ID48836 - Chương : 87. Who is Hộ-Pháp? Is it Vi Hộ-Pháp or Phạm Hộ-Pháp?
Sách : 99 Questions and Answers to Understand the Great Way of the Third Period of Salvation
Tác Giả : Tùng Thiên Từ Bạch Hạc
Question 87: Who is Hộ-Pháp? Is it Vi Hộ-Pháp or Phạm Hộ-Pháp?
Question 87: Who is Hộ-Pháp? Is it Vi Hộ-Pháp or Phạm Hộ-Pháp?
The Dharma-wheel ever turns, moving the heavenly decree.
He holds the authority of the Realm of Bliss, assigned to His station,
Overseeing Heaven and Earth, setting bounds to all domains.
In two incarnations in the West, He held the mechanism of creation;
With destined affinity in the East, He grasped the heavenly scripture.
Through His sacred form, His figure now appears,
At the exalted Pillar of Grace, we earnestly rely upon Him.
Based on the first four verses of the above poem, the primordial origin of Đức Hộ-Pháp is clarified.
He is an Ever-Existing Being; when the universe took form, He was already present to oversee Heaven and Earth and to establish their bounds. He has descended to the world through various forms, known by names such as Vi-Hộ, Jesus, and Phạm Công Tắc.
These are incarnations taken by the primordial source of Hộ-Pháp during different eras on this earth. Therefore, one cannot say that “Vi Hộ” of the Phong Thần era is the origin of Hộ-Pháp.
If that were so, one must ask: Before the Phong Thần era, how did the universe operate when no divine authority existed to govern its order?
What is Hộ-Pháp?
Hộ-Pháp is the protective power that preserves and safeguards the functioning of the universe, from the vast to the minute. He maintains the primordial principles and laws of cosmic operation — for example, the orderly orbit of celestial bodies or the gravitational forces among them.
Without the primordial essence of Hộ-Pháp within the Divine Spirit of God, the universe would lack the authority that safeguards its laws.
We know that Đức Chí Tôn is the first Life in the universe—without name, without age, without form. “The Supreme Being” is only a name created by humanity; yet everyone understands that the Supreme Being is All-Powerful.
Hộ-Pháp is one power within that All-Power, meaning one aspect of the First Life — specialized in preserving the principles and laws governing the universe.
In the Dao of the Third Universal Salvation (Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ), there is a simple term: chơn truyền — the true spiritual transmission of the Dao. It is not expressed in complex theology, but in preserving the true essence. Đức Hộ-Pháp has the duty to safeguard the chơn truyền of the Dao.
Thus, Hộ-Pháp is a divine function within the Supreme Being’s totality of power. That function originally has no form. From the reservoir of divine energy — call it “electricity” only for convenience, although it has no name — a portion was separated to enter the physical body of Vi Hộ, forming a divine mandate.
Later, this essence was called Hộ-Pháp, meaning that the spirit of Vi Hộ entered and aligned with the divine current of the Hộ-Pháp function.
After that, He incarnated in Jesus — who became the Lord of the Holy Religion — and later entered Phạm Công Tắc, becoming Hộ-Pháp in the Third Universal Salvation.
We know of only these three incarnations through recorded history; yet in truth, the function of Hộ-Pháp continuously operates throughout all forms — from minerals, plants, and animals to humankind — to preserve the laws governing the universe.
