Why seek Dao?
Holy Teaching from Buddha Ji Gong
Why does one seek Dao?
Where, exactly, is Dao? What does it mean to “seek”?
Let me tell you: When you come to the temple to seek Dao, you do not receive anything. You don’t come to the temple for the Heavens to give you something.
Are the Three Treasures bestowed upon you by Heaven?
You have all overlooked that “Dao is nature.” Where are the Three Treasures? They are within you. They have always been. It is not up to someone else to tell you about them, nor for others to pass on to you. They have always been innately yours. Everyone and their Three Treasures are equal and the same—none better or worse than the next.
The Three Treasures represent your buddha nature. Everyone’s buddha nature is equal, without different levels of status. Yet there are so many different levels of rank and status in human society. As Dao cultivators, we must understand that Dao is natural. Accordingly, we must return to our natural selves—without rank or status, without ‘you,’ without ‘me,’ and without form.
Today you seek proof of whether that location of the First Treasure was truly opened. It is completely up to you to decide whether you believe it. Whether others believe is also up to them. No one here was alive all those time periods ago, and no one has witnessed this transmittance firsthand—so it may be difficult for you to understand or believe it. If you believe in Holy Teacher, you trust what Holy Teacher tells you. If you have doubts about Holy Teacher, then you may not believe what I tell you.
Receiving Dao grants us endless benefit for the rest of our lives. Cherish this lifelong treasure! There is no need to continue searching externally for mysterious wonders.
You must know this: ‘buddha’ is within you. You must reveal and discern this for yourself. There is no need to go to Buddhist temples to seek aid from spirits. If you happen to find one that does not have your best interest in mind, it may be more difficult to dissociate from them than it was to affiliate with them.
We must delineate clearly between the true self and the false self. Do not linger in the suffering sea for the sake of the false self. Only when one’s true self is in control can one safely return to heaven. Do not continue to be so foolish. It has been 60,000 years, and it is time to wake up!
One misstep can lead to eternal regret. When great calamity comes, not even Holy Teacher can save you. Look not at the seeming peacefulness right in front of you. Extend your gaze and broaden your horizon to see far into the distance. How many sentient beings are still suffering, waiting for rescue? The longer they are immersed in this world, the longer they endure neverending birth, aging, sickness, and death. You must broaden your vision, and see where the future is headed.
With the point of an enlightening master, your true nature is awakened to buddhahood. Heaven sends enlightened masters to help you understand and choose your own path—to help you recognize that you have this bright path within you. Neither this path, nor the Three Treasures, are given to you by the Heavens; rather, they are both intrinsic elements of your original nature.
Many of you enjoy proclaiming, “After receiving Dao and the Three Treasures, you can evade calamities!” In reality, however, many people use the Three Treasures yet cannot avoid misfortunes—so how do you explain that? Have you been speaking nonsense?
| It is already a gross mischaracterization to say that one ‘receives’ the Three Treasures. Where did these Three Treasures come from? From your own self-nature, the true self. But what about this point from an enlightening master? From where does the enlightening master point? What is an enlightening master? The purpose of one coming to the temple is not to receive something. If I bring you to the temple, it is because I understand that we all have a divine conscience that we can all bring to bear. So I bring you here to help you, through the strength of everyone gathered together, to understand that you have within you an original buddha nature. |
What are you seeking when you come to receive Dao? To rediscover your original miraculous buddha nature, or self-nature. You are not here for the Heavens to grant you a bright path; Heaven is only using this affinity to show you that you already have a simple path right in front of you. You must cultivate quickly, lest you fall deeper and deeper into the blindness and find it too difficult to pull yourself out. This is why Heaven is sending enlightened masters to show you this original Dao. Heaven is not telling you that you have been given a Dao path. Do you understand?
Every time we meet, Holy Teacher hopes that each of you can understand your own heart. I have used many words to explain, but it has become too verbose. In doing so, I have instead failed to convey the preciousness of Dao. All saints and sages throughout history, from one holy master to the next, have passed on only a “heart dharma” needing no words. The real truth need not be conveyed with words, but with a heart-to-heart resonance. The holy masters did not bother using language to explain, since words could carry the potential for distortion and misinterpretation.
True teachings and sutras do not deviate from our true nature. Do not try to define words using more words. If your heart can transcend language, then you can connect to and communicate with Heaven and Earth, unobstructed by the limitations of language. The undying, eternal true self is within you. You must bring it forth and let it shine. There are no sutras or scriptures passed down throughout history that have ever deviated from the true nature—their contents are inseparable from the true self.
Are you not all saints and buddhas? You, once enlightened, are a buddha. Buddha is in your heart, so you are a buddha. You need only to reveal your true nature to become a buddha. You need not go anywhere in search of ‘buddha.’
Disciples! The road ahead may not be easy. Only your true nature is real. You must understand that everything else is false and will one day perish. Only the spirit—only the true self at the Heavenly Portal—is real. If you want to find your true self, you do so not by just intensely concentrating on the Heavenly Portal (this is merely an empty form), but by ridding yourself of the human heart, thus revealing your heavenly heart. Only then can you and I reunite.
| The transmission of Dao (or Sudden Enlightenment) from an enlightened master shows us the proper gate to heaven. It is the wondrous heavenly portal, the “true wordless sutra,” that all holy masters, buddhas, and bodhisattvas throughout history experienced through “receiving” this point. When the Fifth Patriarch is said to have explained the Diamond Sutra to the Sixth Patriarch in the middle of the night, it is written that they enshrouded themselves in secrecy. If only teaching the sutra, why not let others see? This was the moment when the point of enlightenment was passed. The Diamond Sutra is a metaphor for our true nature—like a diamond, it is never-changing and untarnishable. For having just uttered the words, “the true self ought to emanate without attachment,” the Sixth Patriarch understood and was enlightened. |
