Bidding Farewell to My Master, Guru Tu-Deng-Da-Ji

By Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Sheng-Yen Lu Translated and edited by TBN

G-04-01

  During the five-plus years of my seclusion and retreat, every New Year I always respectfully sent a letter to my Tantric master, Guru Tu-Deng-Da-Ji, with my greetings.      I would pray and wish for my own master good health and a long life, and express my gratitude for his teachings.

  In those days of retreat, I had received “invisible” blessings from my guru many times and I was deeply touched and felt that the Tantric dharma was outstanding and that my guru was great.

  In the spring of 2006, I felt an urge to travel to Hong Kong.

On March 1, I paid a formal visit to my guru whom I had been missing day and night.G-04-02

I received my master’s blessings.

  That night, after I returned to my hotel, my master, Guru Tu-Deng-Da-Ji, “flew” out from his body and appeared before me in a “pure light” form. He talked to me until dawn about our “extraordinary [predestined] affinity.”

It made me realize that there existed such a secret and deep affinity between my guru and me.

  On March 4, I bid farewell to my master before leaving Hong Kong. I was blessed by him again. At that time I already knew that Guru Tu-Deng-Da-Ji was going to enter paranirvana very shortly.

  I felt sadness in my heart.

I said to the disciples accompanying me, “My master will soon enter into nirvana (‘perfect rest’).

I will definitely be coming back to Hong Kong again.”

*  *  *

G-04-03

  I returned to my retreat.

  Quite unexpectedly, what I had said came true very quickly.

I had bid farewell to Master Tu-Deng-Da-Ji on March 4 and on March 7 he unexpectedly entered para nirvana .

It was only three days after I had left.

  Master Lian Xiang said to me, “The Master was waiting to see you one last time so that he could leave this life without worry.”

  On hearing that, my heart wept.

I replied, “All the masters I took refuge in have gone.

I have no master in this human world anymore.

” I sobbed with unbearable sorrow.

*  *  *

g-04-05

  March 30 was the day of [the traditional] “guard beside the coffin” for Guru Tu-Deng-Da-Ji.

I flew to Hong Kong again, my second trip to the city within a month, just as I had predicted.

  During my “guard beside the coffin” of more than three hours, Guru Tu-Deng-Da-Ji appeared in his “pure light body” and talked to me for about half an hour.

I asked, “Where will you go?”

  The master replied, “The Profound Bright Pure Land.”

  I asked, “And when will Master come back to this human world?”

  The master replied, “When you come back, then I come back.”

  ”When?”

  ”We will meet every couple of hundred years.”

  ”What can I do for you, Master?”

  ”You are already realized.

What need is there to ask!” the master replied.

  I said, “Master, do you have any other advice?”

  The master replied, “There is only one Sheng-Yen Lu, you, during these hundreds of years!”

  I was silent.

  The Master was silent, too.

  What a “spiritual meeting”!

*  *  *

G-04-04

  Of course, I knew that my Guru, Tu-Deng-Da-Ji, had already attained Buddhahood while in his physical body and that he had gone directly to the “Profound Bright Pure Land.”

  My Guru will come back again, so really he never goes away.

(This brings a smile to my face.)

  The Dharmakaya of my Guru exists always, so “coming back” or “going away” has no meaning.

  I pray to my Guru, Tu-Deng-Da-Ji, that his brightness illuminates like the Great Sun and that he lib

G-04-06

erates all sentient beings from suffering.

  I wrote a poem in praise of my master:

  The highest and supreme dharmas

  Secret instructions transmitted orally from patriarch to patriarch

  Shakyamuni Buddha delivers sentient beings without discrimination

  Buddha — always there, never leaving!

  His enlightenment is the greatest

  Immeasurable, immeasurable teachings

  We learn them diligently.

(from TBN issue #582, “True Buddha Sword Column”)

(本文刊登於真佛報第583期第2版「Guru’s Talk」專欄;題材選自蓮生活佛第187冊著作「地獄變現記」文章「告別師父──吐登達吉上師」)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

19 + fifteen =