The True Essence of Our Being

Spoken by master Ching Hai

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.

Why Are We Here?

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.

What is the Kingdom of God?

Spoken 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.

 

Master’s New Year Wishes – part 1

Spoken by  master Ching Hai, Hsihu center, Formosa Jan 29, 1995 (Originally in Chinese)

Many people misunderstand the meaning of the New Year and other festivals. On every grand occasion or New Year, we should spend more effort to reflect and introspect on ourselves, how we can serve the world better, contribute more to our relatives and friends or the country. The occasion is not to be used every time as an excuse for making merry, instead we should refine our coarse behavior and speech. Of course, everyone is aware of this. I just take this opportunity to remind you. You don’t have to listen if you have done so. If you have not done this, or have forgotten to do so, then you ought to be reminded!

I have said everything before. The important thing is that you have to put the teachings into action, then it will be fine. Of course, we should progress in the new year. Instead of getting “older” every year, we should be “stronger” spiritually and wiser. Then, we deserve to be called “elder”, the older the better. For instance, if we did something last year that we or others disliked, then we ought to rectify it in the new year with our best effort! Improve our behavior and speech, becoming more beautiful.

In real life, it is hard to avoid having some moments when we overreact, but do not let this quality cling to us in ordinary times. Do you understand? Of course, it is different when you have to react. For instance, just now you are angry with that person because he made you mad. Or, there are times when we cannot suppress our temper. At those times other people can forgive you. Aware of our wrong behavior later, we should apologize or improve ourselves, then we may be forgiven.

However, we must not let this quality develop to the extent that we are using it even at normal times. This is different from speaking harshly when we are angry. We can find out later. Anyway, this is provoked by the situation, and is different from having a rude personality. It is totally another thing if we are rude even when joking or chatting with people, and irritating them. That is our bad quality. If we observe such a quality in ourselves, improve it and do not let people feel uncomfortable each time they think of us. The bad memory will jump into their mind each time they think of our name. Subsequently, we undermine our friendships, the atmosphere at home and our essential business.

The Master is not telling you to speak in a flattering manner wherever you go, for instance, praising others with words not from your heart, or just doing it to win others’ feelings or to delight them, when we are thinking the other way at heart. We should speak according to our heart. The oneness of outer actions and inner thoughts is “Zen”. Otherwise, we are hypocrites. It is true that we should behave naturally, but politeness and nobleness are also essential. Observing our refined behavior, even the people with no elegance would feel ashamed of their attitude. A New Person In The New Year

The New Year gives us a chance to become a new person. If we did well last year, we should be even better in the new year. If not, then we improve in the new year, the more the better.

Many people misunderstand the meaning of the New Year and other festivals. On every grand occasion or New Year, we should spend more effort to reflect and introspect on ourselves, how we can serve the world better, contribute more to our relatives and friends or the country. The occasion is not to be used every time as an excuse for making merry, instead we should be refining our coarse behavior and speech, right? Of course, everyone is aware of this. I just take this opportunity to remind you. You don’t have to listen if you have done this. If you have not done this, or have forgotten to do so, then you ought to be reminded!

We have to set a good example for the world in every aspect, including the relief missions, spiritual practice, handling friendships and the relationship between Master and disciples. Only when absolutely necessary, then we use stern methods. Is it not better if we can treat each other in a refined and noble manner? The creation of heaven should start from here!

People in high positions in particular, should care more about their qualities. As an official, one should be honest and upright. A government servant must work diligently for the nation, sacrifice for the well-being of her people. Spiritual practitioners or the liaison persons for Master, etc., should also mind the manner and quality in their acts and speech, sacrifice for others instead of enjoying personal comfort. Parents, they should take care of their children of course, make them comfortable, but not spoil them badly. Children, naturally they should be filial and obedient to their parents and elders.

The teachers should fulfill their responsibilities, provide moral and ethical lessons for the students. The basic A, B, C lessons, that everyone can teach, are not enough. The greatest responsibility of a teacher is to teach the children about ethics, the superior qualities. This also applies to the parents. Just feeding and dressing the children are not enough. If everyone fulfills their responsibilities – the parents protect their children well, the children are filial – the world would be in great peace, beginning with the family. Then, all the natural disasters and war calamities would diminish.

The Trap Of Success

Master Tells Story

Once, there was a king who came from the country Hsi-li and he went to war with another country. Every day he noticed one particular army soldier who was very courageous. He was very enthusiastic in fighting at any moment, and was basically not afraid of death, volunteering to go to the most dangerous places. Any place that no one dared to go, he would go and this won the king’s great admiration.

So, one day the king summoned him in order to reward him. When the king saw him, he felt very strange and wondered why this soldier was so skinny, his face was so green, the skin was not good and his body was very weak. The king was very surprised and asked, “Why you have become like this?” Then the soldier told the king, “I have an incurable disease, so my health is not good.” The king pitied for him and ordered his personal doctor to take care of him daily until his illness was cured. He was brought the best medicine and the highest quality food for his consumption because he was the national hero, a very courageous person, and needed to be taken very good care of. Of course the king’s doctor also admired him very much and took very good care of him. Money was no problem because he was the national hero and also it was the command of the king.

After a while, this person recovered and became very strong, and healthy looking. Everything was fine, he was totally cured. But at that moment, he lost his courage completely. Now he dared not go anywhere, dared not rush to dangerous places, he always hid in the back, his courage was all gone. The king was very disappointed and also felt strange. He summoned the person over and asked, “Why you were so courageous before but now after I have taken good care of you, have fed you well, have cured your illness, you have betrayed my grace, not sacrificing yourself for the country like before? Also, you hide and refuse to fight in battle. Why? We have all been so nice to you, have trusted you so much yet you have betrayed our good intention and have betrayed our trust in you. Why?”

The soldier told the king honestly, “It is because you have treated me so nice that I have become this way.” The king said with surprise, “Why is it that because we are too nice to you that you have become this way?” He said, “Because you have been so nice to me, have cured my illness, have fed my body well and made it beautiful that I have now become very greedy for life and dare not die.” He was near death before, thus death was nothing. The pain of the illness made him uncomfortable so maybe death was better. Therefore, he had charged forward in the battlefield not because of courage. Now because he had a good and strong body, he became greedy for life and dared not sacrifice his life anymore.

Sometimes it is the same with our practice. If we have met with difficulties or undesirable situations, we would practice with all our devotion. But after being too rich, too free, too comfortable, perhaps we would become somewhat lacking in diligence. Thus, Shakyamuni Buddha also said, “Rich people, people with money or with high position, will find it difficult to practice! If a certain person who has a high position, with a very comfortable life and with a lot of money and lives a very smooth life still likes to practice, we should know that he is a Bodhisattva coming to this world to help the beings.” How much he helps would depend more or less on his mission.

Then Jesus Christ also said, “It would be very difficult for the rich to go to Heaven! It would be as difficult as a camel passing through the needle hole.” Because we are too comfortable, too happy, we would drowning there in enjoyment of the happy, comfortable and rich conditions, then we would not think anything about practice.

The ordinary people would practice because of having a little pain and thus would think of liberation. That is the reason why it is no good if life is too comfortable. Sometimes a person in a high position would become proud if he was too successful. So, sometimes it is all right if we have a little of nonsuccess! Of course we have to do things successfully, but we still have to know the trap of success.

Persistent Optimism In Adversity

Spoken by Master Ching Hai

Since ancient times, all great spiritual practitioners, great kings, and great men have succeeded through perseverance. They did not succeed in an instant. Therefore, when we encounter difficulties, we ought to thank the Creator, God Almighty for giving us the opportunity to discipline our patience.

No matter what situation we are in, we must look on the bright side. Look at the optimistic side. Don’t pick on the little things. We should turn the undesirable situation into one that will benefit us.

Even though we live in a place where there is no freedom, but if our hearts are filled with happiness and satisfaction, obtaining the inner source of happiness, then we are truly free.

There is a kind of freedom, which, once we have obtained, no one can tempt away from us nor can anyone destroy it. This kind of spiritual freedom can only be achieved by spiritual practitioners. Once we have this kind of freedom, even if our bodies are confined or tortured, our spirits will not be affected.

Nothing is truly difficult. It depends on whether we want to change ourselves, to recognize honestly which are the good qualities in us and which are deceiving and harmful to us. We have to be honest with ourselves because no one can tell us. Even though we know, but if we are too stubborn or too lazy to change, or too concerned about our image to admit and correct the fault, then it will bring a lot of trouble.

It is enough for us if everything we do is from inside and we know our own nature and standpoint. We should not imitate others.

Every time we extend loving kindness, tolerance and understanding to others, at that time we create heaven.

The World Is The Best School For Practicing

Spoken by Master Ching Hai

Q. Master, when I meditate, I cannot keep my mind concentrate at here (between eyebrows). It runs all over the place and it talks about all kinds of different subjects. How do I concentrate and meditate better?

M. Some people can concentrate right away; some people take a longer time. I have mentioned previously in the lecture. Also forgive yourself. The situation in this world is not conducive to our tranquil meditation and calm thinking, but try again and again. In this world, we have an advantage, that because this world is so difficult for us to practice, God’s blessing is with us many folds. So we walk one step and the Master Power will walk a hundred steps to help us.

If we are in Heaven and practice, it’s not that lucrative. Therefore in Heaven if you want to practice, it takes a longer time. For example, here we practice one day it is equal to one hundred days in Heaven. That’s why many divas, heavenly beings, they like to be incarnated into human bodies, in order to practice faster. It’s because here we have all kinds of rubbing force, like karma and situation and disaster and war and suffering and happiness, all these mixing. It’s a kind of a high degree fire to forge us. These fires will forge us into a strong, useful tool for ourselves and for the world.

While we are practicing here, we have also the opportunity to help our fellow beings and, therefore, we gain more merit as well. For example, you meditate alone at your home, so you have only one personal merit. But, if you, through your effort or through your eloquence, you offer your place, for example, for a hundred persons to meditate, then you have a hundred more merit to add up to your personal merit. So you have a hundred times more quicker, you understand what I mean? Or you get another hundred persons to come in to get initiation, these merits are also yours. Because after all we are one, the more we connected with more people, the more expand we become and the greater we become, in terms of merit. Mathematical wise speaking, it is like that.

So it is better than in Heaven. In Heaven everybody is having a good time and so they take it easy. They don’t have the motivation behind them to push them to concentrate. That is why I say when you are in deep sorrow or when you are despair you pray better, and sometimes you meditate even better. At that time you remember God more; And then you get better experience that day, bigger light, stronger sound or feel more elated, more near to God. So it is good to practice in this world even though it is difficult.

I am happy that many of our fellow initiates practice very diligently. Some come to the center just to look around but later… Well, they don’t look around that long because everybody closes their eyes. So they feel embarrassed after sometime and they also close their eyes, and then they see something inside, instead of looking at pretty girls outside. So there is a very good advantage of having a temple or having a center, where people come together and do the same thing, concentrate and thinking of God; that helps very much. So you take your time. You can look around for a while, and then when you are fed up with it, you close your eyes and meditate with all the people. Okay?

The mind is always having trouble to be controlled; that’s why we have to practice every day. Otherwise, I would tell you, “Get initiation and you are the Buddha.” No more work! Right? It is because our habit is long term. It has been many thousands of years of time, maybe more! So to take one lifetime to clear all these is hard work, but it’s worth it. Or you want to stay here a thousand more years to continue to do that? Well, it’s fun! So that is why I tell you to have to meditate longer time, two and half hours or three hours, because the first twenty minutes is struggling. Just go on, go on with it and after about twenty minutes, it begins to settle down. After half an hour, you begin to enjoy, and forty minutes, you are gone! (Laughter)

Love for All Beings Begins with Vegetarianism

Spoken by Master Ching Hai
December 4, 1993
Portland, Oregon

It is good not to eat fish or meat. Actually, if we can love a dog, why not love a cow or pig; because they are the same. [Applause] This is one of the reasons why we should be vegetarian – love for all beings, extending love. Enlarge our love, enlarge ourselves, to the whole universe. We shouldn’t even cut the flowers or eat vegetables, but still we have to do what’s minimum, what’s less suffering. The flowers when we cut them, they can sprout again and make more flowers. Vegetables when we cut a branch, they can sprout a few more branches. So, it’s not that bad.

Even though all beings have feelings, plants have the least feelings, because ninety percent of the constitution of vegetables is water. That’s why they have less consciousness than animals or human beings. We human beings are a combination of many things, and that gives a good environment for intelligence to activate. For example, even though you are very intelligent, you need a good computer in order to program some intelligent things – some distinguished program.

Similarly, God Power needs this body which is a composition of different elements, in order to manifest inside into the outer world. That’s why we have more feelings, more intelligence, because God Power can make use of many of the tiny instruments within ourselves in order to spread out the blessing, the message and the intelligence. In that plant, God Power cannot do that, because there are not enough instruments. That’s all.

Just like the bulb here. If the electric bulb is a 100-watt, then its electricity can be brighter than in a 20-watt. If we damage the 100-watt bulb, it is more expensive, more of a waste than a 20-watt bulb. This is why we try to economize. This is why we should eat the least conscious thing possible, like vegetables. Is that logical to you? [Audience: Yes]

I don’t try to push you into guilt or things like that, but we discuss the possibilities of why and how. That’s why to kill a human being is the most terrible crime, to kill animals is second to it, and a plant is not much. They can grow again, even from the root. But the animal, even if you cut only half of its head, it won’t grow again. Therefore, we have to believe things when they’re logical; not because it’s the guilt-inflicting theory or because we have to do that because some of the teachers say so or some of the religions say so.

I do not feel that we are unintelligent beings, that we could swallow anything, especially the Americans. They are no-nonsense folks. They don’t just “eat” anything. So, we have to tell them whatever is logical. Even if people do not accept it today, they can think about it later.

Sometimes I believe also, that during the course of my speaking, sometimes it’s too fast – you sometimes listen to one sentence and you miss the next, and also it’s difficult. So, if you want to listen again, you can get the tape. All the tapes we sell are without profit, because we don’t believe in selling God for profit. We make profit other ways, by mundane talents like dress designing, lamp producing, painting pictures. All these things we are allowed to make. It’s our mundane talents, so we get the mundane profit; but not to sell God for profit. We don’t even collect money, get a member’s fee, or anything to do with God’s teachings; because it’s all free for every of His children. It was free for me. It will be free for everyone, as long as I can afford it. If I cannot afford, then I stop.

Now, can you see why we are God? God Power is omnipresent, is all-pervading everywhere; and we are just one of the beholders. Just like my swimming pool – the water came from the nearby stream, led in by a pipe, and we have a hole underneath or on top so that it will flow out again into the river without stopping a portion of the water. the water in the pool, even though it’s surrounded by stones and cement, is still water from the river and is connected in some other way.

If our swimming pool is blocked from connecting with the spring for some reason, then we have to unblock it. Maybe the pipe is blocked, the pipe is damaged, or the hole is blocked; so we have to unblock it. Enlightenment is the unblocking of our obscurity to our own nature, to the God connections within ourselves, and to the whole Power of the universe.

Changing Ourselves Changes the World

Spoken by Master Ching Hai
December 4, 1993
Portland, Oregon

We are stepping into the Golden Age, so we have to change. We have to leave behind all these old useless conceptions of how a Saint should be; or we should leave behind the dark thinking, the negative expectation of the world and ourselves. Do something!

We start from ourselves – we clean our house. If our house looks filthy, we clean it first. If there’s anything we don’t like about ourselves, change it! Replace it with more positive, more virtuous qualities. For example, before, when we saw any homeless person we didn’t bother about him. He could stand there on the highway for hours under the sun, wanting to work for food. You’d say, “Oh! No! I cannot take a stranger into my house. That’s dangerous!”

Yes, but we could give him food. We don’t need to ask anything from him. Then sometimes we pass by a homeless person, we feel nothing. We don’t want to help because of our slow reaction, habits, so we don’t help him. When we get home, we feel something is wrong, “I should have helped.” But then we cover it up quickly, “No!” and watch television or do other things.

