The contents of these books
“The 21st Century Buddha’s Message I, II”
that had not been mentioned earlier
in human history,
were written by the author
after coming out of Samadhi.
Gwangmyong Manduk
Jajae Manhyon
The 21st Century
Buddha’s Message I
This is the message from the two Buddhas,
Kasyapa Gwangmyong Buddha
and Ananda Jajae Tongwang Buddha,
who have appeared and preached
after having attained Buddhahood in the 21st century
Gwangmyong Manduk
Jajae Manhyon
Hyonjisa, Hyonjigung
A life in prison in this world
cannot be compared to that of the life
of those dying in the hells.
There is no such earthly prison
where prisoners are forced to walk
on a sea of fire.
Our spiritual bodies feel such sufferings
as our false body feels when it burns.
-Words of the Buddha-
I saw the sights of the hells in complete concentration
accompanied by the Buddha
I wish to teach those who read this book,
“If you live virtuously without doing evil deeds,
keep precepts well (five precepts and ten virtues),
read the Mahayana Sutras (the Diamond Sutra),
and recite a Buddha’s name well
(to chant the sacred name of Sakyamuni Buddha),
you will live this life and next life happily,
escape from the transmigration of birth and death,
and also attain rebirth
even in the Realm of Ultimate Bliss.”
Preface 序
As the wealth and honor of the world is just like a dream or morning dew, it is not permanent. As all things in the phenomenal world are impermanent (無常), they do not exist permanently. The body that I think is mine is really not ‘I’. It is not mine. If a person is a practitioner, attachment to something false like property, sex (性), and power must be put down. If a person is attached to them, afflictions like greed and hatred will arise fervently; he will commit various sinful karma; and he will transmigrate to evil destinies like hell, etc.
The original nature of mind has earlier had no birth or death. If one does not enter complete concentration, it is very difficult to escape from evil temptations and throw away worldly pleasures as well, but if you are the one who seeks a true happiness, you must contemplate the Buddha and live by his words.
I am well aware that since Korean Buddhism has been affected by Seon (chan, zen) Buddhism for more than a thousand years, many Buddhists have long been brainwashed by its teachings, and their perception is fixed to it.
Up to now, you have probably thought of the Buddha in the concept of the Dharma Body (skt. Dharmakaya) as having the same meaning with the emptiness of the Prajnaparamita Sutra, but when you first read this book, it may not be immediately easy for you to understand its true Dharma teachings that suddenly replaces your previous beliefs with the concept of the Reward Body.
The Seon Sect (禪宗) and many Mahayana Buddhist scholars say, “Mind is no other than a Buddha.” and explain, “When one enlightens one’s mind, one is a Buddha.” But I declare that seeing one’s true nature is only the beginning of practice, and only the starting point of a long journey to become a Buddha.
I have decided to write the 21st Century Buddha’s Message to tell Buddhists what the true Dharma is. I write this book to tell you that the Reward Body of the Buddha is alive. The Buddha (報身, Sambhogakaya) is alive!
We must realize that the Dharma Body Buddha has no form, so it cannot think, nor act. I have entered deep Samadhi and have seen the Reward Body Buddha possessing a holy shape of the 32 bodily signs with the facial features of the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and so on in the Absolute Realm in Selflessness. The Buddha is the Absolute with a character of great kindness and great compassion who is indeed omniscient and unimpeded in everything. This is an earthshaking event indeed since the dawn of history.
As stated in the Chapter on the Life-span of the Tathagata of the Lotus Sutra, Sakyamuni Buddha has actually never become extinct, is always expounding the Dharma even now at the Vulture Peak Mountain Pure Land (India’s Vulture Peak Mountain, the Spirit Mountain ), and is teaching Bodhisattvas.
Not only the teachings of Buddhism in this country, but those of the world have also been much distorted. This has resulted from the problems in Buddhist scriptures which form the basis of the teachings and study of Buddhism.
The Mahayana Buddhist Sutras are the Sutras written by the Transformation Bodies of Buddhas and are basically the teachings of the Buddha. The theory that all Mahayana Buddhist Sutras have not been expounded by the Buddha, namely saying that all Mahayana Buddhism is not the teaching of the Buddha is incorrect. Part of the contents within the Sutras that scholars have added later is not the teaching of the Buddha, so these parts must be sifted out. The theory of Buddhism must be immediately redefined by a great enlightened master. I have dared to hold a brush to write this book in order to accomplish this great task, sacrificing my whole life. This is a great work for the Buddha that only the one who has attained Buddhahood can actually carry through.
There is another motive why I have come to write this book.
Serving as another momentum was when I contributed a feature article to the Busan Daehan Buddhist Newspaper as I wanted to cry out in a voice of thunder against the extremely thoughtless and damaging words of a professor about Buddhism.
Transmigration is definitely true, but there have not been any Dharma teachings of the lion’s roar in the past, affirming this point strongly. As Hell and the deva realm exist, thus the cycle of life and death is true; there is the Western Pure Land; there also exist Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. If one sees things within emptiness, everything is of course void. All are illusions and transformations. There exists nothing.
However, when you come into the discrimination world, not only do humans and animals exist, but there are also appalling hells. There is definitely the deva realm as well where good and virtuous beings ascend.
The wrong perception that the Seon Buddhist Sect dominating Korean Buddhism has must be changed.
There is also the Western Pure Land outside of the wheel of life and death where Bodhisattvas go; the Buddhas who have combined with the universe are also living. There also exists ‘the Absolute Realm in Selflessness’ that transcends existence and non-existence.
Enlightening emptiness1, seeing the original nature of mind, and seeing the light of existence is a goal and dream of a practitioner indeed. But what comes afterwards is more important.
1Emptiness (空, sunya): This is considered important next to the six paramitas in practicing the actions of the Bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism (the Prajnaparamita Sutra). The substantial nature of emptiness is to be empty like the empty space, and it has the meaning of hollowness (空虛) and nonexistence (空無). Emptiness which is the original substance of the universe creates all things (萬物) in the universe, and has the control (統制) and maintaining power (維持力) of the repetition of the process of its creation, maintenance, destruction and emptiness (Emptiness possesses all the power and inexhaustible substance, 無盡藏質料, that it requires for its process). There is the meaning of practical emptiness (實踐空) of ‘empty your mind’ which teaches one to deny one’s stubbornness (我執) taking that I and everything that compose the world exist all the time.
‘Seeing one’s original nature is the state in which the great life (大生命) of the universe that is not created nor annihilated (the original substance (本體), the true original nature (實相), I AM, emptiness, and mind) is revealed. It is empty like the empty space; there is nothing; there is only light. When things are seen from the original nature of emptiness, there is no Buddha, nor Bodhisattva, no hells, nor the Realm of Ultimate Bliss, etc. A practitioner must practice actions of no-self and actions of dhuta from this point. He must empty his greed and afflictions of the Three Poisons existing in his mind by relying on the power of salvation of the Buddha and obeying the precepts more thoroughly; must not linger on clinging or attachment; must read sutras and enter into recitation of the sacred name of the Buddha. He must create his own Buddha. Then he will become an arhat, a Bodhisattva, and a Buddha. When one enters the state of a Buddha, one can see all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, hells and Pure Lands of Utmost Bliss. One can see completely that sentient beings transmigrate birth and death in the six realms.’
Above all things, one must keep the precept forbidding sexual misconduct, by keeping away from women.
Observing pure and clean precepts of the Buddha, one must put selfless study into practice.
Then one will cut off the chain of transmigration, and become an arhat. After this, one can never enter the state of a Bodhisattva without receiving the awesome spiritual powers and other power of the Buddha.
One achieves complete liberation by going through the state of a Bodhisattva and by becoming a Buddha in the end. Then one will live in a true bliss until the end of all time. This is the immeasurable life-span (無量壽).
These Dharma teachings that speak about the state of an arhat (聖衆) and a Bodhisattva after enlightenment, that speak about the state of a Buddha, namely the Three Bodies (三身) of a Buddha (佛), and that persist strongly about Hell and the cycle of life and death are truly an unprecedented matter since the passing of the Buddha. I dare wish to speak of these parts that clarify the true Dharma of the Buddha.
A Buddhist must repent of the past and live an honest and faithful life in all matters. He must follow the footsteps of good people, do no harm to others, love his country, honor the saints, and live a righteous life as a student of the Buddha. Practicing so, he must fulfill a great work for the Buddha zealously, do all filial duties to the parents and ancestors, make offerings to the Buddha, and read Mahayana Sutras. If one becomes a sincere person, chants the sacred name of a Buddha (念佛) and lives an earnest life, praying for rebirth in the Western Pure Land, one can surely escape from the wheel of life and death, and be reborn in the Pure Land.
I earnestly suggest that those who have renounced worldly life and are practicing, should absolutely take the purity precepts (淸淨戒) like life, observe them thoroughly, practice the six paramitas and live a life practicing ceaseless recitation of a Buddha’s name. If one devotes one’s body to the practice of recitation, living one’s lifetime as a clean and pure monk, it is also possible for him to be reborn in the Western Pure Land. If one lives keeping all one’s duties as a practitioner, coming closer and closer to the Buddha during transmigration after transmigration in the six states of mortal existence, there will come a day when one will become a Buddha, a holy great saint.
A Buddha has completely become one with the universe, and is the Dharma King of the Three Realms who has attained great freedom.
I have witnessed that the higher one goes up to the beings in the deva realm and arhats, plus Bodhisattvas and Buddhas who have escaped the Three Realms, the holier the appearances look, and the meritorious happiness that one can enjoy is doubled. The lower the Hell one goes down to, the worse the environment gets and the greater the pains become.
As I have personally met Sakyamuni Buddha (世尊), the King of the Three Realms, have heard the Dharma teachings in person, and have seen and confirmed them all by virtue of the awesome spiritual powers of the Buddha, I have put together the factual news into a book and present it to the world.
It is in the latter Dharma days that people believe that the other world does not exist, and death is the end. Great Monks have taught that Hell and the Western Pure Land, plus the Buddha and a Bodhisattva are no other than the mind, and thus everyone believes so. There are the secrets of the Dharma regarding the Buddha which I must not speak of, so this time I am explaining only to this extent for which I ask for your kind understanding. I wish to introduce more profound news in the next “The 21st Century Buddha’s Message II.”
The one who thoroughly reads this book several times from cover to cover and puts what it teaches into practice will be endowed with the empowerment of the supernatural powers not only from 104 Avatamsaka holy multitudes, but also especially from Medicine Buddha’s 12 yaksa leaders among the Avatamsaka holy multitudes, 84,000 heavenly soldiers under the command of the yaksa leaders, and Avatamsaka dragon gods. Hence, his family will be harmonious in peace, and he will live a blessed wealthy life in this life by realizing his wishes, and he will not be born in evil realms in the next lifetime, or he will achieve liberation freed from the transmigration of life and death. All 104 Avatamsaka holy multitudes have promised and vowed happily to this declaration, saying unanimously that they will dedicate themselves to this end, though their bodies are turned to powder.
This book has been able to come into the world because, first of all, there has been an order from Sakyamuni Buddha, the King of Buddhism, Buddha the World-Honoured who is rare and holy. Throwing my whole body to the ground in prostration, I return this great honour to the Buddha, being the Buddha of the Buddhas, who has so graciously presented me with the Letter of Recommendation (I tell the good men and good women in Jambudvipa).
And I make a deep bow of appreciation to Great Wisdom (大智) Manjushri Bodhisattva who has given me wisdom.
Above all things, I of course wish to say my profound thanks to Great Monk Gwang myong Manduk, and express my special appreciation to the two Bonhwa Bodhisattvas Mahasattvas Sanghaeng and Junghaeng (Those who read and practice the teachings of the Lotus Sutra will be well aware of them), who have assisted me from beginning to end throughout the course until this book is published.
I also wish to extend my sincere thanks to Bhikshu Dae-won, Bhikshuni Yon-ho, Bhikshuni Jung-soo, Buddhist Hye-woon and President Gyo-chan Jung of Hwa-eun-gak Publishing Company who have carefully proofread before this book was published.
Lastly, I bow my head deeply to Medicine Tathagata Buddha who has shown a great interest, even to decide the price of this book.
I sincerely hope that your earnest faithful Buddhist practice will continue until the 21st Century Buddha’s Message II comes into the world.
My Supreme Master from the very beginning (始我本師)
Namu Sakyamuni Buddha
who has attained Buddhahood
from the immeasurable past (久遠實成)
King of Buddhism in Jambudvipa
King of the Three Realms!!
