1345：Everything I Have Now Is Bestowed by the Guru

Prostrations to His Eminence Vajra Guru Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche, His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang, the Lineage gurus, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and Dharma Protector Achi. I am Fang Wei Lun from Group Seven, and my Dharma name is Gong Chu Sheng Zhi; my father is Fang Guo An from Group Seven, my mother is Tian Shu Jun from Group Four, my aunt is Tian Shu Ting from Group Eight, my sister is Fang Li Jie from Group Five, my younger female cousins separately are Chen Jing Xuan and Chen Jing Fan from Group Six, and my younger male cousin is Chen Yi Wei from Group Three. I am grateful to Rinpoche for bestowing upon me the opportunity to share with you the traces of the guru helping me, and to repent the evil karma I have committed. 

When I was young, I took refuge in Rinpoche together with my parents. Over the past 30 years, the guru has compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) transferred the consciousness of my maternal great-grandfather, maternal grandparents, aunt, and uncle-in-law (please refer to Article No. 441 and Article No. 898 on the Traces of Liberating Beings); the guru has also compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) taught and helped me again and again.
 
I heard my parents saying that when I was young, I was very naughty and active. When I was one year and four months old, being naughty, I was playing with the hot water dispenser at home, and the boiling water spilled over my right forearm and the back of my right hand, burning my entire hand black. I burst into tears immediately. My father quickly checked my condition. As it was winter and I was wearing long sleeves, my father didn’t know that the boiling water had flowed into my sleeve; when he pulled up my sleeve to rinse the burns with cold water, the severely burned skin on my entire right arm had stuck to the sleeve and was pulled up together with the sleeves. I was urgently sent to the hospital, and the doctor initially diagnosed my burns as extremely severe and said that I would definitely need a skin graft later. Because I was in excruciating pain, I cried and fussed throughout the night and could not sleep. My parents took me to seek an audience with the guru. I am grateful to the guru for compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) blessing me, chanting mantras and for blowing a breath toward my burned hand. When the wound dressing was changed that evening, I no longer cried, and I could even play with toys with my other hand. Afterwards, not only did I not need a skin graft, but to this day, unless one looks carefully, there is no sign at all of any scar. Even the doctor found it exceedingly incredible. This was the manifestation of the guru’s great abilities, and I am grateful to Rinpoche! I repent for the deep and heavy killing karma from accumulated past lifetimes that caused me to suffer this retribution.

When I was in the second grade of elementary school, I was still very naughty. One day, I was running along the corridor and, when I ran into the classroom, the joint of my left index finger was cut by a piece of metal on the door. A piece of flesh was sliced off on the spot, with only a small piece of skin still attached to my finger, and the wound was deep enough to expose the bone. The school immediately took me to the hospital to have the wound stitched. Afterwards, I sought an audience with the guru. Rinpoche first compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) blessed my wound, and then expounded that I had received this retribution because, first, I recently hadn’t listened to my parents and teachers; second, I had used this hand to hit a female classmate’s head with an iron ruler at school; and third, I often played with a very naughty classmate in my class and learned bad things. I am grateful to Rinpoche for teaching me, while I was young, how frightening karma is, and for compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) blessing me, allowing the wound to heal very smoothly afterwards without leaving any obvious scar; the figure functioned completely normally.

A few weeks before taking the university entrance examination in high school, my whole family went to the Buddhist Center together on a Saturday to make an offering to Rinpoche. After making the offering, just as we were preparing to step back, Rinpoche suddenly called me back and asked what books I had been reading recently. I reported to the guru that I was reading the Grave Robbers’ Chronicles (Dao Mu Bi Ji). Rinpoche reprimanded me that, ‘You are learning Buddhism; why are you still reading this kind of book about ghosts, spirits, and supernatural phenomena, and stealing things?’ The guru then hit me on the head several times with a teaching pointer and then instructed my father, ‘When you go home, talk more with him about matters concerning young men, and tell him not to become immersed in that.’ I am grateful for the guru’s teachings and blessings, which timely pulled me back when I was going astray. Besides, it was exceedingly incredible that my brain had always felt confused when I studied, but after being hit by Rinpoche, I was actually able to calm my mind to study. I used to rank near the bottom of my class, but in the end, I was unexpectedly admitted to the university department I had hoped for and ranked among the top few in my class. I am grateful to Rinpoche!
 
