The Pope of Buddhism?
Now interestingly it seems that most of the pictures of him are shown with others of good standing and I think this is no accident. In one article he is mentioned with the names of Gandhi, MLK and more. I have seen this before as a part of a way to legitimize oneself by placing oneself in collage with famous people. Eventually everyone starts to think you belong there.
H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III of Covina California was chosen by the World Peace Prize Awarding Council and the World Peace Prize Religious Leaders title Awarding Council passed their resolution.
First of all, do not be confused. The ‘World Peace Prize’ is NOT the Nobel Peace Prize, in fact the World Peace Prize Awarding Council is closely related if not completely run by the “The United International World Buddhism Association'' which again is closely related to Dorje Chang Buddha III temples and offshoots. The World Buddhism Association is also a part of this ‘conglomerate’.
A little background on ‘H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III’ First of all, his previous names are Yi Yungao or Wan Ko Yee, who was previously wanted by Interpol for fraud. The warrant was withdrawn in 2008 for unknown reasons. This person had his name officially changed to Dorje Change Buddha III, ‘on official government documents’ which I can only assume is an official name change. So this person (Wan Ko Yee or Yi Yungao,) from the Sichuan province of China is the reincarnation of the celestial Buddha and continues to profess his attainment and prowess as both an artist and Buddhist icon. However he has a speckled past. Now in Buddhism it is not of good character to belittle or speak poorly about a monk, this man, I think is no monk. His followers are in California and it seems most if not all of the press regarding him come from himself (his close followers)
An amazing resume
Not only claiming miraculous feats he is an artist and his works can be seen in various places, again seemingly directly related to Dorje Chang Buddha himself. By that I mean either run by his followers or under his own supervision. One of the claims is that he sold a painting for more than has ever been recorded. Just wait, there will be many ‘hard eye rolls’ for this guy.
Most of the claims are pretty far out there. He does claim to be able to lift an amazing amount of weight as a show of proof of his spiritual attainments… Specifically states that he can lift a pestle onto a platform that weighs over 59 levels (times) his own weight.?? I can only think of Bjorn Halfthor as being so spiritual… maybe he is. Now this one is interesting, if you go to Kamakura you can see there is a giant pair of sandals and a very large and heavy staff that you can try and lift. It has been noted there are of course stories of physical strength that no normal person has… I guess that is what he is getting at. I have never heard of such a test in any of my studies, please let me know if there are some. I think this is as made up as the rest.
Dorje Chang also claims to be recognized as a Buddha or awakened one by ‘the’ leaders of all major sects. That he is the only one to achieve such recognition. However you can only find those ‘leaders’ on sites directly related to Dorje Chang Buddha (as listed below). Most of the Buddhist monks and nuns I have asked had no idea who he is. Those that did gave me stern recommendations to just stay away and forget about him.
Not only that! He has achieved the Five Vidyas to the highest and most perfect level in all of history whatever that means. Again, you will find it difficult to find anything about the five Vidyas in Buddhist texts as far as I can tell. They are mentioned in the Vedas. Notice if you look them up you will find them listed almost solely on sites completely attributed to Dorje Chang Buddha character.
What are the five Vidyas? Craftsmanship, healing, sound, logic and ‘inner realization’. There is not much more explained than that, and I think that is on purpose. In almost every definition even you will find it written in a prose similar to other writings and mentions of Dorje Chang Buddha, I again do not see this as coincidence. I think it is rather manufactured.
Other feats of this ‘Buddha’
Not to say he is in any way wrong, but it is curious that he claims such ridiculous accolades as the Pope of Buddhism, which there is none.
Other ‘miracles’ and such he is reported to perform are…
Selling art that has gained records in sales
Realization of mystical abilities ??
Becoming ‘a’ Vajra King
Can increase his temperature to 92 degrees C (197.6 deg. F) cooking an egg.
The ‘best’ painter in all of Chinese history.
He is an author on ethics and a singer, a scientist and tea connoisseur.
Has attained the level of ‘Gold Button Grade 3+’ ???
Has an MRI that proves his enlightenment ?
Has received the ‘World Peace Prize’.
Achieved all five Vidyas (right knowledge of the Panchagni Vidyas? Heaven, Earth, Intermediate Space and male and female) however they are explained as healing, craftsmanship, sound, logic and inner realization.
And in addition has his own postage stamps in odd little places like Tuvalu and ( I looked it up and you can pretty much buy those)
https://openspace.sfmoma.org/2019/07/the-worlds-first-mysterious-works-of-art/
Lifted a pestle surpassing his base standard by 56 levels (45o lbs…) Apparently this is a way to measure not only physical but holy strength. Now it is also interesting to see the staff at Kamakura which is set outside is made of iron and near impossible to lift so it is not completely unusual to see physical strength as somehow related to holy powers. However, that would mean that Halfthor Bjornsson is one heck of a holy man.
It is common in myth to use this type of strength to show not only ability but somehow proves that that person is good. We all know, realistically this is not true but really good for the story. In Dorje Chang’s case, this apparently makes him a god!
Lineage?
It gets even more murky from there.