Jajae Manhyon
Hyonjisa, Hyonjigung
The 7th day of March of the Lunar Calendar
2549th Year of the Buddhist Era
Contents
I tell the good men and good women in Jambudvipa / 13
I open a new chapter of new Buddhism/ 19
Preface / 37
Chapter1. I have met the Buddha
-The Buddha abides in the Absolute Realm in Selflessness 49
Chapter2. The Immeasurable Light – the gateway to become a
Buddha 69
Chapter3. Awakening to one’s original nature is the beginning
of practice 79
Chapter4. A thundering cry against the profaning remarks of
a professor 97
Chapter 5. Transmigration (1) 105
Chapter 6. Transmigration (2) 119
Chapter 7. Transmigration (3)--------------------------------------131
Chapter 8. One can be freed from transmigration 143
Chapter 9. The Three Bodies of the Buddha (佛) (1) 157
Chapter 10. The Three Bodies of the Buddha (佛)(2) 173
Chapter 11. Precepts (戒律) 185
Chapter 12. How do we have to live! (1) 207
Chapter 13. How do we have to live! (2) 217
Chapter 14. Buddhism, its greatness (1) 229
Chapter 15. Buddhism, its greatness (2) 239
Chapter 16. Buddhism, its greatness (3) 251
Chapter 17. Answers to readers’ questions (1) 261
Chapter 18. Answers to readers’ questions (2) 271
Chapter 19. Answers to readers’ questions (3) 287
Chapter 20. Answers to readers’ questions (4) 299
Chapter 21. Samadhi 三昧 315
Chapter 22. Chanting the sacred name of a Buddha 稱名念佛 335
Chapter 23. Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhist Sutras 349
Chapter 24. Supernatural powers 神通 361
Chapter 25. Hell – Father was saved from Hell 373
Chapter 26. Emptiness (空, sunya) -Penetrate through emptiness, enter Samadhi of Great Quiescence, meet the Buddha and then attain Buddhahood---------------------------------------------------------389
Chapter 27. If one can make an offering to the Buddha – Making an offering to the Buddha creates the highest merit and virtues for removing karmic hindrance 403
Chapter 28. Heavenly maras 天魔– focusing on heavenly maras and dragon ghosts 413
Chapter 29. The bag of the merit and virtues of good roots 421
Chapter 30. To male and female monks, male and female lay
people四部衆 of Buddhism! 427
Chapter 31. Meet your spiritual teacher 437
Chapter 32. Noble disciple Kasyapa – Gwangmyong Manduk 449
Chapter 33. Hyonjisa, Hyonjigung –
Part of the practice diaries are introduced 461
Postscript 後記 / 471
Chapter 1
I have met the Buddha
-The Buddha abides
in ‘the Absolute Realm in Selflessness.’
Enlightening self nature is only the beginning of practice.
I have realized the fact
that the claim of the Seon family(禪家)
saying that‘seeing one’s own nature
is no other than attaining Buddhahood’
is definitely wrong,
and that, although one completes
maintaining one’s practice after awakening,
it does not mean that he becomes a Buddha.
The Buddha abides in the Absolute Realm in Selflessness.
I have also learned that
the Buddha is
holy and rare, and almost the Absolute Being.
Fundamental doubts
First of all, I throw my whole body to the ground in prostration, and take refuge in Sakyamuni Buddha who is the most highly respected in the Three Realms, the great King of Buddhism in Jambudvipa until the end of all time, and who is also the first Buddha who has attained Buddhahood from the immeasurable past (久遠實成), and at the same time Prabhutaratna Tathagata Buddha2 in the Tower of Prabhutaratna Buddha who is also the King of the Three Realms, and the Greatest Wisdom Manjushri Bodhisattva3, the teacher of all the Buddhas, who has attained Buddhahood after the Five Tathagata Buddhas (五如來).
At the young age of around twenty, I had fundamental questions about birth and death of the human life.
I was very anxious to know whether it is all over, if a person dies, and if it is not the case, whether there is another
2A Buddha who can rank as high as Sakyamuni Buddha among numerous Buddhas of the Threefold Great Thousand World Systems. ‘The Buddha of the Buddhas’. You can read about this Buddha in the Lotus Sutra.
3The left hand assistant of Sakyamuni Buddha attained Buddhahood after the Five Tathagata Buddhas (Sakyamuni Buddha, Prabhutaratna Tathagata Buddha, Medicine Tathagata Buddha, Amitabha Buddha & Bo-myong Buddha). He is ‘Wisdom Buddha’ who has already attained Buddhahood seven times over countless kalpas.
life after death. If another life does exist, I wondered whether it is like Hell, Heaven, the Western Pure Land that religions commonly teach, and I also wondered whether the transmigration of Buddhism is true.
As Seon (meditation) says, when one is suffering from afflictions and delusions, I wondered whether that very mental state is Hell, and whether there do not exist any other hells elsewhere. I also wondered whether the mind is truly the Buddha. If one enlightens the nature of one’s mind, I wondered whether one becomes a Buddha.
If one becomes a Buddha, I wondered what the Buddhahood is like. If one enters a great nirvana, I also wondered whether one becomes emptiness itself, and what emptiness is like. It is said that one unites with the universe and becomes one. I wondered what it meant specifically; the questions never seemed to stop.
The struggling for wanting to be enlightened about these fundamental questions of life served me as a motive to renounce the worldly life and become a monk (僧).
Has God, who is one and only and omniscient and omnipotent, created the world? If it is not true, was everything created by a certain impersonal principle or the principle of reason (理法)?
If a person breaks through a Hwadu (a question for concentration in meditation), can he enlighten the original nature of mind? If a person enlightens the nature of his mind, how can he solve the question of life and death of being born and dying? Is it possible to escape from the cycle of life and death and to leap over the Three Realms?
I wondered what level the Seon (zen) Masters who attained a thorough enlightenment had reached. I also wondered if the patriarchs who transmitted the lamp after the Buddha could be considered to have become Buddhas.
What are the awesome spiritual powers of the Buddha like? It is said that the uniqueness of Buddhist teachings lies in the thought of ‘no self4.’ If a sentient being transmigrates the wheel of life and death, is it not contradictory because we cannot deny the subjectivity of transmigration?
After becoming a monk, I read Buddha’s Sutras extensively. While contemplating on and on, I became a student of Great
4No self (無我 anatman): This is a thought that is unique to Buddhist teachings. All things maintain their existence interdependently, so there is nothing that exists independently and in a real form (諸法無我).
This implies that there is no real thing that can be called ‘I.’ Meanwhile, this ‘there is no real thing’ has been mistranslated, so both sectarian forms of Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism have not recognized even the substance (實體) of the so-called the human spirit called self or the spirit over the past 2600 years. Buddhism in India has gone on the road to collapse by advocating the wrong thought of ‘no self’ saying that even atman (I) does not exist to differentiate Buddhism from Hinduism. ‘All things have no self’ must be understood by confining it to the phenomenal world. If we are born again and transmigrate birth and death, then this is possible when there is the original substance (本體) that can store consciousness and memory, plus the karma that we have committed. The spirit is a metaphysical substance, and one can see this when one is at the stage of a Buddha. The reason that the Buddha has said of no self was to remove the view of the erroneous self (我見) attaching to ‘I’, because we take that which is not true self (我) as ‘I’. If one has 0.1 percent of the thought of ‘I’, one cannot enter true Samadhi nor can one become a Bodhisattva.
Master Monk Gyong-bong of Geuk-rak hermitage, Tongdosa (temple) who was the greatest enlightened Master at that time, and received a Hwadu ‘What is this (是甚麽)’, and kept investigating deeply into doubts.
Seeing self nature and enlightening the Path 見性悟道
What is this that doubts?
On one day in July which was the tenth year since turning the light inwards on myself and reflecting on my original nature, even when I let go of my thoughts, I kept probing into the doubts of the Hwadu for many days.
When a choking sensation had swollen and reached an extreme extent just like a balloon, I was reading the Diamond Sutra loudly. When I was reading this part of the Sutra ‘The Tathagata does not come from anywhere nor does he go anywhere,’ I felt all of a sudden as if my whole body was exploding, and the world was turned over and reversed completely.
The wall of the subjectivity (主) and objectivity (客) crumbled down. Everything was open and void like the empty space. It was tranquil and luminous (寂照) and there was only the light which had existed from the immeasurable past. And there was nothing. I have clearly seen that, as the mind does not have a real form, it does neither go nor come and is immutable in true suchness (如如不動).
I could not help getting up. And I sang a song, dancing, feeling really what the bliss of the Dharma (法悅) was like.
A karmic tree
which had lived for countless eons (多劫生)
was flourishing.
Delusion blossoms bloomed
on each one of eighty-four thousand branches and trunks.
I have uprooted it completely,
and there was neither sky nor earth.
The false body
was shattered into pieces,
and transformed into dust
with nothing remaining.
Where is it to be attached to.
Mind, mind
does not exist originally.
Its name is called mind.
It has already been thirty years since I experienced enlightenment. I believe that by relentlessly pursuing, while awake and asleep, the doubts and questions I had earnestly built up, I was rewarded with being able to see the original nature (本來面目) of mind, the real form of existence and the original substance (體性) of the universe.
Return to chanting the sacred name of a Buddha
When I think of the past days when I spoke of ‘a song beyond kalpas of a stone woman (石女)’ and ‘the eastern mountain walks on the water (東山水上行)’; when I wielded a stick thirty times like Te-shan (德山)5; when I chanted emptiness with words that had no attachment to appearances; and when I was proud of myself with illusion believing I had almost become the king of the universe, I just feel ashamed of myself.
5There is no discrimination between living beings and lifeless things, up and down, etc. in the Absolute Realm which lies beyond the discriminating realms of existence and non-existence. It is tranquil extinction. It is emptiness. Therefore I chanted emptiness with a shock of fresh words that a stone woman had chanted of tranquil extinction and emptiness, and a mountain walked on the water. Just as Great Monk Te-shan of old China had said, I also said that I would resort to wielding a rod thirty times even though someone answers by opening one’s mouth or answers with silence. I wish to say here that ‘it is an illusion to understand that a person can solve the problem of life and death only with a mere experience of emptiness (talking about extraordinary supreme Dharma state and emptiness with words without any attachment, and performing the Dharma discourses well) and further only with attaining empty nature.’ Only the power of deep Samadhi can leap over the transmigration of birth and death.
Reading practice stories of superhumans in the Himalayan Mountains, saints (yogi) of Hinduism, and Saint Milarepa of Tibetan esoteric Buddhism, and thoroughly reading Mahayana Sutras such as the Lotus Sutra, Avatamsaka Sutra, etc. I found out something very important after comparing and checking my Seon (zen) practice with those saints and sutras.
Enlightening self nature is only the beginning of practice. I have realized the fact that the attitude of the Seon School saying that ‘seeing one’s original nature is no other than attaining Buddhahood’ is definitely wrong, and that, although one completes maintaining one’s practice after awakening, it does not mean that one becomes a Buddha. I have also learned the fact that the Buddha is holy and rare and almost the absolute being.
As there is a limit in the ability of a human, I was convinced that I was eventually unable to advance any further than an arhat. I felt keenly that it was absolutely impossible for an arhat to be united with the universe.
It is only for a moment that the so-called existence (Sein, the Dharma nature of Buddhism, self nature in Seon) of the existential philosophy reveals and stays. Only becoming a Buddha by eternally combining with the universe guarantees the complete liberation from birth and death.
By reaching the so-called state of seeing my original nature, I have realized that the God of monotheism is only an idol. So to speak, the stage at which one declares that there exists no
absolute creator6 is no other than the state of seeing one’s original nature.
On reaching this stage, I have found out that this body is ‘a false I’ like the clothes and a house consisting of the Four Great Elements (earth, water, fire, wind, 地水火風); that ‘I’ is ‘a false I’(假我) created by cause and conditions made up of the Five Aggregates (form, feeling, perception, impulse, consciousness); that this world is an impermanent existence (無常) such as a dream, shadow or dew.
I have also learned that it is only one’s thought that discriminates, judges and thinks, not the mind. Even with this only, it must have been a tremendous awakening.
Therefore, if there is the one who has awakened to the tranquility before creation of the sky and earth i.e. before the Buddha was born; if there is the one who has awakened to the
6There cannot be any God who created everything (existence) within six days from nothing (non-existence). It is a principle that existence is created from existence. Everything has been produced from the impersonal existence (I am who I am), namely from emptiness before the consciousness that transcends space and time. There is no personalized God who created everything, namely all living beings, lifeless things, space, stars and the universe. This is a real idol that the human has created. If he is an existence that gives love, hates, is jealous of others and also annihilates the human, he is no other than a sentient being. Humans kill, plunder, commit adultery and tell lies. If we trace the responsibility of these acts, we must ask God who created everything in the universe about all of these sins, and punish him. How can you explain the social conditions in which a good man lives a poor life and a wicked man lives a wealthy life? Everything is made up of cause and conditions. The doctrine of cause and conditions (the doctrine of interdependent arising, 緣起論) in Buddhism is the true principle of universal reason that creates and maintains the universe enabling it to continue.
original nature before the universe was created, one will speak clearly that only the doctrine of interdependent arising7of Buddhism is, of course, the truth.
The reason that I was suddenly able to return to the practice of meditation through chanting a Buddha’s name with courage was because, above all things, I had a strong conviction that
the practice of observing the precepts, reading sutras and reciting a Buddha’s name was the only way to become a Buddha as taught in the Avatamsaka Sutra and the eight important Chapters in the Lotus Sutra.
Further, it was because I found out a short-cut in the Three Pure Land Sutras that a practitioner could completely be freed from the transmigration of life and death, and because I also realized clearly that observing the precepts, reading Sutras
and repeating the sacred name of a Buddha was the only way for us to live a better life.
At that time, taking note of Seon (Chan) meditation through reciting a Buddha’s name which India’s Nagarjuna and Asvaghosha Bodhisattva, China’s Patriarch Hui-yuan, Chin’s Jue-xian, Tan-luan, Tien-tai Chih-I, Shan-dao, Dao-chao,
7Not even one thing in the universe (萬有, all things in the universe) exists independently, rather, all things arise interdependently (因緣生起), becoming cause (因) and becoming conditions (緣) to one another. The principle of universal reason of interdependent arising has not been created by the Buddha nor by anyone; it has existed in the Dharma Realm all the time; this is what the Buddha has become enlightened to and is the fundamental thought of Buddhism; and it is an immutable permanent truth. For instance, there is birth, so getting old, death, anxiety, sorrow, agony and worry (老, 死, 憂, 悲, 苦, 惱, 愁) are generated. Indeed it is not true that an absolute creator has created all things including human beings in the beginning.