When I was studying for my graduate degree in Hsinchu, one evening I was riding home to my rented place alone. As I passed through an intersection, because I suddenly became distracted, I crashed into the sidewalk, and fell off my vehicle. At that time, the speed of the vehicle was up to nearly 60 to 70 kilometers per hour. I am grateful for Rinpoche’s blessings. At that moment, I only felt slightly dizzy due to the crash. After resting on the ground for a few minutes, I was able to get up on my own, and the vehicle was also completely fine, and I was able to continue riding it. After returning to my rented place and checking myself, I had only a few abrasions on my right leg, with no injury to the bones or anywhere else. This was truly extremely incredible. It was already late at night, and there were almost no people or vehicles passing on the road. Without the guru’s blessings, I might have lost consciousness and gone undiscovered until the next day. I am grateful to Rinpoche for helping me avoid the retribution of dying an untimely death. The wounds on my leg also healed extremely quickly under the treatment using Bao Yuan Gao from the Glorious Jewel Chinese Medicine Clinic.

Three years ago, after graduating from graduate school, I began looking for a job. Before the Lunar New Year, I went for an interview at a technology company and was quickly hired and started working there. Only after joining did I discover that although the company primarily operated a chat software and a sports live-streaming platform, the customers using its products were involved in industries related to gambling. At that moment, I gave rise to the thought of leaving the company. I am grateful to Rinpoche for bestowing the Jambhala Puja on the first day of the Lunar New Year. Not long afterwards, a headhunting company proactively contacted me through a job platform and invited me for an interview. The overall conditions at the new company were very good, but the headhunter also reminded me that the company had previously interviewed several job seekers, none of whom had passed the programming exam; he also told me that someone had shared that one relatively difficult question was frequently tested. Before the interview, I therefore made a special effort to prepare for that question. Unexpectedly, that exact question indeed appeared in the actual interview. There were several thousand questions in the programming question bank, yet I happened to draw the question I had prepared for in the actual test; Ultimately, I was successfully hired by the company where I am currently employed. None of this was because I was especially smart or hardworking, but because the guru compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) blessed me, allowing me to stay away from an unsuitable industry. I am grateful to Rinpoche!

Next, I would like to share the precious teachings bestowed by the guru during my process of imploring for the Four Extraordinary Foundations of Vajrayana Ngondro. I am grateful to the guru for often earnestly reminding us on the Dharma throne that we do not have much time and should diligently follow the guru to practice. Therefore, I gathered the courage to register to implore the guru for the grand prostrations.

In the first week, kneeling before the guru, I repented that I had heavy greedy thoughts, had no mind of gratitude, no mind to make offerings, and no fervent aspiration for the right Dharma, and I brought only a small offering to implore for the Dharma. After I implored the guru for the Dharma, Rinpoche reprimanded me, ‘You previously used some clever tricks to make the Dharma Affairs Group all into chaos; you even dared to change what the guru said. You have no mind of gratitude. If it were not for the guru, you would not even be alive now. Do not think that constantly doing grand prostrations means that you are practicing. How much is your monthly salary? I have not even seen you come to make offerings. Do not think that the money you earned was because you worked very hard.’ Just as I shared earlier about my experience of finding a job, if it were not for the guru’s blessings, it would not have gone so smoothly at all. I am grateful to the guru for pointing out the wrong thoughts in my inner mind and for letting me realize that I was terribly wrong.
 
A few weeks later, I prepared one month’s salary and registered again to implore for the Dharma. After kneeling before the guru and imploring for the Dharma, Rinpoche asked me, ‘You say how the guru helped you when you were young.’ I reported to the guru, ‘When I was young, the hand of this disciple was burned. Rinpoche blew a breath on it and it just got better; I often got injured from being naughty at school, and Rinpoche helped me with those as well; the guru also taught me many worldly matters and Buddha Dharma.’ Rinpoche asked, ‘So this life of yours was given by the guru, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, right?’ I answered, ‘Yes!’ Rinpoche then scolded me, ‘You still dared to change my way of doing things. Has Khenpo ever told you that what Rinpoche says is what counts, not what you say? Why did you dare to change it?’ I repented to the guru for my arrogance and pride. Rinpoche then expounded, ‘You also do not listen to your father. Your father often reminds you of many things, but you always think that he has been punished and wonder what gives him the right to teach you? You do not even respect your father, so how could you respect me? You always think you are very clever, and think graduating from a top university is remarkable! Your father’s mistakes are his own matters, but he is still your father! Go and ask him to forgive you.’ At that moment, I was deeply shocked in my mind. Indeed, just as the guru had expounded, I had truly had thoughts of being irreverent to my father before. Yet I had never told anyone, nor had I shown them outwardly. However, in front of the guru, we are transparent. No matter how much time has passed, the guru can still see and point out the wrong thoughts in our inner minds. I am grateful to Rinpoche for compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) pointing out my problems of being unfilial and disrespectful toward my elders and teachers, and for bestowing upon me the incomparably wondrous teachings. After the Sunday puja that week ended, following the guru’s instruction, I immediately went to Miaoli to ask my father for forgiveness.

