By Chen Yigu [Translation revised July 15, 2011]:
Since the publishing of the sixth public announcement from the Office of H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, erroneous views have been attempting to emerge from the aggregate of the eight senses in some people’s minds. These erroneous views brought them serious dark karma. I feel pity for them. Such consequence is caused by the ignorance and foolishness in those people’s minds because they do not understand the teachings from the sutras. More specifically, they do not recognize living beings’ accomplishment as the foremost important issue and they looked down upon the importance of protecting living beings’ precious opportunities of learning Buddhism.
Before stating my reasons and arguments, let me first tell a story of metaphor from the Buddha.
Many eons ago, there was an enchanting small island in the center of a lake that has clear blue water. The island was covered by green trees and many kinds of flowers were blooming between dense grasses. The scenery was extremely beautiful with various colors and the blue sky reflected from the jade-colored water. Thousands of birds made the island their home and they bred for generations. Birds lived freely without any fear. They could build their nests at any place they wanted, even on rocks by the roadside. Every morning, when sunlight was cast on the trees, every kind of bird, including sparrows, larks, crows, magpies, parrots, and thrush birds, all started to sing. The rhythms were mixed with other sounds from the vibrating wings of bees and birds, mountain eagles gliding on the water surface, and the talking of baby birds that had just broken out of their egg shells. Everything was so peaceful and the whole island was filled with happiness and auspiciousness.
An elderly male guardian was living on the island. He was very loving and compassionate with a heart like that of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. He loved the birds and knew their languages. He protected the birds day and night to keep them from being injured and attacked. Injured birds stayed with him to heal their wounds. Old and blind birds spent the rest of their lives in his home. He guided birds who lost their way back to their nests and took care of the baby birds who lost their parents. He helped the birds look for food and stopped the big birds from bullying the little ones. He ensured that every bird could grow up and live safely and freely. He treated each bird as a member of his family. He is the leader of and both a mother and a father to the birds. Whenever this elderly man appeared in the forest, many birds of various colors would fly around and stand on his shoulders. They sang their songs for him.
Later, a poisonous snake came to the shore facing the island across the lake. Greedily watching the many birds of all kinds on the island, the snake’s mouth was gluttonous. However, the snake dared not go onto the island for fear of the elderly man as well as his very sharp snake-chopping sword. One day, when the elderly guardian left the island, the snake seized this opportunity and transformed its appearance into that of the elderly man and yelled to the birds, “My birds, please come and help me. My boat has a problem and I am not able to drive it back. Please build a bridge for me.” The birds could not tell that it was the snake in the appearance of the elderly man. They all came out, each carrying a twig in its beak. They laid thousands of twigs on the lake surface to form a floating bridge, as a pathway for their beloved elderly man to come home. The snake fooled all of them and easily climbed to the island. Then the snake returned to its original form and laughed, “You are all fools. I am not the elder man. I just pretended to be him. Now what can you do to me? Your children, and yourselves, will all become my delicious meal, one by one.” Immediately, the snake started his long-awaited engulfing massacre. Streams of blood merged into the rivers on the island. The ground was covered by the dead bodies of birds and countless feathers were flying in the air. The snake crushed into the nests and whole groups of just-hatched baby birds were swallowed. Mother birds were desperately screaming in the trees. Little birds were struggling in their nests but were still gobbled up by the snake. The little birds were crying and begging, “Please be merciful to us. We were just born. Please let us stay and see this beautiful world!” The snake kept laughing, “You are day dreaming. Who makes your meat so tender and delicious? Even if you cry yourselves to death or your eyes become blind, your tender and fresh meat is still my delicious meal, ha ha!” Blood traces and broken body parts of birds were all over the rocks and trees. All one could hear was miserable and tragic screaming and crying out of terror and being frightened.
Those who have erroneous views, please imagine. If you were the elder man guarding the island, on seeing the snake approaching the baby birds with its red snake tongue waving forward, on hearing the desperate crying of the baby birds of “Mother, please come and save me!” how would you feel? And for some, their mothers had already been swallowed by the poisonous snake. Even if they managed to survive from the snake’s gobbling, they would still die of starvation. At this moment, would you stop and kill the snake, or let the snake continue eating the birds? Would you hope that the snake stays longer to eat more birds or that the snake vanishes immediately? Would you kill the snake to protect the birds, or allow the snake to continue harming birds? Would you just be a spectator to let the snake kill birds at will, or eliminate evil and support good with the great love and compassion of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas? What would you do? Please think seriously.
Let’s return to the story. At this time, the elderly man guarding the island returned. The tragic situation on the island made his heart as painful as being cut by a knife. Holding the remains and feathers of the little birds in his hand, his tears were scrolling down without stopping. The extremely sad elderly man found the poisonous snake. He was certainly able to raise his snake-chopping sword to kill the snake and let it disappear forever. However, because the elderly man has a heart like that of the Bodhisattvas and he knew that the snake was also a living being, he could not make the decision to kill the snake but, more urgently, he could not leave it alone to continue the killing. Every moment of delay could lead to many more little birds being killed. He instantly called back the gallant eagles from other places. The eagles were extremely angry and stared at the snake. They waved their wings and wanted to dash forward to tear the snake into pieces. The elder man stopped them and said, “You should not be angry and should be compassionate and have pity on it, just like I did not want to use my snake-chopping sword to kill it and let it fall into hell. However, this snake can’t be left in the world either. We simply cannot let it harm any other life anymore. Therefore, let’s pray together for the poisonous snake to have it immediately leave this world and be sent to the Western World of Superlative Joy to receive the teachings from the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to become a good being. The sooner this happens, the better. Think about the tragic view of little birds being trapped in their nests and waiting for their mothers to return. Let’s help the little birds realize their wish of reuniting with their mothers as soon as possible.” Their solemn voices of praying were loud enough to reach the sky.
