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THE MASTER'S LECTURES

Spoken by Master Ching Hai
March 8, 1993. Singapore

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Thank you for your love and welcome. I like Singapore. I think the people in Singapore are already in Heaven,[Master smiles]so what do I have to teach you that you want to hear so much?

I’m very happy to see Singapore develop better and better each day. I love to be in Singapore. In fact, this morning I thought that maybe I would stay here, but I don’t think that I have the fortune like you to stay in Singapore all the time and enjoy this luxurious surrounding. I have learned so much from your country, which is so much like most of our meditation centers. We plant trees, big ones with leaves, roots, branches and everything, and then we manage the space so that everyone doesn’t feel so cramped even though we have a lot of people.

Yes, I feel…

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Everything we do in daily life affects our spiritual points, we gain (+) or lose (-).  Nothing in this world is free.

Master Ching Hai revealed  the true about merits.  Below are some basic guidelines:

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Talk bad about other people:  -500 points
When one gets angry or has hateful feelings towards others, depends on how strongly you hate that person and how much you are angry; you could lose up to: -10,000 points.
Own a casino: -500,000 to -1,000,000,000 points per year
Work in casino: -50,000 to -500,000 points per year.
Play for money in the casino: -30,000 to -100,000 points per hour.
Sell intoxicants, illegal drugs, morphine, opium, cocaine: -200,000,000 to -1,000,000,000 points per one year.
Sell cigarettes, meat, fish, eggs:  -100 million to -half a billion points per year
Sell alcohol: -200 million to -1 billion points per year
Sell people to prostitution, slavery: -600,000 to -900 million points per year
Own a meat or fish restaurant:  -500,000 to -1 billion points per year
Own an alcohol bar, like a pub or something with alcohol: -100,000 to 400,000 points per year
Own a brothel: -500,000 to -half a billion points per year
Kill one animal or bird: -800,000 to -3 million points (depends on the size)
Cut or destroy one normal adult tree: -100,000 to -500,000 points (If you have to cut 1 tree, plant 3 more)
Watch bad and violent TV or movie : -300 points per hour
Watch 1 hour of Supreme Master TV (SupremeMasterTV.com) +800 point per hour
Farmer works at the peak hours in the sun: +2,000,000 points per hour( But it will be deducted because he’s not vegan, or he probably kills some worms, and so on)
Taxi driver: +200,000 to+400,000 points per year.
A garbage man: +100,000 to +200,000 points per year…

Basically,  if we do something that benefits humans, animals, or environment  then we will gain merits.  But if we do things that hurt humans, animals or environment then we will lose our merits.

We have a lot of blessings  from nature, from the sun, the moon, the stars, the trees, the river and so on….  So stay outdoor as much as you can to get FREE MERITS FROM GOD!

 

 

 

 

 

(Excerpt from Supreme Master Ching Hai’s lecture)

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We can be and should be the example of love like giving, caring, and harmonizing, so that when others think of us, remember our names, they would feel happiness, love, comfort, and even noble. And their good quality will shine forth.

We should not be the source of burden or misery to others, in their thoughts, deeds, and speech.

We have to be the source of inspiration, of nobility and love, especially if we have been shown how, by others’ example. If we have love, all good will come our way.

We can start to love now, today, and continue tomorrow into the future. Love yourself, love your family, love your neighbors, love all around us.

​Without love in our heart, we are almost nothing, just a burden to ourselves, to loved ones, and society.

Love is not a word on our lips, love must be our feeling inside, and action translated outside. Love the animals – we’ll be veg. Love the Earth – we’ll go green. Love the world – save the planet. I hope God will take into consideration our sincere prayers. Then we can save the planet. But we should all be sincere and work together in unison and one goal.

Let me tell you why we should be veg. ​

Not because we want to save the planet only, but it is the ingredient, the main quality, the main power to save this world in this critical situation.

You see, eating animal flesh, meaning we are decreasing our love in our being, from our structure, holy structure.

We are born from God, we were holy, we were true humans, we were true children of God. But if we eat the animals, then the mixing of blood type and genetic code between human and animals makes us lose our status as the crown of creation, as true humans.

As pure humans, the children of God, we are under direct connection with the Light, with the mighty Master power of the commanding center of the universe. We have absolute command over all under Heaven, because we were pure, and we’re children of God.

But as we keep putting different elements into our beings, even physically, it will affect our spiritual structure as well. Because we became mix-ling, mixing, mixing structure, not pure, we became hybrid, vulnerable to attack from the dark force, because we are not pure anymore.

​Thus, this kind of mix-ling creature could be annihilated, because this mix-ling creature sends very confusing energy, confusing message into the center of the universe.

​So, it could be annihilated, because it’s not recognized as pure human. So we could be eliminated, out of the physical realm, to be recycled, to be screened out for pureness again and to be reused.

​But this process can be very painful and torturous, over long periods, could be hundreds of thousands of Earth years. Please help me to stop this.

We don’t want to be annihilated. We don’t want to be screened out.

For more information, please visit http://www.SupremeMasterTV.com

Why are we here?

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OK, let’s talk about something in Heaven because this Earth sometimes really, really makes me fed up, frustrated. And then out of frustration, many people do wrong things. Otherwise, originally all of you, any of you, all came from very high levels of existence. Some of you have had some other bodies, physical bodies; some of you haven’t. It depends on which planet you come from. But all of the planets that you have come from are much, much, much more sophisticated than this one, much more comfortable. Life is more high standard and very, very well organized.

But unfortunately, any planet is just a planet. There will be a ruler somewhere. And there will be a ruler and there will be a government, and there will be rules and governed society. And then if you are a little bit more smart than the ruler, smarter than the government, smarter than the powers that be there, I mean these planets are not … I’m not talking about a liberated planet. I’m not talking about where you are going, where you’re going to be, that I’m going to take you to. That is not a planet. That is spiritual planes of existence, and there you don’t have to wear a physical body anymore, no matter what shape. You’ll be surprised if you visit some of these planets. They might be very highly sophisticated in technology, superior. Everything we have here, even the best now, is still garbage from other planets.

The reason, the proof that you came from a highly, more highly sophisticated planet and a better quality of life is that you are here. Because if it’s not for that, you would never be able to come here. You’re sent here, you’re exiled here by high technology and by some soup that you drank before you came; they forced you to do it. Every country knows this kind of soup. It’s famous. They all drink it, and some people remember. Some people maybe drink the last one and there’s only very little left, so they still have a little memory. Anyway, these planets, they are mostly very rigid in nature, very orderly. They don’t like any revolutionaries; they don’t like new ideas; they don’t like genius, not too much. If you don’t work with the government, and are not devoted to that god, that ruler god, then you are in trouble. Maybe they warn you at the time, or maybe they just send you down somewhere else, somewhere else that’s not in their planet. They don’t like anything that gives rise to ideas of changing the system, or usurps the throne, or something like that. Just almost like in our planet, except they have more technology to control, and there’s nothing the ordinary citizen there can do except to accept that situation or to be gone somewhere else.

Many people on this planet, sometimes they are awakened or sometimes they remember in their dreams or their vision what they have done before; they remember the technology. But even if they remember the technologies, here can never compare to the original planet where they came from. The planet where they came from, they have also invisible beings and visible beings. The invisible beings have more power than the visible beings and more prestige. And therefore they control like first-class citizens. And the ones with the physical bodies normally are doing mundane work, and kind of nothing very important in the society. And woe to this lowly class in those planets if they try something different that upsets the government there or the ruler. Then they will be exiled to, for example, our planet.

Before, we were even more controlled by some of the other planet systems. They have higher technology. They have higher power of hypnotism, so they make us forget everything and we cannot get out of this planet at all except by any Master who comes down and takes you by the inner road, not outside. But any Master who comes down here suffers a lot, a lot, or dies early like Lord Jesus. Even Buddha, at that time he suffered a lot, a lot: slander or injury, and sometimes starvation and all kinds of trouble, just to name a few. Because these people, these Masters, they’re trying hard to help those who are really desperate to go Home, because they don’t know where they came from. Just tell me where you came from. Do you know where you came from? Are you sure? Mr. Darwin, he said we came from monkeys. It’s not true. We don’t look anything like monkeys, do we? Maybe some, but… one or two or three, but not truly like that. Even those people, there are some people who look alike maybe, I don’t know, orangutans, or monkeys a little bit, primates, look like. Not because they came from the monkeys, or they evolved from the monkeys. It’s just because they are made in this image.

In our planet, we have many companies; we make computers, computer companies, software companies. And nowadays, they even try to make a sheep-cloning company. Soon they might be cloning humans. I don’t know what kind of Frankenstein they are going to make, but they are trying to be God. They are trying to feel like a god. So anyway, because they remember on some other planets before, they used to make something that works, that runs, that talks like us, or like the animals that we see. These companies, when we still had this inter-galaxy system connecting, before the Galaxy War, we had an inter-planetary system that people can order stuff, just like you order a computer from Microsoft or Apple. You can order online or go there and look at the goods and then OK or not OK to buy.

So in the old times, many planets similar to ours, which were empty, when the planet began to cool, when any galaxy’s comet or any so-called clump of gasses gathered together and then began to cool down and then solidified, became a planet like this, then, it was empty. There may be some microbes or small things, I don’t know what. But it was too hot and gassy. No one can … no solid ground to walk on or to do anything. And then many planet people began to control that planet, the new one. Anyone can go first and get it, just like we have a new land or something like that we claim for us. Even people nowadays claim the moon and sell it, sell one piece at a time, yeah, Americans. Don’t you know? You can buy the moon. Not the whole thing, it’s too expensive, but you can buy a piece of it. Depends on where and then how much it costs. Really! There’re some movie stars, they even bought them. I was thinking to buy some in case I’m fed up with you; I’d run over there and hide, no, but what for?

I don’t mind. I like this planet. It’s OK. Wherever I go, I just like it there. Truly, it’s like that. And this is a problem with me that if I go somewhere, I don’t like to move anywhere else. Unless I have trouble or unless I have to go for some reason, I don’t want to go anywhere, be it a cave, a natural cave with just very sparing water, or be it just a beautiful building or be it on the sea or on the mountain, somewhere that people don’t even want to stay, even in a desert. I lived in a desert once. I never wanted to move anywhere because it just felt comfortable right there. I lived in a cave and then some of the residents told me, “Why don’t you live in the other house? It’s more comfortable. It was built for you.” I said, “I’m just so used to it,” so lazy to keep moving things. Caves don’t have a lot of things but still have to move. Moving house is one of the four major stresses. You know that, right? I’m not moving from my cave. So I told that man I’m a cave person and he just laughed. Anyways, it’s true. OK, never mind about that. I just wanted to scare him off. But he didn’t understand. I didn’t want to tell him who I am and what I do, so I stopped right there. If he knew, maybe he’d be scared off. But I don’t want to just tell anyone where I’m going. I prefer to be anonymous. It’s more comfortable. People treat you normally. They aren’t overacting or underacting. They don’t tell you a lot of stuff that you don’t want to listen to.

OK, now. OK, we go back to the apes, King Kong. If someone happens to look like one of our primate friends, that doesn’t mean that his parents evolved from there, or have anything to do with King Kong. You look at the movie. It’s not like that. It’s not like he loves Jane and he took care of her. Then maybe some little King Kongs will come out of it. It’s not like that, no. We cannot evolve from animals because they’re different, different makeup. The soul is the same, just maybe the different shapes. OK, fine. We don’t have to evolve from the animals because we already are human. We are made in human shape, so our DNA stays human. And if we pass on to the next generation, it is the same DNA, it’s humans’. Capisco?  Understand? OK, so the reason why that guy or that girl looks like one of our primates is because he or she came from the same company that made humans and apes, these King Kongs at the same time — same company, same artist, same artist. Therefore, he likes it that way. So he made apes and humans sometimes look similar. So sometimes we look at the monkey and we look at ourselves and thought, “Ah, look the same.” It’s not like I came from there.

And many of the … mostly, 99% of you and people out there and animals are space-shipped from somewhere else, came to the planet, when the planet was still in the virginity of the creative pattern. And then, first they have dinosaurs and all that, OK. And they feel that it’s not very good and then they make a flood or troubles so that the dinosaurs die out. And then the planet rulers or inhabitants, invisible at that time, can fly, can have magic, can do many things, but feel lonely. They need something else. They don’t need dinosaurs anymore. So they order some other things, so it’s up to the artists to create something and then they go and look whether they like it or not. So they like, many planets like us, like this kind of look, it’s very fashionable. You’d be surprised because many planets don’t have people like us. They have physical beings. Just maybe they can walk and talk or do things like us. Many also like us, but before humans were created they were not like that, they looked different. Maybe … I don’t know how to explain to you. Maybe you can look at Lucas, planet war of, how do you say, I forgot, “Star Wars,” something like that. Looks similar! OK, truly. So we, the humans, are the most beautiful creation. Truly, like that. Oh, I’ve seen them, they are not as pretty, I mean, my opinion. Of course, the beauty is in the eyes of the admirers, surely, surely. But I think in my opinion, still humans are the most beautiful of all the physical beings, the most complete, with delicate nerve system, with intelligence, with creative power, even with magical power.

So you know, some people still have magical power. It’s true like that. Because they came from other planets which have magic, who use magic all the time for anything. So some of them are here and somehow they are awakened to their ability. It’s just awakened in them by some of the extraordinary circumstances or they go to learn with some elderly who already know the magic and the lineage, and then they already have it in them, awakened in them. All of you really also, some more or less, have some magical power. But you are already locked in, you’re already erased. All the memory of who you are and where you came from, and what you can do, it’s all finished. So that’s why at the time of initiation, I told you if you have magic power, don’t use it. If you’re awakened to it, don’t use it. Because then you might be attracted back to your planet, which is not an enlightened planet. Enlightened planets, they don’t need to use magic. Everything is natural. Like Jesus, someone touched his clothes and then they’re healed from a very grave disease. And they praised him and thanked him. He said, “Your faith healed you,” or “God healed you through me.” He doesn’t use it.

So anything that you derive from me before or after initiation, or during initiation, it’s because it all came out naturally. They don’t even need to recite any mantra or do any mudra or do anything on purpose to heal that or this person or to help this and that person. This is too troublesome if you have to use magic. It’s too limited, limited. You can only use it for some people, maximum maybe 10 people. But you cannot use it for anyone anytime, in any situation and automatically, you know, doesn’t take even a nanosecond to happen. Magic power, it takes longer and you have to practice a very long time to memorize this mantra, to do this posture, all kinds of things for many, many, many years in order to master that, except some people who have a natural, magical ability because they were awakened to their own nature before, before they came to this planet. Maybe they’re just new arrivals from other planets, being exiled, sent down, and cannot return. Anyone who is sent to this planet is doomed forever.

Stay here, do whatever you do, try not to make trouble, because if you make trouble, you’ll have more trouble. You never can return to your own planet because they rejected you already. That is the problem. That’s why you cannot go back, except a Master who comes down from a higher level, knows the way, and knows the secret, and has enough power to do it. Because this planet is locked in with this … all kind of high-tech power that it seems like magic, but it’s not. This planet, this we so-called … the one we so-called Maya or devil power, they are not really devil powers. They just have technique. They just have mind power, control power. They learned it. You can learn also. Many people can teach you: hypnosis or walk on the hot coals without burning. You know all that, right? Many people can also teach you how to make rain when it’s not raining, and can make wind or can make trouble, or something like that. Sometimes earthquake or typhoon out of season or out of nowhere, because some people are playing havoc, making havoc on the planet, just for fun or for some reason or maybe competition, or just to harm someone. And other bystanders also get trouble and get harmed by it. Anyway, I don’t recommend you to learn any of this kind of magic, even white magic, white magic, meaning if you have it, you cannot not use it, very difficult to control. And even white magic is interfering with nature, with the natural flow, and then it will backfire.

