It is the year 2020, the time of Covid-19, and I am currently sheltered-in-place at the Holy Vajrasana Temple and Retreat Center in the midst of fruit and nut trees, vineyards, and subdivisions creeping out from Fresno and at the beginning of the foothills and within sight of the magnificent snow-capped Sierras.
I am the abbot (abbess might be more accurate) of the Holy Vajrasana Temple, but we have closed the temple doors to outsiders, and I have no major retreats or on-site classes planned, nor do I know if and when there will be any for some time. This seems like the ideal time to finish a book I started over a decade ago and to reflect on my 80 years on this planet and share what I have of value.
That would be sharing my experiences and what I have seen, heard, and learned from being a close disciple of a living Buddha for many years and doing what I can to make that Chinese Buddha’s teachings more accessible and interesting to English-speaking people. This book consists of my travels, including my journey to all fifty states to introduce H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III and His most fundamental teachings, mainly “What Is Cultivation?” and The Supreme and Unsurpassable Mahamudra of Liberation, to the American people; the recognition and development of the Holy Vajrasana Temple and Retreat Center and its Holy Vajra Poles and what that offers; and my personal experiences in receiving and witnessing higher Dharmas. I want to conclude with what I have learned from these streams that can enable English-speaking seekers of truth to learn, understand, and follow the true Dharma.
I followed this Buddha before I even knew He was a Buddha. When I first met Master Wan Ko Yee, He was known as a Dharma King, but frankly, I did not have a clue as to what that meant either. Ever since I sat alone in the solemn and beautiful temples in Kyoto in 1983, I wanted to learn the true Buddha Dharma of Shakyamuni Buddha; the Dharma that can enlighten and enable one to attain liberation from samsara, and I felt this Dharma King could do that. I am grateful to all the other teachers who helped me on this path, but I have come to know that H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is truly a holy being and has the Buddha Dharma that can enable us to become Bodhisattvas and eventually Buddhas. I don’t see that anywhere else, but I do see a lot of erroneous and even evil practices that do not provide the power of the Dharma that Shakyamuni Buddha brought to this world. I am alarmed at the secularization of Buddhism that has occurred in the West. It would seem that much of what is presented as Buddhism today is mainly a form of mindfulness or zen practice that is a method to develop concentration, reduce stress, and achieve serenity. These are all worthy by-products and useful but fall far short of the wonders and marvelous existence taught by Shakyamuni Buddha. People do not believe in the power of the Buddha Dharma, because they have never experienced or seen it.
I believe that H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III came to this world to correct the evil and erroneous views and practices that have crept into Buddhism over the centuries and to restore and propagate the true Dharma of the Holy Ones. We are now seeing more of that Dharma become available in English so that westerners can also receive those teachings. And although the trends within Western Buddhism seem to be, at least, toward a lack of belief in the mysterious and holy, or the power of Buddhism that we read about in times past, there are positive trends or glimpses of inquiry into those very magical things by some members of the scientific community. Psychoenergetic Science or explorations into new realms of the science of consciousness may not be yet an accepted area of research on the scale of a second Copernican-scale revolution, but it is encouraging. I do not attempt to draw parallels here from what I have seen, but it does seem that Shakespeare may have gotten it right when he gave voice to Hamlet’s insights. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”[1]
[1] Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5, a play by William Shakespeare, first published in 1796.
The above paragraphs are from the INTRODUCTION of my soon to be published book, Thus Have I Seen: The Marvelous True Buddha Dharma and Its Power to Transform.
CLICK for PREFACE, Part I – Thus Have I Seen: The Marvelous True Buddha Dharma and Its Power to Transform
CLICK for PREFACE, Part II – The Phoenix and the Chicken
CLICK for PREFACE, Part III – Seven Gems Logo
CLICK for excerpts from CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE–Your Yidam.
CLICK for article on William A. Tiller’s book Psychoenergetic Science: A Second Copernican-Scale Revolution.
CLICK for article on Albert Einstein’s views of Science and Religion.
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