Today’s Enlightening Entertainment will be presented in Aulacese (Vietnamese), with subtitles in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Thai.

Filmmaking was introduced to Âu Lạc (Vietnam) at the end of 1890s. It began to thrive in 1923 with the first movie co-produced by the French and the Aulacese based on the masterpiece “The Tale of Kiều” by literary great Nguyễn Du. Embracing the modern technology of our world's civilization and combining it with a diverse artistic foundation inherent in the country's traditions, Aulacese filmmaking nowadays continues to develop to enhance the nation's cultural landscape.

On Enlightening Entertainment, Supreme Master Television is pleased to introduce different forms of arts from Âu Lạc (Vietnam), as well as from other countries in the world, in order to share the beauty and cultures of the peoples on our planet.

The film “The Light of Truth” chronicles the holy life of Shakyamuni Buddha, an enlightened Master in India in the 5th century BCE. His profound and sacred teachings, which include Four Noble Truths, Eightfold Noble Path, and Tripitaka, have brought salvation for innumerable souls. Buddhism, now propagated around the globe, is one of the major religions in the world.

We now invite you to enjoy part 3 of the film “The Light of Truth,” screenplay written by Võ Đình Cường, directed by Triệu Hoàng Quân, and produced by Diệu Giác Temple,

with performances by Công Hậu as Prince Siddhartha, Tuyết Lan as Queen Maya, Việt Trinh as Princess Yasodhara, Hữu Nghĩa as King Bimbisàra, Nam Anh as King Suddhodana, Di Thảo as Queen Mahaprajapati, Thanh Tùng as Ananda, Thạch Ngà as Devadatta, Đồng Khởi as Chandaka, Thành Tân as Kaundinya, Vĩnh Lộc as Brahmin Yogi, and other artists.

In previous episodes, Queen Maya dreamt of a six-tusked white elephant that flew down from the heavens and entered her side. The Queen then gave birth to Prince Siddhartha who had 32 blessed features. From early childhood, Prince already had a heart of compassion and extraordinary wisdom; according to the prophecy, His Highness would turn out to be a great king or a great enlightened Master.

To keep the Crown Prince at the court to continue the royal ancestral legacy, King Bimbisàra asked the beautiful Princess Yasodhara of Sakya to marry the Prince. But according to Sakya’s custom, if the Crown Prince wished to have the Princess’ hand in marriage, he would have to win martial arts contests. With his unsurpassed talents and virtues, the Crown Prince won all contests and married Princess Yasodhara.

Though living in opulence and happiness beside his beautiful wife, the Crown Prince always had an intense yearning for enlightenment. After touring outside the capital, he realized the impermanent fate and suffering lives of people. One night, he absconded from the royal palace to find the way of liberation for humanity.

Thank you for watching today’s Enlightening Entertainment. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television. Coming up is Words of Wisdom. Farewell for now, and we’ll see you next week.

Thank you very much. I feel deep affection for you. I’ll forever remember this day.

Take Kanthaka back for me.

Your Highness!

Here are the sword and the royal mantle. I don’t need them anymore. This jewel-studded belt and my hair, please take them back to present to my royal father. Remember to tell His Majesty to forget me temporarily until the day I return in the glorious light of Truth. All right, go on home now!

Your Highness! Please allow this humble person to follow and attend to you, even if I have to endure countless hardships.

That cannot be, O Chandaka! I can’t let you follow me when I haven’t found the way ahead. Go home with Kanthaka! No one can tread an unknown path. I alone must find it. Go home!

Farewell, Your Highness. Please take care of yourself, physically and spiritually!

That year, Prince Siddhartha was 29 years of age. He left home to seek the Truth and began the life of “one bowl for alms from a thousand homes, traveling alone on a ten thousand miles journey.” O beings, follow the path of the Buddha’s teachings! The golden light of Truth has shone upon the world. O humanity, escape together the suffering realm! The golden light spreads everywhere, sparkling atop myriad waves of deep blue water. The golden light of Truth has shone upon the world. Nirvana is where beings are liberated from misery.

May I know what sect this is, respected Elder Brothers, and your method of practice?

We’re people who vow to lead an ascetic life. This method is taught by Sage Bhargava.