At the moment, sometimes the other planets, they send bad vibes to our Earth or to other planets just to cause trouble for some reason. Or sometimes they want to take some human body to live inside there. That’s why some people, they look like they’re possessed or something. There is something like that. And they control the minds of the people; sometimes they make them do some terrible things. When they wake up or they’re awakened, they don’t even remember what they did at all. Truly like that. Anyway, why I’m talking so much about something that you don’t want to hear, right? Do you want to continue listening? (Answer: Yes.) OK, now, even if you want to go back Home, even if you remember something and you want to go back Home, you can’t. As soon as you get out of the body, some high-tech personnel will catch you, catch the essence of you, the soul, and then put you back in another body again, and make you forget again. The magical power of this kind of mind control only lasts around a hundred-something years. Therefore, they don’t let you live long even. If you live long, something will happen also, make you die quick. There are some extraordinary people who can live longer; it’s true also. But that doesn’t mean they’re liberated from this physical planet.

Oh! By the way, in our planet we also have invisible beings. You know that? Right? We call “ghosts” or “spirits.” A lot of people see them. The same like other planets also, there are some invisible and visible beings. But not all of the planets look like us. And when they come down here, maybe they can use magic for a while to make them look like you or like a beautiful girl for a while, but they cannot keep that forever, because it’s illusion. Or they can push the soul of someone away and then they take over that body and then cause trouble or do something, sometimes not trouble, sometimes trouble. I mean, take the body of a live person, not a dead person. If the person is dead already, it doesn’t matter. No one owns that body, the body becomes useless. Then, maybe if you want to use it, OK, for some good purpose. But sometimes they just push people away because they have power, and that’s what I don’t like. They harassed our planet’s people. That’s what I don’t like. That’s why we have war and we have suffering and we have a lot of trouble. That’s what I don’t like. That’s why we have bad government, control-freak governments, for example. And that’s what I don’t like, because people suffer. People suffer enough already that they have to inhabit this body and never can get rid of it. I mean, if they die, they get another one, and they don’t even remember the life they just passed, not to talk about the life hundreds or thousands or millions of light years away from here, because they’ve been poisoned. They’ve been mind-controlled to forget because if they remember, they will come back and revenge. I doubt it if they will be successful because the government-control system is so tight, tighter than any of the systems on this planet. If you think any of the governments on this planet are very fanatic or very controlling, it’s nothing compared to what they control in some of the planets. They cannot tolerate even one inch of difference, of rebellious style, or of some creativity that they deem unfit. And then they will exile that person or that group forever here or another similar planet. But here is more easy, here is more easy. Many other planets, they have high tech already. They control their border. They don’t let anyone come in, just same like this one, same like this one.

Before, before… a long time ago, maybe thousands of years ago, they put up this kind of… just say radar system, because I don’t know how to explain this, some kind of borders all around the planet. And only the people they want to be here can be here, even the ones, the agents who work for them, and all that. Otherwise, no one can come and go. But now that kind of system, that kind of, we call “Maya” or “devil system,” “devil controllers,” is being almost kicked out by some other planets with more high tech. But then, still, their system, the control system, the radar that they put, the invisible radar, the superior quality, superior high tech that none of the planets, other planets, have been able to break through. Therefore, we’re all imprisoned here, me, you. Except we can go in and out sometimes in our soul, and that is important.

After today, after initiation, your soul is free. You are a free man, free woman, free being, absolute. But make sure you adhere to the guidance, the guidelines, so that you don’t give excuses to these bad, troublemaker beings who can control you again, because they have rules everywhere. And once they control you again, it’s difficult to meet a Master or someone who can guide you back. If the Master does guide you back to where you came from, it would be gruesome. They will execute you. They will persecute you. They will make trouble for you. So, we bring you to a better one, the enlightened, free, and compassionate, merciful. I mean, in that world, there’s no … not even the vocabulary of compassion or merciful, because there’s no need! It’s just normal like that.

Keep the rules on this planet. Do not harm others, including killing, of course. Not just killing, but harming also no good. Not harming people, and animals, not stealing, not tell lie, not doing bad bodily contact. And what else? Don’t take intoxicants. If you do at the moment, try to do it slowly, quickly avoid. Anyhow, keep the rules so that the Maya, the devil force doesn’t notice you too much. Because they’re already so used to with punishing people who don’t keep the rules, even ridiculous rules on their planets. So don’t provoke their attention.

That’s why a lot of Masters when they come down on the planet, they normally don’t openly teach disciples, unless they want to die quick and die young. Most of them die young, die quick, or die horrible death. Even in India, some Sikh Masters have been harassed to death, and losing everything they have, and their life also, in such a horrible way; many Masters are like that. They know they have to be quiet, because even the greatest, the most powerful Master comes here, he’s alone, cannot take too many people down here to help him. Besides, take whoever come down here, they will forget. They’ll forget what they’re supposed to do, including the Master himself, herself, in the beginning. And then it’s very hard for that Master to wake up even. So, you see, most Masters don’t wake up until in their 20s or 30s. They’re not born and then immediately sit there and teaching everyone. Did you see any? Well, even if they do that, the government probably will take that Master away, put into some laboratory to poke and probe them to see what happened to this kid. What happened? What kind of kid? Must be a devil incarnate. And that kid cannot live long, I assure you that. You know that, right?

So, mostly the Masters teach very quietly, to small numbers of disciples. Even at the Buddha’s time, he already taught openly enough, but his disciples amounted to maybe thousands, ten thousand, the max. Maybe at that time, the transportation, the communication systems were not as good as now also, which play a big role. But, nowadays, even many Masters, they don’t go very far, they don’t open too much. And if anyone is open, if he’s a real Master, if he teaches the real liberation, if he really saves souls, then he has a hell of a life. Any real Master has a hell of a life, even not die, but die and live again, die and live again. Sometimes sick or something, like 90 percent almost dead already and then come back again. It’s not easy because this planet has been controlled by this kind of force, controlling force, extreme force, dictatorship kind of system. And we have been shifted down here by them. More or less, we still belong to them, still under their control.

And at the moment, some planetary meetings are going on, often, to think of a way to do something, to invent, trying their best to invent something to break this spell. Because we don’t know technology, so we think it is a kind of spell, it’s a curse, or it’s a kind of magic. It’s not — really, just high tech. So, I’m not scared of them. Whatever they do, it’s just high tech. What’s the big deal? I also don’t know computers. I couldn’t even move a mouse, but I’m not scared of computer technology, all right? They have theirs, I have mine. I don’t need computers. I have people who can work on computer for me if I need. I rarely need anything. I don’t contact anyone. I have hardly the time. And now I don’t have a telephone as well. Wow! Freedom of technology. I don’t have anyone around me, really like that. If anyone’s around me at all, they’re making more trouble than help. So I have to work alone. Sometimes I wish I have one person, at least, around me just for some convenience, drive car quickly and … so I don’t have to call a taxi, I don’t have to wait in the rain for the car or for the taxi. But I just can’t. Up to now I don’t find anyone who I can get on with well. Yeah, because they take too much of this mental derangement system from other controlling powers and they feel confused around here.

Many people came from higher planets. Mostly, most of us come from higher planets. Higher technology doesn’t mean higher spiritual. That’s different. Therefore, a person who can invent high technology or super computer doesn’t mean he’s spiritually enlightened. You know that for sure, so the same. This kind of power, it’s just know-how; they just have high tech, but they use it for bad purposes, to control some of these inhabitants on the planet, as well as the ones that are being exiled here. This is a bad intention, bad manners, very rude, very undemocratic, and I don’t like it. So, after seeing so much like this, I really don’t like it, so I decided to give you initiation again. So, lucky you! Should thank God.

I know very well that I might be going to suffer one way or another, but I will do it; doesn’t matter. At the moment, I’m high enough. So even if I die, it’s OK. But it’s better I don’t, because our planet’s still not stable, not stable and my kids not grown up yet. Not all of them have grown up. They still make trouble every day: “Mommy this, Mommy that …” “Master, Master … Itchy here, Master.” “Oh, a little cut, Master, help! Bleeding, bleeding.” “Master, my car is kaput.” “Master, my alarm clock doesn’t work. Wake me up tomorrow, OK?” Yeah, so that you can wake up on time, go to work, earn a few thousand dollars per month. Yeah, it’s good. But your precious time, eight hours a day, ten hours a day, just for a few thousand dollars. You need it anyway, but still, imagine if you can use that to do meditation. It earns a lot more. But never mind, we’re on this planet, we have to do something, and we also owe that to the society to pay back in some way or another. Even I am also working in a different way. Even I also try to earn my own money. I don’t spend a lot, though. I look like I wear a lot of nice clothes, but this is all my creation, pretty cheap, homemade. Just costs some of the material costs. Even design jewelry and all that. But we have to pay for workers, pay for the tax for the company, etc., or related things. So, it costs more than it usually should cost. But for me, it’s my stuff.

Anyway, so after initiation try to meditate as much as you can. If you want to get above the water, then two-and-a-half hours, because we have 24 hours a day. It’s two-and-a-half hours is more or less like it. Should feel awake. Leave some ice water or something next to you. Sprinkle yourself.

All right then, what else did I want to say to you? OK, economy for the world and for the water system. If you put too much detergent into our water system, then it will pollute our system. It cannot be washed away. Any poison, any chemical goes into the water, it cannot be gone. In the air, maybe it can dissipate but in the water, how? Just stays in there and recycles again, again and again. It’s terrible, so take care of yourself by taking care of the planet. It’s a little bit late now. We should have done it long ago but better than nothing. Better keep it as is and not worse.

Also, we didn’t have mosquitoes before. And before, the animals, they didn’t have to eat each other to stay alive or to reproduce. Afterwards, the one that created them wanted it that way, so that they don’t have to take care of them. They just do it, take care by themselves. They don’t have to make anything for them to eat anymore. They just eat each other. And then they survive, whoever the strongest, things like that. So, it’s a horrible system. I hate this. I don’t like that. And then they make humans crazy out of frustration. Because the humans, this race of humans, they came from a higher society. They were free-thinking people. There are some high-tech inventors, scientists, healers, engineers in their homeland. And then because they made some mistakes, they have been exiled here, and forget everything, forget all the talents they have, forget all the freedom they have, and forget what glory their being was before they came down here. But somehow in some little remote corner of their mind, they feel something is not right about themselves in this environment, in their own situation. So they feel very frustrated. That’s why no one’s happy on this planet. And then we bicker with each other, we backstab, we make war, we steal, we lie, we compete to the extent of killing each other or harming each other because of all these frustrations inside. No answer to their questions, “Where do I come from? Where did I come from? What am I doing here? Why am I here?” etc., etc. So whenever you are feeling frustrated, then you should know that your memory has a little wakening. Try to calm yourself. If you feel frustrated, lonely, troubled, just go meditate, take a shower if you need to, meditate, listen to some nice music that you like or listen to my talk, choose the one that is smooth talking and praising, not the one that’s scolding and telling you do this, do that, not at that time. When you’re depressed, you just listen to some of my romantic music. Or listen to the story like today like I said how good you are, how glorious you have been. And you are just the victim of some wicked system. That’s why I got very mad. I’m mad at them. The more I’m mad at them, the more I’m loving people, I mean all beings on this planet, so I decided that OK, regardless of a few, some of you are bad, bad eggs, I still continue to give new people initiation, in the hope that they really awaken themselves, and then free themselves forever, forever and ever and ever. Then they can go to any planet they want. They can reincarnate back into a human body if they want to. But they don’t have to be forced to do that against their will and then be imprisoned in this horrible planet forever.

It looks beautiful from the outside, but our planet is full of fire underneath, boiling, not just boiling, but extremely boiling, almost like the heat of the sun. It came from boiling gas. So the outside is cooler, maybe the inside some crust, and crust is still cooler. But a lot of burning fire is still inside there, so we have a lot of stuff like earthquakes, volcanoes, and then therefore, influence the water, and the ocean and all that. And on top of that, some of the planetary humans awakened to their old habit of invention, of the knowledge of destruction and invented some bombs. And testing here, missiles there, H-bomb here, and whatever bomb next there, disturbing the atmosphere, killing the ozone layer, not completely, but injuring the protective layer of our planet, and changing the ecosystem, destroying many things slowly or quickly, some of them irreplaceable. Many of the species are gone, beautiful ones gone. And no one can replace them again, not even now; you cannot even order from the older company again, not old company, no more. Just like some companies, they go bankrupt. Some companies they don’t make enough profit, so they close, just like on our planet. So not like you’re thinking, “OK, never mind. Maybe another day, maybe we have magical power, we can create that.” You do have creation, creative power. Sometimes you can create one human or two, or one bird or two birds, if you have a pattern, or if you remember what you did before. But it’s not the whole species like that. We’re going down on the scale of variety, which is many of them are very beneficial to our lives. It beautifies our planet in any case.

It was more beautiful before when the animals didn’t eat each other, when we didn’t fight with each other, but sometimes out of frustration and being whispered inside inaudibly by these negative wicked beings, then we do bad things. And we don’t even know. So, many criminals, so-called criminals have been imprisoned unjustly. The ones who should be punished, or should be imprisoned are these baddies, rotten eggs, wicked, wicked beings from other planets. They’ve been controlling this planet for many hundreds of thousands of years. And before that, there were different systems at the time. And the last system is mostly gone. Just so much machinery is still around and no one can destroy it yet to free our planet.

And no one can stop this poison that’s been fed to the souls after they leave the body. No one can do it yet, except by the way of the Buddha, by the way of Jesus, direct implementation, direct communication, direct awakening from inside. Outside, we cannot do much. Inside, we can, because we are souls. And souls, there is a passage to connect with each other just like even simple speaking television. You can look at television from thousands of miles away, from across the ocean, over the mountains. So how to talk about the soul cannot communicate is a joke. It’s a joke that a soul cannot communicate with another soul. But we’ve been blocked. There is a passage here. You can go Home from there. When it’s opened, you’re free. Once it’s opened, you’re free! That’s it. But you have to continue walking to your Home — drive, walk, fly, whatever. Go Home. That’s it. You’re free. After initiation, you’re free, free, free! That’s all I can do for you. That’s all I can promise you. Behave yourself. Be good.

For more information, please visit: http://www.suprememastertv.com and http://www.godsdirectcontact.org

The Protective Shield

Spoken by master Ching Hai

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When an illness first begins, if we have a firm attitude about rejecting it, don’t allow the concept of “I am ill” to come into being, then the illness will run away immediately. However, you’re all too weak. You often feel, “Oh! I have a pain here. I have discomfort there.” Frequently, having these thoughts is like pushing a door open. The door is open only a little bit in the beginning; however, since you keep thinking about “becoming ill,” the slightly opened door will be pushed wide open by the power of your negative thinking. As soon as the door is wide open, the illness will quickly invade your body.

Originally, there’s a layer of protective energy covering our bodies. It guards us against the invasive negative power outside. When we get sick, it’s just like having a hole poked in the layer of protective energy, so that the illness can directly enter our bodies, through the hole. That’s how we get sick. If the layer of protective energy remains intact, the illness can’t get in.

Even if we really have some illness, we shouldn’t let it perplex us. When we know that we’re ill, we should practice even more diligently, and use our power to drive it away. This body is our house, and we are the owners. Without the invitation of the owner, how can anyone come in? If you can drive it away with a firm attitude, no illness will stay.

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Spoken by master Ching Hai

Concentrate on the present and the blessings you have. Concentrate on what  ever at hand that’s nice and lovely. If you always focus on the bad side of things, you’ll forget the goodness that’s right in front of you.

Just forget the future; forget the past. Learn from the past, but don’t cling to it. That’s how you’ll be happy. Every miserable situation is caused by us or by people around us because most people cling to the past and forget the present. They forget to live. We have to live every moment! Every moment is a miracle, you know. Every moment is something new, something awaiting us, and we have to savor it. We can enjoy every moment, so why do we have to make our lives miserable?

If we truly believe in God Almighty, then we would not complain under any circumstances.

 

by master Duy Tue (originally in Vietnamese)

Lesson 27 – Knowing how to nurture and help your brain develop

Somebody is paralyzed. He can’t move his hands and his legs. He can’t speak. His brain, however, can work normally. That person can use his eyes, and his facial expressions to communicate with other people. He also knows how to help unhappy people feel less miserable. He can do that because of the magic of brain that can work properly.

Stephen Hawking, born 1942, is one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists in history. He is also a brilliant astrologist, a cosmologist, and a mathematician. His major research is in the fields of theoretical cosmology and quantum gravity. His outstanding research is “Large Scale Structure of Space – Time” (with George Ellis). Hawking, however, became famous mostly because of his works of popular science. His bestselling books include “A Brief History of Time (1986), “Black Holes and Baby Universe and Other Essays” (1993), and “The Universe in a Nutshell” (2001).