Yongming-yanshou, and Korea’s Eui-sang, Won-hyo, Zen Master Seo-san had practiced, I was maintaining practice after awakening, contemplating (觀) the true original nature of the life of the universe.
During that period, I found that my mind was moving at the sight of a beautiful young lady. At that moment, I myself began to reflect on and have doubt about my past Dharma talks in which I had maintained that the furnace called the true nature of suchness would melt away all the afflictions of ignorance and sins of the countless kalpas, and would never leave any traces behind.
A strange thing like this happened: While walking alone on the mountain, I entered meditative concentration at a place where I could rest. During this meditation, a man who was afflicted severely with leprosy came into the place where I was, slept on the same bed with me and we had meals together.
Even though I was in meditative concentration, I returned to the state of the mind of sentient beings, and was caught up in a disgusting and uncomfortable thought on and on. (I found out later that it was the meditative concentration of a being in a heaven, 天人).
One summer day, when I was maintaining my practice after awakening at a small hermitage in the Tae-baek mountain, I found myself being so nervous and sweating after seeing a large snake coming close to me.
Through these experiences, I came to the conclusion that one cannot become a Buddha though one thoroughly sees the original nature of mind, namely self-nature of suchness (眞如自性), and continues one’s practice after awakening.
When the Buddha met a ruthless bad man called King Kaliraja while practicing 500 lives ago and was killed by being dismembered, but no angry nor resentful mind against the king arose in him. However, where have I reached? I gradually began to think deeply about the proposition of the limit of human ability and about other powers, namely the subject of ‘the empowerment of the Buddha.’ At that time, I entered a deep meditative concentration, misunderstood it as real Samadhi, and then wanted to meet with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. However, I was unable to contemplate Hell nor the deva realm, not to mention meeting the Buddha personally. In addition, I eventually failed to see the liberated enlightened realm (解脫悟界) freed from the wheel of life and death, namely the Heaven of the Arhats, Undefiled Great Arhats, the Heavenly Goddess Pure Land or the Western Pure Land.
However, as I believed that all these would really exist though I was a monk pursuing Seon meditation, I dared to change my direction to meditation through reciting the sacred name of a Buddha. I silently kept performing all pure practice and actions to be born in the Pure Land (淨土業)8 without showing myself outwardly because in the 1970s the then Korean Buddhism was placing emphasis especially on the Seon meditation practice, and those who were practicing recitation of a Buddha’s name were expelled as a non-Buddhist without any justification.
In addition, my determination of diverting to the meditation through reciting a Buddha’s name was also affected by my past pilgrimage like Sudhana.
I was able to put an end to my practice of Seon meditation by understanding and familiarizing myself with heterodoxy (a reverend who asserted himself as the second Jesus, a lay woman respected as a Buddha and the one who said that he had attained the Path living in a small hermitage in Jeolla Province, etc.) without differentiating between age or gender, a monk or lay person as if Sudhana in the Chapter of the Ganda-vyuha of the Avatamsaka Sutra had behaved.
I met the Buddha in Samadhi in selflessness
One day in January 2001, by virtue of my secret and incessant earnest practice in meditation through chanting a Buddha’s name over several decades, I finally entered Samadhi in selflessness drawn by awesome spiritual power of the Buddha.
8 to be born in the Western Pure Land, one must practice pure actions with a strong conviction that the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the awesome spiritual powers, and the Western Pure Land surely exist.
1. To obey the precepts of the Buddha Dharma
2. To chant the sacred name of the Buddha
3. To perform all filial piety to parents, and practice actions of a
Bodhisattva
4. To live a life doing everything that one can do for the true Dharma of the Buddha
Let me introduce to you part of the words which I have heard from the Buddha at that time.
“The Buddha does neither abide outside nor inside of the mind.
The Buddha abides in ‘the Absolute Realm in Selflessness.’
Mind does not have an inside or outside.
As it neither goes nor comes and does not move in true suchness (如如),
the Buddha abides in that way, too.
Only sentient beings say that it exists or it does not exist discriminating,
but the Buddhas abides in ‘the Absolute Realm in Selflessness’.”
At last, it was the moment when my dream that I had endeavored to achieve over the past billion kalpas was realized.
At that time, I could realize that I had already attained arhatship in my past lifetime a long time ago, and that I had reached a Bodhisattva of the high stage as a noble monk9 who attended on the Buddha at his side at the time of the Vulture Peak Mountain (the Spirit Mountain) of Sakyamuni Buddha.
It says in the Avatamsaka Sutra and in ‘the Chapter of the Ten Stages of a Bodhisattva’ that, if a Bodhisattva reaches the 9th Ground of Excellent Wisdom (善慧地), he will meet Buddhas through the power of great Samadhi and listen to the teachings of the Buddha. In fact, one must reach the stage of a Buddha, and then one can meet the Buddha in person and listen to his teachings.
I have met the Buddha again after some 2600 years since I served him when he came to the world as a Responsive Transformation Body at the time of the assembly of the Vulture Peak Mountain (the Spirit Mountain). How can I express that truly unbelievable moment of meeting in person his holy majestic Buddha Body with human character (the Reward Body Buddha) surpassing the 32 bodily signs and 80 marks that has been made of dazzlingly brilliant and gorgeous plus pure and lucid light with a billion kinds of colours?
9Noble Monk Ananda
When I entered Samadhi, the World Honoured One showed me a piece of the practice episodes of Ananda at the time of the Vulture Peak Mountain. When Ananda was in a deep Samadhi at the foot of a mountain away from the village, an old leper woman was passing by with a bowl of warm porridge contained in a half-broken gourd that she had begged, and was greatly touched and moved by the lofty appearance of Ananda, and kept doing half-bows kneeling upon her knees with the palms of her hands joined together, her hunger forgotten. After a while, when Ananda awoke from Samadhi and stood up, the old woman humbly offered him the porridge that she had begged. Understanding her sacred mind, Ananda received the meal that she offered. At this moment, as she used to do for her husband in the past, she put her unclean small finger into the warm porridge unconsciously to cool it and stirred it, and a finger joint was cut off and sank in it. Ananda drank the porridge as it was, wearing a grateful and satisfying look on his face to let her build up her merit. The level of Ananda’s practice has already been freed from attachment, and he has shown the state of a great practicing monk who had no adherence, attachment, nor abiding. After taking the meal, Ananda who had already reached the stage of the high grade Bodhisattva at that time joined his palms together and prayed to the Buddha. “Oh! The World Honoured One, my great teacher! Please clean the heavy karma of the past of this woman! I most earnestly pray that she be born in the deva realm for her merit of offering a warm-hearted meal to a practitioner. When the prayer finished, the woman fell down on the spot and died. For this merit of cause and conditions, she was born in the third heaven of the deva realm (天上).
With the thought of sharing even a little bit of the precious overwhelming moment of that time with our readers, I will briefly describe the impression that I have received when I first met the Buddha in person.
When I first met the Buddha, after entering a profound Samadhi of Great Quiescence, I could not see him at all because my eyes were dazzled by the Immeasurable Light emanating from him. When I suddenly came to myself, there was a man with a holy appearance standing in front of me who was in the form of immeasurably clear, clean and pure light. Oh, is this the Buddha whom I have longed and longed and looked for and carried in my mind all the time without forgetting? Is he really our King of Buddhism, Buddha the World-Honoured!
I was so fascinated to see the holy and inconceivable light that formed the Body of the Buddha (佛身) that I had no opportunity to shed tears of joy in meeting him. This light with such astronomical light intensity was so brilliant that it looked as if a thousand suns had appeared at the same time. It had a thousand, a million and a billion kinds of colours of transparent radiant light. How can it be so bright, clean, lucid and beautiful? At that moment, my mind became pure without any thought or any speck and I was filled with clearness and coolness after the karmic hindrance of a billion kalpas was melted away. I was just overwhelmed by the knowledge that he is omniscient, omnipotent and unimpeded, condensing cosmic ability, and by the great kindness and deep compassion in his eyes, plus by his majestic appearance and great inconceivable awesome spiritual powers.
Every time I see him now, I feel new though I have served him for the past fifteen years.
I think I should stop telling the news (about the realms of Sakyamuni Buddha, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas) about Buddhas and Bodhisattvas that I have heard since then. There are many secrets of the Dharma (密藏) and it is difficult to put them into words, so I intend to tell you little by little, over a period of time.
Reflecting on the past, I praise myself, slapping my knee and saying to myself that it was ‘a Copernican Conversion’ that, after having broken through a Hwadu (a head phrase), I switched my direction to the recitation of the sacred name of the Buddha. I cannot reveal everything to you because the practice course and gateways that I have passed through in the past are the secrets of the Buddha’s realm, but I wish to introduce to you a poem (偈頌) that I sang in Samadhi in Selflessness.
Empty, empty,
the Threefold Great Thousand World Systems
are empty.
The empty realm
where
no dust
and no particle
exists.
Clear, clean
and pureness itself.
Bliss, bliss,
it is bliss………
On the thirteenth day of January, 2001
I have finally passed through Samadhi of Quiescence and have been granted by the Buddha! I have been confirmed a Buddha by Buddha the World-Honoured!
Chapter 2
The Immeasurable Light
the stage of seeing the Immeasurable Light is the gateway to becoming a Buddha
The Immeasurable Light (無量光)
is the light that forms the Body of the Buddha.
It is neither contaminated by any phenomenon
nor damaged through all eternity.
Both inside and outside of it are revealed like a crystal
and are clear and bright beyond words.
It is the light of ultra high intensity
like thousands of suns appearing at the same time.
It is the light with immeasurable and countless colours.
It is the inconceivable light of the origin of the Buddha among light that can create all the conditioned and unconditioned dharma (phenomenal and non-phenomenal realms).
It is the stage of a Buddha, because only a Buddha can see it.
The light of self nature of an arhat
- the light of purified mind in silver-white colour
When one is practicing patriarch’s Seon meditation (祖師禪) or Seon of phrase investigation (看話禪) and is occupied in a mass of great doubt; the moment one’s Hwadu is broken through, one can experience the process that everything is completely overturned.
What comes into view at this time is only the light of self-nature, all exposed in front of me is empty, there is no I, and even the thought of I disappears. It is emptiness (空). It is the original nature of mind before a thought arises, that is, self nature of suchness (眞如自性). It is different from the sunlight. It is light in true suchness (如如), plus mystical light. It is also empty tranquility, and spiritual awareness. Shining on the Dharma realm, it is the light of the purified mind which does not exist in this world. It is the light of the white silver-white light.
This is the state of enlightenment. Then, if one completes one’s maintenance of practice after awakening, one will enter the level of an arhat.
Now I declare that, from the level of a Bodhisattva, it is the level that one can never reach only by one’s own strength without the assistance of other power, namely the absolute empowerment endowed by the Buddha!
The light of a Bodhisattva
- the light of the sun rising in the morning
If a practitioner enters Samadhi while practicing, and often meets with the phenomenon of absorbing the light of the Pure Land of the Buddha (大涅槃光明 Great Nirvana Light), which is emitted by Manjushri, and Samantabhadra Bodhisattvas, plus Avalokiteshvara and Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattvas, wearing long sleeved red Buddhist Dharma robe, it is considered as having come close to the stage of the level (位) of a Bodhisattva. I will tell you in detail later, but when one receives one’s Transformation Body (a child of a Pure Land) in a Pure Land by virtue of the empowerments of the Buddha, one becomes a Bodhisattva.
The light of a Bodhisattva (spiritual body) which has been cleaned by the light of the Buddha, is quite different in its level, compared with the light of self-nature. If the light of self nature is a silver white like the moonlight, then the light of a Bodhisattva is like the sunlight rising in the morning. So these are incomparable to each other.
A billion kinds of Immeasurable Light of the Buddha
When a Bodhisattva of the high stage (上品) enters the state of a Buddha, he will see the light so-called the Immeasurable Light, having the intensity of light (光度) higher than hundreds and thousands of the suns that are put together; and he will also see the light with hundreds, thousands and billions of subtle colours; a hundred kinds of light with five different colours (百種五色光); and a billion kinds of light (億種光).
A billion kinds of Immeasurable Light are the light of the Buddha. It is the light of the origin of the Buddha (本源光). It is the inconceivable light that is the origin of all the light – the light of the sun, the light of self-nature and the light of the Pure Lands. It is neither contaminated by any phenomenon, nor damaged through all eternity. Both inside and outside of it are transparent (內外明徹). Both inside and outside of it are revealed like a crystal, and are clear and bright beyond words. It is like the sunlight being reflected on a diamond.
I tell you that the light of the great omniscience (大智) of the Buddha is such an inconceivable light that is brighter than hundreds and thousands of suns. Only a Buddha can see a billion kinds of Immeasurable Light with thousands, millions, billions and asankhya of colours, so it is the stage of a Buddha. The gateway to becoming a Buddha is no other than the Immeasurable Light. It is the only gateway for a Bodhisattva to jump over to Buddhahood. These are the words of the Buddha.
Thus, there are those who say that Buddhas and Bodhisattvas do exist or do not exist before they have seen the ultra high intensity of the light of the Buddha after having awakened to emptiness, but this is a kind of thoughtless statement that ordinary people gabble. It is because a billion kinds of Immeasurable Light are the gateway (關門) to attaining (證) Buddhahood.
This is the virgin forest (處女林) where no practitioner’s footsteps have reached clearly for ages (萬古), but the practitioners who have discovered this boundary have been only Subhuti and Shariputra; and Noble Disciples Kasyapa and Ananda who have attained Buddhahood in this lifetime since the passing of the Buddha 2600 years ago.