After arriving in Miaoli, I knelt before my father and first shared the guru’s expounding with him and thanked him for giving birth to me and raising me. Then I apologized to my father, saying, ‘From childhood to adulthood, there have been many ways in which I have been disrespectful to you, looked down on you because I thought I was clever, and have been unfilial. Father, please forgive me.’ My father was extremely astonished at first and said that he had not felt that I looked down on him. I then repented to my father that I had indeed thought this way in my mind before; because I thought I was very capable, I looked down on him. I implored my father to forgive me. Later, my father accepted my apology and encouraged me that the most important thing was to follow Rinpoche to learn Buddhism. Finally, I kowtowed to my father and washed his feet with warm water and dried them, once again thanking my father for his benevolence of giving birth to me and raising me. My father said that there was no need to thank him, I should be grateful to Rinpoche, and that he merely gave me this physical body.

Two weeks later, my father and I registered to seek an audience with Rinpoche together. Rinpoche asked, ‘What is it?’ I reported to the guru, ‘I am grateful for Rinpoche’s teachings. This disciple knelt before my father and repented for all the ways I had disobeyed him, been unfilial, and looked down on him, and implored my father to forgive me. My father has forgiven me; today I came with my father to report this to Rinpoche.’ Rinpoche turned to my father and asked, ‘Why did you forgive him? Is it because he is your son?’ My father reported, ‘Because we are all disciples of Rinpoche. Rinpoche often teaches us to be filial to our parents and respect our teachers and elders. This disciple failed to teach my son well, so I repent to Rinpoche for still troubling the guru to point out the deepest problems in my son’s inner mind.’

Rinpoche expounded to my father, ‘What merit and capabilities do you have to have someone wash your feet for you? Do you know why you have a son who washes your feet for you, while I don’t? It is because when you took care of my mother in the past, you helped wash her feet. You have forgotten, haven’t you? You served her, so when fate matured at present, someone washed your feet. You all do not believe in karma and fate, so today I let you see the maturation of this retribution in this lifetime. When he washed your feet, you were stunned, weren’t you? I never told him to do this! So, you should know that every single thing the guru does is helping you plant virtuous fates. You do not know when the retribution will mature. This time, I let you see why, despite all the wrong things you have done over so many years, I still gave you opportunities. It is because you have served my mother. Now it has all been repaid to you, and I do not owe you anything anymore. If you still do not turn everything toward virtuousness, the consequences will be terrible.’

Rinpoche then turned to me and asked, ‘What are you imploring for today?’ I implored the guru for repentance, repenting that I had not carefully carried out the things the guru had instructed me to do. Rinpoche expounded to me, ‘Repentance is not that the guru forgives you. Repentance is that the guru, and the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas serve as your guarantors and tell your karmic creditors that this person is going to change. As long as you make even the slightest mistake again afterwards, the force of the backlash will be huge, and there will be no need to come to repent again.’ Rinpoche also compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) accepted the offerings from my father and me.

I am utmost sincerely grateful to Rinpoche for all his blessings and help to my family and me. Everything I have now is bestowed by the guru, not only in worldly matters, but also through the guru’s earnest teachings of Buddha Dharma, day after day for 30 years without ever stopping; the guru tirelessly used all kinds of methods, whether through laughter, smile, anger, or scolding, to teach us the right Buddha Dharma of ceasing evil and practicing virtuousness, and getting liberated from reincarnation. Without the guru’s teachings, I would not have known where I was wrong, and would have remained deeply immersed in the evil karma of greed, hatred, and ignorance, unable to be liberated from reincarnation. The guru’s benevolence in every word and every verse is as weighty as a mountain, yet I have been overly attached to my own views and self-righteous, neither grateful for the guru nor aware of the guru’s benevolence, and I I did not devote myself to carrying out the tasks instructed by the guru.
 
After the consecration of the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Monastery of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche, I am grateful to the guru for bestowing upon me the opportunity to work in the Information Technology Group and personally guiding us on how to design the system. This originally was a precious virtuous deed bestowed by the guru, yet I approached the work with the mindset of doing it only as a part-time job and slacked off, merely thinking that as long as I wrote the programs well, that would be enough. I did not diligently and properly do my work for the guru, for the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Monastery of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche, for the Buddhist Center, and for sentient beings. I repent. When purchasing the access cards, I did not consider other people’s feelings, committed the evil of bullying others by abusing my position, and caused others to give rise to afflictions, and I repent; after the system was completed, I did not show reverence toward the guru or promptly report to the guru, and left the system unused for an entire year without activating it. I procrastinated the guru’s work of benefiting sentient beings and also delayed the opportunities for countless sentient beings to forge virtuous fate with the pure Glorious Jewel Buddhist Monastery of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche. I truly have committed grave vices, I am sorry to all sentient beings, and I repent to all sentient beings.