Stephen Hawking is an example about a person with a highly developed brain. People can do a lot of different things as long as their brain can work properly. This is true even when other parts of their body don’t work normally. It is because of the importance of the head that the helmet is needed to keep it safe.

When you are angry, the parts that make up your brain don’t do their work normally and your brain chemistry is out of balance. When somebody’s brain chemistry is out of balance, “the eye balls” in his brain will get crazy, and he may hit other people or burn the house down.

Your brain has, for example, ten eye balls to see and know. A person, when drunk, loses nine. The eye ball that doesn’t get broken will not see clearly and this drunk man may cause an accident if he is traveling in the street.

When a person is depressed, his brain works in a different way. This is also true when somebody is exceptionally happy.

For these reasons, you should live a balanced life. Don’t get too much or too little sleep. Don’t be too sad or too happy. Eat the food that is good for the brain, for instance, whole grains, nuts, seeds, vegetables, and fruit. Beef, on the other hand, because of the fat and cholesterol in it, is not good for the brain. Going to bed early is also good for your brain.

Learning some foreign languages and doing creative writing are among the things that help your brain develop.

Take care of your brain, you will come to discover that your brain has an amazing light of seeing. A special thing that your brain can do for you is to help you develop a broad understanding of life. And this development never comes to an end.

 

Family Matters

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Master Ching Hai Tells Joke
February 22, 1996 (Originally In Vietnamese)

A girl went to the hospital to visit a famous movie star who had a minor accident while making a film — probably a broken arm, foot or something. As soon as she knocked on the door an old woman opened it.

The old woman said, “We’ve already left a sign outside. Only family members can come in to visit. Didn’t you see it?

The girl answered, “Of course I saw it. I am his younger sister.

The old woman said, “Oh really! Honored to meet you. I’m his mother. (Laughter)

The True Essence of Our Being

Spoken by master Ching Hai

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According to spiritual experience, we are not only this physical being, but a multifold being. We are great – greater than we could ever imagine ourselves to be. The deeper we go into the mysterious universal atmosphere, the more we can find out about ourselves – that we exist on many different levels of consciousness at the same time, as we exist here now on this physical planet.

It is wonderful to know that we are manifold beings and that we can see the highest aspect of ourselves anytime we want to, with just a little practice. And when we ascend into our highest level of Self, we can see God as well. Because we are also part of the Most High. And when we go to the highest level, of course we see the essence of our true Self, which is God. Because at that time we do not have the human ego anymore.

Jesus said, In the house of my Father there are many mansions. This is a way of explaining the different human levels of existence. If we now and again go up into a higher level of intelligence, when we come back to this physical world, we are abler, wiser, and happier. Therefore, we become a different being. We can feel as if we are living in Heaven while discharging our duty on this physical planet. Most of our suffering and burden comes from our lack of understanding about the higher parts of our Self, the parts that are in direct contact with God.

There are different departments in our absolute being, which house many wonders. Each level is different than another, and each level consists of different things, which we can make use of even for this physical life. All of these levels of being of our Self exist at the same time. It’s just that we do not have the connection with them. We have forgotten altogether how to reconnect with our Self. And that’s why we only have knowledge of physical existence.

No wonder we have no knowledge of other planets, no wonder we have no knowledge about Heaven; no wonder we do not easily find peace with each other no wonder we have to resort to war sometimes.

Our True Self Exists in Every Particle of the Universe

The more people know God, the more people contact God directly and become happier, the more peaceful the world will be, the less war there will be, and the more we can bring Heaven onto Earth. There is no reason to do this, except that I have the knowledge that you are myself; you are a part of me. I am a part of the whole of humankind. And if the whole is happy, then of course I am happy, too.

And if any part of this whole is sick or unhappy, then it will affect any of us, including myself. We will see the interdependence among all beings, including animals and plants, after we become enlightened, after we know God intimately. In the end, we will see nothing but ourselves existing everywhere: in each and every being and in each and every particle of the universe.

And that’s how we can come to love our neighbors as ourselves, because we know they are us. Otherwise, no amount of talk or persuasion can bring us into this voluntary state of love or automatic way of kindness. It is just like someone who lacks sight and cannot see his feet or other parts of his body because he cannot see clearly, but can only feel them. And because of the lack of seeing these parts of himself, he might sometimes hurt himself without knowing it and without intention. He might hit himself against the wall, or he might bump his legs or his feet into some hard object and hurt some part of his body.

But if his sight is restored, he will know where to walk correctly; he will know how to protect his body, every part of it. After being enlightened, we know that we are part of every being on this planet, including the younger brothers and sisters, the animals and plants so it is impossible for us to hurt any part of our Self. And we will not have to talk about peace; peace will be automatically restored. We do not have to say, “We must love our brothers, our neighbors, because we will automatically love our neighbors.

pot

An elderly Italian man lived alone in New Jersey . He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, since the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over.. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days.
Love, Papa

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Pop,
Don’t dig up that garden. That’s where the bodies are buried.
Love,
Vinnie

At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Pop,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That’s the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love you,
Vinnie

From Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/bevegan.gogreen.7

nowArticle created 23rd September 2007

The prophecy of Peter Deunov regarding the end of our civilization and the beginning of the Golden Age on earth. Also known under the spiritual name of Beinsa Douno, the Bulgarian Master Peter Deunov (1864-1944) was a being of a very high level of consciousness, at the same time an incomparable musician, that gave during his whole life an example of purity, wisdom, intelligence and creativity. For years he was established close to Sofia where he lived surrounded by numerous disciples, he, by his radiance awakened the spirituality of thousands of souls in Bulgaria as well as the rest of Europe.

Some days before his departure to the other world, he was in a profound mediumistic trance, he made an extraordinary prophecy in regards to our troubled epoch that we are crossing today, a prophecy about the “end of time” and the coming of a new Golden Age of humanity.

Here is this deeply moving testament. It is current and so vibrant that one doubts that these words were spoken almost 60 years ago.

“During the passage of time, the consciousness of man traversed a very long period of obscurity. This phase which the Hindus call “Kali Yuga”, is on the verge of ending. We find ourselves today at the frontier between two epochs: that of Kali Yuga and that of the New Era that we are entering.

A gradual improvement is already occurring in the thoughts, sentiments and acts of humans, but everybody will soon be subjugated to divine Fire, that will purify and prepare them in regards to the New Era. Thus man will raise himself to a superior degree of consciousness, indispensable to his entrance to the New Life. That is what one understands by “Ascension”.

Some decades will pass before this Fire will come, that will transform the world by bringing it a new moral. This immense wave comes from cosmic space and will inundate the entire earth. All those that attempt to oppose it will be carried off and transferred elsewhere.

Although the inhabitants of this planet do not all find themselves at the same degree of evolution, the new wave will be felt by each one of us. And this transformation will not only touch the Earth, but the ensemble of the entire Cosmos.

The best and only thing that man can do now is to turn towards God and improve himself consciously, to elevate his vibratory level, so as to find himself in harmony with the powerful wave that will soon submerge him.

The Fire of which I speak, that accompanies the new conditions offered to our planet, will rejuvenate, purify, reconstruct everything: the matter will be refined, your hearts will be liberated from anguish, troubles, incertitude, and they will become luminous; everything will be improved, elevated; the thoughts, sentiments and negative acts will be consumed and destroyed.

Your present life is a slavery, a heavy prison. Understand your situation and liberate yourself from it. I tell you this: exit from your prison! It is really sorry to see so much misleading, so much suffering, so much incapacity to understand where one’s true happiness lies.

Everything that is around you will soon collapse and disappear. Nothing will be left of this civilization nor its perversity; the entire earth will be shaken and no trace will be left of this erroneous culture that maintains men under the yoke of ignorance. Earthquakes are not only mechanical phenomen, their goal is also to awaken the intellect and the heart of humans, so that they liberate themselves from their errors and their follies and that they understand that they are not the only ones in the universe.

Our solar system is now traversing a region of the Cosmos where a constellation that was destroyed left its mark, its dust. This crossing of a contaminated space is a source of poisoning, not only for the inhabitants of the earth, but for all the inhabitants of the other planets of our galaxy. Only the suns are not affected by the influence of this hostile environment. This region is called “the thirteenth zone”; one also calls it “the zone of contradictions”. Our planet was enclosed in this region for thousands of years, but finally we are approaching the exit of this space of darkness and we are on the point of attaining a more spiritual region, where more evolved beings live.

The earth is now following an ascending movement and everyone should force themselves to harmonize with the currents of the ascension. Those who refuse to subjugate themselves to this orientation will lose the advantage of good conditions that are offered in the future to elevate themselves. They will remain behind in evolution and must wait tens of millions of years for the coming of a new ascending wave.

The earth, the solar system, the universe, all are being put in a new direction under the impulsion of Love. Most of you still consider Love as a derisory force, but in reality, it is the greatest of all forces! Money and power continue to be venerated as if the course of your life depended upon it. In the future, all will be subjugated to Love and all will serve it. But it is through suffering and difficulties that the consciousness of man will be awakened.

The terrible predictions of the prophet Daniel written in the bible relate to the epoch that is opening. There will be floods, hurricanes, gigantic fires and earthquakes that will sweep away everything. Blood will flow in abundance. There will be revolutions; terrible explosions will resound in numerous regions of the earth. There where there is earth, water will come, and there where there is water, earth will come. God is Love; yet we are dealing here with a chastisement, a reply by Nature against the crimes perpetrated by man since the night of time against his Mother; the Earth.

After these sufferings, those that will be saved, the elite, will know the Golden Age, harmony and unlimited beauty. Thus keep your peace and your faith when the time comes for suffering and terror, because it is written that not a hair will fall from the head of the just. Don’t be discouraged, simply follow your work of personal perfection.

You have no idea of the grandiose future that awaits you. A New Earth will soon see day. In a few decades the work will be less exacting, and each one will have the time to consecrate spiritual, intellectual and artistic activities. The question of rapport between man and woman will be finally resolved in harmony; each one having the possibility of following their aspirations. The relations of couples will be founded on reciprocal respect and esteem. Humans will voyage through the different planes of space and breakthrough intergalactic space. They will study their functioning and will rapidly be able to know the Divine World, to fusion with the Head of the Universe.

The New Era is that of the sixth race. Your predestination is to prepare yourself for it, to welcome it and to live it. The sixth race will build itself around the idea of Fraternity. There will be no more conflicts of personal interests; the single aspiration of each one will be to conform himself to the Law of Love. The sixth race will be that of Love. A new continent will be formed for it. It will emerge from the Pacific, so that the Most High can finally establish His place on this planet.

The founders of this new civilization, I call them “Brothers of Humanity” or also “Children of Love” They will be unshakeable for the good and they will represent a new type of men. Men will form a family, as a large body, and each people will represent an organ in this body. In the new race, Love will manifest in such a perfect manner, that today’s man can only have a very vague idea.

The earth will remain a terrain favourable to struggle, but the forces of darkness will retreat and the earth will be liberated from them. Humans seeing that there is no other path will engage themselves to the path of the New Life, that of salvation. In their senseless pride, some will, to the end hope to continue on earth a life that the Divine Order condemns, but each one will finish by understanding that the direction of the world doesn’t belong to them.

A new culture will see the light of day, it will rest on three principal foundations: the elevation of woman, the elevation of the meek and humble, and the protection of the rights of man.

The light, the good, and justice will triumph; it is just a question of time. The religions should be purified. Each contains a particle of the Teaching of the Masters of Light, but obscured by the incessant supply of human deviation. All the believers will have to unite and to put themselves in agreement with one principal, that of placing Love as the base of all belief, whatever it may be. Love and Fraternity that is the common base!

The earth will soon be swept by extraordinary rapid waves of Cosmic Electricity. A few decades from now beings who are bad and lead others astray will not be able to support their intensity. They will thus be absorbed by Cosmic Fire that will consume the bad that they possess. Then they will repent because it is written that “each flesh shall glorify God”.

Our mother, the earth, will get rid of men that don’t accept the New Life. She will reject them like damaged fruit. They will soon not be able to reincarnate on this planet; criminals included. Only those that possess Love in them will remain.

There is not any place on earth that is not dirtied with human or animal blood; she must therefore submit to a purification. And it is for this that certain continents will be immersed while others will surface.

Men do not suspect to what dangers they are menaced by. They continue to pursue futile objectives and to seek pleasure. On the contrary those of the sixth race will be conscious of the dignity of their role and respectful of each one’s liberty. They will nourish themselves exclusively from products of the vegetal realm. Their ideas will have the power to circulate freely as the air and light of our days. The words “If you are not born again.” apply to the sixth race. Read Chapter 60 of Isaiah it relates to the coming of the sixth race the Race of Love.

After the Tribulations, men will cease to sin and will find again the path of virtue. The climate of our planet will be moderated everywhere and brutal variations will no longer exist. The air will once again become pure, the same for water. The parasites will disappear. Men will remember their previous incarnations and they will feel the pleasure of noticing that they are finally liberated from their previous condition.

In the same manner that one gets rid of the parasites and dead leaves on the vine, so act the evolved Beings to prepare men to serve the God of Love. They give to them good conditions to grow and to develop themselves, and to those that want to listen to them, they say: “Do not be afraid! Still a little more time and everything will be all right; you are on the good path. May he that wants to enter in the New Culture study, consciously work and prepare.”

Thanks to the idea of Fraternity, the earth will become a blessed place, and that will not wait. But before, great sufferings will be sent to awaken the consciousness. Sins accumulated for thousands of years must be redeemed. The ardent wave emanating from On High will contribute in liquidating the karma of peoples.

The liberation can no longer be postponed. Humanity must prepare itself for great trials that are inescapable and are coming to bring an end to egoism. Under the earth, something extraordinary is preparing itself. A revolution that is grandiose and completely inconceivable will manifest itself soon in nature. God has decided to redress the earth, and He will do it!

It is the end of an epoch; a new order will substitute the old, an order in which Love will reign on earth.”

750x422By Bruce Friedrich

Does Catholicism require opposition to animal cruelty, including industrial farming?

For two years I taught social studies at an inner-city high school; for six years I ran a Catholic Worker shelter for homeless families. Then, almost 20 years ago, I became a full-time animal advocate, confident that such labor is integral to Catholicism.

As one might expect, I received plaudits from fellow Catholics for my anti-poverty and educational work but less support for my animal protection work. Most Catholics I’ve encountered seem to think of such do-gooding as fundamentally removed from religious imperatives.

Yet Pope Francis begs to differ.

“Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork,” Francis wrote in his latest encyclical, “is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience.”

On the day Francis released the encyclical, he tweeted, “It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly. #LaudatoSi.”

Leaving aside the modern method of transmission, this statement is not actually remarkable. It’s a quotation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

But what does it mean that we should not cause animals to suffer or die needlessly? Surely this admonition demands more of us than that we not personally injure and kill animals. I’m convinced that we are also obligated as Catholics to avoid paying others to kill or harm animals, absent some exceedingly compelling justification.

Put another way, “purchasing is always a moral — and not simply economic — act.” That line also comes from the encyclical, in a paragraph in which Francis applauds consumer boycotts focused on pushing corporations to engage in more ethical practices.

If what we are doing as a society to God’s animals is not a sin, what is? –

Thinking about consumer choices in the context of animal rights, consider that by far the most needless suffering comes at the hands of the meat industry, which kills about 9 billion land animals annually. These creatures are treated in ways that would warrant cruelty-to-animals charges were dogs or cats similarly abused.

Most pregnant pigs, for example, spend their lives in crates so small they cannot turn around, and more than 90% of egg-laying hens are crammed into cages where they cannot spread a wing. In such devices, animals suffer both physical and mental
torment.

Chickens on some farms grow so quickly that their limbs and organs cannot adequately support their massive bodies, consigning them to a life of constant misery. At slaughter, workers “are literally throwing the birds into the shackles, often breaking their legs as they do it,” to quote USDA inspector Stan Painter.

Just try watching one of the videos of factory farming and slaughterhouses that are readily available online: If what we are doing as a society to God’s animals is not a sin, what is?

