A great holy-and-virtuous one wrote the following edifying discourse. It is exact, wonderful, and right to the point. The arguments are rare, proving Him as a Shangzun of Gold Button Level 3! This headquarters has now published the original text in the following document.
I will say a few sentences today. Originally, all the dharma affairs about the passing of the Senior Monk Yinhai were supposed to be handled with me in total charge and a few dharma brothers, including Mozhi and Tongstan, assisting me, but dharma brother Wangzha asked me to let him handle them. As such, dharma brother Wangzha became fully responsible for arranging the dharma affairs, including the one hundred holy dharma assemblies.
Many people give separate praises for the passing of the holy monk Yinhai, but what they say are only mundane arguments about the greatness of the sacred incident and do not mention the fundamentals. Even the World Buddhism Association Headquarters only talked about what transpired in the process of the holy state. Some even uttered absurdly: “How come I had never heard about this venerable holy one? There isn’t such a person, is there?” Well, there are many competent persons you have never heard about where H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is. For example, you don’t even know who I am! Do you know the names of every high-level person in the British royal family? How many people out there have royal blood? How could you be qualified to understand it if you don’t even have the composition of the royal blood?
Some even denigrated the world’s top-level Holy Monk Yinhai (Shengzun) by calling him a great learned one, a high monk, a great virtuous one, one with outstanding achievements, or a dharma master. Some say: “…his body laid open for a month after his passing, without being frozen. It was open for the public to get close to and view, and people could chant and prostrate themselves to it. Not only did it not give out any fetid odor, but it instead emitted light and a sweet smell. The body became very hard, proving him to be a high monk of a generation…” That is enough praise for a high monk of the usual but is not the right thing to say about Senior Monk Yinhai. The holy manifestation by Senior Monk Yinhai is unprecedented in history. Why did they have to use the words for regular high monks?
Some even are so stupid as to say: “If Senior Monk Yinhai is a holy monk, why did he need to rely on people practicing dharma and chanting?” I will tell you very clearly. Those chanting people could not compare to a single hair of Senior Monk Yinhai’s. Their chanting Buddha’s name and the sutras are to accomplish their provisions on the path by using the blessings on site given by the senior monk. How could it possibly be that the senior monk would need the people of five dirtiness and stinky skins like you? On the days commemorating Shakyamuni Buddha, Amitabha Buddha, or Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva for accomplishing enlightenment or obtaining nirvana, the ordinary people need to attend a grand dharma assembly where they can chant Buddha’s name, recite sutras, chant mantras, make offerings, dedicate merits, or pray. Would Buddha or Bodhisattva need those ordinary people to chant for them? Those regular people get immense merits returned to them to enrich their sambhara by practicing Dharma and dedicating merits to Buddha and Bodhisattvas on those holy days. In the Dharma Ritual of the Supreme Great Maternal Buddha (Samu Baiching, 灑母白請), there is one sentence that must be said in the dedicating-the-merit part at the end: “I would like to dedicate the merit of practicing this dharma to the Supreme Great Maternal Buddha.” Would the holiest Supreme Maternal Buddha, with Her excellent enlightenment, need ordinary people to dedicate their merit? So, for the same token, the senior monk has been a supreme-class holy monk for several thousand years. That is why those people chanting Buddha’s name and mantras could obtain the Initiation of Dharma Affinity by the Yidam (本尊法緣灌頂), which they couldn’t encounter in a hundred lifetimes of learning Buddhism, in such short holy dharma assemblies. That is the merit the hugely holy senior monk blessed and given to people! Without the blessing of the senior monk on-site, you would not be qualified to receive the Initiation of Dharma Affinity by the Yidam, even if you were to hold several thousand dharma assemblies of the same kind. There are morning and evening chanting sessions at significant temples, and many have been to several thousand sessions of chanting or practicing. Why can they not get an initiation so high as this?
Those of you who practice Dharma, chant sutras, mantras, and Buddha names have less than one ten-thousandth of the merit compared to the senior monk. But because they practiced Dharma and made offerings on the holy day of the senior monk’s passing, they received merits dedicated to them by the senior monk. They received tens of thousands more than they could get by chanting sutras and mantras, praising Buddha, or practicing Dharma daily. Only as such can you obtain the Initiation of Dharma Affinity by the Yidam, which you couldn’t encounter in hundreds of lifetimes.
Many correctly said that the holy incidents by Senior Monk Yinhai cannot be thoroughly described. But people must learn that Senior Monk Yinhai has only done one thing. He told Buddhist disciples that although Buddhism and Buddha Dharma have come to a very chaotic Dharma-ending Era and correct Buddha Dharmas have been lost, they still exist as they always have. They were in the hands of the senior monk. But where did the senior monk’s Buddha Dharmas come from?
