Upon the Occasion of Publishing the Book

[예스]

Upon the Occasion of Publishing the Book

It really has been a long period of dark tunnel. It took not only tens and hundreds of years but 2,000 years to reveal the right interpretation of 'non-self' and have it illuminate in the bright sunshine. It has been truly a shame that no eminent scholars and great enlightened masters during the long period could remove the veil covering the misinterpretation of the important term--'non-self'. Perhaps their wisdom of light must have been too weak to illuminate the darkness, or have they kindly left the sacred job for Jajae Manhyeon, Manjusri, the Prince of the Dharma King or Buddha to accomplish?

I prostrate with all the five parts of my body and pay grace to our Lord the World-honored Buddha, the founder of our religion, who has sent His two beloved disciples, the Great Master Gwangmyeong Mandeok, Venerable Kasyapa, and the Great Master Jajae Manhyeon, Venerable Ananda, at the time when we are living in the land of Republic of Korea to open the new age of orthodox dharma.

The greatness of Buddhism is the clear-cut system of truth about the salvation of humanity, its practice and attaining enlightenment that leads to karma, transmigration, and enlightenment, based on the law of causation; the Tri-dharma mudra, or the seal of three universal laws: all compounded things are impermanent, all dharma lack self-nature, nirvana is quiescence free from birth and death; and the Four Noble Truths: the holy truth of duhkha or suffering, the holy truth of the cause of suffering, the holy truth of the cessation of suffering, and the holy truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering, which enfolds the Noble Eightfold Path.

The gist of all such systems is Buddha's immeasurable cosmic power of salvation. In other words, there are sentient beings, the subjects of their own karma, transmigration, enlightenment, and the cosmic power of boundless compassion of Buddha who extinguishes the karmic obstructions of the sentient beings.

However, the theory of distorted misinterpretation of 'non-self' claims the logic that denies both the substance of sentient beings and the subsistence of Buddha. It means they left only the empty bag of Buddhism casting off the two nucleuses of Buddhism, namely, the almighty Buddha and sentient beings. This must has been the reason that Buddhism has declined in India, its birthplace, and could not spread it to the world far and wide, and maintained its feeble life only in some parts of Asia.

Buddhism covers more than half of the earth, yet when we think of its prestige and majestic power in the dharma realm, it is too shabby and less than satisfactory. However, considering its popularity in spite of such meager status in a shabby robe, it is a kind of miracle which reflects the greatness of Buddha's illustrious teaching. If so, we need no long explanations for spreading the Buddha's teaching all over the world if we could only show the people the true face of Buddhism.

This is the reason why the Great Masters Gwangmyeong Mandeok, Vernerable Kasyapa, the Dharma heir, and the Great Master Jajae Manhyeon, Venerable Ananda, the Prince of the Dharma, established the Yeongsan Buddhism to open the new age of orthodox Buddhism.

Originally, the doctrine of 'non-self' was for the Buddha to release the attachment of the sentient beings from their idea of 'self' in the mundane world of birth and death. Yet people misunderstood the true meaning of 'non-self' and magnified this misleading concept to deny even the substance of the realm of noumenon and followed it as the orthodox doctrine of Buddhism.

Yeongsan Buddhism is trying to uphold the true meaning of 'non-self' expounded by Buddha, and through teachings of two great masters of this age, Gwangmyeong Mandeok and Jajae Manhyeon, undertook the great work of vanishing forever the misleading doctrines of 'non-self' and 'transmigration of non-self' based on the doctrine of misleading interpretation of 'non-self', and then establish the doctrine of 'transmigration of the substance of soul through right interpretation of 'non-self' to start the age of new Buddhism to open the age of orthodox Buddhism to show the true face of the teachings of Buddha to the whole world.

It is my sincere wish for all the followers of Buddha's teaching to join our campaign of spreading the orthodox Buddhism to the world far and wide as soon as possible to save Buddhism by delivering the Buddhism of this age and all the followers of Buddha's teaching in the world from the deep swamp of misleading doctrine of 'non-self'.

Accordingly the publication of this book is, with the assistance of the dharma talks of the Great Master Jajae Manhyeon, for the Yeongsan Buddhism to help the Buddhism of today and the followers of Buddha's teaching to understand the right meaning of 'non-self' and accept the new doctrine of the transmigration of 'the substance of soul'

I prostrate with all the five parts of my body and pay courtesy to the Great Master who instructed and encouraged me to write this book. If there is any misunderstanding about the Master's teaching, that fault is entirely mine, and I pray to the readers to be generous towards my misunderstanding of the Master's teaching.

I have a special request for the scholars who are teaching or writing on Buddhism. Our Buddha is the great saint of the cosmos and the great teacher of humanity. When I read the writings on Buddhism, I sometimes encounter with the phrase 'Sakya', the name of Sakya clan, and feel uncomfortable. I wish that it is our duty to pay honor, whether one is a Buddhist or not, to the great saint.

It is also my sincere wish that this book will be of some help to the readers in understanding the right teachings of Buddha and spreading them to the world far and wide. I also pray that Buddha's grace will be always with you. Thank you.

The 8th day of the fourth moon (Sakyamuni Buddha's birthday), 2554, BE (2010)

Hyeun with palms joined.