No less a moral authority than Pope Benedict XVI denounced society’s “industrial use of creatures” on farms as a violation of “the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible.” Or as Francis put it, “the Bible has no place for a tyrannical anthropocentrism unconcerned for other creatures.”

In arguing that there is no difference between cruelty to a farm animal and cruelty to a dog or cat, primatologist (and proud vegetarian) Jane Goodall declared that “farm animals feel pleasure and sadness, excitement and resentment, depression, fear, and pain … they are individual beings in their own right. Who will plead for them if we are silent?”

Francis could not have said it better, and those of us who take these concepts seriously should see them as a call to action.

For me, not only opposition to factory farming but also a vegetarian diet is a requirement of my faith. Since I don’t need to eat animals to survive, I believe Catholicism dictates that I must not.

But this is not just an individual concern. Our faith also demands that we take a public stand on behalf of God’s creatures.

It would be entirely consistent with the pope’s encyclical if the church positioned itself on the forefront of the animal protection movement; if it endorsed measures aimed at stopping the worst abuses, and even announced that the faithful cannot in good conscience cause other animals to suffer for something so inconsequential as a momentary gustatory pleasure.

When the church does that, it will begin to fulfill God’s promise of mercy for all creatures, as revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Christian Scriptures, the Catechism and Laudato Si’.

Bruce Friedrich is director of policy for Farm Sanctuary, a national farm animal protection organization that runs two farm animal shelters in California.

From  http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0710-friedrich-catholic-animal-rights-20150710-story.html

A Truly Happy Person

Master Ching Hai tells strory

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This is a folk story passed down by the Jewish people. There was a very rich man who had plenty of property. One day, he suddenly fell seriously ill and couldn’t recover. Since he was very rich, his family invited many famous doctors from places around the country to cure him, but none succeeded.
The man’s health deteriorated and he seemed to have no hope of getting healed. Just when his family was in utter desperation, a spiritual practitioner who came from afar passed by and told them, “If you can find a very happy person, take his clothes and let your father wear them, then he’ll be cured.”
Upon hearing this, the rich man’s family set off in all directions looking for a happy person. However, after searching high and low, they could not find a truly happy person. The so-called happy people they found weren’t perfectly happy in every way so they couldn’t be regarded as truly happy people. The family carried on searching until they finally gave up. Nevertheless, one of the rich man’s sons was extremely filial. Unable to bear separation from his father, he was determined to see his father healed. Thus he left his hometown and went to faraway places, with his mind set on finding a truly happy person.
One day, the rich man’s son became exhausted by his tedious journey. Dusk was falling so he tried to find a resting place and came upon a cave where he decided to spend the night. As he approached the mouth of the cave, he heard a resounding voice from within saying, “Oh! I’m such a happy man! I had such a wonderful day today. I’m happy every day! Everything is fine with me. I’m delighted and happy with everything! I’m the happiest person in the world! I’m a truly happy man!” These words were repeated over and over, accompanied by joyful laughter. Finally, the voice said, “Oh! I’m sleepy now. I’m going to sleep in happiness. Even if I were to die now, I would still be very happy!” (Master and everyone laugh.)
The rich man’s son rejoiced to hear this and thought, “I’ve found the cure for my father’s illness!” He then quickly slipped into the cave, hoping to find the person and take his clothes from him. But when he went inside, he found that the man was completely naked! (Master and everyone laugh.) He wasn’t wearing anything! The son stood there stunned, not knowing what to do.
Seeing his disappointment and frustration, the happy man asked, “What’s wrong?” And the rich man’s son replied, “I failed to find something that I’m looking for.” So the happy man asked, “What are you looking for?” The rich man’s son replied, “My father is critically ill, and a spiritual practitioner told us that if we could find a truly happy person, we should take off his clothes and let my father wear them, then he’d be cured. That’s why I’m here to take your clothes. I never dreamed that you wouldn’t be wearing anything!” The happy man said, “Sigh! If I were wearing something, I wouldn’t be so happy now!” (Master and everyone laugh. Everyone applauds.)
What he meant was that if he possessed any property, he would be burdened and wouldn’t be so happy. Precisely because he had nothing, he was free of any pressure, not having to worry about losing anything, about his things being stolen or destroyed. He also didn’t have to worry about what to do should he not have a certain thing the next day. Since he had nothing to compare with others, he didn’t have to worry about other people having something better. Therefore, he was free of worries. He didn’t have to worry about anything, such as people stealing his things or hurting him. That’s why he was so happy.
This story is quite relevant to spiritual practice. It doesn’t mean that we’ll be happy if we don’t have any property; it also doesn’t mean that we’ll have worries or be happy if we have a lot of wealth. Whether we’re happy or unhappy can’t be measured by our wealth. It mainly depends on our heart. If we have some wealth, but we don’t cling to it and we use it in the right place, then we can say we possess no wealth and aren’t attached to it. Suppose we have no wealth and can’t earn money, but then we say that the grapes are sour because we have no grapes to eat (Master and everyone laugh), then we’re not truly happy people.
The man in this story most probably was a truly happy person. We can tell from the way he talked. In fact, true happiness at heart is not to be derived from wealth or poverty. However, for most people, excessive wealth can easily lead to bondage. Even if they hate to be bound, sometimes, they will still be bound unknowingly. They have to take care of their wealth, develop and manage it. Besides, they worry that others may take possession of their wealth, that they may arouse jealousy, or that their wealth may be squandered by their children; many conditions worry them. It’s not that we’re being greedy. However, if we do have some property, we have to manage it. If we don’t have anything, then we don’t need to bother.

By master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 26 – Recognize and stay away from bad guys

Outside your house, there are bad people. You have to watch out. You are too young to really know what a bad guy is like.

How can you identify them?

Bad people often do two bad things, threatening and luring. They do these things because they want something from you.

They can trick you in different ways. They may say something that attracts to lead you into wrong or foolish actions. This is called luring. Remember my words and be careful when somebody sounds like luring or says something to fascinate you.

Not everyone who gives you a present is bad people. The problem is that you are a child and you don’t know when a person is bad. So think carefully before you take something from somebody. Don’t take a present just because you want it so much.

Why do fish get hooked in a fishing line? Because it likes the bait.

You shouldn’t accept a present easily when you don’t know the reason why it is given to you. If a stranger gives you some candy, you should thank him but don’t take it.

When evil people can’t trick you, they may threaten you. Tricking and threatening are the behaviors of bad people. You have to be aware and stay away from them.

Minestrone Soup

soup

This is a recipe for the soup which will help you to live 100 years!

While some drink raw eggs every day in hope to prolong their live, the longest-running family from Sardinia has a simple recipe: minestrone soup!
In the book “The Blue Zones Solution: Eating and Living Like the World’s Healthiest People” author Dan Buettner brings advice detected by exploring the habits and diet of the healthiest and longest-lived people in the world.

What kind of soup should be to extend our lifespan?
This Sardinian family eats the soup every day. And yes, you probably would have got tired of always eating the same thing every day …

But if you know that this can ensure 100 candles on a birthday cake, would you change your opinion?
Base soups are beans and fregula, pasta which is very popular in Sardinia, and other ingredients are not the same every day, writes Day in his book in which he brings a recipe for a “magic soup” noting that, if you are not able to buy fregula, worthy replacement can be and couscous.

Minestrone soup

1.Beans (several kinds) and chickpeas should be left in the water overnight. Before preparing drain and rinse well.

  1. In a pot over medium heat put three tablespoons of olive oil, add the onion, celery, carrot and stir until tender. Approximately five minutes. Then add the chopped garlic and stir until the smell, about 20 seconds.

3.Stir tomatoes, potatoes, fennel, parsley, basil, beans and chickpeas. Add enough water (6-8 cups), so that all ingredients are submerged.

4.Turn up the heat (or power electric cookers) and cook until it boils. Then turn the volume and simmer until beans are tender. If necessary, add more water if the mixture is too thick. Cook the stew for about a total of about an hour and a half.

5.Add the pasta, salt and pepper.

6.Serve with the addition of one tablespoon of olive oil

Tip: You can add into the soup any fresh vegetables that do not contain harmful pesticides: zucchini, cabbage, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower …

From http://www.healthyfoodparadise.com

Spoken By  Ching Hai, Tainan, Formosa
March 16, 1990 (Originally In Chinese)

Q: How are You, Master? I believe, before You attained the Truth, You must have gone through innumerable severe tests. Can You tell us, when You faced all kinds of difficulties, like feeling depressed or even desperate, how did You detach Yourself from these agonizing feelings to live optimistically while firmly pursuing Your spiritual path and continuing in Your daily life?

M: There were lots of tests! No one is free from trials. Sometimes, the tests were really senseless; sometimes, they were very fierce; sometimes, they were very vicious; sometimes, the tests made You want to die. However, in whatever situation, I always observed carefully and I would say: “Oh! You are in a bad mood today, you want to cry. All right, just go ahead and cry! You are feeling awful today, just let it be. Tomorrow will be different. I am sure tomorrow will not be the same!

I am talking about very logical things, spiritual practitioners or not. Ever since we were born, we have not lived one single day that is identical to another. If today is bad, tomorrow must be good, If it doesn’t get better tomorrow, it definitely will be the day after. It may be raining today, but there will be sunshine tomorrow. We can understand this by observing natural phenomena. We shouldn’t remain in a certain situation, and then hide behind it. Never mind where we are put, it is okay! We just carry on living there. It is only a kind of mood, and our moods change every day — for better or worse. I simply take it as it comes.

When pain comes, I feel the pain; when happiness comes, I feel the joy. I am not insensitive. When pain comes, just let it be. I say: ” All right! So be it today. I will definitely be happier tomorrow. ” Just that. And you ought to keep this in mind. (Applause)

Also, at our most agonizing moments, do not sink with the pain. Instead, try to ponder: ” Why do I have such pain? ” Observe what you can learn from these painful situations. There must be something! If you observe clearly then all situations are good lessons from which to learn. Having realizations through observing, you will be enlightened and happy tomorrow. Understand frustrations with Buddhi (intellect), and don’t let them pass by in vain. (Applause)

Lentil Burger

blogger-image-169791134Ingredients:

 

  • 1 can of green lentils
  • 115gr dry chickpeas
  • Sea salt
  • Black pepper
  • 1 onion
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1 red chili (optional)
  • 5 tablespoons of plain flour
  • juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin

Extra flour to dust your hands and either olive oil or sunflower oil to fry the burgers.

You’ll need a food processor for this.

Start by placing the chickpeas in water for about 1-2h. Get a food processor and with the chopping blade chop the onion, the garlic cloves and the chili. Now add chickpeas (drained) and the lentils (rinse well so they are loose). Blend again for about 1 minute.
Now add the lemon juice, olive oil, flour, cumin, salt and pepper. Blend until this forms a paste (around 2 minutes should be enough).

Flour your hands and with about 2 tablespoons of the burger mix shape this into a burger patty.

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1) For a healthier version of this recipe you can shape the burgers and place them on baking paper on an oven proof tray. You can bake them for around 20-25min on 180 oC.  or you can fry them, just like meat burgers.
2) In a frying pan heat some oil and carefully place the burger shaped patty into the pan. With a skimmer carefully turn them so they fry on both sides. Around 4 minutes on each side should be enough to cook the burger and give it a golden color.

blogger-image--1413224263The amount in this recipe makes 5 big burgers. Estimated cost for 5 burgers = under 40 cents (€) per burger.

 

From  http://www.seriouslytastymeals.blogspot

 

 

 

10985403_10206633389095571_6481987778354692382_nSpoken by Master Ching Hai

“All the pain, sorrow and misery come not from the outside, not from other people. They come from our inner ignorance. We expect too much from everyone and everything, and then we’re disappointed. So the only source of happiness is inside. Whenever you meditate, try to get in touch with that source. For your sake, for your own happiness, contentment, satisfaction, you must always try to get in touch with that joyful center which is inside all of you. That is where the Master power is. That is where every miracle in the universe can manifest. That’s all loving kindness, that’s where all loving kindness is born. That’s where all the Virtues, beauty and the Truth laying dormant there for you to discover.

Otherwise, sooner or later we all die and go where, who cares? At least when we’re living, we must live a very worthwhile human life. We should be happy and be able to carry on our life in a joyful way. Because that befits our dignity as a human being, as the “Top Ten” of all the animals in this world. We’re the top of physical creation. We don’t know if we’re the top of the universe yet. Maybe not, but at least here, we’re the top of creation. So we must carry on our life as dignified as a human being should be, and not be fearful of everything and stupid and in misery, especially when we have the treasure inside that we can always use.

That’s the only purpose of meditation: that you know yourself and know what true happiness is, not because the Master says so and you have to obey the Master. You obey the Master because it’s good for you, but you must know why. You must know it’s for you, not for the Master.

by Hannah Sentenac

Neal-Barnard-M.D.-Credit-Steve-Shapiro-CommercialImage.net_

Hippocrates said it best back in B.C.: “Let food be thy medicine.” Unfortunately, it’s taking today’s medical community a long time to heed his warning.

Luckily, a handful of forward-thinking, science-minded organizations and individuals are finally advocating for the power of plant-based diets, and the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is at the forefront.

As part of its commitment to nutritional advocacy, the group is set to open a nonprofit medical center in Washington, DC,—one that’ll be focused entirely around Hippocrates’ wise words.

The plant-based Bernard Medical Center will open on Nov. 2, 2015, offering primary care to thousands of patients per year.

Running the show will be Neal Barnard, M.D., founder and medical director, plus three physicians, one nurse practitioner, and two registered dietitians. The staffers will help clients create custom treatment plans designed to prevent and/or treat chronic conditions and other medical needs.

“With six full-time clinicians, we’ll be able to see about 4,000 patients each year,” Dr. Barnard told LatestVeganNews.com.

The clinic will help people change their lifestyles from top to bottom. As medical professionals, they’ll still be able to write prescriptions and perform standard medical tests, but as the team says in their announcement: “Although we can prescribe medications, we prefer to help you minimize your need for them.”

There’s also a major education component to the facility, says Dr. Barnard.

“Barnard Medical Center will be one of the first clinics of its kind, hosting regular Food for Life classes to educate the community and Barnard Medical Center patients about foods for optimal health and disease prevention,” he explains.

Class specializations will include weight loss, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and different types of pain, including migraines, joint pain, and menstrual cramps.

“Nutrition and lifestyle changes will be at the forefront of treatment,” he explains. At the clinic, the root causes of diseases will be treated—versus just focusing on symptom relief like most modern medical facilities.

The clinic will be setting up shop at 5100 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 401, Washington, DC 20016 on Nov. 2nd, so DC-area residents have a lot to look forward to. Let’s hope Barnard goes on to conquer every city in the U.S.—lord knows we need it.

from http://www.latestvegannews.com

 

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By master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 25 – Good thoughts, good actions

Your grandparents, your uncles, or your cousins may live far away from you. Don’t put them out of your mind. Write to them or give them a call sometimes. You do this to maintain a blood relationship with them.

You may still think about your beloved family members when they are far away but if you don’t try to get in touch with them, your good thoughts for them, after a while, will be good for nothing. You have to turn the good thoughts in your head to good actions. Otherwise, your good thoughts would not help anyone or make anyone happy. If you just keep the good thoughts in your head, after many days they will turn into trash.

You are thankful to and concerned for people around you. Those are good thoughts. And remember to turn them into actions. Practice doing this at a young age and you will grow up living by the rule “Good Thoughts, Good Actions.”

Why actions are important? Because if you just think and don’t act, your brain won’t develop properly and you can’t see and understand things broadly without neglecting details.

PicMonkey-Collage1

According to the Associated Press, the FDA finally confirmed that chickens given the drug do indeed test positive for inorganic arsenic.

After years of sweeping the issue under the rug, the FDA has now finally admitted that chicken meat sold in the USA contains arsenic, a cancer-causing toxic chemical that’s fatal in high doses. But the real story is where this arsenic comes from: It’s added to the chicken feed on purpose! As far back as 2006, the IATP’s report Playing Chicken: Avoiding Arsenic in your meat estimated that more than 70 percent of all U.S. chickens raised for meat are fed arsenic.  It is added to induce faster weight gain on less feed, and creating the perceived appearance of a healthy color in meat from chickens, turkeys and hogs.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has found that nearly half of all chickens tested have absorbed inorganic arsenic, the most toxic form, in their liver. Based on that finding, the agency asked Pfizer to stop manufacturing Roxarsone, the arsenic-containing drug that’s added to feed to fatten chickens and give meat a bright pink hue.

from :  http://www.livingtraditionally.com

s

If you’re like most people, you live almost entirely in your mind. There’s a constant internal dialog going on, the mind always talking to itself. “I need to do this…”, “What if that…”

As soon as one thought is finished, another pops up. This is going on non-stop, so much so that really paying attention to all these thoughts would start to drive you nuts, so all the thinking starts getting pushed into the unconscious where it goes on automatically, habitually.