The Buddha considered giving up spreading his words (傳道) with the thought that the Dharma he awakened by himself was too deep, too subtle, too difficult for people to understand and hard to enter, but he began to expound the Dharma at the strong recommendation and request of the Brahma Heavens (梵天). Likewise, in order to set up the true Dharma of the Buddha on this land, taking the risk of much defiance and slander, I wish to carefully deliver his various teachings that I have heard when I met Buddhas.
When one passes the stage of the light with these hundreds, thousands and billions of subtle colours, one can see the Buddha at last. The sentient beings of the saha world, holy multitudes (arhats 阿羅漢), or Bodhisattvas can never see the Buddha Body or Buddhas. It is because the whole body of the Buddha is made of the Immeasurable Light which contains astronomical light intensity.
A great saint who has attained Buddhahood has his Buddha Body made of this Immeasurable Light in ‘the Absolute Realm in Selflessness’, namely the Realm of the Buddha that is the Realm of Constant Quiescence Light (常寂光土). That one has one’s own Buddha Body means that he has accomplished Buddhahood.
The school which advocates scriptural study (敎家) calls a Buddha Body ‘a Sambhogakaya’ or ‘a Reward Body’ or ‘the Complete Body of Bliss (Blessing)’. At this point, I wish to replace the Buddha with the concept of a Reward Body (Skt. Sambhogakaya), breaking away from the past concept of the Dharma Body (Skt. Dharmakaya).
In today’s Buddhism, the doctrine saying that ‘the mind is no other than the Buddha’ has become common. Contrarily the Dharma teaching saying that ‘the Buddhas are dwelling in the Absolute Realm in Selflessness in the form of light’ will be like the nuclear bomb that can cause deformation of the earth’s surface. I sincerely hope that this surprising discovery will serve as a good momentum in redefining the teachings of the Buddha which have been distorted countless times.
As the Buddhas have their bodies all made of a billion kinds of Immeasurable Light, they will live an immeasurable life, and the Tathagatas of the past, present and future (三世) are all the same. Hundreds, thousands, millions and billions of Transformation Bodies manifest from the Buddha Body made of light with immeasurable and countless colours.
Human beings have a treasure storehouse called the Buddha nature within a false body. In his book called, “Existence and Time,” Heidegger took the existence of a human being as a clue for explaining existence. Only mankind who is the lord of creation can tell the true nature of the humans, nature and universe within the existence of a human being. He is indeed one of a few philosophers who awakened to suchness, namely existence, and has seen the light of self-nature (自性光).
If a practitioner enters hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of ri (distance unit in Korea) deeper from the stage where he has seen the light of self-nature and passes through so-called Oceanic Reflection Samadhi of a great Bodhisattva, he will see the light of the Buddha made of a billion kinds of Immeasurable Light. If he goes further forward, he will see the Body of the Buddha that indeed has the astronomical ultra high intensity of light and that is made of the light with colours as many as the number of particles. The Immeasurable Light is the mysterious light that has all the merit and virtues, and can create everything.
If a shaman or a practitioner who knows nothing about the Light of the Buddha says that he meets and converses with the Buddha, he talks like that, being deceived by heavenly maras. It is because heavenly maras (天魔) can transform and manifest themselves to resemble a Buddha or a Bodhisattva at any time.
But not only the Papiman, the chief leader of heavenly maras, but also the religious leaders of non-Buddhist sects can never emanate hundreds, thousands and billions of the light of the Buddha with subtle colours. Although a Buddha appears after absorbing light inside, some brilliant light radiated from the head, back and body, still comes out. Hence, even the heavenly maras who are skillful in transformation can never imitate it.
When I threw away
all I had,
I have possessed all.
One becomes many,
and many become one.
Even the one does not exist.
In ‘the Absolute Realm in Selflessness,’
there is only clean, clear and bright light (無量光明).
Chapter 3
Awakening
to one’s original nature
is the beginning of practice
Realizing (見性, enlightenment) one’s true self (眞我)
is not the end, but only the beginning now
The saying of‘awakening to one’s original nature
is namely to become a Buddha (見性卽成佛)’
is a dangerous expression.
It is because seeing one’s original nature
through probing into the doubts of a Hwadu head phrase
is nothing but the beginning of practice now.
Self-nature can be awakened at once,
but habitual energy that has been accumulated
while living through the countless kalpas
from the old days without beginning
does not disappear like that all at once.
One’s karmic hindrance and one’s three poisonous afflictions of greed, anger and ignorance
are not cleared away only by one’s own efforts.
This chapter is the contents of the Dharma talk reported in the newspaper called “Hyundai Buddhism” in Seoul in August 2003.
The Dharma (法)
neither goes,
nor comes,
nor attaches (着),
nor lingers;
it is in true suchness(如如),
and does not move.
The teachings of the Buddha are distorted
In today’s Korean Buddhism, the teachings of the Buddha have greatly been distorted. Even the view of life and death (生死觀)10 is not clear. Despite the fact that the Buddhist practice basically lies in observing one’s precepts thoroughly, it is true that the behavior of monks has become corrupted to a serious level.
10Unless one has entered and clearly seen the phenomena of the Buddha, one cannot tell or define where a person goes when he dies; where he goes again if his life ends there; where he goes if the cause and conditions of his karma finishes there; how sentient beings transmigrate hells, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, asuras and the deva realm according to the karma that they have committed; and where the holy multitudes (arhats or patriarchs), Bodhisattvas and Buddhas, who have surpassed the realms within transmigration, and the Three Realms, and who have achieved liberation, go again.
It is a pity that the situation is not improving, because there has not appeared any greatly enlightened saint. Today’s Buddhism says that trying to find the Buddha outside one’s mind is like boiling the sand to make boiled rice. They say that this mind is a Buddha, and the original nature of mind is the Western Pure Land.
People just search for Hell and the Western Pure Land only in their mind, and say, “Hell and the Western Pure Land are not real realms that exist independently, but no more than the product of our mind.” They do not recognize that Hell, the Western Pure Land, the Buddha, the Bodhisattva, etc. actually exist.
However, are they expressing these opinions after their eyes are really opened? Are they saying these after attaining the Buddha eyes (佛眼) and the Five Eyes (五眼)? Can they actually not see Hell and the Western Pure Land? Is there really the inside and outside of the mind? Is there the inside and outside in emptiness?
The mind (self-nature of suchness) is ‘neither to birth nor to destruction (death) (不生不滅).’In other words, the emptiness which is the original nature of the universe spreads out everywhere in the ten directions of the Dharma realm. At the same time, it exists beyond space and time, so it is not influenced by the phenomenal world (不汚染, no defilement). Self-nature (自性) is pure and clean without defilement, and in the state of true suchness in immutability (如如不動). If one breaks through Hwadu (head phrase), emptiness (空), namely the original nature of mind will be revealed. It is empty like the empty space, so there is nothing. Only the pure and bright light is full and shining. It is the original nature of mind. It is, what is called, to see original nature (見性). It is the state of a very high Dharma bliss (法悅) in which one will automatically dance a hula dance.
If one has seen the original nature, one will realize the principle of universal reason. One will find out that the doctrine of interdependent arising is the truth and the principle of the universe. The creation of the world and universe starts from emptiness, and all things in the universe return to the state of emptiness.
A practitioner with wisdom who is thoroughly enlightened will go into his real selfless practice of dhuta. Then if he has no attachment to his body, he becomes an arhat at last. He must advance an extremely long distance from here to reach the stage of a Bodhisattva. There is a long, long way to get to the Realm of Ultimate Bliss (the Western Pure Land) of permanence, bliss, self and purity. Moreover, one must go hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of ri (Korean measuring unit) further from here to reach the inconceivable Realm of Constant Quiescence Light made of a billion kinds of Immeasurable Light where the Buddha abides in true suchness. It is the realm one can reach only when one enters Samadhi of Great Quiescence, breaking through emptiness (空).
Consequently, I, Ananda Jajae Manhyon, have made an unprecedented megaton-range (nuclear bomb) declaration that seeing one’s original nature is the beginning of practice. I wish to say further that the moment one experiences emptiness (見性, seeing one’s original nature), it is like one enjoys to the fullest one’s freedom as when a prisoner who was imprisoned for a long time is released, gets out of the prison gate and walks along the street. One enjoys one’s real freedom that one cannot buy with millions of money. Humming to oneself, one tastes the bliss of the Dharma. But one must not act recklessly, taking oneself as one who has become an eternally liberated man, or misconceiving that one has become a Buddha.
When a practitioner is said to have broken through his Hwadu (head phrase) and to have achieved the Path, he is treated as a Buddha (如佛). He must be careful at this time. If someone had dropped a drop of excremental water onto pure water in a gourd dipper, could you drink it? He must observe the precepts of purity, and practice selflessness, plus go into the whole-hearted practice of the action of a Bodhisattva. If he acts recklessly and eats anything without discrimination, saying that he acts with unimpededness, he must be aware that he will fall down into a bottomless hell. I, Jajae Manhyon, tell you clearly that, if one drinks alcohol, eats meat and acts recklessly, misconceiving oneself to be a Buddha, and saying that there are neither Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, nor the hells and the Realm of Ultimate Bliss, one will fall into an unremitting hell. If one falls down into a hell, will there be any freedom – I am pointing this out with a great concern. From the standpoint of the emptiness that is void like the empty space, there are neither Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, nor the Realm of Ultimate Bliss and hells. This is where the law of reason is applied. So from now on, you must advance up toward the realm of nirvana of permanence, bliss, self and purity.
To resume our subject, Hell and the Western Pure Land (the Realm of Ultimate Bliss) cannot be seen simply with the level of enlightenment of one’s original nature of mind. The reason is that one can never see those realms from this stage.
My dear Buddhists! Hell and the Western Pure Land truly exist. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas really exist. The wheel of life and death is also true. Do you think that the Buddha who definitely spoke of Hell, etc. at some two hundred separate places in the Buddhist Sutras is a liar?
No, he is not! From now on, let me briefly tell you about what I have seen and heard in the past, passing through emptiness, passing over the original nature of mind and entering profound Samadhi in Selflessness (Oceanic Reflection Samadhi, Samadhi of Great Quiescence). Emptiness which is the original substance of the universe, namely the original nature of mind is the beginning and end of the phenomenal world. This means that it is not the end of practice, nor supreme enlightenment (究竟). Meanwhile, it is the beginning of true practice leading to tranquil extinction. I should like to tell you conscientiously as a practitioner what I have broken through, while weeping bitter tears.
The reason that I speak here about the truth of the Dharma realm of the universe is because I want with all truthfulness to state that, if one has become a monk renouncing worldly life to be freed from the sufferings of transmigration and to attain liberation from birth and death, one must practice earnestly toward the Buddha and practice actions of a Bodhisattva for sentient beings.
If one has an agony, is it Hell? - Hell actually exists!
Hell definitely exists. The Dharma teaching that ‘if one has an agony, one’s mind is the Unremitting Hell’ is actually to know only one thing, not two.
One cannot see Hell with one’s own physical eyes, but it exists in the direction of the Southern Ksitigarbha Palace of the realm of spirits. Hell definitely exists when seen from the phenomenal world of discrimination.
When I entered Samadhi in Selflessness, Hell appearing in the Sutra of the Fundamental Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva was only part of it. Here, I will introduce to you only one place among the many heavy sinners’ hells.
There is a hell where the underneath each of the ten fingernails of sinners is poked with pointed bamboo sticks. The spirits11 here receive severely painful punishment to the extent that sinners faint from pain and die ten thousand times a day and regain consciousness ten thousand times a day as well. The torture is felt the same as the physical body would.
11spirits: A human has a spiritual substance (靈的實體) as metaphysical intrinsic substance (形而上學的本體), namely a spirit. It denotes the No. 1, 2, 3, and the No. 4 spiritual bodies. It is our own master, and is also the subject of transmigration. Emptiness or mind here is the ultimate reality (窮極的實在) of all things in the universe (self-existing life) including human beings. It is different from a spirit. When one reaches the stage of a Buddha, one can see the spirits; it is a pity that traditional Buddhism including Seon Buddhism is totally unaware of this. But Jainism or Hinduism of India is aware of it however slightly.
If one commits the five heinous crimes and the four grave offenses, one will be sent to more a dreadful unremitting hell.
There is the extremely unremitting hell. The length of life there is limitless. The punishment of Hell is executed automatically. One hell is larger than the saha world. These are the special characteristics. When one goes into Hell, he passes a huge iron gate. I will tell you only this much for now12.
12In order to view Hell, there is one possible way: after a practitioner enters the fruit of a Bodhisattva, the Buddha takes him to Hell with the awesome spiritual power and shows him; the other way is to show Hell by emitting light from the middle part between the two eyebrows of the Buddha. The practitioner at this time must reach the level of a Bodhisattva above holy multitudes (arhats). The Hell that a practitioner who has not reached this stage sees in a dream or Samadhi is no more than twisted images that are far from the truth, or a fantasy that the magician of the mind has created.
The sin of monks’ sexual misconduct
If the monks, who have renounced worldly life and are practicing, commit the sin of sexual misconduct even once, they will fall into a heavy sinners’ hell or an unremitting hell.
It really is a dreadful thing. Imagine there is a person who is greatly awakened to the Path, who has fought off various hindrances of maras, and has practiced incessantly, by virtue of having built up merit and virtues of good roots in his previous lives. However, if he commits sexual misconduct, distorts, profanes, or insults the Buddha and the Dharma by saying that the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Hell and the Western Pure Land do not actually exist, but that they simply exist within the mind, he will fall into an unremitting hell and can have no expectations of ever being released. These are the words that many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have emphasized many times.
Buddhism teaches one to refrain from doing all evil deeds and to practice various good deeds (諸惡莫作衆善奉行). It is a great religion wishing ultimately ‘to purify the state of one’s mind (自淨其意) and to be liberated from birth and death.’
