Based on God’s Truth to teach people, the Saints of all religions left many Scriptures and Sutras, such as The Four Books and The Five Scriptures of Confucianism, Tao Te Ching and Qingjing Jing of Taoism, The Heart Sutra and The Vajra Sutra among the fifty-four hundred volumes of Sutras of Buddhism, The Bible of Christianity, and The Quran of Islam.
These Scriptures encompass everything and their contents are vast and profound, yet, not many can truly understand them. Seeing that mankind is desperately lost in the sea of suffering, Our Enlightened Teacher Ji-Gong Buddha syncretizes the essence of all Scriptures and Sutras into this book, in the form of questions and answers, to awake the lost, and he names this book The Answers to the Truth.
Furthermore, in this chaotic and heretic society, our Enlightened Teacher only conveys Tien-Tao, the essence that can only be passed on with the meeting of hearts. Tien-Tao breaks the intellectual barrier so that all can practice Tao, irrespective of whether one is wise, average, or slow. Therefore, our Enlightened Teacher did not leave any Scripture, just like the saying:
“Tao cannot be described.
Tao can only be attained by doing.”
After our Enlightened Teachers Tien-Ran Gu-Fu and Hui-Ming Pu-Sa33 returned to Heaven, the Elders continue their Holy Mission. Overcoming many difficulties, they introduce Tien-Tao to new regions, and Tien-Tao is now spread all over the world. The amassment of all souls and the unification of all religions are about to occur as ordered by God.
Unfortunately, because of different languages and cultures, many cannot align the Scriptures and Sutras to Tao. As the timing becomes critical, we translated this book as suggested by our Elder. Furthermore, we rearranged the original order of the questions and partitioned them into five parts – the Theory, the Heritage, the Questions, the Practice, and the Explanations – so the book is easier to comprehend. However,
the original text is so vast and profound
that we can hardly comprehend, much less to translate.
Therefore, we have adopted the approach of translating the original text as explanations and await complements from knowledgeable scholars.
When the Enlightened Teacher was conveying Tien-Tao directly, Tien-Tao was in China. Since the original text was written in the Chinese cultural background, it was easily understood by Chinese. As Tien-Tao spreads throughout the world, some of the answers may not be easily comprehended by readers of different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, we elaborated a little for those answers.
Furthermore, we wrote introductions to twelve topics in the Theory and the Heritage, and expanded the Theory. To show our appreciation to God and our Enlightened Teacher for their generosity and mercifulness, we translated this book with great care and effort. Unfortunately, our knowledge is limited. We feel that there are much to be improved. Hence we are honored if readers make suggestions and improvements.
The Translators,
Zhong-Hua Public Altar of God,
Los Angeles, California
United States of America
In the Autumn of the Year of Wu-Chen
The Seventy-Seventh Year of the Republic of China
Nineteen-hundred and Eighty-eight