This is dangerous though, and the fact that nearly everyone else is doing it too doesn’t make it any less so. Your thoughts influence enormously how you perceive your world. In new age jargon, this is the “you create your reality”.

Your beliefs are the lens through which you see the world, though for most, it’s more accurate to say your beliefs are your world. To let the mind ramble on unconsciously is very dangerous because it will go on absorbing, and modifying beliefs without any conscious direction from you, and these beliefs will direct your whole life.

When you’re unaware of your own thoughts, you’re like a leaf blowing in the wind, and it becomes very easy for people to manipulate you. The media can just repeat something over and over again, and whether or not it’s true, the majority of people will start repeating it as fact. Most mainstream forms of media, advertisers and politicians have refined manipulating people into an art.

When you’re caught up in your own mind, it’s difficult to really hear what another person is saying too. Your own thoughts take precedence in your mind, and they can very easily distract you.

You go on half-listening or half-reading what another is saying and at the same time you’re listening to your own thoughts. You get overloaded, too much to take in at once, and so you go on auto-pilot and you operate almost entirely unconsciously.

Unconsciousness reacts, and a reaction is always based upon the past. If you live unconsciously, you will just repeat the past over and over again. It’s very easy to live that way, and it’s very safe, at least by societal standards.

If you truly live in the moment, if you really live consciously, all you know for certain is what’s occurring in this moment, the past is just echoes, and the future is endless possibilities. In living presently, everything opens up, life moves from the known to the unknown to the Unknowable, the Ultimate.

Consciousness is always fresh, always new, always seeing things in different ways. It’s not something planned out beforehand, it’s something that happens entirely in this moment.

We’ve been taught that behaving unconsciously makes us good people though, and that truly making our own decisions, by breaking free of the rigid societal structures, we’ll bring chaos upon ourselves and threaten society as a whole.

The things I’m talking about here may seem fairly mundane, not nearly as exciting as chakras and higher dimensions, but what I’m talking about here, awareness, is the key that unlocks all those things. Spiritual people are always talking about awakening, but what is awakening? Isn’t it simply awareness?

Isn’t that what happens every morning when you wake up? You were sleeping, and now you’re awake, now you’re more aware. Spiritual awakening is just a heightened level of awareness, it’s awareness of more than just the physical realm. You don’t need a bunch of bells and whistles to get there, no need for a spiritual books, gurus, chanting, all you need is awareness.

Greater awareness of the body and mind will naturally lead to awareness of the Soul. It’s the unconsciousness of the mind that distracts from the Soul in the first place, but unconsciousness cannot thrive when the being is aware. Pay close attention to everything, do not let your mind ramble unconsciously.

Really, all you’re doing is acknowledging the way your mind really is. With awareness, little by little, the mind will start to calm. Not by fighting against the mind, not by struggle, but through simple awareness. The worries and fears that thrived in unconsciousness start to shrink when exposed to the light.

People use spirituality like some mental bubble gum. You chew on something for a while, then when it has lost its flavor you spit it out and look for something new to consume. It’s a form of entertainment, some excitement and distraction from an otherwise boring life.

Pay very close attention to all parts of your life, so close that it becomes impossible to ignore any part, whether ecstatic joy or extreme pain.

In this you will be transformed, your feelings will become guideposts in how to live your life, not as an imitation of someone else, but as a celebration of your true self.

http://www.thespiritscience.net

Master Tells Joke

A mother gave her kid two dollars and said, “One is for you to do with as you want, and one is to put in the box in church for God.”

So the kid went around and was playing with the dollars, and then one of them went into the river. She couldn’t find it so she said, “Sorry, God! Your dollar’s gone!”

sink-e1425433381507-780x364

Here’s how you make it:

  1. Fill about half a spray bottle with distilled white vinegar.
  2. Add in 1/4 cup of lemon juice.
  3. Fill the majority of the remaining space in your spray bottle with the dish soap of your choice.
  4. Shake the bottle to mix together ingredients.
  5. Use your solution on hard water stains! Spray it on liberally and let it sit for 30 minutes. Then scrub away the grime. Rinse, dry, and marvel at the glorious results.

http://www.tiphero.com

Spoken by master Ching Hai, New Zealand, April 27, 2000

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The nature of the soul is not that I am here and I have one soul in here. It’s not like that. My soul is bigger than just in here. It might be all over here. (Master makes a gesture encompassing the area of the room.) It might be all me, but it looks different. It’s not like God is one and everyone is one with God. It’s not in that sense. It’s in the sense that one individual can have a great soul that encompasses many so-called bodies. So we can happen to identify just like we are each other.

Just like sometimes there are two persons, but they think exactly the same thing at the same moment. That’s because that is one soul, not because they are one with God or they are one with each other. But they are one soul, just like twins or soul mates. A soul mate doesn’t mean only one; it can mean a lot. Because some great souls encompass many other beings for their own purpose. Therefore, we feel like brothers and sisters; we feel like one. Sometimes you feel very good with your sister or your brother, your mother or your father because that’s you! You make it become family, but it’s only one: one soul and many individuals.

That’s why sometimes we say, “I have affinity with that person.” Or, “She’s my soul mate; he’s my soul mate.” Because it’s you; it’s really you. I mean that’s your individual soul group, in one soul. Apart from being one with God and one with everyone else, we also have the individual soul, which can house many big groups of people as just one soul. But it looks different.

Thus sometimes we feel so good with a group of people. And the more we’re with them, the more we feel strengthened because we’re at home with ourselves. We’re together, and we’re at peace together. It’s no wonder; no wonder we work so well!

Can you imagine you are me?

Move over, meatless Mondays and vegetable quesadillas! One private early childhood-12 school in southern California is going all the way, eliminating all meat and animal products from its cafeteria and offering an entirely plant-based menu.

The MUSE School in Calabasas, California, will complete a transition to an all-vegan menu beginning in the fall. Though at least one school has gone vegetarian, MUSE is believed to be the first primary or secondary school in the nation to go entirely vegan.

MUSE was founded by actress Suzy Amis Cameron and her sister Rebecca Amis in 2006, with a focus on sustainability. According to spokeswoman Jennifer Mau, MUSE’s board and administration made the decision to go vegan last spring; all lettuce and nearly half of the produce will be sourced from on-campus gardens and greenhouses thanks to the school’s seed-to-table initiative, which grows about 200 different varieties.

MUSE was already moving toward the change, serving entirely plant-based meals one day a week to its 150 students beginning in September 2013. Last fall, it upped that number to two days a week, plus two days of vegetarian-friendly fare.

o-MUSE-SCHOOL-GARDEN-570

Parents’ response to the initiative has been largely positive, Mau says.

“The way we eat is the easiest and most impactful way we can alter our carbon footprint as a school,” MUSE’s head of school Jeff King said in a statement. “The largest consumers of water are not people but cattle. To truly deliver our mission of sustainability, we had to find a sustainable way of eating. The answer was to create our ‘One Meal a Day for the Planet’ program — plant-based lunches and snacks — for our students.”

Nutritionists interviewed by The Huffington Post applauded MUSE’s move away from the typically highly processed foods and drinks that too often remain standard American cafeteria fare. Studies show reducing one’s meat intake not only has an environmental impact, but also a health one — reducing risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes, as well as curbing obesity.

There are general caveats. Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition and food studies at New York University, told HuffPost that a vegan diet is in line with the health world’s recommendation to eat mostly fruits, vegetables and grains, but that any successful diet must offer a variety of choices.

“One basic tenet of healthful diets is to include a variety of foods, and vegan diets need variety too,” Nestle said via email. “The menus must be planned to be adequate in calories, protein, and variety.”

David Katz, an instructor in medicine at Yale’s School of Public Health, agreed, noting that “it’s possible to do a vegan diet badly, but if it’s done well, it’s one of the best diets we have.”

“Just calling it vegan doesn’t guarantee it is high nutrition and a lot could be lost in translation,” Katz noted. “But the potential is great.”

Mau, noting that students are only eating one meal a day at MUSE, said school officials are very careful about their approach to plant-based proteins in an effort to ensure the meals are as nutritious as possible.

Katz also pointed to early research indicating a link between healthy eating and physical exercise and improved student behavior and academic performance. It’s evidence, he says, that MUSE’s efforts could be beneficial for their students in ways beyond their physical health.

MUSE’s embrace of a plant-based menu comes at a time when more and more schools across the country are also reducing their reliance on meat and animal products.

Since 2009, Meatless Mondays, a public health campaign associated with the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, expanded their program into the school sphere, with Baltimore City Public Schools becoming the first public school system to offer an an all-vegetarian menu to start off each week.

Since then, another 53 districts have also joined the movement, including schools in Los Angeles, San Diego, Philadelphia, Boston and Detroit, and others are working with the program to implement more meat-free proteins into menus that still meet the requirements of the National School Lunch program.

Meatless Mondays isn’t advocating necessarily for students to go vegetarian or vegan — rather, the program’s goal is for people to diversify their diets and incorporate more plant-based meals. Children, spokeswoman Diana Rice notes, are at a particularly important time in their lives as their eating habits tend to be less entrenched than adults.

“This is something people can participate in without feeling that they have to change their diets completely,” Rice told HuffPost. “It teaches them from a young age that a meal doesn’t have to have meat in it to be a solid meal.”

From  http://www.huffingtonpost.com

From Stone to Saint

Spoken by Master Ching Hai

10556454_10204254780951854_3297313167455158549_n
In China, there was a story about Meng Tzu. Meng Tzu was a very wise man of China, one of the saints. But he had a saintly mother, so that’s why.

When he was a child, his house was next to a slaughtering house that killed animals. So he went to see the people who slaughtered the animals. When he came home, he began to catch all the small animals, like frogs, cats and dogs. And he also began to slaughter them, because he imitated what he saw.

Children imitate everything, good or bad. I didn’t; I did not imitate. I remember many of my cousins and the neighbor’s children always went and fetched birds, and would roast them and eat them. And they killed all kinds of insects, making them become like their toys. I never did this; I never liked it. But most children imitate things, whether good or bad.

So when the mother saw that the child had developed this very bad habit due to their neighbor’s influence, she moved, because of him. She said, “This is not a good place for my child.” She was a saintly mother. And they were not wealthy. I think she was alone. Her husband wasn’t there; maybe he was dead. She raised the child alone as a weaver, weaving cloth. She was very poor and didn’t earn much money weaving cloth. Even then, she sacrificed her time, energy and money for her child. Can you imagine how saintly that is? That’s why I say she was a saintly mother. And in ancient China, moving was not easy. There’s no transportation, no one to help you, only the mother and the child. You can imagine how difficult that would be.

So she moved to another neighborhood. Sometime later, she discovered that her child came home every day wailing and crying, making a ceremony for the dead. He was making a funeral service every day. And then she discovered that they lived very near a funeral home; that’s where he learned it. So she said, “This is not a place for my child.”

She moved again, for the third time. Then, at last, she moved next to a school, where they taught about Confucius and all the saints’ teachings. And the child came home behaving like a saint! He had all the manners of a good scholar and the thinking of a saint-very polite, very noble and very saintly. So the mother said, “Wow, this is the place for my child.”

And then, when this child grew old enough, of course, he went to school. He liked going to school. He said, “I like it!” He liked to be like the scholars, so he went to the school. But one day he became fed up with the school for some reason. Probably the teachers had scolded him or his roommate wasn’t nice, or else he was lazy. So he went home and went to sleep, in the middle of his classes. He didn’t want to go to school any more.

The mother used all her logic to persuade him to go back to school that day, but he didn’t. He said he didn’t want to and was very insistent and stubborn. The mother was weaving a piece of silk at that time. After he had been so stubborn, she took a knife and cut across the piece of silk she had woven. And then she asked the child, “Can we use this piece of silk now? Can it be useful?” And the child said, “Of course not! Why did you destroy it? Why did you cut that piece of silk when it was so perfect?” And the mother said, “Well, it is like your education. If you don’t continue, it’s of no use. If you break it in the middle, what is the use of before and after? Something broken in the middle is of no use.”

It’s the same with our practice. We should also continue every day. Otherwise, even though it’s beautiful before and it might be beautiful after, if it’s broken in the middle, it’s not a continuous flow. And we will experience some kind of difficulty or obstacles or uneasiness in our life. We cannot expect things to go smoothly and easily, the way we want, all the time. We must learn to take and to give, to be strong and also to be flexible, when the situation requires. Otherwise, we will have a lot of trouble during our life, and we will never grow up.
If the mother of Meng Tzu had been a very ordinary mother, then today we would never have heard of the name Meng Tzu. He would never have left his name in the history of sainthood. And in China, there are so many people, a vast number of people, with vast lands. To be listed in the names of these vast people and vast lands-as one of the handful of saints-is not easy. To make a name for yourself in China, where there are so many people that you cannot count them all-to make a name distinguished from these masses-it’s not easy! And they have four or five thousand years of history; to be distinguished as one of the few is not common.

But people have forgotten his mother. They don’t know who she was or what she did, only that she cut pieces of silk and moved three times. But her actions were worth more than all the lectures that Meng Tzu ever offered to the public. She is worthy to be a master, a master of all time. She was master of all mothers, of all the masters! If she weren’t a saint and a wise woman, she could have never sacrificed so much in her situation and in her poverty.

Can you imagine what Meng Tzu would have become without such a mother-a brilliant saint who would have been contented with killing animals every day for a living? So you see how saints are made. We can make saints out of stones! I think I will start a manufacturing plant for building saints! We could! Just give them good examples, a good environment and good lectures, and they will become saints.

The Tibetan people train their monks from childhood. Most of the monks learn from childhood. They come into the monastery when they are young, mostly as orphans or poor children whose parents cannot afford to raise them; they get offered completely to the temple and never go back home. So they are trained from childhood, and that’s how they grow up. Even if we don’t say anything about their levels of sainthood, at least their manner and behavior are very sweet.

So everything we were taught in childhood is very important. I guess my grandmother and my father were good teachers for me. My grandmother used to make me read a lot of books to her because she couldn’t read; she was very old. I read her all the philosophical books that were meant only for adults, but she was very fascinated by them. And I loved her; I was always sticking around her, so I was the one who read a lot for her. And I was more fascinated than she was. Sometimes she went to sleep or she was busy, and I would read them all by myself. So I read all the things that a child should not read, like Chuang Tzu, Lao Tzu and all kinds of Chinese and other cultures’ philosophies. In the evening when I slept, I would fly around meeting saints and things like that. And I had all kinds of magical powers in my dreams. Anyhow, I guess that’s what made me become what I am today; it had an influence. In the world today, people teach pregnant mothers to read good books and imagine beautiful faces, or hang beautiful pictures in the bedroom or around the house, just to make a beautiful baby, to plant noble ideas into the fetus. It helps.

Actually, the parents are commissioned by God to teach their children. But most parents do not remember their duty. They love the children but they think of the children also as property, that the children should grow up and make a name and make money for them, to repay them for their kindness. So most of the time, they emphasize more to the children that they have to go to school, they have to learn a craft, or they have to do this and do that. There’s really no moral motive behind it at all, just a monetary motive. This is just most of the time; I don’t mean all families are like this. But the people who are like that teach each other-that you have to spend 10 years or 20 years in education just to get a position, to earn good money, to get a good husband or wife and to be secure in life. This is always emphasized in our society. And then if they have a religious background, they send their children to the priests, and the priests know nothing.