Alas, life is miserable already! Why make it more painful for yourselves?

The Sage has taught: If a practitioner dares to torture his physical body, his soul will escape the physical body to ascend to the heavens. Our body is like a piece of firewood set ablaze for the smoke to soar up to the clouds.

That gently drifting cloud is water evaporated from the sea. It will drip down on Earth to become streams and rivers, then end up back in the sea. Will the ascetics be able to escape that cyclical law?

O respected Elder Brother! Having bought heavens with so much blood and bones in the market of woes that you created, I’m sure you’ll return to misery when your term in Heaven ends. I’d like to advise you to leave that dangerous game. A pure and noble soul needs a wholesome and healthy body to dwell in. Why do you beat up and wreck your body till it exhausts and collapses in the middle of your long journey?

My good man! We’ve chosen this path and are determined to reach our destination. If you feel you can’t do the same for you can’t overcome physical weaknesses, then go elsewhere to practice spiritually.

If there is another path, show me!

I dare not. Please allow me to take leave.

O apricot flowers along the hillside! Has it ever occurred that out of sorrow, you blight your fragrance and color yourself? O weeping willows that flourish harmoniously in nature! What secret do you have to cheerfully rise up on the windswept Himalayas, humming under the vast firmament? O flock of birds that gaily fly about under the sky! Have you ever wanted something else that you lose the desire to sing and torture yourselves in hopes of a better life? Yet, there are humans, the eldest brothers of all beings, who’d use their brains to afflict more pain upon themselves, digging early graves for their own lives.

O Venerable, yesterday I came to request medicine to revive my young son who was bitten by a snake. You said: “Go to a house that never had any dead person, ask for a handful of ash.” There is plenty of ash, but not the kind to save my son as you said.

Please stand up. There is no such ash because death is the universal law for all beings. I told you to go find that ash so that you can realize that as a human, one must go through death and separation.

Any other advice for me, Venerable?

Yesterday, you thought only you knew suffering. Now you understand that all beings must undergo that experience. Don’t cry and lament because your tears can’t alter the harsh law of nature that everyone must endure. Go bury your son! If I could save your child, I would, even if it cost my blood and bones.

Such joy! Here is Yogi Alara Kalama’s ashram. Respected master, I’ve long heard that you are a scholar well-versed in scriptures and Sankhya philosophy. Please allow me to study dharma in your ashram.

I know that you left home to dedicate your life to acetic spiritual practice, so I’m very happy to welcome you into my ashram. Just follow my teachings. This is my path: Eat just enough to sustain life; wear just enough to cover your body; where you eat or sleep is of no importance; happiness doesn’t exist on Earth; the world around you is but ash and dust; sit in contemplation diligently; one will gradually attain first, second, third and fourth dhyana, slowly rise to the state of infinite space, then boundless knowledge; and upon reaching the ultimate level, one is born into No-thought Heaven.

Respected master, after many days of contemplation to reach the state of neither-thinking- nor-not-thinking, is there still the self in that samadhi? If there isn’t, why is it called the neither-thinking-nor- not-thinking samadhi? If there is, does that self have sentience? If that self isn’t sentient, it is no different from the plants. Without sentience, how is it possible to avoid being bound by the contaminated world?

Very admirable! Siddhartha, my path isn’t yet the ultimate method to liberation that you are searching for. Feel free to make your choice.

I’m very grateful, master. Please allow me to take leave. May you attain full enlightenment.

I already met the ascetics. I’ve practiced with Alara Kalama, and then with Uddaka Ramaputta. They are all followers of the Sankhya school. Although their knowledge is somewhat different from one another, their methods of practice are the same. No one knows the path to liberation. That path, perhaps I must find within myself.

O poor little goat! Wherever you go, I will carry you to follow your herd to the destination. I haven’t found a cure to deliver all beings; at least I can deliver you alone from suffering.

Where are you taking these goats?

King of Rajagrha ordered us to hand over our sheep and goats as sacrifices to the deities tonight.

I will follow you there then.

O deities! This is the pure blood of innocent goats. Please happily dip your hands in it to cleanse the King of his sins. Please use their fat to burn up all the wrongdoings of the entire kingdom. From now on, please don’t show your anger by wrecking havoc upon this Rajagrha.