We don’t want to listen to our conscience, that’s why the world will never get better. If it is the case, whatever we think makes the world better, at least a more comfortable place for ourselves and neighbors, we can share. Begin with sharing, then we will feel a subtle change in ourselves, more love will pour into our consciousness. We will be aware of something that is the beginning.

That’s why the five precepts are just a suggestion that we should change some of the corners of our lives which we do not like. It’s not that we should feel so guilty or blame ourselves, should we fail some of it. But it is a goal so that we go forward. For example, we try to be more loving instead of violent or angry; be more giving instead of trying to take; we should be more faithful to our partner instead of having another mistress, or it could be mister. [everyone laugh]

You always blame the man, I don’t know why. There are women also, who want to play Madam Butterfly [Laughter], flying from one “flower” to the next. There are two kinds of “flowers” – male and female flowers. You know that! These brighten our world more and create a calmer atmosphere around us so that makes us better. That is all good, also a kind of meditation.

We meditate anytime anyhow in our lives. We just meditate mostly on the wrong things. So now, we just use that meditation Power, switch to the right thing, that’s all. When we think too much about how to make money at the expense of others, that is also meditation; we meditate on money. [everyone laugh] We use all our concentration power, or our mighty thinking power in order to get that piece of paper, and on that piece of paper is printed “In God we trust.” [Master and everyone laugh] Isn’t that paradoxical?

Our God is money sometimes! You see, “In God we trust” means we have to know God. If we don’t know God, how could we trust? It’s very easy to say, “In God we trust,” but how? Who is He? What does He look like? What did He do for me? What will He do for me that I have to trust Him? So, we must know that is what enlightenment offers. We have to be enlightened in order to know what God is, who He is, and what does He do to help us every day in all details of our activities. That is the thing we know after enlightenment. We know more and more.

If we did know God before, in some of the blessed incidents, then we’d know Him more and more everyday through a meditative attitude, through a very scientific way of maintaining our enlightened awareness. If we are enlightened once or twice, we still feel not yet there. If someone is hungry for a long time now, and you give him just a little bit of water and bread, will he be satisfied? Of course not.

If you want to learn free meditation method from Master Ching Hai. Please visit  http://www.Godsdirectcontact.org

The Best Way To Worship God

Spoken by Master Ching Hai

The Quan Yin Method (free mediation method from master Ching Hai) is for you to realize that God is you, the way you make Him.  God can be as low as a worm, if you are that.  If you don’t raise yourselves higher than the worm’s level then God will forever stay as a worm. If you raise yourselves higher, the higher your God is, the higher God is glorified. So glorify God by your own power of meditation and realization. That’s the best prayer. That’s the best glorification for God, the most significant prayer and the most significant job that you could ever do for God.   If we say we worship God, Buddha, Allah or whoever you say, and we remain in ignorance, then we truly despite God; we truly disgrace God and Buddha.

Therefore, Buddha said, “If you believe in Buddha, but do not understand Buddha, you disgraced Buddha.” That is the truth. How do you disgrace Buddha? By remaining in ignorance and letting others see that you are an ignorant God, that you have no belief in God anymore, because God is ignorant due to your own ignorant thinking and view point. You think God is like that: “I pray to Him, but He doesn’t hear. I am crawling here, but He doesn’t see.” It is not God who does not see. It is you who does not know that God sees, and who does not directly receive God’s blessing, because you build a lot of obstacles around yourself. You, yourself, deny the benefit and the blessing from God, because you think, from a conditioned mind, from many generations, that you’re not worthy; that you’re wrong; that you are ignorant; that you do all the wrong things against your God’s nature.

Therefore, even now, when you pray, this kind of thinking subconsciously prevents you from knowing you are God, knowing the benefit of God. Then you think God is only that. God is only for you to pray to, to complain to and to demand from, but it is not so. Every God is truly different. Depending on how you think and on your level, God is different. Not that there are so many Gods, but our point of view differ, so God differs. Do you understand now why we must understand and realize God in order to say that we truly worship God? (Applause) Therefore, what the Buddha said is not wrong.  If you don’t understand Buddha, don’t just blindly believe in Buddha or you’ll disgrace Buddha.

The Heavenly Grace of Noble and Selfless Motive

By Master Ching Hai

Every time you think nobly and you act nobly or selflessly, the results are always fantastic, visibly and invisibly. And it affects the whole world, not just that person that you did a favor for, or not just yourself or your family or your five generations. It affects the world and even the universe, depending on how big your action or how grand your noble thoughts are.

It always works because when you’re thinking nobly or acting selflessly, you are one with Heaven. And then you’re adding more power to Heaven to overcome the negative power in this world. So, that’s why you and Heaven are connected, and it’s like teamwork. It’s teamwork because Heaven is invisible and you are visible. The invisible and the visible connect together: It’s very strong. The negative power is also invisible, but it has equipment here which is visible through the people who work for negative power or think negatively. So, if the world is full of these negative instruments and connected with negative power, then of course, it’s bound for doom and trouble.

Use God’s Love and Power for the Best

Spoken by Master Ching Hai
December 4, 1993
Portland, Oregon, USA

 

There shouldn’t be any Master; there shouldn’t be teachers; there should be only spiritual friends, spiritual brothers and sisters; because we inherited the same portions of great wisdom from God. There is no difference between any Master and any of the audience who sits here, and no difference between him and any child or any older citizen; because we all have the same portion of Love and Power within ourselves. If we don’t use it, it’s the greatest waste on Earth. It doesn’t matter how much we recycle materials, we still waste. The greatest waste is that we don’t know we have wisdom, we don’t know we have God’s Power we forgot that we are the children of God.

It’s okay, you say you know it already, you read the Bible everyone knows they are the children of God. But, what makes the difference whether you know that or you don’t know that? Because you are just the same as yesterday, you don’t truly know. You only intellectually heard about it and that makes the difference.

If anything I said today makes sense to you, it is because I recognize this wisdom within myself and I know you have that within yourselves. It’s just you don’t want to use it. You reject it, you deny it, or you feel too inferior about yourself. We didn’t do anything that wrong. If you did or if we did, it was because we did not know. Now it’s time to know what is the righteous thing to do, so we can change very quickly.

How much time do we spend every day in order to take care of this body? We know it won’t last long, but still it’s necessary to take care of it. Now, if we don’t take care of our real body, then we are in even more trouble.

Most of the suffering in this world is due to ignorance of the greatness of our position. No other reason! Because we’re ignorant of it, we identify ourselves with the habits that we learned from maybe TV as a youngster, or maybe from neighbors, from books. We do many things that our conscience within us tells us that this is not correct, but we still do it because many people do it. Then we run into many problems.

Sometimes, we know we shouldn’t take drugs, for example; but we feel empty within ourselves, we feel frustrated. Sometimes we have talents we don’t know how to use them, or where to use them. Society sometimes rejects us for some prejudices, race problems or our appearances don’t please them. So, we fill this void with all kinds of cheap substitutes which, in the long run, ruin us mentally, physically and spiritually. It is because we do not know that we are great, or how to make use of our greatness.

I’m not here to collect your money, tell you what to do, or make you into any condition that is difficult for you. I just want to help you find your great wisdom, your greatest ability again, in order for you to better your life. Because when you better your life, I better my life, too; and my children my friends’ children, my sisters’ and brothers’ children. We have a better and better environment to live in because we are all connected with each other.

Suppose you don’t keep America clean and safe. Could I sit here and talk to you? So, we owe each other everything. I cannot say that I come to teach you anything. We came from the supreme Source before we descended into this physical body and we’ll go back to the supreme Source when our time comes. There is no denying our supreme status. If you don’t want to acknowledge it because you are humble, or because you feel you are not up to it, it’s up to you. But I don’t want to deny my status because I know. There’s nothing arrogant about it. It’s just admitting you are, without any pride, without any fuss, without false humility; because false humility is also false, it’s not true.

We should be true, beautiful and virtuous in spirit, speech and actions. That is a perfect human being. Even if we don’t want to follow this method of immediate enlightenment, we can try other things; at least to think, so that we can focus back again within ourselves, to remember who we are, and to truly understand the sentence that, We are the children of God, or for Buddhist, We all have Buddha Nature within ourselves. That means we are equal to the Buddha, instead of worshiping the Buddha.

We should worship in the right way – to recognize ourselves so that the Buddha (enlightened Master) has less work to do. If we truly want to worship a Buddha or any Saint, we should become one; so that they have less burdens, less worry and one more companion to uplift humankind. That’s why some people don’t like it when I say, “Don’t worship the Buddha. “Be one!” And I can show you how to be one. Not by sculpturing or carving, but by pointing into your own Buddha qualities; and you have to recognize them day by day until you’re fully convinced that you are Buddha. That is the time when you are equal to all the Buddhas (enlightened beings) in the ten directions and three periods of time – past, present and future.

Make Our World into Heaven

By Master Ching Hai
Dec 4, 1993
Portland, Oregon, USA

We must make our world into heaven, not run to heaven; because everywhere is heaven. God created only heaven, until we messed about with our computer-brains – kaput one; I mean damaged, or not very in order. Enlightenment is the way to put ourselves back in order. It’s not a kind of far-fetched heavenly mythology the way we think, but it is just daily experiences of our great resource of love and wisdom which God bestowed upon us before we arrived in this physical dimension. If we think that heaven is somewhere high above the clouds, then we are in trouble; because we have to wait at least sixty or a hundred years in order to go there. With suffering and all kinds of misery in this world, we don’t have to do that.

Life is meant to be joyful for the children of the Most High. If you are the children of the king or the president, now you go to school, how do you feel? You have guards, you have a special Rolls Royce, you have all kinds of privileges, even all the school looks upon you with reverence, love, admiration, envy and many things. You feel you know your status.

In the Bible, it is stated that, we are children of God, and He is king of all kings. Now, we live in this kind of life and we worry about pennies, everything frightens us into losing our sense of dignity and even begging for life. We’d do anything just to be alive, just to keep this physical body functioning. This is not a life of dignity. This is not the life of the children of God, if we truly understand what God means. God is the owner of the whole universe and we are the children. Can you believe it?

Just talking about it and never knowing it, is not the way of enlightenment. And we think we are okay! As long as there is one person suffering in this world, as long as there is still war and famine going on in our neighborhood, we are not okay; because we share the responsibilities of this “house” that we live in. It is a big family, extended, because we can’t live together in one room and we don’t have to. We need variety. We need different talents in order to make the world colorful and interesting. That’s what God wants us to do.

We have so much talent, each one should contribute something. Even with all our talents we can’t contribute as much as we’d want or we cannot be as useful as we’d like to be; because we are not yet okay. We lack something. We lack the true wisdom, the true love which lays sleeping within each of us.

For Little Angels – Lesson 1

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

FOR ANGELS TO ASPIRE TO THE GREATEST HEIGHTS

The key to open the treasure created by your light of seeing

You are born with two unlimited abilities that will be with you your entire life: the ability to see and understand and the ability to love. You need to be aware that you have these two abilities. The way to get the most out of these abilities is to remember them and use them all your life.

In this lesson, I will show you how to use the ability to see and understand to get focused again when you are studying and thoughts pop up in your mind, making you distracted. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Notice that you are thinking. You have to know that you are losing attention because of some thoughts in your mind

Thoughts that come to your mind and you cannot control are the root of all troubles for everyone in the world. Uncontrolled thoughts cause you to pay less attention to what you are doing. When you are not attentive, you cannot see things as they truly are. If you don’t see clearly, you can’t act correctly. Understanding this harmful side of thinking is important to removing unwanted thoughts. Putting your thinking under control is impossible without this understanding.

2. Stop your work for a while

3. Recall and look at your thoughts

Try to remember what thoughts have made you unfocused. When you are able to see the thoughts, start to observe it. When you look at a thought in your mind, you will see it is like a video that records things that happened a few moments before. The video tells a story. Looking at it, you see the scenes, the people, the time and place of the events. This movie has been made out of your imagination and you are the main character of the movie.

4. Watch the movie but don’t judge it

When you watch the movie, try not to have any ideas about it. There are two reasons why you shouldn’t do that. First, if you think the movie is lame or interesting, the scenes in the movie will get you emotional. You may fear of something or hope for something. Either fears or hopes are not good for the health of your body and your mind. Second, if you judge the movie you are watching, it will take you to another movie. This way one movie will come after another and you just cannot stop it. That’s why you shouldn’t judge. Only watch it. Also, you shouldn’t believe what is happening in the movie in your mind is real.

If you believe it is real, you can’t improve the power of your brain. Your ability to see and understand will be limited. Your love will not grow. Your limited intelligence, visions, and love will make you feel unconfident. And it will be hard for you to avoid risks in your life.

4. Shift your focus of attention

Shift your attention from the movie in your head to something outside of your head. Instead of sitting and thinking, you can play with your little brother or sister, or play with your pet.

5. Go back to your work

After you have shifted your attention, you can get concentrated again. Now it’s time to go back to what you were doing. Full attention is perfect for studying. You can learn the most in the shortest period of time if you are concentrated. When you are paying attention, your ability to see and understand is at its best. When this happens, you can work for a long time without feeling tired.

The five steps above together are the key for you to increase your span of attention and cut off thoughts that “pop” into your mind. You have to remember and use this key as much as possible. The more you use it, the more clearly and precisely you can see and understand. If you can manage to follow the five steps all the time, you will raise your intelligence beyond what you can imagine.

The Perfect Beings from Heaven – part 4

We have to help also with social work. Whatever we can do to help lessen the suffering that is the noblest work which will not only be recognized in this world, but also praised by heaven. That’s why when you give someone who needs it, needs the love or needs some material comfort, at that time you are one with heaven. You’re doing heavenly work. You’re doing the correct work and you’re truly representing heaven in doing all this charitable work.
Maybe these people also are spiritual beings. They have sacrificed themselves, they were born poor so that you could learn the lesson of love. That’s why all the Masters from ancient times advise us that when we give something, we do good to someone, we should not be proud. We might feel good, okay; but we should be thankful that we have had the opportunity to do it.
There was a very famous book published recently in America, in which a person who died, went to heaven and she was shown many different functions of the human beings in this world. In one of the things she was shown was a man – dirty, drunken, old and lonely – who was kind of sleeping in the corner of the street. The heavenly being asked her if she knew who he was. From heaven, she looked down, she said, “Why, it’s a drunken, stupid man.” Because he really looked drunk, stupid, ugly, dirty, filthy, old and worthless.
The heavenly beings revealed to her his real identity after that. Then she knew that this person was a very great heavenly being, respected by all heaven. He was sacrificing his time on the Earth existence to help his friend. His friend was a lawyer, about a block away on the same street. The lawyer was always doing some good work for poor people and for the injustices in the country. But every time he saw this drunken man, he was determined to do more. Otherwise he would forget or slacken in his efforts.
But both of them had forgotten their promise with each other, to help each other, before they came to Earth. They were good friends in heaven and that’s how they helped each other. Of course the lawyer will get all the glory and credit, and the drunk gets all the cursing and all the despising from the people. Knowing and not knowing both of them are doing their jobs very well until the time comes, then they will go back to heaven. Being a drunk man just laying there, just always reminding his friend to try to fight for the poor, for the desperate people, the homeless and the like…

The Perfect Beings from Heaven – part 3

The most important in this world, regardless whatever our mission, is love one another, love each other. If we do not do that, then we lack a lot of things. Whatever job we do, we have to do it wholeheartedly. Moreover we still have to help our fellow beings in whatever way we can, make them happy, make them feel loved. Whenever the situation needs, we have to show our love; and we have to show some actins, speech and thoughts always in loving kindness. That’s the best for our spiritual growth and best for our fellow beings.

Many children if they didn’t have enough love from the parents or family when they were very young, they grow up not very loving persons. Sometimes become very bad persons. Then that in turn will affect other people that they contact. So the reactions, the influences are very big, not only personal. Sometimes, we see a group or families, their personalities are very similar, the whole family; or a group or a tribe, they have their own character and personality; or larger, a nation, they have their own character, whether they are very loving or they are very fierce.

