In the last two years, through the written test given to masters and Buddhists, we have found in practice that 98% of those masters with titles such as venerable, dharma king, great rinpoche, or dharma master had scored lower than 60 points in their written test on Sutra, Vinaya and Sastra. Some dharma kings and rinpoches only scored 20 or so points.
Wangzha Shangzun said: “I have always held the opinion that many dharma kings, great rinpoches, Khenpos, dharma masters, and laymen who authored books adopt evil views that are seriously violating the sutras and the teachings.”
“My benevolent master, His Holiness Dorje Chang Buddha III, said to me: ‘Your opinion is somewhat reasonable but is not complete. Those masters who listen to my Dharma teachings are not any better! Most of them are not practicing true cultivation and have not followed my teachings or abided by the rules of Dharma in their practice.’”
“It looks now that these dharma kings, rinpoches, and dharma masters who listen to the Dharma teachings of Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III are indeed like what Buddha Master said. Few of them have faithfully followed the teachings of Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III in their practice and learning. They have not even obtained 20 or 30 % of Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III’s teachings of the meaning of Dharma. Although, on the whole, they look slightly better than those dharma kings, rinpoches, dharma masters, or laypeople who haven’t listened to the Dharma voice of Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, they still are not quite well versed in Sutra, Vinaya, and Sastra or Buddha Dharma. With such a level of understanding about Buddha Dharma, these people make the Headquarters worry that they would mislead living beings.”
Considering this, the Headquarters immediately conducted a survey. We found several renowned masters in the world not only carelessly and erroneously give speeches about Dharma, but they also borrow phrases from the Sutras, Vinaya, and Sastras and distort the meanings from fragmented paragraphs. They mix in their evil views and create new sentences. They carelessly and erroneously compile rules regarding cultivation, practicing Dharma, dedicating merit, making vows, and keeping precepts. They ask their disciples to follow their orders and learn with falsified and fake rituals or Buddha dharmas. In this way, they control their disciples and make them loyal. They take in the offering money in the name of building temples or viharas. Little do they know there could be unlimited merits or infinite sinful karma when building temples or viharas. Is the money you offered used for a place presided over by a great holy being or an evil master who has violated the precepts? Is that master of yours indeed a sacred person? What levels and what kind of buttons of holiness do they have?”
“I tell Buddhist cultivators this unequivocally. According to what I know and am certain about, the temples that can truly grow unlimited merits for people are the Ancient Buddha Temple and the Holy Miracles Temple that the United International World Buddhism Association Headquarters will build. They are completely different from any other temples, and the difference is like heaven and earth, or even the heavens and the bad realms. Perhaps you want to ask why it is so strange. It is because the Ancient Buddha Temple will respectfully beseech Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III to preside over it. No master has the merit power even to touch its scope.”
Wangzha Shangzun said: “I, Wangzha, don’t even have the qualification to preside over this temple which has infinite merits. I could barely reach its sides. To donate to these two temples is to create merit for yourselves indeed. For the other temples, it will have to depend on the level of the person presiding over it, whether their knowledge and views are good or evil, whether they have merits or not, and how much merit or sinful karma they have. If you donate to the wrong place, not only do you not have any merit, but bad karma will also come to you.”
“These neophytes mentioned above have committed errors and sinful karma of various degrees with their evil knowledge and views that violate the sutras and betray the teachings. Some have committed lesser errors, although they feign themselves as holy beings intentionally or unintentionally, but not to the extent of becoming evil demons. But some others are completely evil masters who hurt the disciples and take everyone to the three lower realms. The Headquarters has repeatedly warned that masters who have not reached Gold Button Level 3, which is the status of a great holy being (i.e., great holy being of the patriarch class), have no qualifications to come up with materials about Buddha Dharma. How could they be qualified to randomly compile and change the dharma manuals people use to learn and practice Buddha Dharma? They must be full of erroneous and evil arguments if they know little about Sutra, Vinaya, and Sastra. Not to mention that since they have no authentic lineage transmission, there is no empowerment of transmission, or siddhi power, in the things they write. The disciples who follow these evil masters to learn and practice that will certainly mire themselves in bad karma!”