So that’s how we are left alone to struggle for ourselves spiritually in this world. If we are not lucky enough to happen to stumble into a saint or the saintly teaching of a living Master, can you imagine how we carry on with our life? You’re born and you die and you have only one ideal in your head: making money, gaining position, and raising children, like raising ducks, pigs, or any other animals. If we as humans don’t have a higher ideal about life and God, we are just like the animals. But how do you find a teacher who will teach you anything like this? We have been brainwashed for 15 or 20 years in school, just for money! Let’s face it; that’s the only motive. It doesn’t matter how much flour they put around it or pepper and chili on top to cover it, it is all for monetary purposes, nothing else. And not only to earn enough money for a living; sometimes money tricks people into selling their dignity and forgetting all their moral standards.

That’s how the society teaches us, even our family members. Of course, not all families are like that. Thus, we should earn money or have a position to take care of ourselves, but not to the extent of forgetting everything else. That’s why we are very far away from God. If we are near God, it must be a money god, or a banker god!

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 24 – Giving Presents

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Give presents and flowers to your parents, your friends, and your teachers.

By giving presents, you show your gratitude to and your love for those who love you. You give presents not because you want them to love you. Giving presents is the easiest thing you can do to show your gratefulness.

Some people say they love their parents but they don’t do anything for their parents to show their love. You shouldn’t be like that.

Let somebody see your love through what you do for them. Being grateful is how you show your respect and love to people around you.

By Sumitra

Gregory Kloehn is an artist who uses his skills for a really worthy cause – building homes for the homeless. Making use of recycled and reclaimed materials found on the street, he creates small mobile homes, each about the size of a sofa. These homes come with pitched roofs to keep out the rain and wheels at the bottom, for mobility. So far, he’s built about 10 shelters through the ‘Homeless Homes Project’, and hopes to create more in the future.

Although they’re not made of much, the tiny homes are more than enough for someone with no other place to sleep. They are painted in bright colors and have a few quirky elements – like washing machine doors for windows and minivan tops for roofs. Gregory, 43, is a sculptor by profession, but he went on a construction spree after building his five-unit live-work condominium from scratch. Originally from Denver, he now lives in Oakland, California, where he carries out his philanthropic construction project.

“Before, I was all about sculpture, but I realized it just sits there,” he said. “And you’re just peddling it to rich people. I kind of think if you’re putting so much effort into something it would be nice if it did something.” So with his new-found fascination for architecture, Gregory began to study homeless shanties in his neighborhood. He wrote a book called ‘Homeless Architecture’ at the time, admiring how they were able to recycle all day and make homes out of almost nothing.

Homeless-Architecture-Gregory-Kloehn-1Soon he began to build the tiny houses in his studio, but he didn’t realize their potential right away. Things changed when a homeless couple showed up at his door last year, asking for a tarp. He gave them the small wooden structure he was working on, equipped with a water tank, built-in kitchen and a small trap for human waste. The couple was delighted. So Gregory decided to make more such houses and give them away for free. He’s simplified his design over the past year; he can now make a home out of only five pallets.

Homeless-Architecture-Gregory-Kloehn-3The process begins with dumpster diving in an industrial Oakland neighborhood, where illegal waste dumping is rampant. Gregory carefully selects the parts he needs – cargo pallets for a foundation, refrigerator door for the door, and pizza delivery bags for insulation. He then brings all the materials to his studio, where it takes him two to three days to build a home. Unfortunately, not all of his homes have fared well on the streets of West Oakland.

Homeless-Architecture-Gregory-Kloehn-8The home that Gregory gave to the couple was firebombed. Another one of his homes was stolen, and one recipient sold his home for $80. It is now being used as a doghouse. According to city official Karen Boyd, they would need to discuss and decide if these homes present encroachment or other policy issues. Although Gregory doesn’t plan to build the tiny homes for all of Oakland’s homeless, he doesn’t want to stop his project any time soon.

Not all of Gregory’s homes were successful, but they have managed to bring smiles to a few homeless people. Like Wonder, a homeless woman who has her new tiny home parked on the sidewalk next to her old home (a tarp draped over a couch). “This is the best home I’ve had in five years,” she said. Her home is made from a discarded picnic table with pizza bag insulation. “It gets real hot in here,” she added. Many others have given the homes rave reviews as well.

Gregory is currently working on new designs, including a chuck wagon and a geodesic home. He also wants to conduct weekend workshops to teach the craft to others. “A lot of people who hear about what I’m doing want to get involved,” he said. “Maybe we meet someplace and put a couple of homes together.” Gregory is currently accepting donations and volunteers to help his project grow further.

Homeless-Architecture-Gregory-Kloehn-5From  http://www.odditycentral.com

Why Are We Here?

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Spoken by Master Ching Hai,
Auckland, New Zealand April 27, 2000

The Buddhist scriptures say that you are the Buddha and that the Buddha Nature is inside you. The Bible says that God lives within this temple. So who else is in there, except God? If we are the temple and God is the only one who lives in there, who are we then, except God? If we don’t remember, that’s fine, but we are still God.

So whatever we choose to do as the God of all gods that we are, we should respect. As the Father/Mother of all of these beings that we are, we should respect our own wishes and our choice to live and express our divine Selves in whichever way we want.

That’s why Jesus told us that we should not judge people. Because we don’t know the path that another being has chosen to walk. He or she does his/her thing so that she/he might come to know God in a different way. He or she might choose to be a seemingly bad person, a very lowly person or a very so-called immoral person. But that’s his/her way of knowing the divine. By choosing to be ungodly, that person will one day know that’s not him/her. But they have to go back and learn the whole being again. Because if we always stay in Heaven and are Gods all the time, we won’t recognize ourselves as God. So we need to lower ourselves and come down to this physical level so we can once again recognize our own greatness. That’s our choice, and that’s why we came here.

So the answer to our question about why we are here is: Because we want to know God. When we feel the time is up, that’s the time we choose to remember ourselves again. That’s the time we come to seek out spiritual friends, a spiritual group or maybe a spiritual teacher so that we can remember quickly; because we have forgotten how to remember and where to look. So some friend who has already remembered Himself/Herself may be able to help us. And then we recognize that we’re nothing else but the Supreme Being, but God. We recognize the Supreme Being that’s housed within this body.

But actually, He is not housed within the body. He houses our body. But then again, spiritual terminology is never a very exact science. So no matter how much a teacher tells us about God or how eloquently a spiritual friend might speak about the Divine being within us, we cannot understand just by listening. So the spiritual teacher, guide or friend has to show us practically, not just theoretically.

For example, when Jesus came to our planet, He taught His disciples both ways: the theoretical way and the practical way. And that’s why later, His immediate disciples could also do wonders, could also see Heaven, could also hear the Voice of God as the Word of the Creator, could also see the Light of Heaven, could ascend to Heaven and even see the angels or see the Father. The Father spoke to them, like the Father spoke to Moses. And the angels also spoke to them.

Likewise, we can do that. Because as great as Jesus’ disciples were, we are also great. We and Jesus’ disciples are the same because Jesus said to us that we are all children of God. But because we have forgotten sometimes one or two friends have to come to remind us, but only when we are ready. Because if we aren’t ready, no one can do much for us.

Gravitation of love

Gravitation of love is the reason that relationships exist. It is the deepest learning of our soul and the most important lesson in human growth.

Some people often complain why they always attract bad people? In fact, what we should do is to ask ourselves: “Why do I create this reality? What kind of spiritual growth is intended here?

We should treat the people around us as lessons for our growth. They are the motions behind joys of life rather than torturous pain – because of these interpersonal relationships formed by the gravitation of love, these people around us still have lessons of love yet to be completed.

No matter how conflicts and hatred are caused between people, it is within these opposing forces that love and acceptance are released from the heart. We must first confirm the value of our existence and the good intentions of this world. Let true love and unconditional acceptance come from within our hearts. This way, the relationships with our family, friends and colleagues will drastically make positive changes filled with goodwill and respect.

—excerpt from “Mind Energy Resources”

A blind man named Jia Haixia and his friend, a double amputee with no arms named Jia Wenqi, have spent more than 10 years replanting trees to revive the once-barren environment around Yeli Village in northeastern China.

Haixia was born blind in one eye and lost the other in 2000 in a work-related accident. Wenqi lost both of his arms in an accident when he was only 3 years old. Together, they’ve leased 8 acres of land from the government and have begun replanting the land with trees to protect the village from flooding.

Jia Haixia was born blind in one eye and lost the other in a work accident. Together, however, they make an awesome tree-planting team. They wake up at 7 AM to begin their work every day. They don’t have money for saplings so they use tree cuttings. Haixia’s job is to climb trees and get the best cuttings.

blind-man-amputee-plant-trees-china-3blind-man-amputee-plant-trees-china-4blind-man-amputee-plant-trees-china-12blind-man-amputee-plant-trees-china-5blind-man-amputee-plant-trees-china-8from  http://www.boredpanda.com

097874_861ebb5536164d2ebeb5376ca9184105.jpg_srb_p_825_825_75_22_0.50_1.20_0Spoken by Master Ching Hai

What is the Kingdom of God?

It is not the palace that is shining with gold, silver, diamonds, rubies and all kinds of precious stones.

It is the purity, the loving kindness, the compassion, the peace of mind. That is the Kingdom of God. If we carry this Kingdom of God within us, then wherever we go we always feel that we are in heaven. So there is no need to yearn for the life beyond and to shun the opportunities to serve our brothers and sisters here on earth while we are still living. If we have already attained heaven within, whether we live or we die, it is ours. No one can take it away.

But if we do not attain this, then even if we go to heaven, the outer environment of heaven may not even penetrate inside our darkened souls, and we still carry with us hatred, jealousy, bad, negative thinking, within our hearts. Then heaven is just another place in the universe for us, the same as everywhere because we have not changed ourselves.

 

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Nearly everyone gets a headache at some point of life. Headache is one of the most common medical complaints and more than 45 million Americans (about one in six) suffer chronic headaches each year.

Headaches are generally classified by cause: the first category is primary headache and the second category is secondary headache. A primary headache isn’t a symptom of an underlying disease, but is caused by problems with pain-sensitive structures in your head, for example chemical over-activity in your brain, issues with the nerves or blood vessels of the head or even genes that make you more susceptible to develop such headaches. An example of primary headache is migraine. A secondary headache is a symptom of a disease that can stimulate the pain sensitive nerves of the head, for example acute sinus infection, brain tumor, stroke and more.

Headaches can be triggered by a variety of factors, but if you experience chronic or frequent headache, see your doctor as it may be a symptom of an underlying medical condition.

Top Causes of Headache:

1. Alcohol and hangover headache

Most of us are familiar with the old hangover, although the actual cause of it is not known. Yes, it is clear that a hangover follows a heavy night of boozing, but it is not clear whether the pain comes from inflammation or the effect alcohol has on blood vessels. It is also thought that dehydration may be another cause of hangover headaches, along with a late night. There is also cheeky little ingredient found in red wine and other alcoholic drinks, known as tyramine, which could be causing your post-booze headache. Tyramin is also found in aged cheese, including blue cheese, cheddar, Parmesan, and Swiss cheese.

2. Dehydration and skipped meals

If you haven’t drunk enough water, and have skipped a meal, then that could be why your head is hurting so much. Try drinking 8 glasses a day of water, and eat regular balanced meals that combine protein, complex carbohydrate and healthy fat throughout the day to keep your blood sugar level stable. Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, which contain water, along with essential vitamins and fiber that your body needs to stay healthy (and fight off headaches!).

3. Cold-stimulus headache

Surely we’re all familiar with brain freeze – it just sometimes comes with territory of eating a delicious ice cream. But if you can’t stand the sensation of a ‘cold-stimulus headache’, to put it in it’s official term, then simply eat your ice-cream more slowly and take smaller bites/licks. However, I do appreciate that it’s hard to do when the ice-cream tastes so good!

4. Stress

We all put up with stress. Whether it’s dealing with work, school, kids or annoying boss. Stress is indeed associated with headaches. The science behind it is that migraines usually follow a tense situation, as during times of stress the body produces cortisol to help you through the tough time, and then when the cortisol levels reduce, you are more susceptible to a migraine. It is annoying that after you’ve got through a stressful time, you get lumbered with a banging headache!

If your headache is stress related, you can try reducing the stress by experimenting with stress relieving techniques, such as deep breathing, yoga, pilates, meditation, a relaxing massage or a relaxing aromatherapy bath. Aromatherapy and essential oils can help in relieving headaches.

5. Digestive problems

According to Chinese medicine, the head represents the digestive system. That means that all headaches are in some way linked to digestive health. Monitor your digestion after eating certain foods, to see if there are any particular foods that cause you to experience any digestive discomfort, and also a headache.

6. Exercise-induced headache

If you have gone ultra-hard in the gym, then that could be the cause of your headache. Try mixing up your workout with other activities to see if that relieves the pain. Some people find that they just need to warm up longer. While pushing yourself to hard can trigger headache, moderate exercise considers to be a great stress reliever. There are various muscles that can contribute to headache, but the major culprits are the muscles that connect the upper neck to the shoulder blade and the muscles that connect the first two vertebrae to the skull. Walking is a good choice as it increases circulation and helps to relax the neck and shoulder muscles.

7. Food allergies and certain foods

Some migraines and headaches are associated with food allergies or reactions that can be caused by preservatives, artificial colors, flavors, and other additives. Cow’s milk, eggs, wheat, cheese, caffeine and nitrates in processed meats, are known to be the most common culprits. Keep a record of what you eat and try to identify patterns that will help you to avoid the trigger. Then try cutting out the suspicious foods from your diet to see if there is any improvement or consider allergy testing by your doctor.

8. Environmental factors

It is said that there is more than 12,000 substances and pollutants in the environment, which can cause headaches as people become more sensitive to the chemicals in the atmosphere. Mold, smoke, pesticides, plastics, perfumes, deodorizers, chlorine, radioactive fallout, carbon monoxide, or even the toxins from your wall-paint, contain substances that build up toxins in the body an can result in headaches. To help reduce the level of toxins in your environment, place several air filtering plants in your home and office and spend more time in nature.

9. Changes in sleep and lack of sleep

A study showed that those who get 6 hours or less sleep a night, are more prone to headaches than those who get 8 hours. So snuggle up, read a book, count sheep and do whatever it takes to get your must-needed zzz’s! You deserve it!

10. Poor posture

As well as to much exercise, it seems that just sitting down and relaxing can cause a headache. However, it is the case of slouching at your desk that can cause pressure in the head an neck muscles. So sit up, de-hunch your shoulders, and use a chair with lower-back support, (or use a comfy cushion!).

11. Symptoms of disease

As mentioned above, this is also called secondary headache, unlike a primary headache which isn’t a symptom of an underlying disease. There are many diseases and medical conditions that can cause headache. If you experience unusual or persistent headache and you suspect something might be wrong, best to visit your doctor.

12. Hormonal headaches

The reduction of estrogen that occurs just before your period can cause migraines. Other hormonal fluctuations can also trigger headaches during pregnancy, pre-menopause, and during menopause. While some people opt for over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) such as ibuprofen, you can also try some of these natural alternatives for ibuprofen.

13. Excessive medication use

Also called rebound headache. Overuse of pain medication can lead to the development of rebound headaches.

14. Temperature changes

As if there weren’t already enough triggers for headaches/migraines, the weather can also be a culprit! While you can’t control the weather, you can wear sunglasses on a sunny day and make sure you drink lots of water to stay hydrated.

15. Smoking

I suppose it’s no surprise that naughty cigarettes can cause headaches. But be careful folks, even if you don’t smoke yourself, second-hand smoke still contain nicotine, which causes blood vessels in the brain to narrow. So either give-up smoking, or persuade someone whom you spend a lot of time with to pack it in, and then you can be headache free.

The best way to avoid headaches is to identify your trigger or triggers so you are able to prevent the headache before it starts. Try to think about what you eat, physical activity, stressful events or weather changes and if one or several of them cause you a headache. Then try to identify patterns that will help you to avoid this triggers.