Of course, there are always good and bad persons in any group. But, the outstanding major characteristic is sometimes very distinguishable from one group to another or from one country to the next. Sometimes when you meet one or two persons in a country, if that one or two persons don’t treat you nicely or something bad happens between you, then you will always have a bad impression about the whole country. If that experience keeps repeating too many times, then you will think that the whole country is no good; you can never change your attitude, never change your bad impression towards that country. But if you meet one or two nice persons, then a few more nice persons in that country, it doesn’t matter what happened, you still tend to think that country is nice or the people of that country are nice.

That happens also for religious things. Sometimes in the group only a few persons do something wrong or cause misunderstandings, then the whole group is affected by this and are being persecuted for the things a few people did. So actually we have to be careful how we act in everyday life because it’s not we alone that get the full scale of responsibility of what we do, what we say, or what we think; but we might affect other people.

Actually our thinking is very important. We should take care that our thinking is always good. It’s better, because thinking is the material for the physical appearance of all things in this universe. If it’s too strong it will materialize right away. If it’s not strong enough it takes some time to materialize. If it takes too long we forget it. We think it happened alone, it had nothing to do with our thinking; but actually it was from our thinking that it happened. That’s what is meant by karma – As you sow, so shall you reap.

Be careful that our thinking is always pure, because many people can read our minds even. Most of the time people are protected from other people, so they don’t know who is thinking what; it’s better for them. But sometimes some people have this ability to read our minds, and the heavenly beings can read our minds. We are an open book to the whole universe, so be careful. Whenever we think something bad, better cut it out right away. Otherwise very embarrassing.

Also because of our thoughts, we create good atmosphere or bad atmosphere for this world and the next. If our thoughts are very strong, then one individual’s thinking can make things happen, can make things good or bad happen. If not too strong, then a group of people who think the same thing will make things happen.

That’s why we see, as mentioned before, sometimes a group of people or a tribe of people have very similar traits or personalities, have similar things that happened to them, or similar things that happened to their country. That’s collective karma, because the same minds attract the same things. That’s why in our practice we are advised to keep our body, speech and actions pure; so we can keep at first our personal atmosphere pure; and we can create also a pure atmosphere for the world in which we live, for heaven, for the universe also.

The more people practicing like this, the purer the world will become, or at least it’s balanced, it’s not too bad that no one can breathe and no one can stay inside. That’s how we can fulfill our mission on Earth to bless this world. So do you see how important it is to keep our speech, mind and actions pure?

The Perfect Beings from Heaven – part 2

Many heavenly beings never want to come here. They don’t have courage.  For example, you are staying in a beautiful place like this, so clean and nice. If you had to go into a filthy place where people put the waste water, garbage and things like that, and lock yourself in there every day, would you like it? A small place, a small confined space with a lot of filth and garbage everyday like this, could you like, would you like? This is what happens to a spiritual being from heaven when they come down and take the confinement of this body.

Some come because they want to develop this planet into a more beautiful place.  Because you remember when you read the history of the planet, the planet was not like this before. It was like a big, dense jungle and no one lived. It was not comfortable and not beautiful.

Because this planet is connected with heavenly plan of existence, therefore we have to work together. Because this planet is connected with heavenly plan of evidence, therefore we have to work together. Because we are also heavenly beings connected with other heavenly beings, so whatever we do here affects them also. A spirit if it’s too high it’s not affected, the lower a little bit affected. Therefore if we do something good,  they are very joyful and very happy.  If we do something damaging to the world and then affects the universe, they are very worried and also very disturbed.

That’s why everyone of us have some so-called “Guardian angels,” who are supposed to help us to do our mission in this world. Depends on what kind of job we do, we will have more angels or less angels, stronger angels or just ordinary angels, etc.

The Indian people have a tradition to respect everyone they meet. Perhaps because in their mythological stories they were told that all the human beings here are spiritual, are great, wise beings, from heaven. Sometimes when we meditate we also can see that. But sometimes we are “covered” so we don’t think too much, so we don’t feel too homesick.  Some of them when they meditate they can visit their Home, at least have a look and come back here to work again. Other people they forget, they don’t miss their Home. They just want to stay here all the time. God gives them enough money, enough instruments to work for this world; but then they use the money, they use the instruments to enjoy. They forget. These people are very difficult to get liberation.

That’s why since ancient times there are always Masters and spiritual friends. They also sacrifice, they come here and wake up the people of the world; but it’s difficult. Once they come here, they forget everything from heaven. Sometimes the Master feels very sorry for these brothers and sisters. Sometimes the Master wants to run day and night just to keep calling them, waking them, and bring them back to their spiritual glory; because they suffer too much.

Due to their ignorance they forget their origin, they forget their noble purpose in this world, and they forget that whatever they are given in this world are only instruments so they can fulfill their task. They forget and then they are entrapped into these beautiful instruments or situation and get bound here. They cannot go Home. Sometimes it takes a long time until they wake up.

Meanwhile all the spiritual beings in heaven are feeling sorry for them, want to help them, want to pull them up; but it’s sometimes difficult. So it’s good that you wake up.  It’s good that you realize that you are not the physical body of this world, that you have a Home in heaven.

Actually we should treat all our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, like spiritual brothers and sisters; because that’s what we are. Before we came here we made a covenant with each other saying, “Oh! You be my parents, you be my son, you be my sister, you be my teacher, you be my friend, and all that.” Everyone would come together to help each other to achieve the purpose of their mission and also to achieve a higher position in the spiritual world.

It’s not because of a higher position that we come here. Just that we have been courageous, we want to try, we want to take the challenge. Of course, the greater the challenge, the greater our spiritual understanding and growth. Then we become, of course, a higher spiritual being through our knowledge and labor that we have offered to the universe. Heavenly beings, of course, respect us more and then give us more, eve higher responsibilities.

For example, if you were born in a rich family, if you didn’t work, if your parents spoiled you too much and didn’t let you go out and learn and work in different jobs to have experience of your growth, your talents, your intelligence and your physical power, then you just hang around in the house eating, sleeping, doing something, but not having the experience and the capability of a grown up and mature person. Then even your parents cannot entrust you with their great possessions.

So if the parents go away, then maybe you inherit the possessions because you are the only one. But then you don’t know how to manage the business, you let the business fall apart, and then you become poor also. That’s why God let us come here, to study and to strengthen our abilities. The more we work, the more we try to help other people, the more we grow.

THE PERFECT BEINGS FROM HEAVEN -part 1

Spoken by  Master Ching Hai
Sept.11, 1994

All of us are great beings from heaven.  All of the human beings born in this world are great heavenly beings, and the most courageous. If we were not great, we would not be courageous, we’d never have enough guts to come down to this world. We never could come, we’d never dare come.

That’s why if one of us here does something good for humankind, then all the heavenly beings rejoice, praise, and have so much respect. The more we can do this, the more respect we earn in heaven. Even though sometimes we have trouble by doing good to humankind and we probably have persecution from our fellow beings and other obstacles in this world, but that is just temporary. Truly the universe rejoices in every good deed and loving kindness we can send to our fellow beings. And if we already have been given enough equipment, enough opportunities to do good to humankind and we don’t do it, then it is really a case to feel very sorrowful about.

Before we came here we came with the high ideal, with the best intention, with the good heart and a mighty determination to help and to improve ourselves spiritually, even also by helping people in this world. But when we got here, most of us forgot; and we prefer to sleep, eat, and go around playing. We prefer to take care of our own interests and sometimes forget what was our purpose before we came here, why we came here.

If we meditate, then unconsciously our soul will remember. Then we don’t have to feel too much suffering because we live in this very confined, very unhappy surrounding. We feel more settled down, not attached to the world but settled down in the world. We know that we have to finish our mission. Whether we realize or not, inside we will, the soul will understand that we have to accomplish our mission on Earth and then we will go back Home very soon.

There is a story of a women.  She died and went to heaven, and came back to this world. In between time she was shown a lot of heavenly places, the intelligence of the universe, the purpose of creation, and she was shown great beings like Jesus or maybe a part of God’s representatives. She thought it was Jesus, because no one knows what Jesus looked like. [Master laughs] Because that being had love and a great Light around him, she thought it was Jesus Christ.

Now after she saw all this, she just felt she was at Home, of course. She felt very happy and loved, and she never wanted to go back to this world again. The heavenly being told her that her time was not yet up so she had to go back. She said she didn’t want to; but then the heavenly being showed her  her mission, what she has to do later in the world . Then she agreed to come. The heavenly beings told her that after she has seen her mission, they would erase the memory, so when she comes back again to her physical life she will not remember anything about what she has to do. She truly forgot.

When she came back here and saw her ugly body lying there, she said, “Oh, I don’t want to go into it.” [Master and everyone laugh] And when she went back in, she felt so tight, so confined and so locked up inside herself. She felt so miserable she cried. It took a long, long time, many months, before she became settled down with her body again. Then, she remembered the beings told her that she has a mission on Earth; but she didn’t remember anything about that mission. After thinking for long time, she thought it was good that she didn’t remember. God knows that if she remembered, then she would try to do it very quickly so that it’s done and then she will go back to heaven. [Master laughs] Yeah, and she would not do it properly. She would just try to finish it fast, then she could be free.

Most of us are also “covered up” – God doesn’t let us know. Even though after meditation, after initiation we are only shown a little bit, so that at least we have just a little bit comfort to carry on in this world, and not to feel too proud of our heavenly qualities.

Also most of the time when you meditate, your soul goes out of the body but you don’t feel the difference between going and coming, because the Maser Power tries to “lubricate” it. The Master Power makes the transition between the physical world and the spiritual world smooth, so that you don’t feel the sickness of having to come back into these small “boxes” after being so free and roaming the whole universe at will.

But most of the people when they die, or when they nearly die and they come back again, they feel the terrible difference between the spiritual and the physical world. Therefore they suffer a lot. They suffer like that woman who came back to this world, and she suffered for many months from depression.

Therefore many times while meditating, we went outside of the body; but sometimes we felt like we didn’t know that. We came back we felt like, oh, something. Sometimes we felt like we came back from somewhere but the transition was not so great and it didn’t disturb our ordinary lives too much. Otherwise, if every day, too much of the differences, sometimes you cannot bear it. If we remember how beautiful, how relaxed, how loved we are in heaven – one more second or one millionth of a second, we’d never want to stay here.

The Way to Always Be in Nirvana

Spoken by Master Ching Hai
December 26, 1992

When nothing yet rises, nothing stirs from the consciousness of the Universal Power, and when we stir, then things become created, then it has Vibration and has flashing Lights. So, that’s where we come from. We come from Light and Sound, that’s when we are created. But beyond that, absolutely nothing.

In my early days – you know I had other kinds of experiences, so many, and really nothing to say. And now I don’t have any experiences. You are the ones who experience me. I become the experiences for everyone. It’s not “I.” I don’t have  any more “I” to experience the experience. I became ignorant. Maybe that’s why they say the sage, the wise, look like the ignorant.

You say I help you in this and that. I know nothing about it. I tell you the truth. Do you understand what  I mean?

We are the Absolute. We are the greatest of the universe but because of our attention is attached to one corner or the other of somewhere, so we cannot return to the Source. That’s why most people who are too intellectual, too successful in business or in life, or in too high a position in society – very difficult to calm their minds and to go into Samadhi. They try very hard maybe, but they only try with the mind. They don’t even go beyond the mind yet. They think, “I am sincere,” but only the mind is thinking. It’s the devil’s trick. Understand? (Audience: Yes).

Just like they tell you to kneel  in the temple, in the church, to worship this and that, it’s just a kind of cheap substitute for the real Buddha Nature, for the real Almighty Power. And then the mind is satisfied. It thinks, “Oh! I am worshipping the Buddha. I am busy. I am building temples. I am practicing, virtues.” All the tricks of Maya, of the mind, make you busy and then satisfy the mind alone. You haven’t gone beyond that. Beyond the mind there is not even satisfaction of any kind. You feel nothing. You are absolutely satisfied, that you don’t even know there is such thing as satisfaction.

Only when you think or when you compares, you are in the dual world of yes and no, good and bad, then you know you have satisfaction or dissatisfaction. When you are in one with satisfaction, do you know you have satisfaction? No, the eye cannot see itself. The sun, cannot know that it’s hot or bright. It is the quality of sun. So the quality of Absolute is Absolute.

Absolute means no comparison. You cannot say the Absolute is good, or the Absolute is supreme even. When you say Absolute it’s already relative. It’s already comparative. But because in human language we talk nonsense all the time, we always have to blah, blah, blah about everything. We have to compare, we have to value, we have to identify, we have to give a name to everything. But the Absolute, if it is the true Absolute, you couldn’t even speak about it. Don’t talk about it. Cannot even think about it. Cannot imagine. There is nothing.

It’s my own experience. So, now you know why I am not proud when you say I am a living Buddha (a fully realized being). I couldn’t care whether people say I am egotistic, or full of ego when I accept the title of Supreme Master. These are nothing to me. I am above all of this. These names are only garbage. But because in this world we have nothing better, so we accept it. We accept it or not accept it, it makes no difference at all. The sun could not care whether you blame it or praise it. It is the way it is. It doesn’t even feel proud of its own greatness or brilliance. It’s just like that. So, we praise it or we blame it, it doesn’t move one inch.  It doesn’t shine brighter, or it doesn’t shine less. You cannot, we cannot judge the Master, or praise the Master. We can only recognize in our own way, in our different level, of understanding, and then slowly we understand the Master and I are one. I and Master are not different. We are in the same source, we’re from the same source. We have same treasure. It’s just that our ability to use the treasure is different by now. Maybe later we know how to use it better.

Just like a child, he is born in a very rich family. He has same rights and same inheritance like other children. But he is too young now. He doesn’t know. The same family, the same rights, the same treasure but the brother knows better – who is grown up – knows better, and knows how to use it better. That’s all.  That is the difference between the two children, nothing else.

So, I know, and you do not know yet. Maybe you know but you think you don’t know. Or maybe you’re too humble, to accept your greatness. Never mind. You do whatever you want. You accept it or not accept it, you use it or not use it, you can be proud of the treasure or you don’t care about it. This is your right.

Therefore I am never hurried to go around, and preach to people, or try to convert the whole world into this “business,” because it’s all their right. If they are longing for it, they’ll find their way to search it. They’ll try all their minds to do it. If they feel it’s nothing, that is all right. It’s their treasure. Either way is okay.

So, therefore even though sometimes some of you come talk to me and say, “We are very low, compared to You.”

I say, ”It’s only your feeling.” You cheat yourself. But as long as you enjoy your cheating game, I have nothing to say. But if you truly want to know your wisdom, your greatness, then listen inside. Listen to your intuition. Listen to what to do at right moments. And do not be cheated and clouded by your preconceived ideas or by the social customs and judgment. Listen inside. Try to be always inward and know what’s going on and know what you should do.

Because many times you know it, but you do it the other way. And then you say, “Oh, I wish I would have done that!” Right? (Audience. Right) That is when you are a little bit out of touch with the reality, with the Truth inside, with silent Voice that tells you what to do.

So the more you’re quiet, the more inwards you withdraw, the wiser you become, because you know what to do. And if you don’t know it, you’re clumsy. You’ll still have to do it in the end, but you don’t do it successfully. So you have to transmigrate and redo it. That’s the difference between understanding yourself or not understanding yourself. That’s why we transmigrate. That’s why we have to be reborn again and again, because we have not listened to what we should do, and we have not completed the task that we have come to learn, or have come to do. So, that’s where comes the transmigration. And the soul has to transmigrate with it in order to learn.

You understand everything. I guess. Or maybe I understand everything. As I speak to you, I am so clear. There is absolutely no argument about it.

But it comes spontaneously, because it comes according to your level of understanding. Sometimes I can speak like this to you, and it’s very clear. The other times I cannot, because at the moment you cannot accept it. Therefore you also block my flow. Therefore I also don’t want to speak to you. Not that at that moment, I cannot speak like that. Just like the children when they grow up, you give them all kinds of jewelry or good food, but when they were young, only milk.