We offer the following three points for you to ponder deeply about why Senior Monk Yinhai has only done one thing:
Senior Monk Yinhai proved to be a top-notch holy monk in the history of Buddhism;
Senior Monk Yinhai told us the pith of learning from Buddha and cultivating our deeds and
Senior Monk Yinhai pointed out the source of the Dharmas for attaining his accomplishment.
Let’s talk about the first point. Over ten years ago, after the senior monk was persecuted to death but revived five days later by manifesting a holy miracle, the first sentence he said was: “You cannot have a slight bit of hurting behavior towards those who hurt me.” The senior monk only had the mind and deeds of great compassion, and the Bodhi mind had no hatred. When He passed away, He created a tremendous miraculous transformation in his body, the first in Buddhist history, ten days after his passing, changing from what used to be a bony, skinny and old face ultimately into one that was full, plump and majestic. Even the fingernails kept growing. The professional staff at the mortuary serving Senior Monk Yinhai witnessed it in person and testified to this unprecedented holy incident by the senior monk. With this accomplishment alone, the senior monk is an unprecedented top-class, number-one holy monk worldwide. Pitifully, his body had to be interred on the 32nd day, per the U.S. laws, with offerings made to him.
Next, let’s talk about the second point. The verses which the senior monk gave Wangzha Shangzun says:
The holy and the sage have always been lonely since ancient times.
Only the recluses could be known to the later generations.
Do all good deeds; don’t do anything evil.
Have great compassion, never become evil, never cheat
I don’t belong to a sect.
All my merits and good deeds converge into faithful Buddha Dharma.
If you want to reach the apex of genuine Buddha Dharma
Then, take refuge in the Buddha’s School with me.
(The Buddha’s School is the religion of Buddhas in the ten directions and the true Buddhism transmitted by Shakyamuni Buddha. It is not what was altered by the different denominations in the later generations. The Buddha’s School directly comes from Buddha without any worldly lineage or divisional system.)
The senior monk tells us that cultivating deeds and learning from Buddha requires us to bury our fame and fortune, abstain from doing evil deeds, and do all good deeds. The best Buddha Dharma for cultivating deeds is the Mahamudra of Liberation. He led Wangzha Shangzun to pay homage to H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III as the master and to learn Buddha Dharma from His Holiness. The meaning of that is very profound.
Now, the third point. The senior monk is the great achiever of the combined practices of the Supreme and Unsurpassed Mahamudra of Liberation and the Great Compassionate and Wonderful Sea of the Red Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva Dharma (大悲勝海紅觀音). The holy incidents before and after his passing proved to have entirely broken the existing records of passings in Buddhist history. All the unprecedented, unthinkable, and world-shocking holy incidents by the senior monk came from the universal Dharma of Buddhas in the ten directions, which He had learned from H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. He realized these achievements by receiving the State Practice Initiation and the supreme Buddha Bestowing Holy Amrit Initiation from H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. He told Wangzha Shangzun: “If you want to reach the apex of true Buddha Dharma, then take refuge in the Buddha’s School with me.” That indicated that the source of his Dharma came from H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III.
A lot of the disciples of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III are famous high monks or Great Virtuous Ones who have attained significant achievements. Some passed in rainbow light; some obtained freedom from death and rebirth; some left shariras after cremation; some people’s flesh never decayed; and some went to look around in the World of Ultimate Bliss first, returned to this world before rising in passing. Except for Shakyamuni Buddha, no other holy one in Buddhist history has established so many precedences. Cases in point include High Monk Tonghui, Great Master Qingding, Senior Monk Puguan, Senior Monk Guozhang, Senior Monk Wuming, Senior Monk Yizhao, Dharma King Daxila, the Laymen Wang Lingze, Cheng E-Fen, Hou Yushan, Tangxie Lehui, and Linliu Huixiu. Still, their achievements can not compare with the unparalleled worldly accomplishments of the Senior Monk Yinhai.
The Senior Monk Yinhai has proven that H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is the source of the genuine and authentic Buddha Dharma in today’s world. There is not a second person who can stand close to His Holiness! The Buddhist Endeavors that H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III has accomplished tell of a practical doer who openly and singly destroyed evil arguments and established correct Buddhist doctrines and one who benefited all living beings altruistically. That is why we say that the Senior Monk Yinhai proved the highest and supreme Buddha State of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III by manifesting the outstanding achievements of his practice and realization. We can know from it that the Senior Monk has accomplished things no others can compare to in Buddhist history, such as destroying evil masters and cheaters and establishing faithful Buddha Dharma. He demonstrated the supremacy of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III with His tremendous achievements by learning Buddha Dharma from H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. That is the one thing the Senior Monk has done!
A humbled practitioner of self-cultivation
The United International World Buddhism Association Headquarters
March 1, 2017
(Eric Huang worked on translating this public announcement from Chinese to English. It was last reviewed and edited on 2024-07-15.)