From the Grand Master Dasira Narada teaching, we know our existing on this earth is not only to live, to receive benefits, and to die. Everything from soil, rock, flower, grass, animal, to human must go through various lessons from sinful immoralities to purity in order to evolve to return to our root. However, through these very same lessons, human are so attached to the surrounding environment and have lost sight of the initial sacred responsibility. Eventually, they have sunken deeper into the obsessive labyrinth maze of life and stuck in such a dead-end recycling without knowing how to escape. Because of the love for humanity, many saviors have in turn descended on this earth to teach humankind the way on how to escape the boundless sorrows of our lives; albeit a temporary one. These saviors had arrived in various periods of human existence history and witnessed different levels of knowledge humankind possessed from the early primitive days to the current modern era. For example, during the history of Buddhism, Buddha Sakyamuni came to this world almost 2600 years ago when human culture, society, and technology had not developed and were rather crude and primitive. As such, Buddha Sakyamuni used language/concepts that he thought was appropriate at the time to convey his message/teaching. With the same responsibility as Buddha Sakyamuni, the Grand Master Dasira Narada came to this world in the 21st century. He saw the advances humankind has made on culture, society, and technology. He has had to use a different approach to teach us in ways that could never be understood by folks living 2600 years ago.
These teaching techniques used by various saviors throughout history are nothing more than just a convenient mean commensurate to the humankind knowledge at the time. The only difference perhaps is the spiritual foundation of each individual but the TRUTH is only one. Similarly, if we want to go from Toronto to Vancouver, some could get there by airplane. Some who afraid of flying could drive while some who don’t have a car could take the train, walk, and etc. But in the end; they would all reach Vancouver; however, there is only one City of Vancouver. And getting there by airplane is taking less time than by car, train, or walking.
Speaking of Buddhism, we could understand it with two possible meanings. Number one: Buddha Dharma is a method/mean that Buddha Sakyamuni used to teach folks living 2600 years ago. The other meaning could stand for recognizing that Buddha was the awaken person and Dharma was the framework/method/mean on how to be reach awakening. So, Buddha Dharma is the dharma (framework/method/mean) of the awaken people. An awaken person has the ability to recognize the truth about the universe and divinity. These saviors have guided humankind on the right path to untie the tightening noose of reoccurring sorrows.
Buddha Sakyamuni, Jesus, and the Grand Master have reached enlightenment. They all know that there is only one TRUTH. But because they have accepted the responsibility to come to this world in different periods of human history, their Darma (e.g., framework, approach, method, or mean of teaching) must be different to remain currency and for effective application. Each approach requires careful teaching to ensure understanding among humankind at that time so they could follow and practice to fulfill the dharma obligations or objectives. As such, they have used the earthly language to describe various Darma for us to understand. And since it relies on the earthly language, there are limitations.
Similarly when one says “to end sorrows, one must cultivate (or commit to self transformation) in order to bring out (or grow/nurture) intelligence, accumulate moral merits/credits, and escape”, it is highly abstract. We have used words like “non-suffering merits” to describe certain acts of kindness or contribution to the cause of UHBE. What other words could be used otherwise? This earthly language must be used to ensure humankind in carrying out this work could understand and therefore follow accordingly. Once our intelligence has reached the non-suffering merit level, there is no need to use the earthly language to understand everything about humanity, all being, and the universal truth.
Buddha Sakyamuni once told his disciples that his knowledge is like the leaves in the jungle but what he had spoken/discussed only represents the leaves in his palm. What does he mean by that statement? Based on my shallow rudimentary understanding, when we see the leaves in a palm, we generally know the color, flavor, quantity, and obviously with a fixed limit number. Regarding the leaves in the jungle, it means infinity without boundary and there is no way to weight or to quantify them. Only the enlightened ones can see such reaches. Learning UHBE, we see that the Grand Master has taught us the immense miraculous secret. These are the leaves of the jungle. The number of leaves in the jungle is overwhelming and the imagination of humankind is limited; as such, the earthly language of humankind can’t be sufficient to describe the extraordinary beyond this physical world.
It is not complete to say UHBE is the same as the Buddha Dharma based only on the dharma (e.g., framework or an approach in conveying/teaching). But to say they are the same in that they are both born to help humankind escape sorrows, then they are more closely resemble. However, there are folks who are stubborn, constantly seeking, comparing, and pursuing the greedy thoughts thinking one dharma is higher than the other or one is correct and the other is wrong. They have failed to recognize the different dharma that Saviors must use in various periods of human history to guide humankind on the right path to the only TRUTH and that is the evolution of all beings.
Disciple Chuong Nguyen,
Toronto Meditation Center.