Therefore when you come to the retreat or you come to see me, you are not only sitting, but you have sweets, candies, stories, singing and all kinds of comforts, goodies. So, just like the children when they come to see the mother, both of them love each other, but by the way, they will have good things from mother also. But these are just by the way, whether these things exist or not they both still love each other. That is true. That’s all.

So, whether or not you have experiences, you enjoyed these days; you were in Nirvana and that is the purpose. If you keep this memory with you all the time till the end of your life, then you are always in Nirvana or at least when you die. Our last moment’s thought is very important. If all you think about is misery, you will go to hell. (Laughter) If all you think about is Master, happiness and bliss when you are with the Master, you will be in Nirvana in no time. So that’s the secret. That’s the benefit of being with the Master, whether inside or outside, together physically or mentally.

So, keep the Master with you all the time, keep the retreat with you all the time, and you will be in no trouble. You’ll rise above everything, and then all the problems will look small. You rise above all the trouble, look at them as toys. You’ll fly above everything. You’ll pass with all flying colors through all the tests of life, because you remember this happiness. It will last very long time, maybe last forever.

Living the Four Agreements: A life Changing Journey

In the bestselling book The Four Agreements don Miguel Ruiz gives four principles to practice in order to create love and happiness in your life. Adopting and committing to these agreements is simple. Actually living and keeping these Four Agreements can  be one of the hardest things  you will ever do. It can also be one of the most life changing things you will ever do.

As you practice living these four practices your life will dramatically change. In the beginning these new habits will be challenging and you will lapse countless times. With practice these agreements become integrated into your being and every area of your life and become easy habits to keep.

The Four Agreements are:

1. Be Impeccable with your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

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Q & A After Lecture

Excerpt from Master Ching Hai’s lecture

Q: Some people say that it is import ant to be a good-hearted person, but it is not necessary to be a vegan. Does this make sense?

M: If one is truly a good-hearted person, then why does he still eat another being’s flesh? Seeing them suffer, he should not be able to bear to eat them! Flesh eating is unmerciful, so how can this be done by a good-hearted person?

Master Lien Chih once said, “Kill its body, and eat its meat. In this world there is no one more cruel, malevolent, atrocious and evil than this person.” How can he ever claim that he himself has a good heart?

Mencius also said, “If you see it alive, you can’t bear to see it die, and if you hear it groaning you cannot bear to eat its meat; so the real gentlemen keep far from the kitchen.”

Human intelligence is higher than  animals, and we can use weapons to make them unable to resist us, so they die with hatred. The kind of person who does this, bullying small and weak creatures, has no right to be called a gentleman. When animals are killed, they are terribly stricken with agony, fear and resentment. This causes the production of toxins that stay in their meat to harm those who eat it. Since the frequency of the vibration of animals is lower than that of humankind, they will influence our vibration, and affect the development of our wisdom.

Q: Some meat-lovers say that they buy meat from the butcher, so it’s not killed by themselves, therefore it is all right to eat it. Do you think this is right?

M: This is a disastrous mistake. You must know that butchers kill living beings because people want to eat. In the Lankavatara Sutra, Buddha said, if there was no one eating meat then, no killing would happen. So eating meat and killing living beings are of the same sin. Because of the killing of too many living beings, we have natural disasters and human-made calamities. Wars are also caused by too much killing.

Q: A long time ago, I heard another Master say, “Buddha ate a pig’s foot and then got diarrhea and died.” Is this true?

M: Absolutely not. It was because of eating a kind of mushroom that Buddha died. If we translate directly from the language of the Brahmans, this kind of mushroom is called the “pig’s foot”. It’s just like when we call a kind of fruit “longan” (in Chinese this literally means the “dragon’s eye”). There are many things that by name are not vegetables but actually are vegetarian foods, such things as the “dragon’s eye.” This mushroom in Brahmanic language is called “pig’s foot” or “pig’s joy.” Both have a connection with pigs. This kind of mushroom was not easy to find in ancient India and was rare delicacy, so people offered it to Buddha in worship. This mushroom cannot be found above the ground. It grows under the ground. If people want to find it they must search with the help of an old pig which likes very much to eat this kind of mushroom. Pigs detect it by their smell, and when they discover one, they use their feet to dig in the mud to find and eat it. That was why this kind of mushroom is called the “pig’s joy” or “pig’s foot.” Actually these two names refer to the same mushroom. Because it was translated carelessly and because people did not truly understand the derivation, the following generations have been caused to misunderstand and mistake Buddha for a flesh devouring man. This is really a regrettable thing.

You Make God The Way You Want Him To Be

Spoken By Master Ching Hai

There are all kinds of material attachments to religious orders, just to satisfy their mind. But it cheats them out of their precious time, by not letting them think of anything better, or try to find anything better. The Buddha said, “Buddha is inside you.” And then Jesus said, “God dwells within you. You are the temple of God.” What did they mean by this? It means you make God the way you want Him to be. You make Buddha the way you want Him to be. According to your realization, your level, your power, the Buddha is that, God is that.

For example, I teach you the Quan Yin Method, without a method, but we have to call it a method. Otherwise, If I said to people come here and I’ll give you nothing, no method, nobody would come. But, after a while you realize that there is truly no method. It’s only the  power that helps you.

Now, after I give you the Quan Yin Method, for example, then you meditate. You try to search within yourselves to find what kind of power that you have, what kind of capability that you have forgotten, how much intelligence that you have not used, who you are and what kind of position you have in this universe. You search and search, and you’ll find it. And then, you find up to the first level, then you’ll find that you are very loving now. You are less stressful than before, and so you think, “Oh God is that. God helps me. God can help me to heal stress and to heal my sickness.” You get cured from some disease, at the first level. Sometimes, when you touch somebody, that person gets cure too, and you have healing power! You’ll say, “Oh! God has healing power. God is that. God has love. God gives me love. I feel loved now, and I feel I love someone else.”

But that love is still on a weak level. And by eating vegetarian you feel your body is better. You can think better than before, and you love your neighbor better now. So, you begin to declare that your Buddha is love; your Buddha is healing power; your God is healing power and magical power.  He can make a lot of magic and things like that. You know God is there. You know there is a God, and that He has such and such qualities. And for a little while longer, you practice and you get up to the second level. Now, suddenly, whenever somebody asks you a question, you can talk with eloquence. You can reply to them in a way that they never have heard before, in a way you never dreamed you could reply before. You understand all the sutras and all the Bibles in the world.

You can also sometimes see into the past, into other people’s past and future. You know why you are connected with each other like this. You can regulate, invisibly or visibly, some of your karmic ties with other people, so suddenly your relationships smooth out. Suddenly, two enemies may come back loving each other, because, invisibly, in your practice your power has smoothed the past enmity out of your life and your relationship. So you begin to declare, “God has intellectual power! God is eloquence! God is that!” So your God has grown a little bit taller. (Laughter) That’s how you make God and how you make Buddha.

Then you begin to listen inside, and you can hear the sound of thunder or the sound of many waters. So it declares in the Bible that God speaks in the voice of thunder, and like the sound of many waters. That’s how they declared their God. When they saw the big flame of light, they said, “God comes in a big flame. God is like a big flame.” So their God differs. Your God now differs from the God before, or differs from another initiate who has only reached the first level, or differs from another initiate who has reached the third level. His God is different from yours, but it is the same God, whom, pitifully, is being seen by different eyes and different angles. Just like when the Buddha was alive, he told the story of the four blind people who touched an elephant; who described the elephant. The one who touched his ears said, “Wow! The elephant is like a fan, a big fan.” And the other one who touched his trunk said, “Oh! The elephant is like a big pillar.” And the other one who touched his nose said, “Oh! The elephant looks like a water hose.” And the one who touched his tail said, “Wow! The elephant is like a broom stick.” This is how ordinary people see God. And this is how practitioners and people at different levels see God and make their own God.

Therefore, it is said that God is within you; that Buddha is in your mind. That is the meaning of it.  Now, you know that you can make Buddha and you can make God. So I would advise you to make the best God out of it. Our God must be the supreme, the Most High, to be worthy of our time, energy and attention. Time is money! We might just as well buy the best God. (Laughter) Now you understand why God is not there for you to worship, but demands us to make use of His power it. If we don’t make use of this God by our own power, then when we pray and nothing is done, we cannot blame anyone else. From the top of the hierarchy to the lowest level of hell, you have only yourselves to blame. You’ve gone the wrong way. You walk the wrong path. You approach things in the wrong direction, with the wrong method.

A KING WITH A LOT OF DESIRE – part 3

The King was thinking with his throat center; his Adam’s apple kept coming up and down, and the God saw it. (Master and everyone laugh) When he saw his throat center activated, then he knew. He kept looking with his wisdom eye into the throat center, and he saw the black market going on there, (Master and everyone laugh) Mafia organization going on there, ah, all kinds of criminal records written there. So, God knew what was going on in this King’s mind, but pretended not to know anything. He didn’t say anything. He tried to be even more pleasant, friendlier, and offered more things.

After that, God was just in the front mountain and tried to tell the King, “Okay, I am busy. I have initiation going on in the back mountain, five hundred foreign disciples in the meditation hall, and five or six sites of construction going on. So, would you please excuse me?” (Master and everyone laugh) And “Sayonara.”

The king was very desirous to stay in the Kingdom of God. But then the God made sure that the king knew that he must go. When he tried to stay there longer, many of the guards, god’s guardian angels, with the eyes as big as the sun, shining like atom bombs, stared at him, and said nothing. (Laughter) The God said to him, “Either you go voluntarily and soon, or you go involuntarily and soon.” (Master and everyone laugh) The king saw that he had only a handful of generals, soldiers, and a small chariot; and with all these guardian angels with very big umbrellas, powerful eyes and arms; he had better move. So he had to move. He went back to Earth again.

Since that day, God didn’t favor him anymore. So he began to be ill, suffered a lot, and then started to die. Before he died, he called his ministers and other officers to his deathbed and said that he was very sorry now. Very sorry because he knew why he was dying. He knew God was punishing him. God withdrew eternal happiness or the eternal life-force from him, and now granted him a big favor which was the death sentence. He was very sorry and very repentant. He also said, “After I die, if anyone asks you why I died, you tell them it was because of greed.” And that was it. He closed his eyes and meditated forever in the grave. Good-bye. Finished! (Applause)

See, we could be materialistic practitioners as well. This story serves to remind us that even though we follow a so-called spiritual practicing path, we must check ourselves all the time. We must be sure that we don’t follow materialistic spiritualism. Yes it is called that. Because we follow a path in order to gain more power, then we can control others or we can take things from the universe, from other people without ever knowing. Sometimes you don’t know it, but you do follow materialistic spiritualism. For example, you come here or you go to a Master anywhere expecting that she or he will heal you of your sickness because you don’t want to go see a doctor. You think you have the right to demand such things. You come here with a very grave illness and throw yourself, throw the responsibility onto the ashram, wanting to be healed overnight; or you want to be richer, more powerful in some way and then you expect the Master to fulfill your wish in such a way. This is no good.

Even if you practice the Quan Yin Method, you follow the spiritual discipline and meditate, if your mind is not pure of material need, then it’s no good. Of course, when you are in trouble, you are bound to ask for help. Like I don’t have a job now and I need to pay the rent and all that. Master can you help me to find a job. That is different. When you really need, you may ask.

Also if the people come to initiation, expecting that after that, she will have this and that material gain or more position in the society, etc. This is disgusting. We should not come to any Master expecting such things, because we are bound to feel very disappointed. Or even if we are not disappointed, the Master might grant us our wish. But then, the more we want, the less we are satisfied and then we keep wanting, wanting to no end. And then our attention, our energy is always focused on these material aims and we forget the Almighty Power inside.

After we attain the Almighty Power, anything will come to us when necessary without asking. But we don’t come for that, we don’t come for material fulfillment, or any other magical power. These are astral desires. Also material in other senses, not only that you wish for money, then it materializes, but if you wish for magical power or any kind of control over other people, the weather, or the surroundings, these are also material wishes. These are even worse. Like business people, we go to do business and we want to gain money and all these kinds of things. We should practice for the sake of wisdom alone, for the sake of knowing ourselves, for the sake of knowing the origin of our Home and to be free, loving and happy. That’s all there is. And everything else comes or does not come; it is just by the way.

Everything I told you, don’t forget. But sometimes you know but your practice is different.  So we have to always check up. We are bound to make mistakes, but we have to check and correct it.

A KING WITH A LOT OF DESIRE – part 2

Doesn’t matter how many thousand years you live, still one day you must end, and there’s nothing here you can take with you. And nothing physical will ever, ever satisfy you forever, every day of your life. Satisfaction comes only from inside. If you seek anything else except satisfaction from inside, you will always end up frustrated and miserable. Every time you try, every time like you knock the wall, you have to return and reshape your actions again. Even love, children, husband, wife, anything that you think that will bring you the most beautiful feelings of human life, still it never lasts. Today it is good. Tomorrow it brings you heartache, problems, consequences, and all kinds of sorrow and worries.

It takes a lot of effort to keep someone you love. And it takes a lot of effort to keep someone who loves you. Any little so-called wrong or insensitive move may break the relationship immediately, and sometimes it’s irreparable. So every effort we spend in this world to repair our friendships, to build up the kingdom on Earth, everything always brings us trouble, even though we are successful in the end, or sometimes in between. Still it takes us all energy, time, youth, and attention in order to keep that alive. It doesn’t matter what kind of relationship, or what kind of treasure that it is.  Have you experienced that? If you have not, you may try. Go and fall in love somewhere and then tell me what happens.

All right, so let’s go back to India, to our greedy king. So now he was bored after running around the world. The king was bored after four thousand years of invading the four corners of the Earth. Now, he was bored to death because he had nothing to play with anymore. All the things, all the countries that he had conquered, he knew by name. All the games in the country, all the beautiful women, he had seen everything he knew. Now, he was bored with the Earth – nothing to do. One day he sat there. He couldn’t meditate on money either because he was fed up. He had enough. He couldn’t meditate on anything else because everything in the world belonged to him. So he sat there. He thought of God and meditated on God.

Ah, finally, my God. Can you believe that? He actually did meditate on God. Then, he was thinking: “Oh, I wish I could see God. How I long to see God. If I could just see God, it would be good, beautiful. Oh, God! How can I see God?” (Laughter) As he wished, his dream came true. God, moved by his sincere desire, perhaps materialistic desire, invited him to the Kingdom Perhaps, the god of the Astral world, Vishnu god or Shiva god, we don’t know what kind of god that was.

Well, by the way he was thinking, perhaps he ended up in the Astral kingdom, because he was so materialistic. Not that he wanted to see God for reverence or longing in his heart, but he wanted to see God because he desired to see the Kingdom of God. He wanted to see whether the Kingdom of God had any differences from his kingdom, and anything else he could learn, he could look at, he could play with etc. It was just pure materialistic curiosity.

God was very generous and loving. Anyone who meditated on him attained his attention. So, that was God. He was compassionate, loving, even though he was only an Astral God. An Astral God is also the representative of the highest God. He has some qualities of the Almighty.

Now, very lovingly, cautiously, hospitably, he invited the king to come to the Kingdom of God. Then his UFO, airplane, or whatever, chariot, took him into the sky and up to the Kingdom of God, to the throne of the deity. Then, the God, whatever kingdom that may have been, Astral, intellectual, or akashic Buddhi God, I don’t know, invited him to sit next to him. He had a very long sofa made of gold, studded with diamonds and precious stones glittering like the sun in the morning. So he invited him to sit next to him even – very cautious God. Very politely, very hospitably, he offered him all kinds of biscuits, candies, grapes, apples. Anything that was available in the Kingdom of God, was offered to him, as well as to his accompanying horses, elephants, queen, chariots, managers, soldiers, generals, ministers and everything that he brought up. Then God talked, chatted to him in a very friendly way.