Here are the practices by self-power (自力) and through the door of other power (他力, namely, awesome spiritual power of the Buddha, the power of universal salvation). Both of them must be sought together.
It is the right order to save oneself first and then save others. Sentient beings possess the Buddha nature and are able to accomplish the Path (the fruit of an arhat).
The Buddha has called an arhat (聖衆 a holy multitude) the one whose shell of ignorance has been cast off, and whose self-nature has been revealed, plus who has maintained practice well after awakening. If one attains the saintly fruit (聖果) of an arhat, the root of his life and death will be cut off, plus he will be reborn in the realm freed from transmigration.
However, a human being cannot reach higher than an arhat because of the human structure. Arhatship is the limit of a human being. If one accomplishes the Four Fruits (四果) and becomes an arhat, one can develop a great, compassionate mind again and can receive a human body in this world according to one’s vows.
A Bodhisattva is the saintly fruit that an arhat can attain by other power (the awesome spiritual powers of the Buddha) after being born into a human body.
It is said that if one is freed only from afflictions and delusion, one is originally a Buddha, but this is a remark made without realizing what a Buddha is. A Buddha must attain his own Buddha Body, plus possess the Three Bodies (三身).
Precept Master Jajang of the Silla Dynasty attained the fruit of the great arhatship and was reborn in the First Heaven of the holy multitudes existing outside of the wheel of life and death. The revelation of self-nature (the original nature of mind) is also possible through the practice of Hwadu Seon meditation, Vipashana, and esoteric Buddhism. The whole phenomenal world becomes overturned, and the inside and outside of the whole world become emptiness which is completely empty. However, there is also strong and weak enlightenment. If a person has greatly been enlightened, his mind becomes the same when awake or asleep (寤寐一如), and he can speak of the Dharma even in the dream.
From this time, it is desirable that he advances towards the Dhuta (selflessness) practice, observing the precepts (especially the precept forbidding sexual misconduct). When one goes into selfless (無我) practice which is to kill oneself, one can reach the arhatship that is the ultimate awakening (究竟覺) of sentient beings. But I make it clear again that an arhat (a holy multitude) is not a Buddha.
The saying of ‘seeing original nature is namely accomplishing Buddhahood (見性卽成佛)’ is a remark made without realizing the Buddha. It is because seeing one’s original nature through probing into the doubts of a Hwadu (head phrase) is nothing but the beginning of practice now. Self-nature can be awakened at once, but habitual energy that has been accumulated while living through the countless kalpas from the old days without beginning, does not disappear so at a time. One’s karma which has been accumulated over the countless kalpas of lives is not cleared away only on the strength of one’s own efforts. The Three Poisonous Afflictions of greed, anger (hatred) and ignorance are neither eliminated by self power.
The saying that even though one has a sinful karma that has been committed over the past one hundred kalpas, if one awakens to one thought and sees light, all will disappear instantly (百劫積集罪一念頓蕩除), is not possible in reality.
Sudden enlightenment (頓悟頓修) is possible only by the Response Body of a Buddha. I declare this as a definite fact.
Even though an arhat comes to Jambudvipa (this world) again after having been born in the heaven of holy multitudes, he can follow a wrong way and fall onto the Evil Path13. If one has seen the Immeasurable Light and has not experienced the six different ways of shaking (六種震動)14 in one’s head, although one has seen the Buddha, one cannot directly hear the Dharma teaching from the Buddha, and cannot enter Samadhi in Selflessness, either.
13The following are the words of Dharma teacher In-gwang (印光法師).
Even if they practiced meditation earnestly, and saw self nature and became greatly enlightened, even the great masters, for instance, Chan Master Ojo Gye (五祖戒), Chan Master Zhou-dang Ching (草堂掅), Chan Master Zhen-ru Chiao (眞如喆), and Chan Master Dan-ae Eui (斷崖義) have not escaped from the wheel of life. Therefore when they received the next life, rather, they stepped backward and became disillusioned. In most cases, they attained far less than in the previous life. It is still understandable that Chan Master Gye, the fifth patriarch, was born as Su Tung-po and Chan Master Zhou-dang Ching was born as No-gong (老公). It is already a difficult thing to endure that Chan Master Hai
Yin Xin (海印信) was born as the daughter of Zhou Fang Yue (朱肪禦). It is also pitiful and sad that Great Monk Ahn-tang (雁蕩) was born as Zhen Hui (秦檜). (At the end of North Song, he became a prisoner of war and was repatriated to Xhin to become an aide to Tai-tsung’s younger brother. He served as a high official, sticking to the side of South Song and insisted on surrendering to Jin (金). Hence he was denounced as a traitor later.)
14This does not denote that the earth shakes in six different ways when the Buddha expounds his teachings. It means that one gets pounded in six different ways in one’s head with the sounds louder than those of thunder and lightning that do not exist in this world. Without going through this process, one cannot hear the words of the teachings of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, nor communicate with them.
Even the tenth stage (十地) Bodhisattva cannot see the Real Body (眞身, the Complete Body of Bliss) of the Buddha. If one who attained the Path has not reached this stage, one must not speak of the Dharma carelessly. One must attain the fruit of being reborn as a human or a heavenly being in the deva realm (人天果) only by speaking of the law of cause and effect.
Arhat saints are not satisfied in a small nirvana, so according to the teachings and intention of the Buddha as the Lotus Sutra states, they come to this saha world as a human to be promoted to a Bodhisattva or a Buddha whose levels are higher.
The Buddha gives the name ‘Bodhisattva’ when one reaches the eighth stage of the Bodhisattva. When one reaches this level, one will be protected by two heavenly soldiers and will be reborn in the Western Pure Land. If she is a woman, she will be reborn in the Western Pure Land after being changed to a man (變女成男) 15.
Nagarjuna, Asvaghosha, Asanga, Vasubandhu, Dharmapala of India; Dharma teacher Hsuen-tsang, Lian-Zong-Zu-Shi Hui-Yuan of China; and Won-hyo, Eui-sang, Seo-san, Ham-heo monks of Korea are those Bodhisattvas who have been reborn in the Western Pure Land.
15The teachings that are stated in the Amitabha Sutra, “If one can recite the name of Amitabha Buddha with one’s whole heart for one day or seven days, he can be reborn in the Western Pure Land,” are a sufficient condition for rebirth in the Western Pure Land. If a practitioner wishes to be able to contemplate the Buddha without distraction, he has to reach higher than the eighth stage (the immutable stage) (八地不動地) of a Avatamsaka Bodhisattva, plus this meditative concentration power can be cultivated when he observes pure and clean precepts throughout his lifetime.
The Tibetan Leader Dalai Lama is a final body of a Bodhisattva of the high stage in the Western Pure Land and the legendary saint Milarepa of the 11th century was reborn as a Bodhisattva of the best of the best in the Pure Land (the Northern Pure Land).
If a Bodhisattva wants to accomplish Buddhahood by receiving many lives in Jambudvipa, his karma, habitual energy, evil bonds, debts and the roots of the Three Poisons of greed, anger and ignorance, must melt away completely, not even a particle of residue must remain. Then he attains his own Buddha Body in ‘the Absolute Realm in Selflessness’ by virtue of the empowerments of the Buddha. Otherwise he cannot attain Buddhahood (佛果). The Buddha Body is made of a thousand, a million and a billion kinds of colours of mysterious light called a billion kinds of Light (the Immeasurable Light). Thus, the Buddha is living in the form of light. As he exists in light, the Tathagatas of the past, present and future are all the same in every particle and in every thought.
All four spiritual bodies in one’s false body of the one who attained Buddhahood become a light mass, and combine with his Buddha Body. As deeper teachings are the secrets of the Tathagata, I will hold my tongue.
The Seon School says, “Sakyamuni Buddha was enlightened, seeing the early morning star and became the Buddha.” However, one cannot be called a Buddha only because one has accomplished great enlightenment.
When one passes the gateways of various Samadhi over hundreds and thousands of lifetimes, and then attains the Buddha Body, one can become a Buddha. One must definitely realize that ‘seeing one’s self nature and attaining great awakening’ means that one has reached no more than the stage of an arhat.
The Buddha Body can appear in hundreds, thousands, millions, and billions of the Transformation Bodies. He freely enters hundreds and thousands of Samadhi, possesses eighty-four thousand supernatural powers, and is omnipresent everywhere. He becomes wisdom, blessed virtues and benevolence itself.
At the time of manifestation, the Buddha Body (the Complete Body of Bliss 圓滿報身) has neat and solemn features with more than thirty-two bodily signs and eighty marks. His appearance and every action is of ultimate benevolence, and he possesses tremendous awesome spiritual powers so that one feels that all one’s misfortune and karma will be eliminated, although one meets him even for a moment. The Scripture School calls this Buddha Body the Reward Body (報身, Skt. Sambhogakaya) which is the Body of Blessings (至福).
As the Buddha is always in Samadhi of Great Quiescence and exists in the form of light, he will never be annihilated until the end of all time. When the one who has attained Buddhahood goes out somewhere, the view is really magnificent, because hundreds and thousands of heavenly soldiers guard him both in the front and at the back.
Sakyamuni Buddha is truly the King of the Three Realms, and at the same time the Great King of Buddhism in Jambudvipa. He is also the very first Buddha (最初佛) who has attained Buddhahood from the immeasurably distant past (久遠實成).
If a person wishes to be freed from the sufferings of the cycle of life and death, he must keep the precepts well and, among other things, must not commit sexual misconduct.
Even if a practitioner who is greatly enlightened and is maintaining practice after awakening commits sexual misconduct, he could backslide even to the evil Path, far from escaping from the sufferings of the wheel of life and death, as if no one could drink the water when a drop of excremental water is released into the water in a gourd dipper. I repeatedly stress that he who has renounced worldly life and has gone to a temple, must pursue no possession, simply purity and cleanness.
A practitioner must practice under a great enlightened master who is able to protect him from all kinds of mara-hindrances. In addition, he must practice all filial piety (孝)16, read Sutras, and recite the sacred name of a Buddha and, if possible, remove attachment (着) and forms (相) by practicing Dhuta (selfless practice). Seeing one’s original nature, namely enlightenment is not the end of practice. In the Parable of the Lotus Sutra, Shariputra explained the Dharma that extinction of suffering in Mahayana is achieved when one attains a Body (a Reward Body) possessing the 32 bodily signs as well as the attainment of empty nature. Attaining Buddhahood, namely becoming a Buddha is made possible
16Real filial piety is to save one’s deceased parents and ancestors from the Three Evil Realms. If even only one ancestor remains in the evil realms, the Buddhist who earnestly practices to be promoted to a holy multitude, a Bodhisattva or a Buddha must realize that he will not be liberated. In fact, the Buddha highly praises the Buddhists who practice all filial duties.
when one enters profound Samadhi (Samadhi of Great Quiescence), after one awakens to emptiness through the practice of only the Noble Eightfold Path (the eight holy ways; right view, right thought, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood or occupation, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration, namely Samadhi) and then attains one’s empty nature (arhatship). I make it clear
that one must combine with emptiness with the Immeasurable Light in the Absolute Realm in Selflessness; must possess one’s own Dharma Body and Reward Body that are the Lord of emptiness; plus must attain the Three Bodies (三身) of a Buddha.
I confirm that the Seon masters of the Seon sect who see the Buddha as a person who has just seen his original nature are committing the great sin of definitely falling into unremitting hells. I, Jajae Manhyon, have words to say clearly not only to Seon Buddhism but also the traditional Buddhism circles and people of many religions in the world: If a practitioner has realized (見性, seeing one’s original nature, enlightenment) his true self (眞我), then after this he must devote himself to a true and genuine practice (懺悔發願 repent and make vows, 孝 filial piety, 持戒 observance of the precepts, 菩薩行 actions of a Bodhisattva, 稱名念佛 chanting the sacred name of the Buddha) of becoming an arhat, becoming a Bodhisattva and becoming a Buddha.
If one can enter the deep Samadhi
that a great Bodhisattva can enter,
one can see all the realms within the wheel of life and death
and the liberated enlightened realm freed from transmigration.
When a person has not reached such a stage,
whoever he may be,
he must not speak of the Dharma carelessly.
He must realize at this point
what dreadful karma will follow him
due to slandering and insulting the Dharma
with thoughtless words.
This was an article that was contributed to “The Daehan Buddhism” newspaper in Busan, Korea, on 17 March 2004.
A professor who slanders the Buddha
and the true Dharma
I have now heard the news that a professor gave a lecture denigrating Buddhism in public lectures on EBS-TV some time ago.
I am a monk who is seeking the Path, practicing in a mountain. Therefore, I do not often come in contact with newspapers or television. I read articles contributed in one or two Buddhist newspapers at most, so I have belatedly heard the thoughtless words of the professor from another person.
I have recently been told that the professor was giving television lectures profaning the teachings of the Buddha before millions of viewers. Sambong Do-jeon Jeong, a meritorious retainer of the foundation of the Chosun Dynasty and a Confucius scholar, wrote a book called ‘Various Gossips on Buddhism’ and criticized the theory on transmigration of Buddhism negatively, but the problem was that, at that time, no great monk categorically refuted this (釋明with an explanation). Therefore, the national policy repressing Buddhism and respecting Confucianism developed during the five hundred years of the Chosun Dynasty, and Buddhism lost its place and was busy escaping into the mountains.
I, as a monk pursuing the Path, who is walking on the way of pure and clean practice to realize the true Dharma of the Buddha, can not keep silent, hold my tongue, and remain an idle spectator, despite having witnessed this stunning situation.
