The Scripture of the Fo...

Dictionary

The Scripture of the Founding Master

Chapter Fourteen: Prospects

25

The Founding Master continued, “Religious orders with sufficient funds will build airports and parks at the tops of tall mountains. They will build elaborate and magnificent shrine halls to enshrine the portraits and chronicles of the public-spirited, so that many spectators from all directions will come to visit, and even the highest dignitaries will have to pay homage and gaze at them. Renowned dharma masters will pursue their cultivation in scenic retreat centers in the respective areas. On occasion, they will go down to temples in the secular world to deliver their dharma talks, and the assembly’s shouts of welcome will shake the mountains. All the laity will escort the dharma masters and their entourages into the temple and, after offering a meal, they will politely request a dharma talk. The dharma masters will then expound on the essential dharma regarding the Way of humanity necessary for leading secular lives, on the dharma regarding the retribution and response of cause and effect, or on esoteric principles of the nature. When their dharma teachings are finished, the congregation will offer large sums as honoraria, which the dharma masters will donate back to those temples. They will receive the same kind of treatment when they go to other temples.”