True Buddha Foundation reiterates that His Holiness, Living Buddha Lian-sheng (Grand Master Sheng-yen Lu) once gave a talk pertaining to dharma. He emphasized that the Acharyas who bestow teachings and empowerments must become the Personal Deities. They supposedly have the ability to become the Personal Deities themselves.



When is the best time to receive empowerment? His Holiness said in his dharma talk, \”it’s the best to obtain empowerment when the ongoing rituals are in accordance with the empowerment bestowed. Before an Acharya becomes eligible to bestow the empowerment, he has to be focused on practicing this relevant dharma at an earlier time, and he himself needs to be involved in a matter of legitimate or illegitimate methods to True Buddha Dharma.\”


Recently there have been excessive demands for people wanting to receive empowerments during some Buddhist ceremonies. His Holiness hence gave a dharma talk once again. He said, \”Any Buddhist ceremony that worships a specific Personal Deity should bestow the empowerment of this Personal Deity themselves. This is the legitimate way to follow.\”


Therefore, the True Buddha Foundation has made a public appeal: In the future, all True Buddha temples, chapters, and cultivation centers that petition His Holiness or the True Buddha Acharyas to preside over ceremonies need to make sure that the empowerments bestowed have to be relevant to the Personal Deity of the ceremonies. Only by following this is considered to be legitimate to True Buddha Dharma.



Yours respectfully
True Buddha Foundation

August 25, 2012