PA110038

Try this vegan soup! It is amazing delicious, perfect for a light dinner. I recommend that you use fresh and tasty mushrooms.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: about 50 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients:

8 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
11 oz. (300 g) champignon mushrooms, sliced
Water, about 3 cups (750ml)
Salt, about 2 tsp.
1 lb. (450g) chopped pumpkin
11 oz. (300g) chopped potatoes
2-3 fresh rosemary sprigs
Black pepper to taste

Method:

1.        Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onion and sauté gently. Add the mushrooms and 1 cup (250ml) of water. Season with ½ tsp. salt, cover, and cook until the liquid has reduced and the mushrooms are tender (about 20-30 minutes depending on the type of mushroom).
2.        Meanwhile, in a large pot put together the pumpkin and the potatoes. Add 2 cups (500ml) of water, 1 ½ tsp. salt and rosemary. Cover, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until pumpkin and potatoes are tender. Then, turn off the heat, remove the rosemary sprigs and, with an immersion blender, reduce the mixture to a creamy puree.
3.        At this point, add the mixture of onion and mushrooms to the soup, and serve immediately in individual bowls with a sprinkle of black pepper on top of each servings.

Notes:
·         You can use other kinds of fresh and tasty mushrooms.

from  http://www.anitalianinthekitchen.blogspot.com

Fond but Forgetful

Maser Tells Joke

Bernard was invited to his friend Ruben’s home for dinner. Ruben, the host, made all the arrangements and requested his wife to prepare dinner and make Bernard feel at home. But he always used endearing terms like sweetheart, sugar plum, apple pie, honey pie, honey dew, morning rose, and pumpkin pie to call his wife whenever he requested something or talked to her.

Bernard was very impressed. He said: “Oh, my God, you are really sweet. After all these years of marriage, you still call her all these sweet names. You must have a very happy marriage. I am glad for you.” Ruben said, “Shh, don’t speak so loudly. I began to forget her name three years ago.”

The Astral Bag

Spoken by Master Ching Hai
1988 Taipei, Formosa

In the astral world, there are many empty bags. If we are not careful, after we die, we will fall into one. Once we fall into it, we cannot control it. That’s why we hear of ghosts floating here and there. They cannot stay in one place. They float where the wind blows. If there is no wind, they will stop there. They cannot eat and have no place to live. They cannot talk and cannot just go where they want to; they are not free. It is all because they are caught in this is so-called Astral bag. It is like a kind of plastic bag.

On our Earth planet, there is a kind of hydrogen balloon. It floats in the air and there is a big bucket under it for people to sit in. If we are thrown into that Astral bag, it is the same as being thrown into the bucket in that hydrogen balloon. We cannot find a way to control it. That’s why we say ghosts are very miserable. It is all because while we are still in this world and we still have this opportunity to control it, we don’t control it.

We don’t make use of our precious time in this human world to organize our future life, so when we leave, we are frightened by bad karma (retribution), and we are terrified by other ghosts. We run around with no direction, then we fall into this human body, or we fall into an animal body, or we fall into hell, or we fall into a so-called bag in the Astral world. Then we cannot find a way to control it. Only when we have a human body can we control it. We can decide our future and we can choose where to live. It doesn’t actually happen in the future. Now we can go to other places to live and then go back and forth, back and forth like this. It becomes a habit. Then later on when we leave, we will know where we want to go. Because we are used to going, back and forth already. It is just like this; otherwise after we die, more than half of us will fall into the Astral bag and then float here and there like that. We can live for a few hundred years but it is meaningless and so miserable.

There are many things in this world that are like traps waiting for the floating soul. This is the job of Maya. In Taoism, we refer to the so-called maya, as “yin.” There is “yin,” and there is “yang.” Now we are looking for “yang.” After we pass away, the “yin” has a lot of control. When we are alive, we have yin and yang, we can choose to take yang and not to take yin. After we die, “yang” disappears and we don’t have the choice, we can only have yin. At that time, it will be too late.

Vietnamese Salad Wrap

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Ingredients

  • 2 ounces vermicelli noddles
  • 8 large round rice paper wrappers
  • 1 cup mung bean sprouts
  • 1/2 cup cucumber, cut into thin strips to make 1/2 cup
  • 1 medium carrot, shredded
  • 8 leaves of lettuce
  • 1 red bell pepper, sliced
  • 2 avocados (make 16 slices)

Sauce:

  • 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
  • 3 TB peanut butter
  • 1 oz water
  • Salt to taste

Preparation

Make vermicelli according to package instructions, set aside.
Soften 1 rice paper wrapper by immersing in warm water, carefully remove and place flat on a large plate or cutting board. Be careful not to let the paper fold on itself when removing the wrapper from the water and leave it there for a minute.

Place 1 piece of lettuce in the middle of the wrapper, add 1/8 each of the vermicelli, cucumber, carrots, avocado and sprouts. Roll rice paper as you would a taco, tucking in the sides, it should stick to itself easily. Repeat for the remaining 7 wrappers. Makes 8 rolls.

For the sauce, mix the ingredients and bring it to boil. Stir well.

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 23 – Learn to save money at a young age

When you help your parents out, say, helping your father mow the lawn, he may give you some money in return. You should save it for later use.

Your parents may have a lot of money but you when you grow up, you have to work to earn your own money. You can work for your parents to get paid or find a job outside. Save the money you earn and use it pursue the big goal in your life.

Learn to work and earn money for yourself. Don’t be picky about jobs. You can do little things like mowing the lawn or washing the car for your parents. When you work to earn your own money, you will understand the value of your hard work and also appreciate it when other people work hard.

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by Stephanie Relfe, B.Sc. (Sydney)

I had always wondered, since most people’s health problems are partly owing to being too acidic, if it would be a good idea to take baking soda, since it is so alkaline. Well, it turns out that there is a story to that, whereby simple baking soda and maple syrup cooked gently together were said to stop and even heal cancer.

“There is not a tumor on God’s green earth that cannot be licked with a little baking soda and maple syrup.” That is the astonishing claim of controversial folk healer Jim Kelmun who says that this simple home remedy can stop and reverse the deadly growth of cancers. His loyal patients swear by the man they fondly call Dr. Jim and say he is a miracle worker. “Dr. Jim cured me of lung cancer,” said farmer Ian Roadhouse. “Those other doctors told me that I was a goner and had less than six months to live. But the doc put me on his mixture and in a couple of months the cancer was gone. It did not even show up on the x-rays.”

Dr. Jim discovered this treatment accidentally somewhere in the middle of the last century when he was treating a family plagued by breast cancer. There were five sisters in the family and four of them had died of breast cancer. He asked the remaining sister if there was anything different in her diet and she told him that she was partial to sipping maple syrup and baking soda.

Since then, reported by a newspaper in Ashville, North Carolina, Dr. Jim dispensed this remedy to over 200 people diagnosed with terminal cancer and amazingly he claims of that number 185 lived at least 15 more years and nearly half enjoyed a complete remission of their disease. When combined with other safe and effective treatments like transdermal magnesium therapy, iodine, vitamin C, probiotics and other items like plenty of good sun exposure, pure water and clay treatments we should expect even higher remission rates.

It is important not to use baking soda which has had aluminum added to it. The Cancer Tutor site reports that Arm and Hammer does have aluminum but the company insists that is not true. One can buy a product which specifically states it does not include aluminum or other chemicals. (e.g. Bob’s Red Mill, Aluminum-Free, Baking Soda). Sodium bicarbonate is safe and extremely inexpensive.
Some people believe that this works because the cancer cells love sugar and gobble up the maple syrup, and in the process give a free ride for the baking soda right into the cancer cell. The baking soda is like cyanide to cancer cells, for it hits the cancer cells with a shock wave of alkalinity, which allows much more oxygen into the cancer cells than they can tolerate. Cancer cells cannot survive in the presence of high levels of oxygen.

My husband and I take a teaspoon of this daily, every now and again. The key to heating it is to put it on a super, super low temperature. Once the maple syrup is burned, it tastes TERRIBLE. But if you keep it just warm enough to fizz and mix for five minutes, so the two substances get combined, then it tastes quite pleasant. This sure can’t hurt. 100% pure maple syrup is also very good for you
The nice thing about this remedy, is that you can do it at the same time as anything else you are doing.

RECIPE

Mix 3 parts organic maple syrup with 1 part Aluminum free baking soda ( Red Mill Brand) stir with low heat (not over 120 degrees) for 5-10 minutes and take 3 tsp per day for 1 to 2 months. If it tastes terrible, you burned it, which is easy to do. Change diet to no meat, no milk, no sugar and no white flour!

Vegetarian Wisdom

smcow

Q: Is Vegetarianism Important?

ShantiMayi: Well, important for what or whom? Are you asking, is vegetarianism important for spiritual awakening? Actually there are many spiritual people who are not vegetarians. I have been vegetarian for most of my life. For me, it has been easier to not eat meat. We have a garden in our ashrams (except India), however I have never killed an animal in my life. In our ashrams we eat vegetarian food. It is lighter (satvic) in the body to eat vegetarian. It will make a difference to your entire physical system to omit meat from your diet. But is it important?

This you have to answer for yourself. For the world, it takes more energy and cost to raise cattle than it does to raise vegetables or grain. There are many good reasons for eating a vegetarian diet. Spiritually, it makes sense to eat good foods and organic (biological) food as much as possible. If you are healthy, it supports good health. If you are unhealthy, it supports wellness. A good, healthy body is advantageous for everyone. For spiritual people is it best to care for the wellness of the body, when it is unwell, it becomes a preoccupation. This is not to say the unhealthy people cannot excel in understanding and realization. Good health is simply a hurdle dissolved.

Nothing will benefit health or increase chances of survival of life on Earth as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.
– Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German-born American physicist, Nobel Prize recipient

The fact is that there is enough food in the world for everyone. But tragically, much of the worlds food and land resources are tied up in producing beef and other livestock-food for the well-off, while millions of children and adults suffer from malnutrition and starvations.
– Dr. Walden Bello, executive director of Food First, Institute for Food and Development Policy

I think of veganism humbly and holistically. It’s about taking personal responsibility in a world so full of needless suffering. It’s challenging one’s self to open one’s eyes and question society’s assumptions and habits. It’s about critical thinking and compassion and how we would like to see the world evolve.
– Michael Gregor, M.D., American lecturer & author

All the arguments to prove human superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering, the animals are our equals.
– Peter Singer Australian philosopher & author of Animal Liberation

To avoid causing terror to living beings, let the disciple refrain from eating meat.
– the Buddha (circa 563-483 B.C.), Indian avatar

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men.
– Alice Walker, African-American writer & storyteller

Cows constitute the stay of all creatures. Cows are the refuge of all creatures. Cows are the embodiment of merit. Cows are sacred and blessed and are sanctifiers of all. One should never, in even one’s heart, do an injury to cows. One should, indeed, always confer happiness on them.
– Mahabharata, the great religious epic of India

Within the city of Brahman, which is the body, there is the heart, and within the heart there is a little house. The house has the shape of a lotus, and within it dwells that which is to be sought after, inquired about and realized. What, then, is that which dwells within this house, this lotus of the heart? Even so large as the universe outside is the universe within the heart. Within it are heaven and earth, the sun, the moon, the lightning, and all the stars. Whatever is in the macrocosm is in this microcosm.
– Chhandogya Upanishads, ancient Hindu scripture

http://www.happycow.net

True Offering To God

Master Ching Hai tells story

This is a story of the mental worship. Mental worship means a devotee, a follower don’t use any external object such as flowers, incense, drums, gongs or statues, etc. to worship, or food offering.

You remember Ajuna? The devotee of Lord Krishna recounted in the Bhagavadgita. Ajuna was very fond of doing long and ostentatious external worship of God. He had a spacious worship room lit up with countless lights. He used gold and silver vessels. He spent several hours in ceremony and worship Lord Shiva. He would sit for many hours and throw cart loads of flowers at the image of Lord Shiva. You know Lord Shiva, one of the God in Hindu – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Shiva supposed to be the Lord of destruction. Actually He destroy evil, He doesn’t destroy good person.

There is a brother of Ajuna called Bhima. He never sat to do any worship, he never went to the temple.  He used to close his eyes for a few minutes just before dinner, just a few minutes before dinner, and do mental worship of the Lord. Perhaps he makes offering or recite the five names or something like. Ajuna thought that he was a great devotee of the Lord and that he was highly pious and devoted. He thought that his brother Bhima had no devotion. Therefore, he looked down upon him with contempt. (Laughter)

Lord Krishna found out the attitude of Ajuna and wanted to teach him a good lesson and bring him to his senses. He proposed to Ajuna to take a trip to Mount Kailash, the abode of Lord Shiva.

When they are on their way, they met a man dragging a cart loaded with flower of diverse kinds. Ajuna asked the man where he was taking the flowers to. But the man kept silent as he was very much absorbed in his work, very concentrate. So Lord Krishna said to Ajuna, “Let us follow the man and find out the things for ourselves.” Ajuna agreed and they both followed the man, they saw him empty the cart by the side of a huge heap of flowers which was as big as a hill of Hsihu Center. They further saw several hundreds of carts, all loaded with flowers, approaching the same spot and empty their contents there. There’s a huge mountain of flowers, fresh flowers there.

Ajuna became more and more curious. He could not control his curiosity anymore, so he asked the man, ‘Please tell me where these carts of flowers came from.” None of them bothered to reply. But one man said after repeated questioning from Ajuna, “Venerable sir, kindly do not disturb us. We are too busy with our work. We have no time to talk to anybody. We have brought only seven hundred and fifty carts of flowers and more than seven hundred and fifty more are still in the temple. They are all the flowers with which one Bhima, a son of Pandu, worshipped our Lord yesterday.”

That means these mountain of flowers only half of what they have to carry out, it still half laid somewhere in the temple, and all these flowers came from Bhima, the brother of Ajuna, the lazy one, the one who never went to the temple, never worship the Lord, apparently, and never do anything, never get a flower or incense to the Lord, the one that Ajuna always look down upon as useless, as atheist, as not devoted to God.

“Now, it’s hardly four more hours before his worship today and we must remove all the flowers within that time. Every day he worships, the mountain of flowers come.” So they have to remove everyday there are so much flowers from him, from his worship.

Ajuna was struck with wonder. He asked, “Is it Bhima or Ajuna that you speak of? Are you sure you don’t make mistake, you mean Ajuna, right, Ajuna, not Bhima!? My friends, think, think about it. You’re mistaken. The name is Ajuna, Ajuna, A-J-U-N-A. Must be.” So the man replied, “Poo! Don’t talk about Ajuna. No, no, no! Not at all. It is Bhima, who does such glorious worship with intense devotion, and not his brother Ajuna, who merely makes an outward show of his worship.”

Just then another man came with a basket of flowers, Lord Krishna asked that man, on purpose, not that he doesn’t know, “Ah, my friend, who’s offering are these flowers?” Of course you know the answer. The man said, “They were offered yesterday by an ostentatious man who lives on the earth, his name is Ajuna, (laughter) and he makes a display of his worship without any real love and devotion.” Therefore one basket of flowers and talks so much about it.

Ajuna lowered his head in shame and said to the Lord, “Oh  Krishna, why did you have to bring me here? Let us leave this place at once. You could point it out, my defects, myself conceit, hypocrite and ostentation at home, and save all this trouble and exertion. I do admit that I thought very highly of my worship and devotion. I treated Bhima with contempt. Just now I realized that Bhima’s short meditation with sincere devotion is more valuable than all my showy worship all day long.” Lord Krishna smiled (laughter) and kept silent.

So you know in our place, in our none-temple temple, we don’t bother with flowers and incense, or drums and gongs or anything. We just bother with sincerity and inner devotion. That’s why I tell you concentrate and meditate, no need for outer performance so much, no need to even bow to me or bow to any Buddha. If you saw him inside, saw the Buddha inside, you may bow to the Buddhas if you want to. But the Buddhas do not expect these things. They expect that you are devoted to yourself, so that you can find your Buddha nature and became Buddha or became one with God. Found your own glorious nature and be of help to yourself and many other beings, and that is what the Buddha expects from us.

What we need to change is our concepts and not the outer environment. If this is already the situation for us, then we should be patient and try to live happily. When the time comes, everything will change. Just like winter, it is over in three months, the same with spring and summer. There is nothing that remains the same every day. Look at how our emotions change from day to day; sometimes we are happy, sometimes we are depressed, and there are times when we are half happy and half depressed; sometimes we are irritable, and sometimes we are more at peace, etc.. Therefore, we must learn to be patient. When the time comes, the situation will change on its own. Even the most glorious era fades away when its time is up. When we are the most miserable, it will also change for the better. So, search within and find the happiness in your true Self, and you’ll be fine!

