There was a story about an old woman. She was reciting the Name of the Buddha every day while she’s doing her sorting out beans. She separated the bad beans from the good beans so that she can use or sell. And when she was sorting out the beans, she recited the Name of that Buddha. And then one day, there was a monk who passed by and saw her house was full of light. He visited her and told her, “Oh, you recite the names wrong. You have to recite like this, like that.” Then probably a mantra also. So from then on, she recited as the monk taught her. And then one day, the monk looked back and saw her house had no light. And he saw that she was very sad and very poor, poorer than before.
So he asked her why, and she said, “Since I recited the correct way that you taught me, my beans don’t sort themselves out automatically anymore. Before, when I recited the wrong way, the beans would jump. The bad ones jumped to the left, and the good ones jumped to the right for me. So I didn’t have to do so much, and I could sell more, and I made a better living. And now I don’t have much time to do many things because I have to sort the beans one by one – the bad ones out to the left, and the good beans to the right, all by my fingers. And it takes so much time.”
So the monk said, “Sorry, sorry. OK, you go back. You recite the way you did before.” And she tried it. Immediately, the beans jumped again. So the beans just jumped like before. The bad ones jumped to the left and the good ones jumped to the right. So, the woman didn’t have to work laboriously one by one with fingers anymore. So the monk said, “Sorry,” he felt ashamed, and he left, of course.
And there’s another story you know already. One priest happened to be on an island and saw three hermits there. And he asked them if they have any belief. They said, “Yes, we believe in God.” So he said, “How do you pray to God then?” So they said, “We just say, ‘You are Three,’ meaning God Almighty, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So we say, ‘You are Three, we are three. Have Mercy on us!’ That’s what we pray every day to God.” So the priest said, “No, no, you cannot just say it like that. You have to pray like this, like that…” And he taught them the way they should pray, like people who go to the church. Fine. So the three hermits began to recite that, and didn’t recite “We are three, You are Three” anymore. And so, the priest stayed there for a while and made sure they understood all that and remembered it by heart, and then he left when some boats came nearby. So he went with a boat away. And then, after a while on the boat, he saw the three figures of the three hermits running toward the boat.
They were running on the water. They came to the boat and met the priest again and said, “Oh, please, we forgot some part of the teaching that you told us to pray. Please teach us again.” And, the priest saw them running on water, of course, so wholesome, holy like that, so he was so frightened already. He bowed to them and said, “No, no, please, don’t worry about it. You just continue to recite the way you did. Pray to God as before. Like you say, ‘You are Three, we are three. Have Mercy on us.’ Continue like that all the time. Don’t think about what I taught you, just forget what I taught you.” And so, the three hermits said, “OK, if that’s what you order, we will do that.” So they ran back to their island, barefoot on the water, of course.
So people’s faith can move mountains and empty the ocean. So do not teach them contrary to their belief because you are helping the King of Devils to ensnare them back into the slavery existence of this physical world where you’ll be born again and again and you’ll recycle, recycle – birth and death and suffering, birth and death, and suffering – The Four Noble Truths that the Buddha had taught, the first sermon after He got completely enlightened. So if you cannot teach them anything good by your own realization of Heavens and Buddha’s Land, then I invite you to shut up.
If any of you monks and nuns don’t know anything at all, and don’t have samadhi in meditation, are going the wrong way, then please just keep trying to improve. Read more of the Buddhist sutras; any good sutra you can understand, cling onto it. Or recite “Amitābha Buddha” so that your soul can be secured a safe place in Amitābha Buddha’s Land. Do not preach anything. If you don’t know anything, just please be quiet. Leave other people alone to find their own way, instead of being misled by you to miserable hell by wrong concepts and the wrong direction, led by the devil. That’s all I’m begging you.
You can scold me, you can slander me as much as you want, like some of you did already. But you still have to pay for your false accusation in this life or/and in hell. Some of you saw the retribution already. Because you harm the reputation of a good spiritual devotee who has never harmed you.