The king, the one who was never satisfied, sat there talking to God, but at the same time looked around. Wow! The lamp is made of diamonds (Laughter) Wow! And that lamp is made of rubies, and the other one is make of pearls. And everything here is more precious and beautiful than anything we have on Earth. Even the diamonds are different; gold is different, silver is different. It seemed to be a thousand times more beautiful, more real, more precious, more pleasing to the eyes and, of course, to the heart of the king.

Now he sat there and thought. When he was looking, he thought with the sole. Later, he thought with the knees, then he tried to think with the solar plexus, and then he tried to reason with the heart. (laughters)That didn’t work either. And then he tried to reason with the throat. But that was all he could come up with. It didn’t work either, because he wanted to swallow everything. So the most concentrated chakra for him was the throat center. He wanted to eat anything that he saw. He wanted to swallow, possess everything that he ever laid eyes on.

He was thinking, when it comes up to the throat, he wants to swallow the Kingdom of God. Now, he said, “Wow! This is very beautiful. What if I get rid of this old man (Master and everyone laugh) and then become the king.” Ah, hah! So he was sitting there and thinking like that with his throat.

A KING WITH A LOT OF DESIRE – part 1

by Master Ching Hai
July 11, 1995

This story is called, “A King with a Lot of Desire.”

A very long time ago, there was a king who ruled a very great kingdom, and for a very, very long time, in India. During that time, he was always victorious. He never lost anything. He always won. So he became very greedy and very arrogant, because everything he did brought victory to him.

This King was a kind of practitioner. He had magical power. There were many kings in the old times that were called “Golden Wheel Saint Kings” or something like that, because they had a kind of golden carriage which could carry them anywhere they wanted. Perhaps it was a UFO.

When you read many stories from India, like Rama, it seems like in the old times people got in touch with the UFO’s, extra-terrestrial people that flew with a chariot in the sky.  They didn’t have any airplanes at that time, did they? I don’t think so. Or perhaps they did. And besides, with all these magical powers it must have been the extra-terrestrial people that they had encountered – you know, Rama, his wife and company.

And of course he had so many beautiful and precious things in his life. The first one was a very beautiful, strong magical horse which could carry him one thousand miles an hour. It must have been an airplane. What kind of horse would that have been? But it was a red one. Then he had a beautiful white like snow elephant. He had a precious stone that in the evening emitted beautiful light like the moon light. They didn’t have electricity, they didn’t need to. He had a “car,” like a golden carriage. This one could fly him up into the sky. What could that have been? Airplane or UFO? Do we have a car that can go a thousand miles an hour? Oh, a thousand miles a day.

And also he had a queen who was very  beautiful, as well as very  faithful. So what else could he want? He had a very good prime minister to help him, and a very  powerful army general. So, he had everything. No wonder he was always victorious. Besides, he had thousands of princes – big, tall, strong, intelligent, educated, courageous, all like grand kings.

All these things actually should have made him very, very happy and satisfied. But he was not. Everyday he felt empty, felt like he was missing something.

One day, he was fed up. He felt that he didn’t have enough money, with all that, so he sat there and meditated on money. As he meditated on money, and he recited the mantra for money, he said: ”Dollars, dollars, dollars…American dollars, French dollars, Italian dollars, not Taiwan NT., (Laughter) German Deutschemarks,” etc. He recited all these mantras. And then all the money came down, all the Deutschemarks, all the American dollars, French francs, and all that; you know all the best – oh yen, Japanese yen. Instead of “Zen, Zen,” he said, “Yen, yen.” (Master and everyone laugh)

Anyway, his meditation was powerful. He was very, very concentrated, very sincere, and very devoted to money. The God of money was very moved, and rained down the money for him. Then he saw that the whole palace, outside, all over the tree tops, and everywhere was money. Even next to the toilet, there was money too. He looked and then he told people to pick it up and count it for him. He said, “Not enough.”

He meditated again. Now he wanted something else, so he recited a different mantra. I can teach you right now. (Laughter) “Gold, gold, gold, gold, silver, silver, gold, gold, silver…” (Laughter) And then again, as he was absolutely a hundred percent devoted, the God of gold and silver was very moved, and rained down all the gold and silver as he desired. This time the gold and silver covered all of Miaoli and the surrounding area. All he had to do was tell his people to go out and pick it up and bring it to the store room.

He was satisfied for a while. Maybe a few days, a few months. Actually in the old times people lived a very long, long life. Perhaps that’s why he was bored. So make sure you don’t live too long!

So, many years had passed now since the incident of silver and gold. The king happened felt bored again, dissatisfied with life. So, he looked to the south and he saw that it was a very prosperous country, and very big and beautiful. So he said, “Ah…I wish I also could rule over that southern kingdom, and then I would be happy and satisfied.” Suddenly, as he wished like that, his chariot flew up into the sky and brought him to the southern kingdom. He won immediately, because golden and bright chariot from the sky, they all knelt down on the ground and said, “Hallo.” They surrendered to him, no problem. They treated him very, very well;  very respectfully, and did everything he wanted.

He stayed there for a thousand more years. And then he was bored, so he went up to the high tower and looked again. Perhaps he looked to the north, and he saw that the north was a very nice kingdom – very prosperous, and had very good-looking people. “Now I want that kingdom! Then I will be happy and satisfied.” As soon as he had spoken, because he had the power of, perhaps magic, so whatever he wished came true. Perhaps he had merit for a long time and had not spent it.

So he wished and the chariot flew him up into the sky and delivered him to the north. As soon as he came, all the people in the northern kingdom also knelt on the streets and gave him incense, flowers, fruit, cakes, candies, mineral water, beer and everything; and offered the kingdom to him – surrendered, so no problem. He had not wasted one drop of blood, and he obtained the kingdom. I think that the people who are fighting right now should come and learn his strategy of how to invade another nation without spending any blood or human lives.

So now, he was very happy, satisfied for another thousand years. It did not take much for him to be satisfied!!!

Ah, so, one thousand years passed now, and the dissatisfied king looked over, perhaps to the east. He used his binoculars, perhaps. And then he looked over there and said, “Oh, oh, how come there’s a kingdom there I did not know about? And it’s very beautiful, very prosperous – a lot of durian fruit. I can smell it from there to here.” (Master and everyone laugh)

So he said, “I have to have that kingdom. I have to rule over that kingdom also, so that I will be satisfied.” Said and done, he won without bloodshed or without any resistance. Perhaps because God had favored him. Perhaps because he had acquired a great deal of merit in the last life. Perhaps because those people in the north, the south, and the east were very peaceful, living people. Whoever ruled the kingdom, it didn’t matter. They didn’t want bloodshed. They just surrendered. Perhaps it’s the best way. I don’t know. Perhaps it is the best way in every situation, because one cannot fight without resistance. Perhaps, we shouldn’t fight at all anywhere.

Truly if we understand the Kingdom of God is within us, and if we have already tasted the nectar of this Kingdom of God, then probably we do not want to resist anything. If we can live here longer to serve God and fellow beings, let it be so. If we have to go because our time has come, or because someone else wants to terminate our life, let it be, because we have other kingdoms to continue to live in. Perhaps, therefore, surrendering to God’s will is the best. Sooner or later, each one of us must leave this world anyhow. So why complicate things?

I see resistance in different countries. Sometimes it just makes more and more and more bloodshed without having any concrete and finished result. Just cost a lot of lives, time, building construction power, and financial benefit – costs a lot from the people. Besides, as you have seen, every system will collapse itself. Like the communists in Eastern Europe. They collapsed by themselves. Nothing lasts forever if it doesn’t suit the plan of God.

So, I don’t know whether all this physical resistance is truly good or not. I still think, I dare not say too much. People will think I’m pessimist and passive, and things like that. But I think everything will take care of itself. Sometimes, in the course of life, you have experienced that yourselves. Sometimes you try to demand this and that, and you end up the same; sometimes worse than before.

So now, another thousand years came. Ah, he was happy. He swallowed up one nation and was very happy. One more thousand years, and he was fed up again, was bored. So he went up to the top of the mountain, used his binoculars, or whatever, telescope, and then he looked over to the west. Now he said, “America.” Perhaps, before Columbus discovered it, he had seen it. He said, “That land is very big and beautiful – California beach.” Oh, no, no, Miami beach, California earthquake.” Oh no. (Laughter) “Good weather. West Virginia, snow. Oh, we have everything. I must have that land.” So said, wished, and accomplished as usual, as many times before. A thousand years more, and he was bored, unhappy.

I told you, he should have come to Supreme Master Ching Hai, and she would have told him nothing in this world would satisfy him! (Master and everyone laugh) You see the problem with having no Master? If you don’t have a living teacher, it’s very difficult. Every Guru will tell you that. He didn’t have a Master like Supreme Master Ching Hai who would have taught him the ephemeral nature of human life.

We Are Already Liberated – part 3

We get used to where we live and think nothing of it. I feel that living in the cities like you do is not bad. Everything is convenient. When I stayed in the seven story building which Taipei people bought for the book circulation center, I thought it was quite ideal for me. I thought if I was to live in the place where they put the computer, the small place, it would be just right for me. A bus stop is just downstairs, no need to walk, it is very convenient! So every place has its good point.

It is no wonder that you are so captivated by the cities that you do not want to go barbecuing in the mountain. There is not one of you who wants to go up the mountain, living on his own, and leading a solitary life, is there? (Audience: Yes.) It is all right; you can stay wherever you are. I am like that too. I stay up in the mountain when I live there, and I don’t want to go back up after I have come down the mountain. I feel that it is good anywhere. It is just that before we reach a place, we would feel a bit scared. But after we get there, we would not be afraid anymore. Right? Maybe you and I are alike, without any differences? I used to think that I was very special, but actually we are all the same, happy wherever we are, feeling one place is just as good as another. It is great!

Now I think I will tell the monastic disciples to return home and live freely. Why set oneself in a frame of a certain image? However, since some of them still want to continue, and they are worthy. It is all right! Only that one must not force oneself. Any place can be good for us. Fish belong in the water, and tigers belong in the mountains, right? Elephants live in the jungle, and monkeys climb up and down to get fruit to eat. We cannot force everyone to be like us. No! Like the “Ugly Duckling,” he did not belong to the ducks, so he was very unhappy, which in turn made his friends and relatives around him unhappy as well. His different look created pressure for others. By the same token, it is all right for us to live anywhere, as long as it is good for us.

It is not necessarily good for one to live in solitude in the mountain practicing meditation diligently everyday. It is hard to say. It is good for me that way because I like it, not that I am so great. You must not praise me because of this, or praise anyone who does the same and think that he is great, that he has given up everything. He does not like the world, so then what has he given up?

For example, you do not like that woman. No matter how beautiful she is, you do not like her! You like your wife. Then in what way are you so great? It is not that you can put down the desire for beauty; you simply do not like her. You only like your wife. Because you get used to living together, you cannot go on without her. It matters nothing to you going without other beautiful women. Therefore, it is that people have their own different tastes, their own different ways, not who is greater than who. So we do not have to imitate others.

We know in our heart what kind of person we are. Of course, if we have any fault, or character that we dislike, we need to cut it, and make it shorter, smaller. Then we have done it. Right! Otherwise, there is nothing that matters! You have your own living which is good as long as you are comfortable and happy. it is fine feeling that your husband is good looking; it is none of the other person’s business.

Sometimes we cannot simply run away as we wish. For example, if we are destined to be married to someone, it is what we owe from our past lives, and now we think it is a bother and do not want to repay our debt. Taking is nice, and repaying of course is not. Then we say we do not want him or our debts. Therefore, we have to sort out our debts which are destined here. Then, later we continue to settle the account in the heavenly worlds above.

Settling the account when we are in the worlds above is different. At that time it depends on who meditates more diligently, and the level of one’s attainment. We should understand that the place where our true Self belongs, there is neither male nor female, and no love affairs. It is like this in the highest place.

In this world, we are only spectators, like when we go to a movie. Then because sometimes we are moved or excited by the movie, we also cry. Being absorbed in the movie we exclaim, “Hit him, hit him! Kill him, kill him! Go after him, go after him!” At that time we relate to the actor in the movie, right? But at the end of the movie, we know that everything was not real. Some movies are so good, so realistic or so well acted out, that while seeing them, we change our emotions.

Similarly, life after life we are so used to playing the act of a human being that we cannot put it down. We cannot imagine that we are not this act. It is that simple. The act lingers in our mind for such a long time. You can see that after watching a movie, the parts in it which were violent, touching or unfair, stay in our minds and influence us for a very long time. Sometimes after seeing a movie or a play, our lives are changed for a while. Therefore, if we do not wake up at this time, in this life, but continue to play the act, continue to chase after the emotions, the happiness, anger, sadness and joyous living, then we say we have to reincarnate. No! No one has to reincarnate.

Truly no one is not liberated. Truly no one is not free. It is because we are chasing after those emotions, those phenomena, which are like this today and like that tomorrow, good today and bad tomorrow, that we say we reincarnate.

How does reincarnation come about? It is those thoughts which reincarnate! It is those phenomena which reincarnate! It is those emotions which reincarnate! They keep changing and reincarnating. We, the person, do not reincarnate; that witness does not reincarnate. However, because that “person” is not a “person,” “He” will not be affected by anything. “He” will not die if you chop him. “He” cannot be burned or drowned. Then what “person” is there to reincarnate in the cycle of birth and death? Really there isn’t any person! It is this body which reincarnates, not us.

However, if we do not practice spirituality, do not give it serious thought, and do not calm down to understand, then even after all I have said, you only know this is the case. You still cannot be separated from the feelings which have birth and death and which reincarnate. Then you will say that you cannot be liberated. In fact, we are already liberated!

We Are Already Liberated – part 2

Originally there was not one single person in the world. Did you know that? This body is made up of fire, wood, water, metal and earth (Chinese five elements). Sooner or later it will return to the materials it was made up of. What are we, this “person”? All day long, our thoughts develop continuously one after another. Is that the “person”? No! Now “I” am happy, later “I” am sad; then “I” am happy again, and “I” am sad again. Is that “me”? No, they are merely thoughts, like the waves of the ocean, one after another. This is not us, the “person”! Of course waves are from the ocean, yet they are not the ocean. Waves are formed by the wind blowing on the ocean. Therefore if we cling onto that point, we are finished. We should not hold onto anything, let alone clothing!

Originally a “person” did not exist in this world. “He” only knew that “He” was forever a spectator. For example, “He” was there perceiving the situations. One moment “He” perceived the feeling of being happy and the next moment, the feeling of being sad.

For example, I eat this apple and find it very sweet. I know it is sweet, but I know the sweet taste is not “I.”  Or the sour taste is not “I.” “I” am merely enjoying that sweet or sour taste. However, each time we forget, and think that we are the apple. Is this not funny?

Therefore, since there was not any person, we should not put a frame around the illusions, making them more and more solid. So you can wear any kind of clothes. It does not matter. To keep changing clothes is too tiring for me, so I have stopped doing that now. I will remain like this.

We have to understand that there is no “person.” No matter how great, no matter how talented, this “person” is, it is merely a phenomenon. This is the quality he possesses, or he merely knows that he has that kind of quality and then uses it. He is not that “person.” Therefore, we have neither birth nor death. Only the thoughts are created and perish. If we do not put down these thoughts but keep on thinking, birth, old age, illness, death, happiness, anger, sorrow and joy, and feel that we are those feelings, then of course we will reincarnate. We do not differentiate the apple from the person who eats the apple, and attach ourselves to the apple. We are always looking for the apple, from one place to another. We are constantly searching, so we keep on reincarnating. Sometimes it is for things we like, and sometimes it is to avoid things we dislike, that trouble us, that we reincarnate. Otherwise, the original Self does not reincarnate. “He” is a witness, forever without birth and death, forever there as a spectator only.

