I-Kuan Tao A Modern Way Of Spiritual Awakening （Ⅲ）


編按：感謝加拿大溫哥華明華道院I-Kuan Tao Ming Hwa Temple
褚楚麟點傳師慈悲提供本文連載，以服務英文道親。


Owing to the compassion of Ming Ming Shang Di (The Ultimate Supreme Being), the grace of Maitreya Buddha, and our divine master Ji-Gong, the Ultimate Teaching used to be prerogative to those who were virtuously and intellectually ready is now open to most of the people who engage spiritual cultivation as part of their lives. Through the initiative ritual at I-Kuan Tao sanctuary, this ultimate secret is revealed so that the seekers?communion with their inner selves is possible and their spiritual enlightenment becomes feasible. We are so fortunate to live in the age that the secret of the eternal life will be answered if we earnestly ask for it. It was why Confucius once said: one could die without regret if revealed with Tao.?The Tao here means the Ultimate Teaching. We shall feel extremely grateful to be born in this age that all the un-told is told, the secret is unfolded, the prerogative becomes promotional.

Cultivation In The Degenerate Period Of Dharma

All the dharma (teaching), Eastern or Western, dates back more than two millennia. Though new ideas and new schools of the religion sprouted through the age, the very essence of the teaching which leads the truth-seekers to their spiritual awakening shall remain the same. Unfortunately, many religious leaders or frontiers, when interpreting the original scripts, have knowingly or unknowingly added their personal feeling which often becomes misleading and perplex to the followers. It is why Buddhists classify Buddha’s teaching into three periods -- Right Dharma, Semblance Dharma, and Degenerate Dharma -- according to the time the dharma was first delivered. Any time beyond 2000 years from the dharma was delivered will fall into Degenerate Period. If this rule is applied, we are now in the age of Degenerate Period regardless Catholicism, Buddhism, or Taoism. The character of spiritual movement and philosophy in the Degenerate Period is paradoxical as well as enigmatic. The number could be astounding if we were to count how many different schools or sects within these major religions. With all these schools and sects available, it puts a naive truth-seeker into a confusing circumstance where the first move toward spiritual awakening becomes an agonized struggling with uncertainty. God certainly knew one day we, as his children when looking for the path back to the God’s kingdom, would be entangled with this religious complexity and dilemma. That’s why Maitreya Buddha and Ji-Gong (The Divine Master of I-Kuan Tao) are here to help us find the way back. In the Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch: Talking about prajna nature (Buddha nature) deliberately without knowing the Buddha nature within is similar to talking on food to appease hunger.?Unless we know our true-selves, unless we are revealed with the Buddha nature within, spiritual awakening is a journey to uncertainty.

（To be continued）