Stop that! Your Majesty, please don’t let that person kill an innocent animal. Please allow me to explain.

What a surprise! Who are you? Where are you from? Tell me what you wish to say. My kingdom Rajagrha is now beset by many plagues and disasters.

Everyone desires to live but also likes to kill. Killing is easy, but none of us humans can create life. Though beings have different forms, all lives are one and the same. Holy scriptures teach that: Humans, after death, can reincarnate as animals. Many animals will become humans. Humans and animals, therefore, are connected like siblings. Animal blood cannot cleanse human sins. Asking the Almighty to forgive our sins is useless. If those deities are all good, they can’t tolerate such a cruel deed.

If they are cruel, they won’t become good regardless of how many animals you kill to offer them. But whether good or bad, they can’t pardon anyone. Each is responsible for his own wrongdoings. That is the immutable law of cause and effect. The more we kill, the more calamities befall us. Alas, how peaceful, happy and sorrow-free this world would be if humankind loved animals and had no heart to kill them to make offerings or to eat. If only humanity can sustain themselves with vegetation!

Eunuch, take this! Read it aloud for me to hear if it’s all right.

Order obeyed. Here are Your Majesty’s words: “Since time immemorial, we’ve committed a grave sin – we killed animals to make offerings to the deities. But from this day on, no one is allowed to shed any animal’s blood because all beings have the same life. And remember always that goodness will await the kind and righteous people.”

Please have a look! What do you think about my decree, Your Highness? I’ll have it engraved on the stone pillar, then carved on wood for distribution.

Your Majesty, this royal decree will be a source of merit to help you avoid all disasters.

Your Highness, you’re of a royal family, born to rule over the world, not to live on everyone’s alms. Please stay here with me and impart your knowledge to the people. Then when I pass on, this kingdom will be yours to govern.

Your Majesty, I left my royal father, wife, son and my country to search for the Truth. You should not keep me here. I can’t sit in peace on the golden throne and jade dais, while my ears still hear the laments of humanity. My heart is vastly disturbed by life’s illusions. Please let me go, Your Majesty. When the Truth brilliantly reveals itself to me and shines upon the world, I’ll return here to repay your kind consideration.

Please accept my sincere gratitude. Without you, my hands would have been stained with many beings’ blood. I always hope that you will return to this small nation. May you soon attain enlightenment so that I will also be saved.

Please halt your steps. There is a royal decree from His Majesty.

Stand up, gentlemen. Please go back. Until I find the path to liberation, I won’t stop in my journey.

Please think of Kapilavastu’s future to return to your position as a Crown Prince.

His Majesty is distressed night and day by your departure. The entire Kapilavastu is in turmoil because of this news. Please think of Her Highness the Princess and your son.

What a pity! It’s His Highness’ destiny. He can’t do otherwise. Let’s go back and ask His Majesty for a group of yogis to accompany and help him in his practice.

That’s right! His Highness will be the One of Great Compassion, Great Mercy, Great Wisdom and Great Virtue as foretold by yogi Asita. All right, let’s go back!

Tune for me a musical chord, not too high nor too low. The music emanating from the six chords are melodious. Let not the musical chord be too stretched! Let it not be too loose! Or the melodic sound will disappear. Tune for me a musical chord. I’ll continue tuning and searching...

I’m surprised that those people have such a good idea. Perhaps, in searching for a world-saving melody, I’ve over-stretched the musical chord. If I’m not careful, it’ll snap while I still need it. I must re-nourish the physical instrument.

Give me another drink of milk. Come closer.

Respected sage, I cannot come near you because I’m a pariah. My getting close to you will taint your purity.

Love and the need for it are the strings connecting everyone together. There is no social class in the same red blood. There is no race in the same salty teardrops. Each person wasn’t born with a tilak mark on his forehead, or a pearl necklace on his neck. In the Court of Conscience, one will reap exactly what one sows. You may let me have the drink. There is nothing to fear.

I take leave now, O sage.

O mistress, the Mountain Deity appears on that rock over there. He is sitting cross-legged, with his hands on his legs. He looks so majestic. We’re so blessed, because he rarely manifests.

Lead me to him, Radha!

Our bow to the Noble One for blessing us! Please accept this humble offering which I personally prepared with all sincere gratefulness. Respected One, are you pleased with it?