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 22 – Learn to express what you see

Learn the habit of expressing what you see everyday. What color is the shirt that the teacher is wearing today? How do her shoes look? How do your school friends look? Is anyone tall? Is anyone short?

Looking and listening without judgments are two life skills that you need to be able to live a safe, productive, and pleasant life.

Practice looking and listening everyday, and your mind will be clear and bright.

By now, it’s common knowledge that non-organic cow’s milk is one of the worst choices you can buy at the store due to the excess hormones, antibiotics, steroids, pesticides and who knows what else it all contains. The food industry has tried to mislead us into believing that organic cow’s milk (and its products) comes with pure innocence and is made from cows that graze gracefully and happily in fields all day with the cleanest of air, water, fresh grass and more. Regardless that most none of this is true, cow’s milk is still one of the worst health food choices you can make for many reasons, no matter what kind of cows it comes from. The main reason is for how it affects your hormones.

All cows that produce milk are pregnant, organically raised, fed, etc. or not. It makes no difference that their milk doesn’t have added hormones considering that alone, cow’s milk contain over 60 different hormones without anything being added to it. Now, while all of us have different hormone situations going on, there is no logical research that says we need to take in added hormones from another mammal.

Why Ditching Dairy is Important for Your Hormones:

Cows are pregnant nearly 300 days of the year and Harvard Health shares that the more times a cows has been pregnant during that year, the more hormones she produces through her milk every time. Cows were not made to stay pregnant 300 days of the year and they develop infections due to this high demand for production, not to mention may be subject to further disease and bacteria when antibiotics aren’t used (such as in organic farming practices).

So, what about a cow’s hormones so detrimental to our own health?

Here are some things to consider:

  1. Insulin Issues

One of the primary reasons dairy is linked to acne is that it raises insulin in the body. All dairy contains IG1, or insulin-growth factor. It raises our levels of insulin, which causes blood sugar swings that lead to acne. Acne is strongly influenced by hormonal changes, which is one reason so many teenagers struggle during puberty. Why would we put ourselves through that anymore than necessary? No matter what kind of dairy you choose, you’re taking in excess insulin growth like factor. Sadly, it’s promoted as a healthy option for body builders looking to bulk up, but over time, it’s not a healthy choice and will likely cause insulin problems that lead to overeating, sugar cravings, and poor blood sugar control.

  1. Mood Swings

Dairy also contains hormones that can lead to mood swings. Estrogen and testosterone are our sex hormones, and when they get out of balance according to our bodies’ needs, we suffer mood swings as a result. Dairy milk promotes excess estrogen in the body due to it containing estrogen from female cows. At the same time, milk naturally contains androgenic properties, so it raises testosterone in the body and can cause bulking quickly. It’s absolutely chock-full of all these hormones we don’t need scurrying through out bodies. Think about it this way: the dairy you consume contains hormones from the female cow and the male cow that were used during impregnation. That doesn’t sound so healthy or appetizing, now, does it?

Dairy milk accounts for about 80 percent of estrogen consumed through the human diet, along with the fact that milk from pregnant cows (which is how all milk products are produced) contains about 33 times as much estrogen as milk from non-pregnant cows.

Mood swings inarguably happen due to swift hormone fluctuations and women aren’t the only ones to suffer. Men can too, which is one reason dairy isn’t a healthy choice for anyone looking to have a healthier, happy and more stable mood. How about some tastier, much healthier mood foods instead, all hormone-free?

  1. Cancer Causing

The jury is in: milk causes cancer in any form, organic or not. Check this out: Harvard Health studies show that dairy milk and cheese products led to testicular cancer in men ages 20-39 and have been found to affect breast, colon, and prostate cancer heavily as well. And then there’s the casein protein found in milk that has also been linked to cancer. Even without hormones or even lactose, casein is a detrimental protein to our health and should be avoided however possible.

Help Your Hormones: Ditch Dairy

Sadly, the food industry would have you believe you need to consume milk to be healthy, but we know that’s not the case. Quit believing the lies around cow’s milk and have some other calcium-rich options instead, all free of these scary hormones.

http://www.onegreenplanet.org

Hemp Seed Cookies

IMG_1302Ingredient

2 Tbsp coconut oil
1/4 cup applesauce (a little single serving applesauce cup happens to be 1/4 cup!)
1/2 cup stevia (or brown sugar)
1/4 cup chia seed (or 3/4 cup whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup hulled hemp seed
1/2 cup ground flax meal
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 handful each chopped hazelnuts and chocolate chips

Direction

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a cookie sheet. Mix coconut oil, applesauce and stevia together in a small bowl. Mix all remaining dry ingredients (except nuts and chocolate chips) in a large bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry, mix with a spoon. Add chocolate chips and hazelnuts. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls and flatten with the palm of your hand. Bake for 10-12 minutes, let cool on a cooling rack. Makes about 24 cookies depending on how much of the dough you eat.

 

Spoken By  Master Ching Hai, Hsihu Center, Formosa December 30, 1994 (Originally in Chinese)

This is an Indian story. There was a man whose name was Ayah. He was originally a slave, but for some reason, he was later appointed the Prime Minister, and the King liked him very much. Because of this, other officials were jealous of him. They tried many ways to make the King get angry with him, so that he would not be in such an important position any more. But, no matter how hard they tried, it was in vain. The King liked him all the same, even more.

One day, those officials asked the King, “Your Majesty, please tell us why you like this slave so much.” The King replied, “Sure, I have a reason. You will know in time.” About two or three months later, the King summoned all his officials and told them, “My dear officials, I will hide myself in the royal garden tomorrow. You should start searching for me early in the morning and find me before sunset. The one who finds me will be rewarded with a wonderful present.”

Hearing that, the officials were all very happy, and wondered “Ah! What present will the King give us?’ After they went home, they kept on thinking about the present and imagining what kind of present they might get the next day, so they did not sleep a wink. The same night, the King gave orders that the next morning, all of the most beautiful girls, who were experts in singing and dancing, should perform on each of the roads leading to the palace.

The next morning, the officials set off early to search for the King. But, on seeing those beautiful girls singing and dancing on the way to the palace, they could not help being attracted, and were gradually lured away to enjoy the performance. All the officials was thinking, “The road from here to palace’s royal garden is quite near, and it is small. It will just take a few minutes to find the King. No need to be in such a hurry .  I can enjoy the singing and dancing first.”

Being convinced of what they thought, they further indulged themselves in the performance until it was very late, about sunset. After realizing the time, the officials hurried to search for the King, but the sun had dipped below the horizon when they arrived at the royal garden. At that moment, they felt very ashamed and disappointed, since they saw Ayah, that slave, had already been with the King for some time. “Oh, why did you come here so early?” the officials asked, “Didn’t you see people singing and dancing on the road? So beautiful! You didn’t see?” The slave said, “Who was dancing? I didn’t see anyone. In the morning, I came here right from home, and I never saw anyone singing and dancing. The only thing I kept thinking in my heart was how I could quickly find the King. I had been thinking about him since last night, and I could not afford to wait even one minute to search for him.”

Then the King said to the officials, “Now you know why I like Ayah so much. It is because the only one he loves is me. In his eyes, the whole world does not exist. No matter how beautiful a girl might be, no matter how glorious a banquet might be, no one can win his heart. It is just like those who have kindred spirits, they attract each other. He loves me so much that I cannot treat him other than myself. I just cannot help loving him.”

This story is to remind us that we should devote ourselves completely to God, to Buddha without swaying one way or the other. Don’t be tempted and let the worldly attractions lead us astray, away from our destination. Only in this way can we receive the grace of God. If we only think of God and our hearts house only God, then we are one with God. There would be no need to pray to God or to request anything from God, since everything is created by our mind. If we only think of God in our hearts, we become God. Do you understand?(Everyone applauds.)

By master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 21 – Be Grateful

You have to know the right way to be grateful. You should be thankful to your parents or anyone who has brought you up and loved you. Be thankful for everything that you possess.

Parents pay so that you can go to school. Your teachers help you learn in school. Your friends support you. So you have to show your gratitude for your parents, your teachers and your friends.

When your neighbor gives you some corn, you have to say thank you to your neighbor, and to the corn itself because it is something you can eat when you are hungry.

When you have a new pair of shoes, be grateful to the shoemaker who has made something you need for your feet to walk safely, and be grateful to the shoes themselves for supporting your feet.

 You should know that being grateful is a proper manner in Vietnamese culture.

 

Split Pea Soup

Soup is always an easy choice to make in a crockpot. With no added oil, this soup is fat-free and very low-calorie.

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Ingredients
  • 2 cups green split peas
  • 8 cups vegetable broth
  • 2 potatoes, chopped
  • 2 ribs celery, chopped
  • 2 carrots, sliced
  • 1 onion, diced ( or fry chopped onions )
  • 1 tsp chopped garlic
  • 1 tsp dry mustard
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp sage
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • 3 bay leaves
  • brown sugar, salt and pepper to taste
Preparation

Combine all ingredients in a crock pot or slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for at least 4 hours, or until peas are soft.

Remove bay leaves before serving and adjust seasonings to taste.

Modified from http://www.vegetarian.about.com

 

Narrated by Fellow Initiate Wu, Tainan, Taiwan
Recorded by a Resident Disciple, Hsihu, Taiwan

At the early stage of master Ching Hai’s preaching, She always found time to visit prison inmates. Besides comforting and encouraging them spiritually, She also shared with them biscuits and candies. Due to the longing of sentient beings around the world, Master has become increasingly busy, and constantly travels and preaches abroad. Although She no longer has time to visit prisons, Her concern for prisoners persists. She has instructed our fellow initiates to visit them on Her behalf when they have time. Initiates who used to be prisoners have been requested to go along to encourage the inmates with inspiring stories of their own conversions from evil to goodness.

For this reason, brother Wu was also asked to join such a trip. Unexpectedly, when the organizing brother explained the trip’s objective and asked him to present a speech in the prison, he refused abruptly on the spot. He continued to reject later requests as well. His fear was that, after speaking in the prison, he would be laughed at and would lose face in the event that he should decide to join the gangster circle again. He also found many excuses, like being too shy to speak in public , in order to turn down the requests. The organizing brother had no option but to report the situation to Master. In order to help him understand the holy meaning of this work, Master asked someone to relate the following message to him: “This is the last opportunity in your life to do this job. You must seize this chance, and remember your mission. When you go to fulfill your assignment, be humble at heart, and absolutely refrain from being arrogant.”

Upon receiving Master’s instructions, brother Wu dared not refuse anymore. To accomplish the job perfectly, and to avoid stage fright, he practiced frequently before his wife and son who acted as his audience. The response to his speeches was always “It is awful!” After several attempts, he was ashamed to torture his wife and son any longer. He could only wait until midnight when no one was around, and then stealthily go outdoors to practice his speech to the light pole. And whenever he had time, he would meditate at home, praying to Master to bless him and grant him inspiration.

One day, he felt thwarted and complained to his wife, “I don’t think I am going, because until now my practice is still far from satisfactory!” His wife rebuked him, saying, “This is an assignment from Master, how can you refuse to go? I see you are usually very talkative. Why can’t you speak now that you have the opportunity to express yourself?”

Since it was Master’s assignment, he dared not complain any more. Instead, he rushed to meditate and pray for Her help. On the next day, the organizing brother conveyed another message: “Master said that your wife may also give a speech to the female inmates.” Upon hearing this, his wife’s face turned green, and her nervousness was no less intense than brother Wu’s.

Early the next morning, brother Wu and the working members arrived punctually at the Taipei Prison. Cordially, the prison staff led them to the VIP Room for a brief rest; then they split up into two groups and went to the male and female wards respectively. This trip induced very deep emotions in brother Wu. Previously, whenever he went to a prison, he entered as a prisoner. However, this time he came as a VIP lecturer. Events in this world are truly ever changing and unpredictable. On the way, he recalled some fragmented memories of his life in prison, and without being aware of it soon reached the lecture venue.

When brother Wu went onto the stage and began to speak, the inmates stared at him with hostility and indifference. Even the applause sounded mechanical. An indescribably strange atmosphere pervaded the venue, as if invisible forces were oppressing him and making him speechless. Immediately, he prayed for Master’s blessing, and his mind was stabilized. He described his whole life in detail to the inmates: how he had sunk into gangster society, how he had been converted to goodness and pursued spiritual practice, and how he eventually met master Ching Hai.

As time went on, the atmosphere gradually began to change; the inmates started to listen with great interest and attention, and their expressions also became more cordial. When brother Wu concluded his speech, he received warm applause from the whole audience, which seemed to convey their encouragement and recognition. Some inmates took the initiative of helping the work team clear the venue. Several inmates who knew brother Wu even approached and greeted him. One of them rushed forward saying, “Hello, brother boss! I will surely visit you at Suma Ching Hai’s Center when I am released.” Brother Wu delightedly expressed his welcome.

After this first speech in the prison, brother Wu’s blissful feeling could not be described in words. He never imagined this meaningful mission could be accomplished so smoothly and successfully. For him, it was an incredible challenge . Without Master’s admonition, he could not possibly have gathered the courage and strength to rectify his undesirable quality of declining to do good deeds and benefit others. Furthermore, he had conquered his stage fright.

The most precious lesson that brother Wu learned from this was that he could always feel the bliss of being one with Master during such missions, and experience Her selfless and almighty love. For instance, when going to the Tainan Prison to give a speech, he kept shedding tears in the car until he felt embarrassed. He wondered: “I didn’t shed a single tear when being punished severely for many days in the prison before. Why am I behaving like this now? Perhaps it is like Master once said that our soul knows we are now on the right path, so it cries due to extreme bliss!

When brother Wu made a speech at the Jiayi Prison, another initiate observed a strong light bathing him as he was on stage. He looked much younger in the light, and Master’s manifestation body was standing behind him. No wonder brother Wu always feels that, the more work he does that benefits others, the happier and more relaxed he feels both physically and spiritually, and the more his guilt feelings are eliminated. So, it turns out that Master’s manifestation body is always blessing him and cleansing his karma. This story testifies to the truth of Master’s words: “When helping others, we are actually helping ourselves.”

The application for brother Wu to present a speech at the Hsinchu Youth Prison encountered difficulties. The local fellow practitioners had been applying for a long time, without being approved. Once, when brother Wu spoke at the Hualien Low Security Prison, several inmates advised him, “Brother boss, you should pay a visit to the ‘Hsinchu Youth Prison.’ The situation there is very serious. Tell them the story that you told us today; it will surely touch many of them, and lead them back from the wrong path.” This loving request intensified brother Wu’s wish to visit the Hsinchu Youth Prison.

Perhaps sincerity really worked, or perhaps it was Master’s fantastic arrangement operating invisibly in the background. Mr. Ma Ying Jiu, Minister of the Justice Department was inspecting the Swallow’s Nest (Yan Cao) Prison where he coincidentally met brother Wu, who was making a speech there. Minister Ma shook hands with him and encouraged him cordially. Shortly afterwards, the fellow initiates from Hsinchu received permission from the Youth Prison regarding the lecture application. It happened that Minister Ma had personally called the Hsinchu Youth Prison instructing them to invite brother Wu to give a speech. Fortunately, the Formosan Government is very wise and really cares for prisoners, allowing its youth who have gone astray to have the blessing of developing affinity with a living enlightened Master.

A chain of presentations by brother Wu has occurred in prisons throughout the province. As brother Wu is inclined to getting carsick, long distance travel is agonizing for him. The occasional recurrence of his chronic ailments also aggravates his exhaustion. Once when he was traveling to Yilan to make a speech, he was complaining within about being too tired. However, in the car, he heard a brother recalling when Master wandered and preached everywhere in earlier times. For the sake of saving sentient beings, Master camped anywhere necessary, and did not even have a Center in which to stay and preach. Overcome by remorse, tears rolled down his cheeks. Immediately, all the grumblings in his heart disappeared completely.

So far, brother Wu has presented speeches in prisons in Taipei, Taoyuan, Kaohsiung, Swallow’s Nest (Yan Cao), Jiayi, Tainan, Yilan, Hualien, and Green Island (Lu Dao), as well as the Hsinchu Youth Prison. He receives an overwhelming welcome everywhere he goes. After each talk, he always begins to wonder, “Where is the next opportunity for me to redeem my sins?” He truly feels that real happiness can only be found in doing work that serves and benefits others.

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