But don’t interfere with people’s good, pure faith. Leave Amitābha Buddha and His faithful alone. Respect hell because that’s where you will go if you don’t respect the Buddha. If you don’t believe hell exists, the devil will prove it to you. Don’t wait until then; it will be too late for you. U-turn now. Recite the Buddha’s Name. Be vegan, be humble, be real, be truthful, and don’t lead people astray. Even if you are demons, you can be saved if you turn around. The Buddha also had many demons who helped Him. The Buddha is all-powerful, but some humans in this world are not powerful, so the demons would try to calm them down, to dim their wrong concepts so that they would go to see the Buddha.
“At that time there were daughters of rakshasa demons, the first named Lamba, the second named Vilamba, the third named Crooked Teeth, the fourth named Flowery Teeth, the fifth named Black Teeth, the sixth named Much Hair, the seventh named Insatiable, the eighth named Necklace Bearer, the ninth named Kunti, and the tenth named Stealer of the Vital Spirit of All Living Beings. These ten rakshasa daughters, along with Mother of Demon Children (Hariti), her offspring, and her attendants, all proceeded to the place where the Buddha was and spoke to the Buddha in unison, saying, ‘World-Honored One, we too wish to shield and guard those who read, recite, accept, and uphold the Lotus Sutra and spare them from decline or harm. If anyone should spy out the shortcomings of these teachers of the Law and try to take advantage of them, we will make it impossible for him to do so.’ Then in the presence of the Buddha they pronounced these spells […] [and] they spoke […] saying: ‘If there are those who fail to heed our spells and trouble and disrupt the preachers of the Law, their heads will split into seven pieces […]. [W]e will use our own bodies to shield and guard those who accept, uphold, read, recite, and practice this sutra. We will see that they gain peace and tranquility, freeing them from decline and harm and nulling the effect of all poison herbs.’ The Buddha said to the rakshasa daughters, ‘Excellent, excellent! If you can shield and guard those who accept and uphold the mere name of the Lotus Sutra, your merit will be immeasurable. How much more so if you shield and guard those who accept and uphold it in its entirety, who offer alms to the sutra rolls, flowers, incense, necklaces […] who burn various kinds of lamps […] and who in this manner offer hundreds and thousands of varieties of alms. Kunti, you and your attendants should shield and guard teachers of the Law such as these!’” ~ Excerpts from Chapter 26 of “The Lotus Sutra”
When the Buddha was preaching on Earth, many Buddhas, Heaven-kings also came down from Their own Abode to listen to the Buddha, to pay homage to the Buddha, to bow and prostrate to the Buddha. You know all that from the vastness of Buddhist teachings. The Buddha left behind so many sutras. We thank Him forever for that. Otherwise, we would never have a chance to know Medicine Buddha, Quan Yin Bodhisattva, Great Strength Bodhisattva (Mahāsthāmaprāpta Bodhisattva), Vairocana Buddha, Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, Amitābha Buddha, so many Buddhas, etc. You can name the long list of the Buddhas forever because Shakyamuni Buddha told them all those names. And still, the Buddha predicted that some monks would use the Buddha’s teaching to go against Him. That’s the example I told you.
To deny Amitābha Buddha, Who is the most popular, the easiest way for the Buddhists to follow, to save their soul, and to deny that hell exists, that is a thousand times contradictory to the Buddha’s teaching. In any religion, they teach you these two things: Heaven and hell, so you can tell who is who – who is a real Buddhist monk, who is a fake one. Please be aware, save yourself. Recite “Amitābha Buddha.” Don’t listen to anybody who says the Western Paradise of Amitābha doesn’t exist. Don’t listen to that. And believe that hell exists. I swear to you, by Heaven and Earth, that hell exists, Amitābha Buddha’s Land exists, many other Buddhas’ Lands exist. But Amitābha Buddha has more affinity with humans, and His Light is limitless, forever, everywhere, so it’s easier to be connected with Him. That’s all.
Photo Caption: 2gether, Beautifying the World!