Most monks have a lineage. A lineage is a list of teachers that generally goes back to Sakyamuni Buddha. Some sects even recite every ‘patriarch’ all the way back. This not only gives credence historically but also in the overall direct and pure teachings of that sect. Some of the sects cannot go directly back to the Buddha because there was some interpretive and dream ‘transmission’ of ‘The Dharma’.
In this case we go directly from a celestial ‘Dharmadhatu’ ruling Dorje Chang (as described below) to the second incarnation ‘Vimalakirti’ a Upasaka or ‘lay practitioner that was not a monk at all. He is considered as one of the earliest Zen or Chan teachers. He was rich and was a benefactor of Sakyamuni Buddha. He lived in a 10’x10’ space. Which is called ‘fang-zhang’ (In Chinese Chan and many other Buddhist temples is the name of the Abbot’s room even to this day). This study will take you down a wonderful ‘rabbit hole’ of Chan/Zen and lay practices and works of Buddhist stupporters. He was also known to correct many monks in the day of the Buddha and was considered a teacher even at that time.
I could not find any mention of this upasaka’s death so there seems to be no mention of what happened to him. Although we can see in his own documents (Dorje Chang Buddha’s) that there is a clear and direct line from THE Dorje Chang, through to Dorje Chang II (Vimalakirti) to this Dorje Chang Buddha III…
Now it gets interesting. SO what does one do if there are no previous teachers to get info from? You get other smaller groups to agree that you exist. (gaslighting at its finest). I have much more investigation to go into…
Other sites and organizations that tout him are.
Greatprajna.org
Holyvajrasana.org
Wbahq.org
Zhaxishuoma.org
Thathagatadharma.org
xuanfautah.org
Hhdcb3cam.org (cultural art museum)
Xuanfa.net
Iamasf.org
Ibsahq.org (International Buddhism Sangha Association)
Learningfrombuddha.com
Truebuddhadharmaland.com
Dharma-hhdorjechangbuddhaiii.org
WHO IS DORJE CHANG?
Is there a historical Dorje Chang? Like ‘the first’ since this guy claims to be the third reincarnation.
Dorge Chang is the name of the primordial Buddha, Vajradhara (https://kagyuoffice.org/kagyu-lineage/the-golden-rosary/vajradhara/)
The primordial Buddha is often shown with blue skin and is rather unique to the Vajrayana section of Buddhism. Although celestial and considered esoteric, this is a real manifestation of the realization of enlightenment.
WHO is THE POPE?
The Pope is the Roman Catholic religious leader. He lives in Rome and is elected when one previously dies. There are some typical icons of this office. The mitre, the two pointed ceremonial hat, the skull cap which covers the head at all times and the scepter (papal ferula) which comes in two types the ferula or staff and the crosier which has a cross at the top. It is fashioned after the shepherd's crook. These are similar to the shepherds crook and are all historically used by both high clergy and the pope for ceremonial purposes. See www.vatican.va/
So why is this important? Well it is a reference point.
What does any of this have to do with Buddhism? It doesn’t
Although some Buddhist traditions carry a staff of sorts called the Khakkhara or Shakujo is used by all monks of the zen traditions with some variance but there is no one staff that a main or leading (patriarchal) monk carries. (That I know of). Many monks do carry walking sticks as it is common for them to walk distances and I have seen elder monks use canes, but these had no ceremonial or spiritual use other than helping them to walk. There is really no ceremonial use in most of Buddhism save for possibly the mountain Zen monks and some other Mahayana groups such as the Shaolin monks. However it (the staff) is also a weapon used in practice.
TAKE AWAY…
I have no words. I cannot do enough research to verify or debunk such claims. Yet they all seem pretty fishy. Most of his mentions and photos are only on ‘his’ sites. He claims to have ‘powers’ that no one else seems to go after. I would assume that it is because when no one else is there, you are the ‘king’! Many of his other mentions are on sites that seem to have taken the stories up because of the subject or keywords. Is he a Buddhist? I don’t know. He does not look or seem like any Buddhist I have known and I have known hundreds if not thousands of them. There IS NO Buddhist Pope, he made it up himself or his supporters did. There is NO scepter mentioned anywhere else in Buddhism. (You can look all over and us the CTRL F4 to find it… it is not there). The World Buddhism Association is pretty much just him and his followers. There is no way to become a member or find a list of members.
The Five Vidyas are not easily found in Buddhist literature outside of that which he himself has provided.
I have real reservations about the validity of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III’s credentials, history and actions. In short, it just smells bad.
Although, in the process of researching this I must give thanks to the efforts to convolute the information in such a manner that you can never cross reference anything outside of that circle. I did learn a lot about other Buddhist monks and traditions and even found some interesting old sutras I had little knowledge of.
I would not discourage anyone from finding out more on this person. He is no enlightened Buddha, he has used confusion and esoteric ideas to promote himself and his organization. There is little evidence this is even a real monk other than in his own and his supporters’ minds. There is no way to vet out someone that claims celestial accolades. For that matter I could simply claim I had a dream THE Buddha came to me and said I was to look for such fake monks. Maybe… it happened…
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