I came to understand that this was not the first time for him to speak or write in this way. Whenever he has an opportunity, he has wielded his writing brush (Refer to ‘I see Buddhism this way.’ ‘Head phrase, Hui-neng and Shakespeare’), profaned and disdained the Buddha, and called Great Monks stupid or mad guys, etc. denigrating and mocking the Three Treasures as he pleases.
Not watching idly with indifference, I want to make a critical comment on the thoughtless words and behavior of the professor, who habitually calls himself ‘an oratorical talent’, ‘a great mountain in the oriental philosophy’, ‘a great scholar’, ‘a universal treasure’, supported by his small worldly fame. It is because if I keep silent, this must be a huge incident and no one can be sure what the future of Buddhism will be.
When a flower was held up
in the presence of a large assembly,
only Kasyapa responded with a broad smile
The professor has profaned the Dharma by saying, “Transmigration in Buddhism is a mythical composition and a means to encourage good deeds.”
I now wish to ask him publicly:
Professor! Please answer the following proposition that I put to you? If you do not answer correctly, you will have to live extremely unfortunate lives in the future.
“One day the World Honoured One held up a flower
which the Four Heavenly Kings have presented
towards a large assembly of people
of humans and heavenly beings.
Only Great Kasyapa
who had thoroughly been practicing
the twelve Dhuta deeds
and loved by the World Honoured One
gave a broad smile.”
Great Kasyapa was a great practicing monk who was already passing through the great Bodhisattva stage (the tenth stage of Avatamsaka 華嚴十地) at that time by practicing selflessness (無我) well, after seeing the roots of the phenomenal world (現象) and the original nature of humans thoroughly.
Thus he understood the intention of the World Honoured One from mind to mind (以心傳心) by answering with a smile alone, and could let the Buddha be satisfied. As Great Kasyapa was a great disciple and a great Bodhisattva who could enter deep Samadhi, he was able to see the flower (金色波羅花) of the Four Heavenly Kings and the Western Pure Land.
He could see the Western Pure Land and Hell because he had the eyes with a hundred and eight merits and virtues. And he could see clearly that sentient beings transmigrate (輪廻轉生) according to the karma that they committed.
Professor! When you reach the stage as high as Great Kasyapa, you can speak of the Dharma with confidence, distinguishing what is true and what is not, but I wonder what and how well you have realized, and I wonder how carelessly you profane the Buddha and disdain the Dharma, using thoughtless words! Moreover, I wonder how you can utter reckless words without fear, misguiding blind sentient beings through the public mass media that millions of viewers are watching!
Let us go back to 2600 years ago. Assuming that you were a member of the assembly of the Vulture Peak Mountain, please answer immediately to the Buddha who held up his hand that looked as if he was holding something and was showing it to the public. Please answer him immediately!
Unremitting Hell
and the Retribution of the Fourfold Sufferings
The Buddha who is the most highly respected in the Three Realms, has said that the evil karma produced by the mouth profaning the true Dharma is heavier than any other sinful karma. Do you really want me to tell you what kind of karma will follow?
Truly, one will fall into an unremitting hell until the end of all time with no hope of being released. Suppose that a person comes to be born as a human or an animal, he cannot escape not only the Threefold Sufferings (三中苦), but the Fourfold Sufferings (四重苦 unfortunate karma of being unable to see, hear, speak and smell).
There is a saying that if a person speaks ill of the true Dharma, he has to repay it with a heavenly sickness. Hell definitely exists, and when a human dies, he can also become an animal17.
There are the deva and hungry ghost realms, plus the Western Pure Land, and the Buddha and Bodhisattva realms also definitely exist. The Buddha dwells in ‘the Absolute Realm in Selflessness’ in the form of light called the Immeasurable Light.
The Buddha has definitely mentioned Hell and the Western Pure Land in some two hundred Mahayana Buddhist Sutras!
If, as a great practitioner, one can enter deep Samadhi at the level of the Oceanic Reflection Samadhi18 that a great Bodhisattva can enter, then at this level it is possible to see all the realms within the wheel of life and death, and the enlightened realm of liberation (解脫悟界) freed from transmigration.
17In Mahayana Buddhism, it says that ‘every creature that moves has its spirit and they have a Buddha nature (蠢動含靈悉有佛性)’, but the Buddha has said that a human’s spirit cannot enter birds, fish nor insects. As an exception to this, a human’s spirit can enter a seal, a whale, a turtle, a crane, etc., and thus they are included in the wheel of life of human beings.
18It is also called Ocean Seal Concentration or Oceanic Reflection Concentration (海印定). When rough sea waves subside, all things reflect in the sea: when one climbs up to the peak of a mountain, he can see all the scenery unfolded down to the bottom of the mountain. In the midst of a great Bodhisattva’s concentrated mind (定心) where afflictions are cut off, the Dharma of the past, present and future is revealed as it is. It indicates the deep Samadhi that a great Bodhisattva enters –‘the state in which one’s mind does not grasp any form and is in the state of true suchness in immutability (不取於相如如不動).’ When one enters this Samadhi, he will fully be filled with the bliss of the Dharma hundreds and thousands times more than the refreshing and clean feelings that one gets when walking down the street after taking a bath.
If a person has not reached such a stage, whoever he may be, he should not speak of the Dharma carelessly as if his remarks were the truth. Using the professor as a good lesson at this point, we practitioners and propagators must realize what dreadful karma will follow on the thoughtless words of slandering and insulting the Dharma.
Thorough public repentance is requested
The professor must repent using all means possible.
I recommend that he repent clearly and publicly through the very television that he used to say those thoughtless words.
For your future life, I give you this candid advice.
Please accept it as my benevolence.
Chapter 5
Transmigration (1)
Those who have practiced many good deeds,
keeping the Five Precepts and the Precepts of Ten Virtues
can be reborn in the sixth, fifth and fourth heavens.
In order to be born in the third, second and first heavens,
one must make great efforts
towards the work for the Buddha(佛事)
and must perform all filial piety
for one’s deceased parents and ancestors,
observing the precepts (戒律) well.
One must make offerings to the Buddha,
act for the benefit of others (利他行),
and study the Buddha Dharma intensively.
*Chapter five through Chapter twenty-three are the contents of the Dharma teachings that I have contributed to “The Daehan Buddhism” in Busan in the form of feature articles for five months to which I have added some parts.
The four spiritual bodies
and transmigration in the six realms
No one has been fully aware of the spirit during the long period of Nikaya Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism after the passing of the Buddha. Now I will give a Dharma talk on the spirit that is the original body of a human, the master (主人空) of every individual human and the subject of transmigration, plus the subject of interdependent arising. A spirit can also be called spiritual bodies. ‘Spirit’ has been mostly used when referring to one’s own master, namely the reality of the spirit of an individual that is the subject of transmigration (when referring to the whole No. 1,2,3,4 spiritual bodies of an individual that exist overlapping as one); and “spiritual body” when referring to the respective spiritual bodies that form a spirit of an individual (e.g. the No. 1 spiritual body, the No. 2 spiritual body. . . .).
A human is made up of the four spiritual bodies and a physical body. Let me name them No. 1,2,3,4 spiritual bodies in sequence starting from the spiritual body placed deepest inside. If sentient beings commit karma, all of it will be reflected in the spiritual bodies. In particular, the evil karma that has been accumulated will be a fundamental cause of transmigration. Sentient beings have a high mountain of karmic hindrance in their spiritual bodies, so most of them transmigrate centering on the three evil destinies of the hells, hungry ghosts and animals, and those who have lived a virtuous life are reborn in the three good destinies of humans, asuras and deva beings. This is called the transmigration of the six realms.
The human beings and animals live with physical bodies, but those who are in the realm of the hells, hungry ghosts, asura and heavens live in the form of spirits. Thus, it is a definite fact that a human dies, goes to a hell, and then is reborn as an animal. It is also true that I have personally seen the worlds of transmigration of the six realms. The other worlds of the hells, heavens, etc. are not the worlds existing in our mind at all.
The four spiritual bodies are living bodies with consciousness and memory as a mass of energy that is not seen with the eyes of ordinary people, but seen only with the wise eyes of a saint. That is no other than myself and yourselves.
This mass of energy is made of ultrafine particles which are far smaller than elementary particles. The ultrafine particles have the dual aspects of particles and fluctuations. When seen from the side of fluctuations, the spiritual bodies are a living body that has a form like the electronic wave energy with extremely short wave-length, that is, with so many vibrations.
The No.4 spiritual body, which joins a physical body with the No.1,2,3 spiritual bodies, is a half matter that is higher in density than a physical body. In case we do not enter the Court for the Deceased under Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva after death, we live as forlorn wandering spirits in the form of the No.4 spiritual body(the No. 3,2,1 spiritual bodies are overlapped in it) in the intermediate existence realm.
If one falls down into the Evil Destinies (intermediate existence), when passed away after having lived as a crooked old man, the appearance of his No.4 spiritual body is still a crooked old man.
When entering the Court for the Deceased, one enters there as the No.3 spiritual body. There are the deceased spirits who are born in the deva realm after having lived a virtuous life, or there are those who are born there, having been saved by a great saint who has attained Buddhahood in this lifetime. These spirits are reborn there as the No.3 spiritual body.
The No.4 spiritual body fails to adapt to the other world and the deva realm, and dies, but the No.3 spiritual body keeps his youthfulness around the age of early forties. The No.1 and 2 spiritual bodies are overlapped into the No.3 spiritual body. When a spiritual body goes up as high as the No.1 spiritual body, density will grow higher, and the size of the particle becomes smaller.
One goes to and is born in the holy multitudes (聖衆) realm in the No.2 spiritual body. At this time, the No.3 and 1 spiritual bodies are overlapped into the No.2 spiritual body.
The No.1 spiritual body goes to the Western Pure Land. The No.3 and 2 spiritual bodies are overlapped into this No.1 spiritual body. The No.1,2,3, spiritual bodies never die, and join together. They are in this united state all the time. Among these, the No.1 spiritual body is the original body of a human.
When a woman is reborn in the Western Pure Land, her spirit is transformed into a man before she goes there.
Self-nature in suchness, one thing, and one’s own master (主人公) which are said in the family of followers of Chan (meditation) are the root of the universe, but it does not indicate the spirit. It is ‘the ultimate real substance’ which lets all that exist exist.
When one who has attained Buddhahood leaves his physical body that is a Transformation Body and enters complete nirvana, the No.1,2,3, and 4 spiritual bodies become a mass of light, are combined, and mingled with one’s own Buddha Body (圓滿報身, the Complete Body of Bliss) made of the Immeasurable Light.
Only the Buddha who is in Samadhi of Great Quiescence possessing the three awareness (三明) and five eyes (五眼) sees the six realms and the wheel of life and death of sentient beings as they are. He also sees the reality of Hell, and even the real aspect of the Western Pure Land.
Hinduism and Jainism also speak of liberation from the wheel of life and death, and have philosophies as excellent as Buddhism.
If one breaks through Hwa-du in Seon meditation (禪), they say that one has seen one’s self-nature (見性), or has awakened to one’s original nature. That is correct. Enlightenment denotes that one sees the original nature (眞相) of existence. One will experience emptiness (空) and selflessness (無我).
But enlightenment that the original nature of mind is revealed for a moment is only the beginning of practice, and when one maintains one’s practice after awakening, one will be able to enter arhatship (聖衆).
Human’s sea of suffering
Please return my youthful days. Give me youth.
Youthful days, My youthful days, where did you go?
An old country woman who has just passed the age of seventy was singing an old song about herself continuously with her face messed with tears and nose drippings. Some twenty old men and women of the village who sat in a circle were sharing the sadness and laughing together, clapping to the tempos and the music that she sang wailing, tapping the floor of the seniors’ room in a community center for the aged, with an old worn-out white rubber shoe.
This is the scene that I saw when the old men and women, who gathered in the community center for the aged in a village down the way from us, were singing and demonstrating their special talents on the first day of a spring event on 20 March 2003. As they had requested me to deliver them a special Dharma talk, I was able to witness it right in front of me.
As I arrived there together with my attendant about ten minutes before the time of the Dharma talks, I had a chance to hear the old woman’s song and my heart was greatly moved and my eyes were filled with tears. I became solemn on hearing the lyrics that were flowing out of her mouth, absorbed in the state of selflessness, and the tune that was mixed with the sorrow, deep-rooted in her mind, resulting from troubles of her painful past.
The chief of the village sitting next to me at that time whispered to me about the sorrowful life of the old woman.
I was told that the old woman had lost her loving husband in her mid-thirties and she had become like a wild goose that had lost its partner. She had a typical country woman’s features and looked kind and simple-minded in appearance.
Her husband, who enjoyed bull-fighting, died after his belly was ripped open by being gored by the bull he was raising.
The old woman had one son and four daughters. Among them, one of the daughters was sick with polio and another daughter with epilepsy. She was an admirable old woman who had managed to raise the five little children who are all married now. People said that her hardships both in mind and body during the past time had been indescribable.
All she had was only three or four patches of rice paddy. She has been a main character of a novel-like life who went up into mountains in spring to gather edible plants and pick medicinal herbs, and also worked as a day time laborer in the farming season in order to support her children’s education. The sorrowful story continued. At night she has kept the door locked and remained single, living with her children in one room.
Also even her only son has found a job in Seoul and left home. She has been living in the house alone for more than ten years!
The village chief went on saying that, whenever the villagers go on a group tour from time to time or get together to have a party, she would sing her favorite song ‘Youthful days, my youthful days, where did you go?’, she would tap the floor with a rubber shoe that she had worn when her husband died, and sing as if wailing.