The guru bestowed upon me the opportunity to run errands for sentient beings and serve the great practitioner in the Dharma Affairs Group, yet I was not completely reverent toward the Dharma or the guru, nor did I completely surrender myself. I carried out my work and submitted reports with the mindset of a civil servant, without considering things from the perspective of the guru and sentient beings. I was always thinking about my own convenience, using petty cleverness, making decisions according to my own ideas, and wanting to show how capable I was. I was irreverent toward the guru, didn’t have a mind of making offerings, and nor had a mind of appreciation, so that I repeatedly made mistakes. When printing the sutras and mantras for filling Buddha statues, I did not first seek the guru’s instruction, only asked Khenpo which sutras and mantras needed to be printed and then decided on my own to firstly send them for printing. I was completely irreverent toward the guru; by failing to act according to the guru’s instructions, I broke the precepts.

The guru establishing rules is to protect us from committing evil and from owing sentient beings. The guru also once expounded that for matters related to the ‘Dharma’, even when the guru knew that it was right, only after the guru sought instructions from His Holiness did the guru do it. Yet I did not listen nor did I learn accordingly, and I repent; the guru compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) pointed out my mistakes, but I did not thoroughly correct them, merely came to apologize, and afterwards I continued to do things according to my own ideas. I did not continue to follow up on or report back on the matters instructed by the guru, and even made the guru proactively ask about them; when submitting reports, I also did not consider things from the guru’s perspective; because of my laziness, I simply wrote the report according to the previous format, and repeatedly made mistakes, so I was punished by being unable to serve as a volunteer in the Dharma Affairs Group. More than once, the guru taught us on the Dharma throne how he had devoted himself wholeheartedly to serving His Holiness, but I did not listen, I did not learn from the guru, was irreverent toward the guru from the bottom of my heart, didn’t complete the service that would bring the guru joy, and I even made the guru spend additional effort teaching me. I am truly detestable and unworthy of the guru’s benevolence toward me over all these years. I repent.
 
I repent for chasing lizards for fun when I was in elementary school, causing them to lose their tails while trying to escape; I repent for harming cockroaches, ants, mosquitoes, and fruit flies because I found them disgusting, and repent to all the sentient beings I have harmed in this lifetime; I repent for arguing with my parents, committing harsh speech; listening a classmate complaining about their other half, I agreed with him, thereby committing divisive speech; I told dirty jokes, committing frivolous speech; I repent that when I was in university, I had a girlfriend and had sexual relations with her while she was still being raised by her parents, thereby committing sexual misconduct; I repent for placing great importance on money, being overly attached to sensual desires, and coveting fame and interest, often hoping others to praise me for doing an excellent job; I repent that I often thought that I was very capable, believed that I was very important, was arrogant and pride, envied those who were more capable than me, and looked down on those who were not as capable as I was; when others did things that harmed my interests, I would immediately give rise to hatred in my mind and have a confrontational mindset.

I repent that I was ignorant, indulged my mind, failed to constantly remember the Buddha Dharma taught by the guru, and idled my days away without diligently correcting myself, so that I made the same mistakes again and again, truly without shame. I now repent for all the greed, hatred, and ignorance I have committed in this lifetime and vow never to commit them again. I am grateful to Rinpoche for giving me many teachings, whether by hitting or scolding me, which awakened me to realize that I had completely failed to practice and correct myself in the past. I am grateful to Rinpoche for compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) stopping me from continuing to commit evil and rescuing me from the bitter retribution of falling into the Three Evil Realms. I am willing to accept the karmic retributions of all the evil karma I have committed to this day, and am determined from now on to practice according to the teachings, unceasingly use the Buddha Dharma taught by the guru to examine and correct my body, speech, and mind, and examine myself every day according to the Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas.
 
Lastly, I pray for His Eminence Vajra Guru Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s good health; his Dharma wheel turns unceasingly; his Buddha Dharma activities flourish; the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Monastery of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche is constructed perfectly and smoothly; Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s Dharma lineage spreads eternally, benefiting all vast sentient beings. I am grateful to Rinpoche. I thank all Dharma brothers and fellow believers for listening patiently. 

 

Reverently written by Disciple Fang Wei Lun, Group Seven, 

 on September 27, 2026

 

« Previous - Traces of Liberating Beings - Next »

Updated on September 30, 2026