Toronto Star Article, Nov 7, 2003

Buddhist icon's words of wisdom, "Human health is tied to health of the Earth"
JANICE MAWHINNEY
LIFE WRITER

Yu Tian Jian, regarded in China as a living Buddha, is padding around the kitchen of a small house in west Oakville in his stocking feet. The Chinese Buddhist high master is about to have breakfast when a reporter and photographer arrive on time for a scheduled interview & photo shoot.

He sits in the kitchen and enjoys his food, shared with one of his students. Half an hour later, leisurely meal over, he genially joins the media representatives in the next room for what had been planned as a 90-minute meeting. Three hours later, Yu is still thoroughly engaged in the interview. People with earlier appointments are restlessly stirring in the hall and at the back of the room.

His focus is entirely on the person he is speaking with, on sharing his knowledge and experiences, and he is clearly enjoying the exchange. Other people wear watches and worry about appointments and schedules, about the past and the future, about what should be happening rather than what is happening. Yu embodies the spiritual maxim about living in the moment. He is absolutely present in whatever is going on right now. He enjoys giving it his full attention.

This is one of the qualities that gives him a powerful presence of his own. In China, Yu, 52, has reached the highest possible rank in Buddhism, and is thought to be the reincarnation of a high spiritual leader in a 1,700-year-old tradition. Some people consider his rank higher than the Dalai Lama's. He has been honoured by Buddhist leaders from other countries. His full title is Master Yu Tian Jian the Great Enlightener Golden Crown Dharma King. This is his first trip to Canada, and he is spending a few days in Bronte as the guest of local feng shui consultant Marcia Small, who travelled to Beijing in September to attend a banquet honouring Yu and his work in teaching and healing. Yu chose to visit southern Ontario at this time because of SARS, says Small.

Among the talks, meditations and workshops he will give here are a couple on the subject of purifying water, food and air. He teaches that human health is tied to the health of the Earth, and that everyone is now breathing contaminated air, eating contaminated food and drinking contaminated water. "The whole human race continues to destroy the natural environment," he says in Mandarin, as his student Kuo Hsia translates. "Some of my teachings involve better treatment of the environment, and living by the laws of nature." His main message is to look first to yourself. "If anyone wants to change anything, you must change yourself first," he says. "He who wants to help others must help himself first. "Only he who can help himself has the means to help others. "If we want to change our natural environment for the better, we must change our own thinking. Only then will the world have a better future. You must change your thinking and your behaviour to overcome your bad habits. "Let go of your own attachments and prejudices."

Any one person's understanding of life is like the old parable of the three blind men who fell to arguing after coming upon an elephant, Yu says. One felt the elephant's leg and announced that an elephant is like a pillar or tree trunk. Another felt the side, and said an elephant is like a wall. The third felt the trunk and said the elephant resembles a snake. "They are all partially correct, but they don't have the whole picture," he says. "Even combining all of their knowledge, they still don't know everything.

Everyone is used to this limited way of thinking. Your own knowledge and understanding is simply a foundation for being truly receptive to others." Yu is a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine as well as author of a book about Hanmi Buddhism that has sold a million copies in China. He was born in 1951 in Chaoyang City, Manchuria, just in time to grow up in the oppressive early years of the Chinese Communist regime. In Buddhist tradition, he would have been identified at the age of 3, 6 or 9 as the inheritor of the leadership of the Hanmi lineage of Chinese esoteric Buddhism. But when religion was suppressed by the regime, he says he had a difficult childhood and youth, and missed his chance to be raised in his religious traditions or identified for his special role.

Yu became, he says, "an excellent Communist." He had only six years of formal education in elementary school, and his youth was full of hardship, "a rough life." As a young man he was attacked by bandits and shot through the head, leaving scars still visible today. Miraculously, he survived that and other attacks. His body bears the marks of 27 knife wounds and two bullet wounds. Through the tough times there were bright notes. One was Yu's amazing memory: he read anything once and remembered it. Another was a man who seemed to be a spirit guide of some kind, who appeared whenever Yu most needed help.

When he was 39 and head of the heavy machine factories in his province, he says he was amazed when the man who had appeared to him in spirit form over the years approached him in flesh and blood and told him his destiny as a high Buddhist leader. "My teacher came to me in physical form, a real man, Oct. 24, 1989," Yu says. "I made my decision right then and within three days I resigned my job, resigned as a member of the Communist party, and donated all my savings to charity. My relatives thought I was a fool. "I spent six months with him at a monastery, learning and practising.

Much of what I know, I learned from him." He was trained in the traditions, theory and thought of the Hanmi Mystery School of Esoteric Buddhism. Yu says he attained enlightment as a result of these experiences. At the end of the six months, his teacher left him and returned to spirit form, he says. Yu has spent the last 13 years travelling throughout China, teaching and healing.

Some of his students have established a temple of Hanmi Buddhism (http://www.dari-rulai-temple.org) in California, of which he is abbot. He has recently been followed around by a film crew making a documentary about him. Since his own destiny has taken such a dramatic turn, Yu says he hopes to help other people improve their own. "I would like to let people get to know Buddhism and to learn how Buddha dharma (teachings) can relieve suffering," he says. "I would like to see people learn it for themselves so they can change their destinies." Yu's workshops and meditation sessions all take place at 43 Jones St. in west Oakville. Public healing and meditations, for a suggested donation of $10, take place Sunday and Monday mornings from 10:30 to 12:30. Several workshops with fees ranging from $40 to $108 take place between this evening and Tuesday afternoon. Directions and details are available on Small's Web site at http://www.fengshuicanada.net .