I, who was deeply touched by the scene, entered Samadhi (三昧) as soon as I returned to the temple and tracked down her previous lives.
Everyone! The bull that killed her husband had been working as a farmhand four lives ago from now. The farmhand worked for a master who had an ill-natured mind and was mistreated and not paid any wages. Then his causal conditions have been connected in this life. He was born as a bull and took revenge on her husband who had been the master in his past lifetime.
The daughter who has been afflicted with polio has received karmic results from the past deeds of being greatly undutiful and committing violence to her parents habitually in the previous life.
The other daughter suffering from epilepsy has received a sinful karma for having badly slandered a Great Monk reciting a Buddha’s name as a non-Buddhist, and for having hindered his practice.
The bull that killed the husband of the old woman has now fallen into a heavy sinners’ hell (重地獄) and is receiving karmic retribution. Her husband has not entered the Court for the Deceased as yet, and has been wandering around her as a forlorn spirit.
The trace of their previous lives has been requested of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, and their contents confirmed.
The poor old woman has come to our temple from time to time since that day. I have led the old woman, who often comes to us with edible plants, to take refuge in Buddhism, and expounded her Dharma teachings of chanting a Buddha’s name even to this day.
The recitation of a sacred Buddha’s name, precepts and filial piety are the foremost virtues that the Buddha emphasizes most, and recommends to everyone.
The heavenly deva realm (天上)
with 54 levels in six heavens
The old woman lived in the fifth heaven in the realm of desires in her previous life. The fifth heaven is a lower heaven, but one who has received a human body from this heaven is about less than one out of one thousand people.
If a person could be born, even in the fifth heaven, he will enjoy enormous blessings and subtle pleasure incomparable with the life of a parliamentarian or a minister in the human world. However, even if he can be born in the fifth heaven, as this place is also within the realm of transmigration where the cycle of life and death is not freed, he will fall down, and be born in the human realm or a lower one if his blessings are exhausted.
As I am aware of the principle of cause and conditions, I have started to preach the Dharma teachings through the newspaper, ‘the Daehan Buddhism’, to do my utmost to prevent most of the Buddhists who hear this Dharma teaching from falling into at least the Three Evil Destinies (Hell, hungry ghosts, animals), and thus making it possible for them to be reborn in the human or the deva realm.
In the present Buddhism, they say that there are perpendicularly six heavens in the realm of desires, eighteen heavens in the realm of form, and four heavens in the realm of formlessness.
In this Hyonjisa, Yongsan Buddhism, we call the six heavens in the realm of desires, namely the sixth heaven, the fifth heaven, the fourth heaven, the third heaven, the second heaven and the first heaven; and these heavens are divided into 54 levels again. We also call the realm of form and the realm of formlessness the heaven of the holy multitudes. This is divided into three heavens that are also subdivided into 27 levels.
There exists the realm of asura as a separate heaven from the six heavens in the realm of desires. This heaven corresponds to a heaven equivalent to the lowest level of the first heaven. They live a wealthy and happy life, but that is the place where they have many quarrels and fights. All heavens in the realm of desires are not freed from transmigration of birth and death, but from the heaven of the holy multitudes, there is a way to become an arhat by practicing so that one could escape from life and death, and advance further.
An arhat is in the best of the best (from the fifth level up to the first level of the heaven of holy multitudes) in the first heaven of the holy multitudes, and escapes from transmigration.
The colour of human spirits (the colour of the spirits is different from the aura that radiates through a human body.) who will fall down to Hell, hungry ghost realm, or animal realm, looks blackish and dark. Conversely, the colour of the spirits of those who will be born in the sixth heaven looks gray. Those who will be born between the fifth and first heavens are white.
Those who have practiced many good deeds, keeping the Five Precepts (戒) and Ten Virtues (善) can be reborn in the sixth, fifth and fourth heavens. In order to be born in the third, second and first heavens, one must make great efforts towards the Buddha’s work, and perform all filial piety for one’s deceased parents and ancestors, observing precepts (5 precepts, 10 virtues) well. One must make offerings to the Buddha, act for the benefit of others, and study the Buddha Dharma a lot. These are the necessary conditions to be promoted to a higher heaven and attain liberation.
Even heavenly beings living in the heaven within transmigration will be dropped to the human realm or evil destinies when their blessings are exhausted.
Reversely, if one awakens to the original nature of mind, maintains one’s practice well after awakening and reaches the level that birth and death can be controlled as one wishes, then one will enter the level of a saint, escape from transmigration, and be reborn in the heaven of the arhats (expression of the Buddha).
If one practices Vipashyana well and absolutely awakens to the true nature of existence i.e. impermanence, suffering, no self, one will of course attain the fruit of an arhat and be reborn in the heaven of the holy multitudes. I understand that Lama Buddhism and the esoteric Buddhism practice of Tibet also have an excellent practice system.
Holy multitudes heaven
As I mentioned earlier, there are three heavens in the holy multitudes heaven, and each heaven has nine levels, so it is divided into twenty-seven levels. The holy multitudes heaven is the heaven of the heavens where one can get there after passing through the six heavens of the realm of desires. If one wishes to be born in a holy multitudes heaven, one must observe precepts purely, practice the teaching of the Buddha with a whole heart and reach the level of entering complete concentration. The spirits that will be born in this place have silver-white coloured light as bright as the full moon. One who has reached from the first level to the fifth level of the best (上) of the first heaven of the holy multitudes will be freed from transmigration and attain arhatship.
Our false bodies are like a house or clothes as the matters are made up of the Four Great Elements (四大), namely earth, water, fire and wind. When a house crumbles down, we cannot live in it, so we abandon it and move elsewhere. In the same way, our spirit separates from the physical body like a snake coming out, casting off its skin. Our spirit is overlapped with the four spiritual bodies.
It is recorded in the Hindu Sutra ‘Veda’ that three spiritual bodies are folded into one and live as the owner in the physical body. When the life span of a physical body comes to an end, it comes out. This really is a deep secret of life.
Chapter 6
Transmigration 2
As human beings commit great sin,
they receive the bodies of Hell or animals,
and live their lives.
The sufferings that our spirits having fallen
in the evil destinies receive
cannot be compared with those
that our physical bodies receive.
If one can perform salvation services
for one’s deceased ancestors and parents
so that they could be freed from their sufferings,
then where can there be a more precious filial piety than this?
Only the Buddha can cut off
the karmic retribution of sentient beings
A middle-aged woman called on me two or three years ago after hearing my Dharma teachings on the Buddhist Radio.
As the karma that she had committed in her previous and present lives was so heavy that, when she died, she was due to be born in the animal realm, receiving a body of a large snake. Furthermore she was destined to become a large snake six lifetimes in a row.
I have seen the tongue of a large snake dart in and out whenever she was talking. The snakes have already gone into her stomach and grown a lot. One was coiling around her waist and another coiling around and around her neck.
Everyone! Do not be surprised. Whoever they may be, human beings live, committing karmic sin that they should not commit. The Buddha told us that we must not commit these kinds of karma; we must practice a lot of good deeds, and live cultivating our mind. However, people live ignoring his words. Being blinded by one’s self-interest and selfish desire, filling one’s own greed, and only taking care of one’s wife and children, one comes to commit karmic sin as great as Mount Sumeru.
A person who will be born into an animal body right after his death has an animal body growing within him that will become the house of his spirit owing to the animal karma he has committed. As it develops, it follows this person around. The colour of the spirit of a person who will go to Hell after death turns blackish and dark. I will talk about that later, but this woman had bonds with me in a distant past lifetime.
She said that when she walked on a country road through a mountain pass some ten years ago, snakes like large snakes, poisonous snakes, etc. were seen in her eyes more conspicuously than others.
They appeared in her dreams more often; their serpentine appearances became clearer at the time of prayers. The number of times that they were seen in her eyes has gradually increased. When she entered home a few years ago, she could see them coiling up in the bedroom as well as in the entrance hall. She fainted and was hospitalized.
I was told that during this period of time, she called on famous exorcists, pastors, priests and great monks who performed exorcisms. She kept prayers at praying centers as they told her to do. It was a stunning story that, although she had performed salvation services for her deceased ancestors to heaven dozens of times, everything had ended in vain. In order to cure her ‘sickness of the large snake’, she sold the apartment that her husband had gone through many difficulties to buy by running a second-hand store, and has become penniless because she has given away everything. Saying that she had lost all her hope, she implored me with desperation written all over her face to save her.
I first let her return home, then entered deep Samadhi; I met with the Buddha and determined to save her. It is because only the Buddha can save her.
What I truly ask all the Buddhists reading this Dharma teaching is that cultivating one’s mind is the most important. The intermediate existence realm of forlorn wandering spirits and the deva realm of heaven as well as Hell exist; sentient beings transmigrate the six realms according to the karma that they have committed. Hence, we must not give money the highest value, and must live a life doing a lot of good deeds without committing sin.
Even Buddhist scholars who have deep knowledge in the Buddhist doctrines understand Hell and the Western Pure Land that the Buddha spoke of, as an expedient method, and also tend to see Hell and the Western Pure Land as unreal.
The goal of practice as a practicing monk is to become enlightened to emptiness (空) and to awaken to the original nature of one’s mind which has not earlier had its birth nor death, and yet there are many people who consider this as something vain and ideal.
Further, the Seon sect says that only the mind exists, and all Hell and the Western Pure Land solely exist in the mind. So even the great monks who are known as the enlightened preach the Dharma on the Dharma seat, as if Hell, the Western Pure Land and the Buddha are also in one’s mind. Consequently, we Buddhists are confused about what to believe in.
These are truly serious problems. Thus, I am crying out alone on this Dharma seat of the media with my whole heart.
When one wants to see the real aspect of sentient beings transmigrating in the six realms, it is still impossible even though one reaches the level of a Bodhisattva. Both a great Bodhisattva higher than the tenth stage who can freely enter deep Samadhi like Oceanic Reflection Samadhi and a great saint who, with outstanding discernment, has attained an eye of wisdom (一隻眼) between the two eyebrows, emits a light in the shape of the swastika (卍) from his chest, and has entered the level of a Buddha, can see the six realms and have the power to rescue sentient beings who have fallen into the evil destinies. I wish to stress again that these facts and the words of the sutras stating that sentient beings transmigrate in the six realms are the teachings of the Buddha.
I will stop here and return to the subject of the Dharma talk again.
The poor woman who was suffering from ‘the sickness of the large snake’ has now completely cleared away her karmic hindrances, and has become a faithful Buddhist together with her loving family, and has stood up as one of the keen Buddhists.
She came to our temple, and performed salvation services supervised by the Buddha six times. She has been able to clear away all six large snakes by making offerings to the Buddha, the Complete Body of Bliss (the original Body of the Reward Body Buddha of the Buddha), and by performing salvation services for her ancestors. In addition, the spirits of forty-three ancestors who had fallen down into the evil destinies have all been saved to the deva realm of the heaven. She says that even if she tries to recall it deliberately, the illusion of a large snake never comes to mind and she is more than happy.
I gave this woman the Five Precepts of a lay Buddhist and also gave her a Dharma name. Her Dharma name is ‘Galmuria.’ It is the Dharma name of the time when she was practicing as a monk in India five lives ago.
My dear Buddhists! I even do not know whether the professor referred to in Chapter 4 is still appearing on television and is giving lectures denouncing Buddhism.
I warn you again. If even great monks in the Buddhist circles including him spread distorted Buddha’s teachings, I solemnly want to tell you the principle of karma that the karmic retribution resulting from the thoughtless words will surely continue as the threefold sufferings and the fourfold sufferings until the end of all time as a shadow follows a subject.
If one has not attained Buddhahood,
one cannot save the deceased spirits to the deva realm
I have recently read an article in an unknown newspaper that salvation services performed by temples have descended to an extremely commercial level.
Saving the deceased spirits to the deva realm is a very difficult task. It is hard to believe that those who have no power of the Dharma are commercially misusing salvation services for the deceased ancestors’ spirits, who have fallen into Hell, or who have received a body of an animal, or who have become forlorn wandering spirits without going to Hell.
Those monks who have no Dharma power claim that there is no Hell, nor the Western Pure Land, and they do not even believe in transmigration, and yet what deceased ancestor spirits can they send, and where can they send the deceased ancestor spirits? (They are unaware of where the deceased ancestor spirits are now, they have no ability to bring them to the site of the salvation service when a deceased spirit is in a hell, or in an animal body, and they have no Dharma power to save the deceased spirits to a better place - for instance one of the heavens.)
They interpret no self (無我) in the sense that ‘as Buddhism is a religion claiming no self, nothing has its reality’, and they further deny even the existence of the deceased spirits (靈魂) and ghosts. Whereas on what scriptural grounds do they save deceased spirits to the deva realm? Moreover, it is a pity indeed that the salvation service is being overly commercialized.
I have said that the spirits do exist. When I enlightened my original nature, I realized that the reason that the Buddha spoke of no self was because people thought ‘that which is not I (我)’ as being ‘true I’, so he said no self (無我) to get rid of the erroneous view of self (我見, I) of people attaching themselves to ‘that which is not I.’ He intended to say to empty the thought of selfish ‘I’.
It is quite natural that one who cultivates one’s mind to become an arhat, a Bodhisattva or a Buddha, must clear away the notion of self, namely, egoistic thought. It is an undeniable fact that practicing selflessness is earnestly required in order to help those who live in this world co-exist with one another and make the world more peaceful.
If we analyze material and the physical body in the so-called physical world (形而下) of the phenomenal world, there is indeed nothing that has any real shape. Whereas the Buddha has never said that even the spirit of the metaphysics (形以上) does not exist, nor has the Buddha ever stated that even the subject (自我) of actions does not exist.