It is just the same as going to a movie! Even now I still cry when I see some movies. I watched the “Prince of Stars” in which there are many good philosophical stories. For example, there was a little boy who liked to play the flute. But his father did not allow him to play it, so he cried and wanted to run away from home. Then the Prince of Stars said to him, “Everything will be all right if you put your flute in your heart.” The little boy understood the matter and put the flute down. Later he was able to play the flute because his father realized that although playing the flute could not earn money and food, it could console people’s spirits, which is very important. When the little boy stopped playing the flute, everyone was in a mess. When the Prince of Stars played the flute, which he did not know how to do, he caused people to quarrel with each other, the chicken and ducks began to bite each other and everything, the whole village, was in a mess. However, when the little boy played the flute, everyone felt peaceful and comfortable.

Things like that really happen. Sometimes when we listen to some soft music, we feel happy and relaxed. If we listen to some awful kind of music, we feel troubled, and that we are going crazy and want to throw a temper tantrum. It really is so, that certain things cannot be measured materially for they have their own value spiritually.

Similarly, sometimes people ask us why we practice. They think that by sitting there we cannot earn our daily bread. However, the more we meditate, the more we are able to earn money.  We used to be very busy trying to make money. We could not think very clearly, so we did not make very much. However, after we meditate, we reap a lot of benefits. People in India say, “One person who practices spirituality can benefit hundreds or thousands of people materially.” His wisdom will emerge, enabling him to accomplish a great deal which will benefit many people.

Therefore, not just being very busy making money is good. Not that we do not make money. We can all make money, even more nowadays. I see that your businesses are doing well. They were not as good before, right?

The other day we had a barbecue on the mountain. Some monastic disciples were with me. So I gave them each a tent, a place to barbecue and a pot. Each person gathered his own dry wood, tidying up the surrounding area at the same time. We had a barbecue, boiled water and cooked food for ourselves. I am not saying this kind of life is the best. Other ways can also be good. It is really so! I mean if we are in that situation, we can enjoy ourselves. Like if you are living in the city, you can also enjoy yourselves. If I am staying in the mountain, I do not want to come down. I want to enjoy the quiet, happy and worry-free life.

We Are Already Liberated – part 1

Spoken by Master Ching Hai
November 8, 1992

What impression did you have after watching the cartoon, “The Ugly Duckling”? Sometimes we are rejected by the world, when people think that we are too odd and different from the others. In reality, it might be that we are the very precious ones! That duckling was not a duck, it was a swan. Swans are the most precious. They live high in the mountains and drink the pure dew drops or the cleanest, uncontaminated water from the lakes on the highest mountain tops. I hear that they eat pearls. Therefore, great spiritual practitioners in India speak of themselves as being like swans. When a swan mingles in a flock of ducks, of course the ducks feel that the swan is ugly. Therefore, sometimes, spiritual practitioners and the ordinary people have different concepts.

Mingling with people who are different than we are makes us feel that we are unlike anyone, and we feel sad thinking that people do not like us, etc. The fact might just be that we are more superior than others so they do not like us.

It was also good for those ducks that they did not like that swan, wasn’t it? If they had taken it with them to the south where it was hot, and quarreled every day, what good would that has done? It turned out that it was actually good for the swan to be left behind because like other swans, it was not afraid of the snow. It needed to live in places like the snowy mountains and to drink the beautiful water there. They are very clean and beautiful, and they should not live down there together with the ducks. If it had mingled with the ducks, of course the ducks would not like it nor think good of it. Then the swan would not feel comfortable, neither would the ducks. The ducks could not be blamed though, because they know that they are different from the swan, in whatever way they look at it. The swan has such a long neck, and such a pointed beak, it is not the same.

When I stay in the mountains, I do not feel like coming down. It is because it is so busy, crowded and boring down here; and it is difficult to teach people, to teach the disciples, etc. Why do I need to go down the mountain? It is so good staying up there! It feels good to fry chapattis, boil water for hot baths and watch cartoon videos every day. It is a very comfortable way of living.

Last week there was a little change at Hsihu Center. You knew the meditation hall was being demolished. It is nothing! But some people were hearth broken. That I understand. That was why I phoned to talk to you; and I was touched by you, so I promised to come to Taipei. I was afraid that you might say, “The Center isn’t there anymore, and Master isn’t coming back. She is dropping us!”

Why do you cry? What does it matter that the meditation hall was knocked down? I knew it long ago. You can see that the ground underneath the floor of the hall was not cemented in, because it would have been difficult to deal with now. We can plant trees. It is better without the meditation hall. It is not bad as it is now. We should not be attached to anything.

For the last few days I have wanted to tell the monastic disciples to stop wearing their monk robes. Why? It is because the special clothes make them feel special. I feel they should learn to be more humble. You have held them too highly. In what ways? For example: “They alone are the Quan Yin messengers, and we are the “followers.” It is nonsense. It hurts me hearing that. No one is different from anyone else. Everyone is the same on the outside. The only difference is the inside.

Some of the monastic disciples are not worthy; in fact no one is worthy, but everyone is worthy. If we only consider our original God Nature, or our true Self, then everyone is worthy. If we look at our noisy brains which records and replays everything right or wrong, then no one is worthy. However, it is very difficult to realize this in the depth of our hearts. It is very difficult for us to communicate within, to have self confidence and to know that we are originally very clean. Indeed, it is very difficult! That is why I say not worthy. From Master’s standpoint, they are worthy; from some other people’s, they are not. So, if anyone leaves home and puts on a monk’s robe and thinks he is great, then it is not right! That way they will have many obstacles. If we still feel that we are a “renunciate,” then we are finished. It is all right for us to leave home; originally it is very good, but we should feel that there is no difference in leaving home or not.

That is why I wanted to tell them to change their clothes and to dress like the lay people. Mixing together, everyone is the same. It is enough to know that one is cultivating oneself spiritually within. There is no need to show anything, for it creates obstacles for oneself. Why? Because the more we are bound in the frame, the more serious and firm our illusions will become. There should not be anyone who still feels that there are renunciates and lay persons. It is all right for some of the monastic disciples to wear special clothes because they feel the same being a monastic person or a lay person. A monk’s robe is what they would put on naturally. Some people are not like that. They wear the monk’s robe in order to show-off.

Some of Master’s monastic disciples are not very good either; they do not have the correct concepts. It is best for us to start cleaning our own place. This way, seeing how clean we have swept our home, maybe the neighbor will clean his. By then we can give him some assistance. This is acceptable. We cannot go to sweep other people’s homes without having cleaned ours first.

 

Q & A after Lecture

Excerpt from Master Ching Hai’s Lecture

Q: What are some spiritual benefits that we get from being vegans?

M: I’m glad you asked the question in this manner, because it means you only concentrate on, or care about, spiritual benefits.  Most people would care about health, diet and figure when they ask about the vegan diet.  The spiritual aspect of a vegan diet is that it is very clean and nonviolent.

Thou shall not kill. When God said this to us, He did not say do not kill human beings, He said do not kill any beings. Didn’t He say that He made all animals to befriend us, to help us? Did He not put the animals in our care? He said, take care of them, rule over them. When you rule over our subjects, do you kill your subjects and eat them? Then you would become a king with no one else around? So now you understand when God said that. We must do it. There is no need to question Him. He spoke very clearly, but who understand God except God?

So now you have to become God in order to understand God. I invite you to be God-like again, to be yourself, to be no one else. To meditate on God doesn’t mean you worship God, it means that you become God. You realize that you and God are one. I and my Father are one, didn’t Jesus say so? If He said He and His father are one, we and His father can also be one, because we are also children of God. And Jesus also said that what He does we can even do better.

Why worship God when we don’t know anything about God? Why use blind faith? We must first know what we are worshiping, just like we must know who the girl is we’re going to marry before we marry her. Nowadays, it’s customary that we don’t marry before we date. So why should we worship God with blind faith? We have the right to demand that God appears to us, and to make Himself known to us. We have the right to choose which God we would like to follow.

So now you see that it is very clear in the Bible that we should be vegans. For all health reasons, we should be vegans. For all scientific reasons, we should be vegans. For all economic reasons, we should be vegans. For all compassionate reasons, we should be vegans. As well, to save the world, we should be vegans.

It is stated in some research that if people in the West, in America, eat vegan only once a week, we would be able to save sixteen million starving people every year. So be a hero, be vegan. For all of these reasons, even if you don’t follow me, or don’t practice the same method, please be a vegan for your own sake, for the sake of the world.

Q: Is fish all right to eat for a vegetarian?

M: It’s all right if you want to eat fish. But if you want to be vegetarian, fish is not a vegetable.

Q & A after Lecture

Excerpt from master Ching Hai’s Lecture

Q: Why should I be vegan?

M: Eating meat is against the universal principle of not wanting to be killed. We ourselves don’t want to be killed. If we do that to others, then we are acting against ourselves, and that makes us suffer. Everything that you do against others makes you suffer. You cannot bite yourself and you shouldn’t stub yourself. In the same way you should not kill, because that is against the principle of life. It would make us suffer, so we don’t do it. It doesn’t mean we limit ourselves in any way. It means we expand our life to all kinds of life. Our life will not be limited within this body, but extended to the life of animals and all kinds of beings. That makes us grander, greater, happier and limitless. OK?

Q: Would You speak on vegan eating and how this can contribute to world peace?

M: Yes. You see, most of the wars that happen in this world are due to economic reasons. Let’s face it. The economic difficulties of a country become more urgent when there is hunger, lack of food, or a lack of equal distribution of food among different countries. If you took the time to read magazines and research the facts about the vegan diet, then you would know this very well. Raising cattle and animals for meat has caused our economy to go bankrupt in all aspects. It has created hunger throughout the world – at least in the third world countries.

It’s not I who is saying this, it is an American citizen who did this type of research and wrote a book about it. You can go to any bookshop and read about vegan research and food processing research. You can read, “Diet for a New America” by John Robbins. He is a very famous ice-cream millionaire. He gave it all up in order to be a vegan, and to write a vegan book against his family tradition and business. He lost a lot of money, prestige and business, but he did it for the sake of Truth. That book is very good. There are many other books and magazines which can give you a lot of information and facts about the vegan diet and how it can contribute to world peace.

You see, we bankrupted our food supply by feeding cattle. You know how much protein, medicine, water supply, human power, cars, trucks, road construction and how many hundreds of thousands of acres of land have been wasted before a cow is good enough for one meal.  All these things could be distributed equally to underdeveloped countries, then we could solve the hunger problem. So now, if a country is in need of food it probably invades the other country just to save its own people. In the long run, this has created a bad cause and retribution.

As you sow, so shall you reap. If we kill someone for food, we will be killed for food later, in some other form the next time, the next generation. It’s a pity. We are so intelligent, so civilized and yet most of us do not know the cause of why our neighboring countries are suffering. It is because of our palates, our tastes, and our stomachs.

In order to feed and nourish one body we kill so many beings, and starve so many fellow human beings. We aren’t even talking about the animals yet. Then this guilt, consciously or unconsciously, will weigh down upon our conscience. It makes us suffer from cancer, tuberculosis and other kinds of incurable diseases, including AIDS. Ask yourself, why does your country, America, suffer the most? It has the highest rate of cancer in the world, because the Americans eat a lot of beef. They eat more meat than any of the other countries. Ask yourself why the Chinese or communist countries don’t have that high rate of cancer? They don’t have as much meat. That is what the research says, not I. OK? Don’t blame me.

Q & A after Lecture

Excerpt from master Ching Hai’s lecture

Q: Eating animals is killing living beings, but isn’t eating vegetables a kind of killing too?

M: Eating plants is also killing living things and will create some karmic hindrance, but the effect is very minimal. If one practices the Quan Yin Method for two and a half hours every day, one can get rid of this karmic effect. As we have to eat in order to survive, we choose food which has the least consciousness and suffers the least. Plants consist of 90 % water, thus their level of consciousness is so low that it hardly feels any suffering. Furthermore, when we eat many vegetables we don’t cut their roots, but rather we help their asexual reproduction by cutting branches and leaves. The end result can actually be beneficial to the plant. Therefore, horticulturists say that pruning vegetation helps them grow large and beautiful.

This is even more evident with fruit. When fruit ripens, it will attract people to eat it by its fragrant smell, beautiful color and delicious taste. It is in this way that fruit trees can achieve their purpose of propagating their seed over a wide area. If we do not pick and eat them, the fruit will become overripe and will fall to the ground to rot. Its seed will be shaded from sunlight by the tree above them and will die. So, eating vegetables and fruit is a natural tendency, which brings to them no suffering at all.

Q: Human raises animals and poultry, such as pigs, cattle, chickens, ducks, etc. Why can’t we eat them?

M: So? Parents raise their children. Do parent have the right to eat their children? All living things have the right to live, and no one should deprive them from this. If we have a look at the laws in Hong Kong, even killing oneself is against the law. So, how much more unlawful would killing other living beings be?

Q: Animals are born for people to eat. If we don’t eat them, they will fill the world. Right?

M: This is an absurd idea. Before you kill an animal, do you ask it if it wants to be killed and eaten by you or not? All living beings desire to live and are afraid to die. We don’t want to be eaten by a tiger, so why should animals be eaten by humans? Human beings have only existed in the world for several tens of thousands of years, but before human kind appeared, many species of animals had already existed. Did they overcrowd the Earth? Living things maintain a natural ecological balance. When there is too little food and space is limited, this will cause a drastic reduction in population. This maintains the population at an appropriate level.

Forgive Yourself part 4

So we all come from God, whether Masters or not Masters. The Master is the one who knows God, and the “non-Master” is the one who doesn’t know God yet.

I told you about the story of the cup, the ocean water in the cup. So at the time of initiation, you know already, the “button” is pushed open so that we can get in touch, somewhat, to God, at least for some moments. Then we continue to do that every day, until we completely realize that we are one with God; there is no separation.

There are many things that the initiated persons understand and know, but it’s difficult to put them into words.   If no one demands anything from me, I would not even think of God. Do you know what I mean? He is just kind of always standing around or He is just inside me. So I don’t even think of Him. I don’t talk about Him. I don’t miss Him. I don’t seek Him anymore. Just for other people’s sake I talk about God. I talk about these things. Sometimes it’s difficult for me to talk about God. Maybe that’s the reason why I don’t desire to go for lectures or anything like that, because I am just satisfied wherever I am and whatever I do.

The initiated people are mostly like that. Many of them have this satisfaction right away at the time of initiation and continue forever. Some of them have to wait sometime to realize that they have found the treasure. Why is it so? Some people’s “curtains” are thicker than the others, because we are obstructed by intellectual understanding and by much of the knowledge that we have accumulated during our lifetime, and we are proud of it and cling to that. That’s why we have forgotten that we are greater than this knowledge, greater than the PH.D. certificate greater than the name that we are proud to have, like Doctor so-and-so, or such and such position. We are greater than this, greater than any king on this Earth.

Sometimes we don’t even realize that we have this ego and that we are trapped into this ego – the Maya net. We don’t even realize it until we practice more and more. And the more we practice, the more we realize that we are obstructed by our own habits, by our own collections of garbage, of a lot of nonsense thinking.

Similarly, every day we are busy with our daily work and we busy with our worldly knowledge and we think we know that much, this much, and then we forgot that we are the greatest ones. We know more than that. We know above all these things, including these things. Now, the greatest Power, the greatest wisdom, is so big like that, for example; so great, so pervasive, and then we use that great wisdom just to understand a little bit of that worldly knowledge, for example, the medical knowledge or the lawyer knowledge or anything, and then we cling to that. The whole wisdom we use just to pay attention to this corner of the knowledge.

Therefore we forget the whole. Do you understand what I mean? That’s it. And we thought that we are very great already, we are this doctor and that PH.D. I don’t mean to talk about you. I said “we” meaning including myself. Sorry!

So now we think we know that much. We are beautiful. We have this and this certificate, and that. In fact, we’ve lost the whole 99.999 percent of our great wisdom just to pay for that much worldly knowledge. In the end we have nothing because this is ephemeral; this knowledge will change. We know many medical definitions or many medicines have been proved outdated and then replaced by another. Or scientific facts have always been changed, removed and replaced by another idea, and then it would be replaced again and again, as humankind progresses into a higher consciousness.