We publish this special announcement now. We hope all Buddhist cultivators will quickly send to the Headquarters those learning manuals and the text for reading and chanting, which your masters have transmitted to you. We will examine them to ensure they conform to authentic Buddhist teachings and prevent you from being harmed. It has been thoroughly proven through the holy test that 98% of the people are still lingering outside the gates of Buddha Dharma, Buddhist Teachings, and the study of Buddhism. Unbelievably, those who have not yet reached the Dharma gate dare boldly change the transmitted Dharma manuals against all rules. They have truly committed grave black karma!
If your master does not let you submit the material that they have taught you to be examined by the Headquarters, or if you are worried because you do not dare to violate a vow in which you have sworn to be loyal to them, then you should very soberly think about an issue of principle. If your master is the Mara King, an evil spirit, a mountain ghost (山精), a river monster (水怪), or a monstrous ghost of blood light* (血光厲鬼), and you insist on being loyal to them because of a vow you have made, then what you will eventually get is the karmic retribution of the three lower realms for sure. Therefore, you must not keep your vows to the evil. Instead, you must repent at once. You must correct your wrong and follow the good.”
Whether your master is good or evil must be observed based on the levels they got from the holy test and the 128 understandings and views that the Buddha expounded. Then, you can know what kind of person they are. Or you can submit the dharma manuals you are learning to be determined by the holy test. You can see on the spot whether they are good or evil. Only by doing so can Buddhist disciples be safe and be able to walk on the correct path. Otherwise, they will be forever miserable.
A few masters have submitted the evil and erroneous materials they had written before after seeing the public announcement. That is worth praising because it says they know they had erred, and they can proactively repent themselves. If one can correct oneself, one is good and can be forgiven. We wish to inform all the masters who have yet to realize the Gold Button Level 3 and prove to be a great holy person by this announcement. Suppose you have wrongfully changed Sutra, Vinaya, and Sastra or taken fragmented parts from Tripitaka and edited the learning and practicing manuals, but you have no transmission lineage. In that case, you must sincerely repent yourself at once. You must inform those you have taught to stop learning and practicing your wrongfully changed manuals and immediately send the information to Headquarters. After Wangzha Shangzun makes the corrections to your original erroneous and sinful materials, the corrected manuals will be given to you to disseminate to your people so they can learn again. (There are, of course, unified lineage rituals, but they must be transmitted after an Initiation is given.)
Shangzun said: “My benevolent master, Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, taught us: ‘There are two types of people in this world. One has self-awareness, and the other likes to outsmart themselves. The former abides by the principle of doing all good deeds and abstaining from all bad deeds. They know what they should and shouldn’t do so they don’t violate the law of causality. The latter is selfish and self-centered. They plan to do things with bad karma and deceive people with lies. They think they could avoid being found out, but in the end, their foxtail cannot be concealed because what is fake is fake. The ancient proverb says, if you don’t want others to know, you’d better not do it.”
“To those masters who violate precepts and deceive people, you must know that the bad things you have done cannot be concealed. Even if you keep some people from submitting the materials, others will still turn in the learning and practicing manuals you give them to seek validation. Your outcome will be miserable at that time because it is the law of cause and effect. If it comes down to that, I will publish the original text of your evil arguments to the public.”
“To those masters who come up with careless and wrongful materials, are you willing to proactively submit your materials to be checked, or will you continue hurting and deceiving people until you are uncovered in public? If it comes down to that, Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III cannot save you, and neither can Namo Shakyamuni Buddha cannot. I, Wangzha, a humbled monk, will not save you because I must protect true Buddha Dharma, clear out evil arguments, benefit Buddhist cultivators and the public, and educate evil masters and liars.”
“You must also note that if you submit the materials proactively, I will correct them. Afterward, I will not name your name to criticize you. But if you repeat it in the future, if you step back on the evil path again, if you come up with a careless and wrong argument or material to deceive people, there will be no change of forgiveness anymore.”
United International World Buddhism Association Headquarters
December 11, 2016
(Eric Huang translated this announcement from Chinese to English. It was last edited on 2024-08-30.)