What the Diamond Sutra said, “All the human affairs are like a shadow and a dream (如夢幻泡影)”, is true. We see everything in the world as it is, but if we discriminate that it exists or it does not exist, we commit karma. Hence, a practitioner must set liberation as his goal, so he must keep pursuing selfless practice, namely the practice of eliminating one’s self.
As the notion of ‘I’ is assumed as a premise, we commit karma. I sing a song, absorbed in deep Samadhi, namely Samadhi of Quiescence that is Samadhi in Selflessness.
Empty, empty,
it is completely empty.
There is neither ‘I’ nor ‘You’,
nor sentient beings, nor living a long life.
Selflessness, selflessness.
Clear and clean,
purity itself.
Bliss, bliss,
It is bliss.
Ignorance (無明) arises just as clouds are formed in the empty sky; it builds my physical body, and the whole world according to the conditions; and again we create the six realms and transmigrate by committing karma following the cause and conditions.
Emptiness (空) or the One Mind (一心) is undoubtedly the substance of the universe that exists without beginning and without end; that is not created nor annihilated; and that transcendentally exists irrespective of the phenomena that all the worlds disappear or are created. When we pass away, our physical body returns to a handful of earth, and the consciousness and memory of ‘I’ will remain in our spirits as it is.
Most human beings commit great karma, so they live their lives receiving the bodies of hells and animals. The sufferings that our spirits who fell down into the evil destinies receive cannot be compared with those of our physical bodies.
If a person can perform salvation services for his deceased ancestors’ spirits to be saved to the deva realm so that his ancestors and parents, who have fallen into Hell or have received animal bodies, could be freed from the sufferings, then how can there be more precious filial piety than this?
It is truly difficult to perform a salvation service like this. Which enlightened person can save ancestors’ spirits, who have fallen down into an unremitting hell or extremely unremitting hell, or who have become a large snake to be born as a human or in the deva realm of the heaven?
It is impossible without the power of the Buddha. The absolute empowerment of the Buddha is the necessary and sufficient condition for saving deceased ancestors’ spirits to the deva realm.
If a person who performs a salvation service has not attained the fruit of a great saint, that person cannot draw on the awesome spiritual powers of the Buddha, so I emphasize again that salvation of one’s ancestors is impossible.
A salvation service performed by the one who does not possess considerable power of the Dharma, is a kind of fraudulent behavior.
Chapter 7
Transmigration 3
The merit
that one receives by performing a salvation service
for one’s deceased parents and ancestors
is superior to any other merit.
Karma of the deceased spirits will be cleaned,
and they will be saved to heaven,
but what is even better is
that their descendent is able to perform great filial duty.
By sending forlorn spirits wandering
around the intermediate existence realm
into the Court for the Deceased,
descendents are fortunate
because they will not be taken ill with bad diseases,
nor commit suicide, nor die away from home..
Only the Buddha saves sentient beings
in the Evil Destinies
I once again emphasize that a perfect salvation for deceased spirits is impossible without the great empowerment of the Buddha.
The Buddha here refers to Sakyamuni Buddha who is the King of Buddhism in Jambudvipa, Great King of Buddhism of the Threefold Great Thousand World Systems and ‘the Buddha of the Buddhas’. I declare clearly that deceased spirits can be saved only when there is the assistance and cooperation of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, his acting (代行) left and right hand attendants Domyong-jonja and Mudok-gwiwang and the Ten Great Kings of the Court for the Deceased.
Hence, when the monk who performs the salvation service is a saint who is able to share conversations freely with the Buddha and Bodhisattvas in the above, and who has also attained Buddhahood during the present lifetime, then salvation is possible.
If one performs the salvation service according to the order as laid down in the ceremonial prayer text, they say that salvation can be realized. But when someone reads the mantra for increasing food and clothes for deceased spirits to eat and wear, things do not increase accordingly. Even though one requests a Buddha and a Bodhisattva to come, they do not come as requested, (A Buddha here refers to the Reward Body of a Buddha who is a real existence with human character existing in the Absolute Realm.) Although a bath is offered to the deceased spirits, the spirits are not bathed, either. It is because various ceremonial prayer texts have been edited by scholar monks in the process of Buddhist history.
First of all, the deceased spirits must completely be called in and assembled for a perfect salvation service. This is absolutely essential. When people pass away, almost half of them do not enter the Court for the Deceased, but wander around as forlorn spirits. This is sad, but true. It is because of the heavy karma that they have committed. Those who enter the Court for the Deceased, namely those who have entered transmigration, will in principle receive a decision of the Ten Great Kings after forty-nine days, and the place that they will go is decided. Most of them will go to hells, but some are born as animals.
The monk who performs the salvation service must first be aware of where the spirits are, if they are in hells, which hell they have fallen in, what animal bodies they have received, or whether or not they are wandering around in the intermediate existence realm as forlorn spirits without entering the Court for the Deceased, and he must also search for, apprehend, and bring all the spirits to the place where the Dharma seat is on the day of the salvation service.
If a doctor wants to operate on a sick person to cure his sickness, a patient should come to the hospital. In the same manner, the bodies of the spirits must be secured for the performance of a salvation service for deceased spirits, but this is a difficult task.
When they are born in hells or in the animal realm, they cannot come even if they are called upon. Especially, no matter when a salvation service is to be performed by a Great Monk, the spirits wandering around as forlorn spirits run away. You will understand the situation when you think about the case of a prisoner who committed a serious crime, and was put on the wanted list, has broken out of jail and has kept running away, eluding the police, and appearing and disappearing unexpectedly.
Forlorn wandering spirits with heavy karma think that once they are caught, they will die, so it is impossible to find and bring all of them even with the ability of arhats (holy multitudes). They hide away deep in the earth or in the water as if they were dead.
Only a Buddha can perform the task of finding and bringing together the forlorn wandering spirits who have not entered the Court for the Deceased; only a Buddha can perform the task of bringing deceased spirits, who are receiving punishment in hells now, to the Dharma seat for a salvation service; and only a Buddha can perform the task of extracting and bringing the spiritual bodies of a deceased spirit who has received an animal body.
Therefore, it cannot be performed without the great power of the Buddha. It is impossible to find and secure deceased spirits without the capacity and wisdom of the Buddha. Like this, a salvation service is such a difficult task; and yet how can one dare to say the word commercialization?
Originally there is no creator, but, only through the power of the Buddha who has the ability of a creator, forlorn spirits wandering around in the intermediate existence realm, deceased spirits in hells, or spirits who have received animal bodies, can be extracted and brought for a salvation service. Only a great saint who has attained Buddhahood can ask for help from the Buddha, and perform great power.
As a cicada that has cast off its shell and that has gotten out is a real cicada, it feels, sees, hears, sings and flies here and there, but the shell left behind does not have even any feeling nor thought. The false body is also like the shell of a cicada. The spirit that left behind the false body sees, feels and thinks of the new world.
Have you ever read the documentary novel called ‘Maruta’? Even if we live experiencing extreme sufferings for tens and hundreds of years as Maruta suffered, it cannot be compared with the sufferings in the hells.
If a person is born as an animal, he will basically be the twelve animals on the zodiac in turn for countless kalpas. If there is a monk who performs a perfect salvation service so that someone’s ancestor spirits, who are destined to receive these kinds of karmic retributions, can be saved to be born as a human or in the deva realm, then it is really a rare and unprecedented opportunity that can happen once in a thousand years. It will be a rare salvation service that is very difficult to meet like an Udumbara flower, which is said to bloom once every three thousand years.
If the monks who have renounced worldly life and are practicing the Buddha’s teaching have one of their deceased parents and close relatives remaining in the Three Evil Destinies, it is difficult for them to attain the saintly fruit (聖果). These are also the words of the Buddha.
If a pure and clean Bhikshu monk reads the Sutra on the Fundamental Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva in a single thought and then performs a salvation service with utmost care and with a whole heart, there is a limit, but he can gain a certain level of achievement.
Forlorn wandering deceased spirits
I said that when those who have committed a lot of karmic sin die, a large number of them do not enter the Court for the Deceased, but live as forlorn wandering spirits.
Those who died away from home, who committed suicide, who died of a virulent disease without consciousness of body wastes, and most of deceased spirits who have a lot of attachment to their property, wives and children, do not enter the wheel of life and death, nor the Court for the Deceased.
These spirits are half-human and half-ghost, so they feel cold and hungry, and suffer from the pains of illness that they were afflicted with, in the intermediate existence realm. Also, the forlorn spirits who died young possess19 the bodies of descendants who have bonds with them in order to satisfy their basic desires such as eating, sexual lust (食色), etc. The body of a deceased spirit is undeniable life, so it has to eat and be clothed. To do that, it must borrow another person’s body and enter there. There are cases when spirits with the knot
19It denotes that low-level deceased spirits, such as ghosts, depend on a part of someone’s body, or go into someone’s body, and live there possessing it as their house.
of hatred20 that have been going in and out frequently go into a body and live there. A lot of problems arise from this. The descendants possessed by such spirits with the knot of hatred or ancestor spirits die away from home, commit suicide, or get virulent diseases.
At the time of the Buddha, Maudgalyayana, who was one of the ten major disciples, performed salvation services for his mother four times so that she could be born in the deva realm. This was made possible because the salvation services were supervised by the Buddha who is holy.
A human is unable to eliminate his karma that he has committed by himself. It can be purified to a certain extent through practice, repentance, and actions of a Bodhisattva. But sinful karma of the sentient beings can be cleared away only by the awesome spiritual power of the Buddha.
Only the Buddha can save living beings in the realms of the hells and animals. Sentient beings can be taught and saved only by the awesome spiritual power of the Buddha and the universal power of salvation. Not even an arhat nor a Bodhisattva can perform this work.
20The spirit with the knot of hatred who is determined to revenge himself on another person due to a grudge from the past plants himself in the body of that person, lives there and causes every possible harm to him, so the health of the person who is possessed will deteriorate and be jeopardized. Unless one removes the dragon spirit or heavenly mara which has been possessing one, one will have no future in this lifetime nor in the next lifetime. But for the awesome spiritual powers of the Buddha, no one can remove them.
Hell – supervised by Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva
and Ten Great Kings of the Court for the Deceased
The hells, the realm supervised by Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, is located by Ksitigarbha Palace in the south. A great practitioner who has reached the boundary of the Buddha sees the hells in Samadhi. But if a practitioner still has attachment and cannot shake off delusion, he cannot see the reality of Hell even in complete concentration. Things that are seen in such level of complete concentration (it is not true complete concentration) are no more than ‘a false hell’ drawn by the mind of a magician, not a real hell.
There are the realms of hungry ghosts and animals as evil destinites as well as the hells. The realm of hungry ghosts is the realm suffering from hunger, thirst and starvation all the time, and it is the realm where those who are very stingy and avaricious during their lifetime go when they pass away. The realm of animals is the realm where those who have a stupid, vulgar and mean view and act like an animal go after they die.
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is such a great Buddha. The Ten Great Kings (十大明王) are Bodhisattvas of the highest stage. Mudok-gwiwang and Domyong-jonja (the left and right hand attendants of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva) are Bodhisattvas of the utmost supreme stage who possess the capacity of a Buddha (佛格) above a Bodhisattva of the high stage.
The spirits who come from the unremitting and extremely unremitting hells are brought in chains attended by hell guards.
Normally the results of a salvation service become known a few days later. In the salvation service performed by awesome spiritual power of the Buddha, all the deceased spirits are taken especially to a separate house in the Ksitigarbha Palace. But most of the deceased spirits, who have fallen into an unremitting hell because of their heavy karmic retribution, cannot be saved.
The Buddha offers us great kindness and great compassion and possesses the universal, measureless ability, but he saves sentient beings who have fallen into evil destinies only when his disciple who will attain Buddhahood in the saha world of Jambudvipa in this lifetime performs a salvation service and makes wishes.
Even though the sunlight shines brightly, when a person focuses light through a magnifying glass well, he can burn black cloth. Likewise, when sentient beings have a great disciple of the Buddha (as a close tie) to assist them, those in the hells can be saved.
At this point, I have something to say as a premise. First of all, one must make offerings to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas so that the deceased spirits can build up merit in their names.
The merit that a descendant receives by performing a salvation service for his or her deceased ancestors is superior to any other merit. Karma of the deceased spirits themselves will be cleaned, and they will not only be saved to a better realm, but also it is even better for the descendant who performed the salvation service because he or she practiced great filial piety as a descendant. Furthermore, by sending the ancestor spirits who are still wandering around in the intermediate existence realm into the Court for the Deceased, the descendants are fortunate because they will not be taken ill with bad diseases, nor commit suicide, nor die away from home.
All the misfortunes and incurable sicknesses (天病) are, of course, not all the result of being possessed by the spirits. Fundamentally, various misfortunes come to us caused by the big evil karma that we humans have committed in our past lifetimes.
What we must understand clearly is that the monk who performs a salvation service has to be at least a pure and clean Bhikshu. The first is purity, and the second is purity.
Monks should become conscientious now, and salvation services which are being commercialized must be stopped immediately. I hope that they will not commit any further karmic sin.
One can see that the temples performing many salvation services without any ability are filled with the disgusting smell of lower class spirits and evil energy.
These places are filled with ghosts and are no longer sacred grounds because the places are dominated by them. The temples must be kept as pure and clean places. I most earnestly request them to stop commercialized salvation services for the sake of the temples.
It is desirable to walk down a single path with intense doggedness until one enters at least the level of an arhat.
The green mountain tells me to live without words,
and the blue sky tells me to live without a flaw.
Taking off greed, taking off anger,
they tell me to live like water and like wind and depart.
Na-ong Hye-geun
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