Therefore, it doesn’t matter how much knowledge we gain from this world or from the brain power of research; we will never have the whole thing, just one little point in the universe. Just like the water in the cup is proud that he is so big and he doesn’t know that he is the whole ocean. When he is connected with the whole ocean, he becomes the ocean. I guess you understand what I say.

Forgive Yourself – part 3

We are here to search for this forgotten treasure and we never give up until we find it. That’s why our lives are never satisfactory because we always know there is something else, something greater than what we have right now. We always somehow know that we are not this container – the flesh, because after we so-called die, the body is still there but we cannot move; we cannot do anything; we cannot love any person; we cannot open our mouths; we cannot do anything at all! That means we are not the body. Something in the body is there to make the body move and work while we are living. Something in the body left when we die, so we cannot move any of our bodily instruments. So somehow we know; very deep in our hearts we know. Well, I know! I don’t know if you know. Do you know? You must know.

That’s why sometimes when you have time, when you are in trouble especially, you sit down and you don’t want to be with anyone; just want to be alone. Then you think, and then you feel better and better, because you know there is something there, something that sometimes comforts us in silence. I used to be like that before I knew the Quan Yin Method. I used to pray a lot. I prayed to Budddha and I prayed to Jesus. I was afraid that one of Them could not hear, so I prayed to anyone I knew. Sometimes I prayed to Krishna – the Hindu God.

There is no Hindu God; there is only God, actually. Just sometimes God assumes an Indian form or a Chinese form, so we call this Hindu God or Chinese God – actually there is no such thing.

So sometimes when I was in deep sorrow, before I knew the Quan Yin Method, I prayed very deeply, just to be alone; not to pray very loud, but to truly lament inside. Then I felt like something lifted me up, and I felt so soothed and so smooth, and I felt that there was nothing to worry about. That is the time when we realize that something is greater than life; something is always there to listen to us.

Most people pray, and they say they don’t have any response. It’s because they don’t pray deeply enough. That is why we have more response when we are in deep sorrow because we are truly sincere at that time. We pierce through all the layers of pretense, of hypocrisy and we pierce through our false self and we get the response. But I suggest that we don’t have to wait until we are in deep sorrow to do this. That would be too traumatic. We have a better way to do it. We practice it even when we are not in sorrow; that would be better. We practice before we die; that would be better. So when we die, it is just like walking from one room to the next. No problem! And we can walk out forever. We can break the whole cup and be united with the whole ocean, or we can keep it; we can seek another cup in order to satisfy someone else’s longing or to help someone else.

It’s like the Master, sometimes the Master reincarnates again and again, into different bodies, in order to help humankind. Some Masters just like to enjoy heaven, enjoy Nirvana and never want to go back again. Some Masters never, never ever incarnated on this Earth, with no intention to do so. Some Masters incarnate again and again in order to help the children who are suffering, who have the great treasure but don’t know how to use it; therefore, being very poor and miserable.

In India, people appreciate the Masters very much. They worship the Master even more than God because of this reason. They say, “Oh, if both the Master and God appear right now, I would only worship the Master. I don’t care about God.” It’s just a kind of adoration and gratefulness to the Master. Actually, they worship the Master because of God; they worship God because of the Master. Without the Master, they don’t know that true God exists or not. Yes. Without God Power, the Master is also nothing.

Forgive Yourself – part 2

So now, to meditate, to pray to God or to study the Holy Scriptures is Just a way to re program our thinking, our way of life. Because we reprogram it in a good way, the result that comes out is always good, or at least not as bad as before, or at least not all bad. Even though we can’t help to record some more bad information daily, the number will be less than before. It’s because we keep recording good things, like we meditate; we meditate on God name, we meditate on God Power and we get the God Power coming through us, filling us with joy, virtues and goodness. Then even the bad information comes in, it has no room, and also may be minimized. And because of the goodness and the powerful energy from God, through meditation each day, we will be able to dilute or maybe digest completely any information that is harmful to our minds and our souls. That’s why we cannot not to meditate! We cannot not to study the holy Scriptures.

Many people don’t like to study holy Scriptures. Why? Because they don’t understand. So I hear that many of the holy men from churches, or from temples, they complain that the young people or the people of today do not like to study Scriptures; do not like to study holy books. It is because most of the holy Scriptures are too profound, too sophisticated, too deep, sometimes too difficult for the modern man, for the layman to understand.

But we have one solution. First, we have to open the understanding power, then we can understand the Bible or the Scriptures. Anything you get into your hands, any book, you will be able to understand. I also could not understand much of what is said in the Bible or in the Bhagavad Gita or in the Buddhist Scriptures or in the Lao Tzu books and all that – Confucius and Lao Tzu books I read. I understood somehow but not as profound, not as deep, as I do now. After our power of understanding is open, the wisdom is made to be useful again, then we can understand many things. So if we do not understand the Scriptures, the best thing is first to get enlightenment. Enlighten means you open the power of understanding, and then the heavenly Light, Godly Light, will shed all understanding upon any object that we wish to study.

So that’s why even now in college, people teach the students many kinds of meditation, at least to calm their turbulent minds. And if they have a better meditation, the good kind of meditation, which can even open the seed, the door of wisdom, the power of understanding, then so much better for them. Therefore many of the students who study in college but at the same time meditate, they find it easier to master any subject that they want to study. And they are always very good at school. This is a fact that everyone knows by now.

Why is there reincarnation? It is because we do not know the real Self and we chase after the container of the Self. Therefore we chase after one to another. For example, the water in the sea is all one. If we happened to put it in a cup, or we put a cup into the sea like this and then we seal it, then the water in the cup is separated from the ocean. But as soon as the cup is broken, it becomes one with the ocean again.

Similarly, our real Self is not contained in this body, never! It’s because it’s all-pervading, and this is just one of the stations, one of the things, that contain a little bit of ourselves. Therefore, when we break this limitation, we will be one with the whole. We don’t have to break the body to go out; there is a way to go out.  Just like we don’t need to break the cup to free the water in the cup.

So there is a place where we can be connected with the whole universe while still keeping this instrument, the body. That is the third eye center, the seed of wisdom, the seed of the soul. If it is opened, by any means at all, by our own perseverance, power of desire for liberation or through a Master, then we will be connected right away with the whole universe, with the Most High, which is all over the place.

The power of the Most High is not only contained in this body but it is in the air right now. It’s everywhere. It’s in every blade of grass and the leaves of the trees, in all creation. It is easier to open it if we have an experienced guide who has already been connected with the whole universal Power. Then he is very powerful because he doesn’t use individual power anymore. He uses the whole universal Power, because he is already connected. Just like the water in the cup, even though it’s still in the cup but it’s always connected with the ocean water through the opener ; and there is always fresh water coming in and out, even though it is still contained in the cup. Therefore a Master, or an enlightened person, is like that. The initiated person is the one who has this connection, has the “button open, “ and the Master is the one who realizes the universal Power.

Even though we all have it, the Master is the one who realizes it. It’s just like if two persons have the same amount of money inherited from the father, but the one who knows it, who knows where it is, can use it. The other one, even though he has it but he puts it somewhere or he never knows where it is, can he use it? He cannot! Similarly, we are all the same, but if we know where to use our universal Power, then we will become masters of ourselves, masters of our destinies, and we can lead many others to become masters of their own destinies as well. Otherwise, even though we are equally great, we don’t know our greatness and that’s waste of time. Therefore, we have to come back again, again and again in search for this treasure, until we find it, then our journey ends. Very simple!

Forgive Yourself – part 1

Spoken by Master Ching Hai
November 25, 1993
Fremont Hindu Temple, CA, USA

 Thank you that we have the opportunity to see each other and also to have a devotional day to God, in whatever form and name we may call this Supreme God. I have to thank you and all of the people who have made the effort to push me here, because otherwise I wouldn’t do anything. So every time I have a chance to give a lecture or to be in a gathering. I will be again thankful and thankful, because then I feel that I am doing something right. If no one demands or requests or pushes me into this kind of work, then I won’t do anything. Yes. And I also don’t feel anything about it. I mean I don’t feel regret or I don’t feel remorseful that I don’t do the job.

I don’t know why such a beautiful job I never desire to do. I don’t know why.  Every time I do it, I feel it’s good  that I should do it, but then I never desire to do it again. Then someone pushes me out to give a lecture, then I am grateful again that I will do it. Do you know what that is? Must be laziness, I think (Laughter) I really don’t understand myself. People just say that, “When you are enlightened; you are Master, you are supposedly to know yourself.” But I must confess that I don’t know! I can just equally be happy stay home and sleep.  So I really don’t know. But when I am here, I am very happy and grateful that I am here. When I am in bed and sleeping, I am happy and grateful that I sleep. But I truly am grateful that you have pushed me to come here and you know, I feel just good, very good, that probably I become a little bit useful.

Also a temple is useful, that we can gather together and have a nice devotional day to the Supreme God. Or did you just come for lunch? (Laughter) No? You came for God, right? (Audience: Yes.)

Surely if we don’t have spiritual food, it doesn’t matter  what we eat; it will never satisfy us, mentally and physically. Therefore, we keep getting hungrier and hungrier, again and again, and even we eat a lot of nice food and vitamins we still get sick and sometimes distressed and indigestion.

In the Bhagavad Gita, it is mentioned that the food which was prepared for offering to God first and then we eat it, should be very nutritious and full of blessings for us. If, however, we prepare the food just for personal satisfaction then we truly make mistake. And that will give us a lot of dissatisfaction, and sometimes trouble – indigestion and all that. Actually, in the Bhagavad Gita it says stronger than this, very strongly, like: You eat in sin if you don’t offer first to God. So it’s not me who spoke like that; it’s Krishna.

Now, everything is the same; it’s not only food. All of you know the Bhagavad Gita or not? That is the book of wisdom of ancient India. It is about five thousand years old. It was spoken by the Supreme Master of that time, Krishna, the beloved black beauty. His complexion was dark, like many Indian people, but He was so beautiful and handsome that people called Him “heart-breaker.” It’s also because He breaks everyone’s heart when He leaves. And wherever He goes, people love Him, adore Him and make offerings to Him, just following Him madly.

I hear that He had about sixteen thousand wives. Well, the Indian people, sometimes they exaggerate things, but He must have a lot of followers. It’s not really wives, you know, disciples. Probably mostly were women, because probably He was very handsome – I hear! I wasn’t there. Maybe I was there but I forgot.

So the Bhagavad Gita is the record of the teachings of the Master, Krishna. You can find much wisdom and guidance in this book. I still look at it from time to time, because it is very beautiful, concentrated and wise. Sometimes you get solace and calmness by reading that book. If you truly understand and digest it, it is a wonderful masterpiece of wisdom.

Many of the Masters of the past have connection with the Indian law, therefore we could not, not to mention India and the Bhagacad Gita. Even Milarepa, do you know? the great yogi of Tibet. Even that great yogi of Tibet, his possessions consisted of a pot and the Bhagacad Gita.

Now, in that book it is mentioned that not only the food that we should first prepare in the spirit of offering to God before we take it, but also everything else we do in life must be an offering, must be a sacrifice, to the Supreme Spirit. In that case we will never reap any bad or any good results out of that, because bad results or good results bind us to this material world.

Even if sometimes we cannot help ourselves, we lose our temper, we get angry, and we know we shouldn’t. And then sometimes we feel very, very sorry for a long time, after our anger has already subsided. But, I tell you, forgive yourself. Forgive yourself anytime. Whatever you do, just make offering to God and let it be – whatever the outcome, because we are not the body anyhow. we are not the action. we are not the doers of anything in this world. Even if we are – suppose we are the doers – we still have to forgive ourselves. Forgive ourselves when we make mistakes or when we cannot help with our habits, like anger or sometimes greed and sometimes lustful thoughts, because these things also arise from circumstances. It’s not truly the Self; it’s not truly the soul that desires all these things.

So we always have to try again and again, and forgive ourselves after all – I mean, above all. Because the inside is God, the Supreme Wisdom, we can’t scold it; we can’t abuse it; we can’t be rude to it. So if we are angry with ourselves, we should be angry only with our habits, our accumulated habits. Or we should blame the situation also, not to blame the Supreme Wisdom, the real Self, because the real Self never errs, never make any mistakes.

Suppose we are even the doers and we are in society like this, sometimes we get angry. It’s not always our fault. Most of the time it is not. Sometimes everything can make us angry. For example, you work in a company and you work with the wrong person. Whatever you tell him, he just doesn’t understand. Or he understands but he does the other way around. He just makes you angrier and angrier. Even you forgive him again and again, he repeatedly does that. A very small thing, even a small thing irritates our minds and makes us feel miserable. So it is good that we know that there is something else above the mind and above the body.

The body is composed of only material substances, like earth, water, iron. Well, our iron inside is much enough to make a few nails. Do you know? And water, earth and maybe fire, the vital fire, so that the body would be warm and all that.

The mind is consisting of what? It’s just a collection of all kinds of information – bad and good. It is just like a computer – whatever you program it, and when you push the button, it comes out the same. One of our fellow practitioners, he has an electric organ, and he programs it into different musical rhythms, and he can play it again from the cassette. So the same thing with our brains. It would be empty; it would be absolutely blank, just like a brand new computer, until we start to record things and information, and sometimes good, sometimes bad. If we happened to record the good information and when we want to make use of it, then the good information comes out. If we happened to record the bad information, then of course the bad information comes out.

Questions and Answers after Lecture

Excerpt from Master Ching Hai’s Lecture

Q: Master, why Krishnamutri said, “Gurus and religion are crutches.” So he refused to be the crutch for his students.

M:  Probably what he meant is that if you are too attached to religious dogma or to any teacher at all, then you will be handicapped. In that sense he is correct. The teacher or the master is not the one on which you lean, but from which you gain experience and wisdom and then you walk yourself.  Good teacher should teach the student this way.

If a student of any master should feel that he is not yet able to develop himself, then he can pray to the Master, in the initial stage of his spiritual practice. Later when he grows up, he just automatically drops the Master.

It’s just like a person; not everyone can walk straight. I need an crane  to walk; my legs are weak sometimes. But when my legs are okay, I don’t need it. Someone, sometimes they are naturally born handicapped or accidentally handicapped, and then they need the crutches. It’s okay with him. Can you just kick him out, and say, “You don’t need the crutches. It will make you dependent!” Understand?

So we cannot just say like this – black and white – to say that the Master, the Guru or the religion is no good absolutely for people. It’s good to someone. If you don’t need it, it’s fine. If you need it, stay a while until you don’t.

So I don’t preach anything extreme. In my opinion, religions are also very good for many people. At least they learn the virtuous way of life. They fear God; they fear the law of cause and retribution, and many people become good. I tell you the truth. But, as long as we know that this is not the ultimate. For example, the Master, in the physical body is not the ultimate. The ultimate is inside the Master, and inside you! Through the Master you will find the ultimate. That’s fine! If you have not found it yet, you can rely on the Master, to help and carry you for a while, and then you can walk. It’s fine. But there is no such thing as extreme as to throw everything altogether.

The One Who Realize God and the Messiah of God – part 3

If we have already found a path that we think is suitable to our spiritual development, then it is fine, it good, and we should continue. We should try all our best to follow that chosen path. How do we know if that is the right path for us?

How do we know if we have chosen a good Master, or a good method? There has to be two conditions. First, we must be good disciples; second, the Master must be good. It cannot be one way. So, if we are very good disciples, if we have been very faithful, if we have done everything that a disciple is requested to do, and if that path or the Master’s teaching gives us satisfaction, gives us more love, wisdom and peace, that is the right path. Understand? But we must do our best. We cannot get something for nothing. Otherwise no need for a Master even.

If after you have tried so hard and have tried your best on many paths and you could not find complete satisfaction, we invite you to come to this path, because we know this path is very fast, quick and simple. In our times we don’t have so much energy and time to follow a very complicated, long and difficult path. Also, there is another reason why, our life is very unpredictable. We do not know if we will live until tomorrow. So whatever we can get today is the best.

