September 5, 2026 Highlights of the Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple Fall Ceremony
By TBSN
- The light of Shakyamuni Buddha entering Siddhartha's body represents the Buddha coming to the Saha World to teach the Dharma.
- Everything that has form will eventually perish; all such things arise from inverted views and deluded thoughts.
- Practitioners should strive to return to constancy, remain pure, and merge into the Greater Self. In this way, they can be reborn in the Pure Land.
Dharma Discourse by HH Living Buddha Liansheng
Today, I am transmitting the Dharma of Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva. The depiction of Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva is the same as that of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, except that the lotus flower held in the hands is an unopened lotus flower. The mudra of Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva is formed by slightly opening the middle fingers and bringing the two hands together in a hollow-palmed gesture. The heart mantra is:
“Om, xu-xu, suo, so-ha.”
With these elements, a practice is formed. The mudra represents purity of body, the mantra represents purity of speech, and visualization of Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva represents purity of mind. When body, speech, and mind are pure, one is completely pure.
Today, I am about to reveal the final secret: Everything in this Saha World is an inverted, deluded, and illusory world. But even though everything is illusory, without money, you cannot accomplish anything. With Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva's arrival this time, everyone will be bestowed with wealth.
No matter who we are, from kings to beggars, everyone needs money. Everyone who has come to today's ceremony can receive blessings from both the human and heavenly realms, as well as a prediction of rebirth. Those who attend today can be reborn in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss at the end of this life, and those who attain spiritual realization can attain Buddhahood in this very life.
I want to tell everyone what I have come to understand after following Golden Mother of the Jade Pond for fifty-six years: Shakyamuni Buddha has never come to the Saha World. This is something Shakyamuni Buddha said himself. To say that Shakyamuni Buddha taught the Dharma here would be slanderous.
I ask everyone: Has the sun ever come to Earth? The answer is no, but its light has come here.
The same is true of Shakyamuni Buddha. Shakyamuni Buddha did not come to the Saha World, but Prince Siddhartha did. Prince Siddhartha cultivated in the human world and attained realization, and therefore left the Buddhadharma behind.
Once you understand this principle, you will understand the profound meaning of the
Diamond Sutra. “With no abiding, give rise to the mind.” This is what the
Diamond Sutra is saying. What is called no merit is merit, because it is precisely when there is no merit that there is merit.
I have gone to the Great Twin Lotus Pond to see Padmamukara. Padmamukara has also never come to the Saha World. Padmamukara resides in the Land of Eternally Quiescent Light. In the Saha World, there is a person called Sheng-yen Lu, who is a symbol, not something eternal. Before long, when the temporary combination of the four great elements disperses, everything will return to dust. Sheng-yen Lu merely manifests through the light of Padmamukara.
Shakyamuni Buddha and Padmamukara have never come to the Saha World. The Buddha manifested through the light of Shakyamuni Buddha, while Sheng-yen Lu manifested through the light of Padmamukara.
This is why Shakyamuni Buddha said that although he taught for forty-nine years, he had actually taught nothing. The Buddha is merely the light of Shakyamuni Buddha. In the same way, I am merely a ray of Padmamukara's light. Once you understand this principle, you will know what you must do to return yourself to the light.
Taking this reasoning further, consider the Buddha's teaching: Everything with form is false; only the Buddha is true. Everything in the Saha World arises from delusion and inverted views. Everything with form or substance will perish. Even sentient beings in the Six Realms are all products of an illusory world of delusion and inverted views, created by karma.
All karmic causes, conditions, and effects of good and evil revolve here in samsara. Only through cultivation can one leave samsara.
To cultivate, one must understand: no appearance of self, no appearance of others, no appearance of a lifespan, and no appearance of sentient beings. Self represents oneself; others represent sentient beings; a lifespan represents time; and sentient beings represent space.
Why have we come into this world? Shakyamuni Buddha's answer is: to repay karma. Everyone comes here to repay debts. Only after those debts have been repaid can one be reborn in a Buddha realm. Otherwise, one continues to transmigrate in samsara.
There is nothing truly real in this world. Strictly speaking, even the Six Realms of samsara are part of an illusory world of delusion and inverted views. Human beings are false; the Earth is also false; even the moon's light is false. The Earth merely receives the light of the sun.
When practitioners understand this, they will begin to contemplate what the Land of Eternally Quiescent Light is and what true reality is. Of the human body, only its spiritual light can return; everything else is false.
Today's Dharma discourse is intended to awaken everyone, because we are doing false things in a false world. We use false money to sustain this false body, and at the end of life, it will all return to dust.
It is just like today's ceremony: once it is over, it is gone. There will never again be the same ceremony with the same people.
Recognize the falseness of this world and allow the light within yourself to return to the Land of Eternally Quiescent Light. Only then can you return to the Buddha realm. The Twin Lotus Realm at Rainbow Temple also leaves behind only a symbolic object for everyone to enshrine and make offerings to. Those with karma transmigrate; those without karma are reborn in the Buddha realm and return to the world of true suchness.
Generation after generation, everything eventually returns to emptiness. Do not think that you have truly obtained any property; all of it will disappear. Everything is like a bubble. Although it appears to exist, it bursts with a single touch and has no true reality. Everything in this world is merely for us to look at and use for a while.
This world is inherently impermanent, and any accident can happen. People can pass away at any moment. After death, what remains is that light. I myself am the light of Padmamukara, while Siddhartha was the light of Shakyamuni Buddha.
When practitioners believe in Padmamukara, Amitabha Buddha, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, or Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva, they will naturally receive the radiance of their light. At the end of life, they will lead everyone to the Land of Eternally Quiescent Light.
The joy of the Land of Eternally Quiescent Light and the Land of Fragrant Accumulation is eternal joy. To experience eternal happiness in the human world, one must cultivate and attain the indestructible Vajra Body. The key is to relinquish the small self, to relinquish this shell, and thereby become the Greater Self.
All sentient beings are inherently equal. The difference lies only in whether one understands this principle. Saving sentient beings means compassion, equality, tolerance, and purity. Only when one becomes pure and eliminates karmic obstacles can one return to the light.
I remind all disciples to quickly purify their karmic obstacles and make themselves pure. Once you understand this Dharma, you must put it fully into practice: Saving sentient beings means compassion, equality, tolerance, and purity.
First eliminate attachment to self, and then eliminate attachment to phenomena. When both self and phenomena are empty, everyone can ultimately return. Although we understand that life is like a dream, we should still make it a good dream.
The final verse of the
Diamond Sutra states:
“All conditioned phenomena
Are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow.
Like dew or lightning,
They should be contemplated as such.”
Everyone should learn to turn impermanence around, learn to return to constancy, learn to be pure, and learn to merge into the Greater Self. Once you understand this principle, naturally many things will be easier to let go of and see through.
Monastics and lay practitioners are the same. Without proper cultivation, one merely continues to transmigrate through the Six Realms. Once one's karma is purified, one can return to the Buddha realm and the Pure Land—that is the true home.
Today, I must explain this clearly to everyone. Otherwise, we would be wasting everyone's life and everyone's inherent Buddha-nature.
Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva is Mahasthamaprapta Buddha. Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, Vajrasattva, and Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva are one in essence, though they bear different names.
Translated by TBTTs
Edited by DJ Chang
English
