you, even including my own life.’

The dragon king insisted and continued to say, “you have saved my daughter, there is nothing more important than that.’ Haliboo said, “In that case, then I will request the stone you are holding in your mouth.” The dragon king hesitated for one moment, then he spit out the stone from his mouth. When the dragon king handed the stone to Haliboo he also said, “whatever you may learn, do not divulge to anybody else, otherwise you will turn into a stone yourself.’ As Haliboo was holding the stone in his hand he looked at the dragon king and the dragon girl and he thought about it. Both of them said the same thing. So Haliboo thanked the dragon king and put the stone in his own mouth

In an instant he then understood the talk of every animal even including insects in the ground. He understood every conversation. Whichever type of animal he choses to listen in on, he could hear their conversation. After this, hunter Haliboo, he would listen in on the conversations when he went out hunting. If he heard about, this was a female animal pregnant with a baby, then he would let them go. If he heard in the conversation that this was a group of babies, still very young, underage, then he would let them go.

If he heard in the conversation that his was a group of babies, still very young, underage, then he would let them go. He was a hunter, so he listened in on the animal’s conversations. He would only hunt and kill the ones that were too old and about to die and nobody was taking care of anyway. In other words, ever since Haliboo had this stone, then he had in a way let go so many lives that he should not have killed.

One day Haliboo went out hunting again. He saw there were a lot of birds in the sky flying in every direction. They appeared to be very agitated. They were yelling to each other and so on. He heard their conversation, “Run, fly fast because the flood is coming. The flood will kill everybody in this area.” Haliboo thought perhaps he had heard wrong, so he listened in on the conversation a few more times to make sure. So Haliboo at that time thought about, if all the farms were flooded, that’s not something to regret about, but if it were to kill everybody in the area it would be regrettable. But then again Haliboo thought about what the dragon king and the dragon girl had told him. That he should not divulge what he heard otherwise he himself would turn into a stone.

Haliboo had to make a decision. He thought about it, in order to save everybody in the area, he would rather turn into a stone himself. In those old days, there were tribes, and the chief of the tribes. There were many tribes in that area. So he spoke to the chiefs that, “I know the flood is coming, and soon it will kill everybody here, so everybody should escape now.” He asked everybody, “Forget everything that is in your house, move… and run to the mountains. You can save yourselves.” The chief heard what Haliboo said but he had doubts. He asked, “How do you know that, it’s nonsense, everything seems to be calm.” So Haliboo said, “I heard the conversation of the birds.” So people had doubts, “Yah, right! You can understand the conversation of birds. Nobody is going to believe you.”

So Haliboo told them the whole thing and he also told them, “Once I divulge this I will turn to stone myself.” Once he finished everything he had to say Haliboo, in an instant, going upward, everything turned to stone. So the chief and the people who had gathered thought, “perhaps what he said is true.” They banged on the drums and informed everybody to run, and everybody went to the mountain. Right after, the flood really came. It flooded everything in that area, the whole village, the farms, everything. It turned that whole area into a lake. Current day called the Bo Yang Lake in south China. So if you were to go visit this lake in south China and hear the birds chirping sounds, they will all sound like this. Haliboo, Haliboo, Haliboo. If in the future you have this chance to visit Bo Yang lake in China, you will see this kind of birds, they are all white except for a band of black on both wings. It would appear that its traditional when someone passes away in the east, they wear a black band in memory of them.

Even though I just told you a story, if you think about the dharma I just taught you, there’s no difference from the story to this real life. In regard to this aspect of the dharma or the dharma practice itself, do you all remember?

We will hand out the mantras tomorrow evening and we will begin to practice. You still need to start from lesson one, and go on to lesson 2 and 3 only when you have come to that state. Once you were to arrive at the final stage of lesson 1 and experience the blue sky and white cloud and the sun and moon there, then the rest becomes very easy.

Q:  What if we weren’t here for 1 but we are here for 2 and 3?

Master:  This teaching is only meant for the disciples. You will not be able to proceed on these things, even if you practice this one. Let me also inform you, it’s not discrimination. Because a non-disciples does not have that kind of relationship with me. You will have no guidance when you do this practice. I’m already very nice allowing you to stay and listen in on it. In China, in any of the temples, if they were to teach a meditation like this, for any temple of any school, they would simply invite non-disciples to leave.

Q:  When you talk about not divulging things,, like when you tell us things that might happen that will happen in the future like the Asian war…

Kuo:  correction. Asian- Pacific war.

Q:  But we should not tell people other things…

Kuo:  You don’t know yet…Asian-Pacific war is coming, World War III is coming, but he hasn’t told you the date.

Q:  But we shouldn’t tell other people?

Kuo:  You don’t know. You don’t know yourself. Does it matter? Go tell everybody World War III is coming, nobody is going to believe you. But still you don’t know yourself. It’s not direct knowledge, it’s here say. You have…once you have direct knowledge then you cannot say.

Master:  Next year, tentative date August 2004. The grand opening of the Dari Rulai Xing Yuan temple in Kulun Inner Mongolia, that’s roughly 750 kilometers away from Beijing. Twenty days after that grand opening, we will have the next 100-day Dharani class. In the temple in China, not here. For that 100-day Dharani class, if you intend to take that, then you need to go to China. You stay in the temple, you live and eat in the temple, that’s all you do, nothing else. You may think, well, I probably can’t do it, but let me inform you, in a few years you won’t care. So take your opportunity. This is like more than 6 months away, you can plan your life around it. Pretty soon, you have to reconcile everything.

Q:  When you say move on from the first lesson to the second, that’s when you see blue sky and clouds in from of you, not pretend like you see, you see?

Kuo:  Just like your eyes are looking at it. Blue sky and white cloud and sun and moon there, you are going to be looking at it just like that.

Q:  I know that I’m no different then anybody else, when blue sky appears in from of you with your eyes closed shock for a second…

Kuo: Once you do it a few times you get used to it…

Q:  I’m getting partial visualization of the sun and the moon, but I don’t have the whole thing complete, does that mean I should not move on to the second step?

Master:  It’s not really how clear or how fuzzy, its more like once that state is stable…