What did you offer me that tasted so good?

O Noble One who has blessed us!

I cooked it with the best rice that I carefully selected among the rare varieties. I also added fragrant herbs and precious flowers from the garden. But all my efforts can never be compared to your boundless grace.

This is the child, the gem, the life that you have bestowed upon my family.

May your happiness be long-lasting. May the burden of life not weigh down heavily on your child’s shoulders. I’m not any god. I’m just a person like anyone else. For six long years, I’ve seeking the light of Truth to share with sentient beings. I believe I will find that light, for I saw a glimpse of it many times, but I couldn’t hold on to it, perhaps because I was too physically exhausted. Today, your milk porridge has helped me regain my strength. I don’t know how to repay that favor.

Oh, my heart is like a small orchid, which can be kept afresh by just a few drops of morning dew. I wish not to be repaid for any favor. My life passes peacefully in the tender light of my family. I live without demanding or rejecting anything, yet I always believe that tomorrow will be better than today because I realize that bad deeds beget misfortune and good deeds bring good fortune. Good rice seed gives a chain of golden grains. My motto now is to lessen desire and expand love. I’m taking leave now, O Noble One. May you live long.

You’ve taught a good lesson to your so-called master. You understand without studying scriptures. You walk on the right path without any guide, like a pigeon naturally flies in the right direction. But how many people understand and live as so in this world? Therefore, I must search for the Truth. May you fulfill your duty as a mother and a wife. And I, I’ll seek the way to liberate humankind.

O the Most Holy Child of the Universe! The regal life of luxury can’t tie you down. Thousands of temptations can’t blind you. You’ve used a will as powerful as the cascading waterfalls and as firm as the mountains to overcome your attachments to physical desires, especially emotions. You’ve brought out your wisdom that’s as bright as the sun to search for the path of liberation. You’re about to achieve your goal. Hasten! You still have to win the last battle and then your spiritual merit will be complete. Quicken! The darkness of hundreds of thousand years is awaiting you to shed light upon it.

Although my blood may dry up and my bones may rot, I will not leave this place if I haven’t found the Truth.

I’m the Life-thirsting Devil. What is more valuable than life? Why did you abandon it?

I’m the Fame-craving Devil. O son of King Suddhodana! How foolish you are! You’re a talented and renowned man, of a noble and royal lineage. You’re about to succeed the throne with unmatched honor and power. Yet you’ve chosen to be a beggar, leading a vagabond life from place to place.

I’m the Devil of Pleasures. You were living in a palace of pleasures, with warm quarters in the winter, cool quarters in the summer. You ate only delicacies, drank only fine wine, heard only sounds of lutes and flutes, and saw only mesmerizing dances by beautiful women. Why are you so foolish as to forsake everything and come here to lie down in the snow and fog?

O manifestations of the mundane world who cling to fleeting illusions! Leave this place! You cannot tempt me.

I’m the Devil of Anger. I destroy all and kill all. No one can stop me from setting fire in people’s hearts, burning down everything. We sow catastrophes everywhere, and the entire world will be ruined because of us. O Siddhartha! We’ll make you our disciple.

Siddhartha! We’re Devils of Ignorance. How bright can your light be to illuminate the way for humankind? Don’t waste your time! The more light emitted from you, the more darkness we pour out. Day by day, little by little, we’ve sown ignorance for many millions of years. And now the whole world is submerged in it. We dare you! What kind of light can you use to erase all shades of ignorance?

How is this filthy and lowly world worthy of your efforts to save it? Follow us to ecstatic realms to enjoy the lofty pleasures together.

Destroy this world, and your path will take you to the inferno.

All are delusions! You’re only after the shadow. Just vain hopes! There is no way to save humankind. Your Path will be useless in a world steeped in passions. Liberating humanity from transmigration? Who’d be crazier than that?

O beloved Prince! Do you know how miserable I felt when you left the palace? I’ve wept many tormented days. I’ve longed for your return. My eyes grow dim with tears, yet not a trace of you was seen on the way home. Come back to me! You’ll rest your head on my arms like when you were still my reason for being.

A delusion like any other worldly delusion, you can’t fool me. Vanish quickly with the darkness!