The snake that was extremely evil in deceiving and harming the birds had expected itself to be killed by the elder man’s sword and could never imagine that he would lead the eagles to pray for its ascending to the Western World of Superlative Joy. The snake was shockingly moved and great repentance and sorrow arose in its heart. For that, the snake resolutely bit off its own poisonous tongue. The poisonous fluid flew out and covered the ground. It then made a vow of never pretending to be the loving island-guarding elderly man so as to harm any living beings and of doing all that’s good. On seeing the true repentance of the snake, the island-guarding elderly man told the gallant eagles, “Now that the snake has truly repented itself and would not harm any living beings, we no longer need to pray for its leaving this world. Let’s be compassionate and show pity to it.” Since then, under the teaching of the elderly man, the poisonous snake transformed itself into a kind island-guarding snake and the merit it accumulated kept growing. The little island returned to its earlier auspicious scene and the birds rebuilt their destroyed homes. Lost lives were elevated to higher realms by dedicating the merit from the living ones. The island became prosperous again.
For those who still do not understand what is implied in this metaphor by the Buddha, I can only say that such people have serious problems with their good roots. We must be clear about what on earth is the love and compassion of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Just talking softly in nice words cannot represent the love and compassion of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Love and compassion does not mean that one can watch evil persons doing bad deeds and harming living beings with indifference. That would in fact be providing assistance to the evil ones. For example, if one sees an evil person poisoning drinking water, the deed by a Bodhisattva would be immediately informing people about the poison and catching the evil one so a disaster can be avoided. The love and compassion of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas manifest as doing all one can for living beings’ accomplishment and opportunities of learning Buddhism and as teaching living beings and protecting living beings from the hindrance of devils to ensure their accomplishment. Only that can be true love and compassion. That’s the very reason that, among the precepts of the Three Vehicles, when the precepts of Bodhisattvas are awarded, panic and shaking will occur in the palace of Mara.
Think about this. A person of evil views dared to set up a internet site to answer living beings’ questions usurping the name of H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. This would definitely cause great confusion among cultivators all over the world. The substitution of true by false would lead good cultivators to the dead-ended cliff facing the bitter sea of suffering. The tragic massacre on the small island affected only birds inhabited on the island. On the other hand, substituting truth with a lie and cheating with evil words will cut off the good roots of living beings. This will cause countless living beings to sink into evil realms for thousands of lifetimes and eons, without any opportunity of being liberated and regaining happiness. Therefore, the guilt from the act of cheating living beings using the name of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is thousands and millions times greater than that of the poisonous snake’s massacre on the island! If one can stay indifferent and be ignorant upon seeing such serious crime and dark karma that harm living beings, wouldn’t you regard that person as in the same class as evil? If not, do you think he is carrying out the act of Bodhisattvas? Wouldn’t you see that he is doing the evil deed of assisting the snake to harm birds? If not, do you think he has great love and compassion? For that evil person, keeping him in this world just an hour longer would cause more harm to living beings. Therefore, he must be eliminated to save living beings! Sakyamuni Buddha did the same in his lives of carrying out the deeds of a Bodhisattva, killing an evil person to save living beings.
I was greatly moved by the love and compassion from the Office of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. Putting me in their position, I would not even think about letting him go to the Western World of Ultimate Bliss. I would simply kill him immediately for what he deserves. However, the Office of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III applied great compassion, benevolence and love. They first took the action to stop his poisonous propaganda. At the same time, they did not want him to get the suffering in hell and beseeched his early reincarnation in the Pure Land. Neither letting him harm and poison living beings nor letting him suffer in hell, such affinity led to the Sixth Public Announcement being issued from the Office of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. That is an act of a Bodhisattva in compliance with the Precepts of a Bodhisattva. Compared to that, I myself feel very ashamed. In the act of great compassion, benevolence and love, the Office of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III taught an evil person to thoroughly correct his evil deeds and start doing good. Now that evil person has already deeply repented himself and made a vow of benefiting living beings. He is accumulating merit just like that island-protecting snake. He may even become a great virtuous one if he cultivates himself according to the dharma. This is certainly something that delights us.
My talking may not mean much anyway. To those people who have evil views, I would just like to point out the best short cut toward getting on the correct path of bodhihood. Please study diligently H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III’s discourse of “Brief Explanation of Evil Views and Erronrous Views.” Only then can one understand that ordinary beings will never be able to interpret a Buddha’s great compassionate state of enlightenment. Only after thoroughly recognizing the evil views and erroneous views, can one avoid falling into the poisonous traps of evil demons and avoid degenerating into the class of Maras and therefore losing the affinity of attaining accomplishment!