Before I left home to find God-realization, I had only one prayer; “God, if You exist, please help me or through me open the eyes of people, because people cannot open them themselves. How can You demand them to keep Your commandments, to love You, and to worship You when they don’t know You? You must open their eyes for them to see You first.”That was my prayer. Probably the sincerity touched God’s compassion, so I was granted what I wished.

After studying many people’s character and human psychology by my daily contact with different people, I have come to realize that sincerity is difficult to have. This is the only reason why we cannot realize God, who is very close and very near to us in our hearts. It is because most of us are so attached to the physical appearance of this world. On one hand we say we want to know God, but on the other hand we cannot forsake what we have, even if God wants us to do it. That is the only reason why we cannot reach God. Otherwise we could do it just like this.

That is what I have come to understand and I would like to share it with you, because God is not so difficult to reach; it is difficult for us to forsake the material world. It is our deep attachment that prevents us from going near God. This sound very simple, but it is the very original reason. That is why in the Bible it is stated that you cannot worship both God and mammon.

Therefore God has thought of some special method to help us, the attached souls, the encaged spirits. This method is not known to a lot of people, just to some groups. Only in this modern time has the message been spread all over the world. But because of that, whoever brings the message has to suffer a great deal, more than at the time of Buddha and Jesus. In order to bring the message to humankind, there must be someone who will do it. I think you understand what I mean.

Even when the message is spread all over the world, not all people will take it. Therefore you can imagine how difficult it was when Jesus or Buddha were alive, when means of communications were more restricted. Then even fewer people followed them. In the ancient times, people complained that the freedom of religion was restricted; and the people who believed in Jesus or different Masters in those times were very frightened of being persecuted, chased, questioned, jailed, and punished. Even then, people’s faith under such circumstances was very strong, and they appreciated what they received perhaps more than in modern times.

In modern times when we get the message so easily, we probably do not believe the value of the message. When it is more open and more easily available, it is more open to criticism and therefore also has disadvantages. So we cannot do anything. No solution! If it is difficult, then it is difficult to get, to practice, to meet the Master. It is difficult to get together and understand, difficult to get the information from the Master, and difficult to progress and to improve the spiritual movement of the Master.  But when it is easy to access, we will think, ”Oh, how can it be so easy? I think it is no good. I have to think about it, or maybe next time.“ So, there’s no solution.

Still, God always loves humankind, so God always tries and the Masters always try their best to bring the holy message, the best solution, the best method to offer to the brothers and sisters of this Earth.

We always have our fantasy. We imagine the Master must be like this, like that and the God-realization method must be like this, like that, must be very difficult to attain, or must be so-and-so. So many of these preconceived ideas and the outside circumstances sometimes prevent us from knowing the Truth. It is not entirely our fault. It is because the material existence is too difficult for us; it has brainwashed each one of us into such a condition, into a way of thinking in which we could hardly escape. That is what makes the job of the Masters difficult and that is what makes our God-realization difficult.

But even then, it is worthwhile to try. If something is so easy to realize, I guess it is also not very interesting. So we should struggle in our own way to understand what God is or at least to know who we are, why we are here, and where we will go after a few years in this world. Where will we go? Why are we here for only a few years or a few decades? We have fed ourselves with so much beef, pork and vegetables of this world to grow that big, so at least we must know why. If we do not have answers to these questions, we will never be happy. This is the only simple reason why we must realize ourselves, we must realize God for our own satisfaction. We can never be happy, no matter in which position we are placed or how many material possessions we are given, until we realize this very basic fundamental question.

Therefore you will never find a truly happy person in this world, even if he is a king. But Jesus’ disciples were happy and the disciples of our path are happy. They truly have the inner happiness. Not that I give them money, praise them, or do anything to make them happy externally. Why is that? It’s because they have found the answer. They are doing what they are supposed to do as a human duty. They are fulfilling the purpose of human life.

Each one of us is given human life only for the purpose of realizing God. If we forsake this duty, we will never be happy in this life or I any other lives. To tell you the truth, this is the only reason for human suffering, and nothing else. If we realized how we struggled in our mothers’ wombs, how we repented our past lives’ mistakes, and how we promised God to utilize this present life in a very meaningful manner to serve Him, before we were born, then we would never waste one second to think of anything else but to try our best in all our leisure time to realize God!

But as soon as we are born into this world we forget everything, because it is the law of the material world to let people forget. Therefore it is necessary that a Master come and remind us again and again and again, until we remember what we had promised to God inside the wombs of our mothers. We might not remember with our physical brains, but our souls, the ability of our wisdom will remember. Then it could happen that we’ll follow the Master’s teaching, that we’ll go back to the path of God. Then that will be our luckiest day. I wish all of you this lucky day.

Thank you for your attentive, loving attention. Amen!

The One Who Realize God and the Messiah of God – part 2

Actually, not many people have the very high hope of attaining the position of Jesus or Buddha. Therefore people always say Jesus was the only one or Buddha was the only one. In a way it is true, but it is not. Otherwise Jesus would not have told us, Whatever I can do, you can do better. We don’t need to wish to become world-famous like Buddha or Jesus, but we could aspire to be God-realized and to be of help to ourselves and to whomever we are in touch with.

So the purpose of practicing any method or walking on any path at all is to realize ourselves, to realize God; not that we want to be like Jesus or Buddha. When God wants us to be one, we could not even refuse, whether we want to or not. I’m not frightening you. It is the truth I have known by my own experience. Also I may tell you that to be in a position of Jesus or Buddha is no fun either. So it is OK not wanting to become one.

Why is it that the only Son of God, like Jesus, had to suffer, had to bear the cross? Or someone like Buddha, who had all the power, must bear all the misunderstandings, insults and attacks from the people at that time? It is partly because of the ignorance of the mass of people. It is also partly because the body of the Master must bear some of the karma of his disciples. But the Master can do that only when he or she is still in the physical body. Therefore it was necessary that Jesus came to the Earth to suffer for the people at that time, to bear the cross.

When people come to a Master who has kept this power, no doubt they come to worship the Master. They bring fruit, flowers and their love, but they also deposit their debts at the feet of the Master. Even though the ocean of mercy from the Almighty will wash away most of the debris people bring, some of the residue still lingers where it was deposited and the Master’s body must bear this burden.

Jesus was not the only one who suffered such a terrible punishment from people. If you study the lives of many of the Saints in the ancient times or in India, you will know they had similar fates. Some Masters were even burned alive or made to sit on a hot iron pan under the hot sun. Some Masters were even flaked alive, you know, cut to pieces, one piece by one piece, like vivisection. This was even in India, in a holy land, in the land where most people were vegetarians, saintly and know about the Scriptures. So, I have told you that to be in the position of Jesus or Buddha is no fun.

But there are only the physical sufferings that we can see with our eyes. There are mental sufferings that the Masters silently bear, which we don’t know. Therefore, thank God that He hasn’t chosen many; otherwise I don’t think anyone would like to become a Master.

You may ask me, “Then, why should we practice? Why should we meditate on God?” We must, because otherwise we will suffer too much, and the whole race of humankind will suffer. Since the ancient times, our world has undergone a great evolution and it has become more civilized today because of the many people who have followed the teachings of the Masters.

When a Master comes to the Earth, not only the disciples are uplifted and shown the wisdom, but the whole of humankind will also be purified and uplifted to a certain higher level of consciousness. Therefore, after many Masters have graced our Earth, the world has become better, as it is today. But even then, it has not reached the level of the heavenly understanding. It has not reached the same consciousness like many other worlds in the universe. We are, to the other worlds, very, very young, and very backward in spiritual understanding.

In the heavenly worlds, where we can visit sometimes with our meditative merit, we can see that the people who live over there do not need to communicate with language. Even though they still have to learn spiritual lessons, they are very advanced, very intelligent, and the Masters over there do not need to speak. When they want to study with the Master, the Master’s presence is enough for them to understand everything; there are no doubts, no questions, no answers and no complicated thinking. Everything will be absolutely clear in the presence of the Master.

When I see in our world, that even with so many lectures and back and forth arguments, with the fulfillment of so many desires and wishes of people, and with answering so many questions, still we do not understand very well. Therefore, God continues to send different Masters to this world, and any Master who comes to this world must suffer the language problem and the mental retarding ability of its people. Not all Masters are willing to come to this world to teach, even very briefly, like Jesus. Therefore, when any Master comes to this world, the whole universe praise, cheer, and applaud.

But then, someone must come.  Because the whole universe is linked together in a kind of fraternity, in a brotherhood, just like the members in a family. If one world or one planet is backward in spiritual advancement, the other planets will also suffer in some ways. Just as if one member in a family did something wrong, the whole family will also be affected. Sometimes even the whole nation has to bear the consequences of one person. Therefore it would be a great help to our world and to the universe if we catch up with the spiritual lessons and try to improve our understanding in any way we can.

The One Who Realize God and the Messiah of God – part 1

spoken by Master Ching Hai
Costa Rica
May 29, 1991

In obedience to God’s command and to the request of the disciples in Costa Rica, I am here today with the honor to greet you, the citizens of a great nation. Let’s pray that God will open our hearts so that we may think the same way and understand the same way tonight.

We all know that God is in our heart, but why is it so difficult to know Him? Why must Jesus come down to suffer in order to show people the way to God? Couldn’t God do it Himself without having to sacrifice His son? Do you know?

If God is in our heart, why couldn’t he make us recognize him?  It’s because we are too complicated, even for God to handle.  We imagine that God is like this, like that, and we have dictated God to do this or that for us, without truly wanting to know what God is.  We pray many times but we don’t know what true sincerity is.  Yes, we are very sincere, but we pray for different things, not for God-realization, and even if we do pray for God-realization, we do not put our whole attention and sincerity into our prayers.

It’s not that we do not want to offer God our utmost sincerity. It’s that we could not do it in this physical world because there are so many temptations, so many prejudices. so many preconceived ideas, and so many wrong teachings.  God in his almighty, highest level could not reach us directly because between our thinking, our way of life, our perception and God there is a great distance.  In order to bridge this distance, Jesus, for example, had to come.

When Jesus appeared on earth, most of the people didn’t recognize him even though there were many prophesies at that time predicting that the Messiah, the Savior, was coming.  When he finally came, they could not believe it.  It was also because of the fantasy of our minds, the fantasy that if the Son of God came, he must be glorious, he must be different from everybody else, probably his nose should grow on top of his head!

I just remembered how the Buddha was depicted in the Buddhist scriptures and I couldn’t help laughing. I’m sorry.  It’s good that you don’t know Buddhism, otherwise you would probably laugh to death.  Do you want to hear what the Buddha looked like?  Okay.  Don’t blame me, and don’t think I am preaching Buddhism to you.

Buddha was supposed to have eighty superior marks and thirty two beautiful significant, holy signs.  Now I will just tell you a few, okay?  According to these so-called scriptures, the Buddha’s tongue was so long, his ears were so big, and his hair curled all over his body like a sheep.  Also he was supposed to have a big lump of flesh sticking out of his head like a horn, like a unicorn perhaps.  Can you imagine, when the Buddha talked, his tongue stick out so long like this?(Master demonstrates) Would it not frighten anybody?  And, he was supposed to walk like a goose.  Those were supposed to be the holy signs.  His face was supposed to be like a lion and his shoulders like a bear.  There were many more animal signs, but I don’t want to talk any more.  In conclusion, Buddha looked like a very strange creature!

So now, if any Buddha were to come to this world and people would look for these kinds of signs, then we would be at an end, because I don’t think we could  find anybody who would be suitable.  So Jesus was lucky because he lived only three and a haft years after his public appearance.  If he lived any longer, probably people would have made more out of his appearance, like Buddha.  Then we would have to wait long, long ages for him to appear again as promised, because we would be looking for someone like that.

What we should know is that it’s not Jesus in person or Buddha in body that would appear to us again on this earth to teach us anything; it is the spirit.  When a spirit from God descends upon the earth, it can be housed in any kind of body.  Because Jesus was a very realized saint, he understood this and he never claimed that he was the only one who was capable of doing anything he did.  He was the only one, but at that time only.  When he finished his earth life, someone else would come.  Not really someone else, it is another kind of body which clothes the same power, the same spirit.  Do you understand?

Anybody that houses this power from God we call him or her the chosen one or the Son of God.  God chooses whomever he likes to be his messiah.  It’s not even our choice.  We can aspire to be one, we can make ourselves ready, purified and available, but God chooses.  That’s why it is a little rare.

We could be saints, we could be holy, and we could be realized persons, but we do not need to be a messiah, an prophet.  Even then, we could profit the whole world, the whole universe a great deal without having to be an openly chosen one from God.  That is the only difference between a messiah or a chosen one and a realized person.  In a God-realization person, there is God’s power, there is God-realization.  But in a chosen one , there is totally everything in order to help mankind, in order to suffer, and in order to glorify God personally.

Therefore, con-temporarily with Jesus and Buddha were many other saints, but they didn’t have to suffer the way Jesus did, because they were not the chosen ones.  Therefore Jesus said, “No one goes to the Father except through me”; but then he also said, “After I leave, I will send comforters to you, so grieve not”.  He promised that whatever he could do, his disciples could do better.  So that means everyone could realize God and be as great as Jesus was.  Whether we will be the chosen on or not is up to the Almighty’s will.

One Can Attain Enlightenment Anywhere – part 5

Now, when we practice this so-called Quan Yin Method, we will understand many things of the universe, many things of this world that we never dream of understanding before. There are things we can express to our neighbors, but there are many things, numerous things, that we can never talk about, because the world of the Buddha is extraordinary and exceptional. There is nothing in this world we can compare it to or make an example of.

Much of our wisdom remains unused. But after we become enlightened and become more and more enlightened, a portion of it will be incorporated into our daily life to make us more loving, more intelligent, more selfless and more able to serve the world. And whatever we do, will be better quality. Of course, we have a long way to go to become a Buddha, but compared to before enlightenment, we have much, much greater intelligence and capability. Therefore enlightenment is not only for monks, not only for the renunciate in the Himalayas or the people in the mountain caves, it is for everyone of this world.

Why do I say much of our wisdom remains unused? It is because some of our knowledge is for preparation for the Buddha Land, and only some of it can be used in this world. The limitations of this world, lack of material, lack of different information  make us unable to use most of the wisdom. For example, when we achieve a little bit higher level of practice, we are able to see the land of the Buddha. That is not the highest level. To be able to see the Buddha Land, to see the Buddha is not the highest level. It is high but not the highest. Now, I just cited an example, you are able to see inside of the Buddha Land, or the Buddha. I think you can say, it is at the middle level of practice.

When you see the Buddha Land you are in the middle level. We can say approximately like that. There is much more to go, but when we can see the Buddha Land we are already much wiser. We would have learned a great deal during our meditation, during our daily practice, during our sleep.

After the initiation, even when we are asleep, we go to the higher land and learn many things. Otherwise two and half hours of practice every day is not enough. We use any rest period to learn also. Any activities become in-built with Buddha’s wisdom. Then when we see the Buddha Land, we learn many things and we know how to build houses in a different manner. We know how to build many things, for example, UFO’s. We know that houses in the Buddha Land are build in crystals, with diamonds, with gold instead of brick and cement, because we have been there and have seen that. We have seen many other extraordinary machines being built. This is just an example. It is a true example.

And then when you come back to this world, out of your meditation, out of the trip to the Buddha Land, and you, for example, want to construct such a house, such machinery in order to help human beings, you cannot find such beautiful crystals in this world. You cannot find such a wonderful method in this world to build this kind of house, to build this kind of machinery. Therefore, your wisdom, your knowledge remains unused. That is why I said much of our wisdom remains unused in this world, except when all human beings are enlightened.

We hope that day will come, then we will all enjoy Nirvana here. The atmosphere will change and all the disasters will disappear. All the sicknesses and sorrow will be no more. Then there is no need even for UFO. But until that day, we have to practice ourselves, and be satisfied with this world.

After leaving this world a practitioner of the Quan Yin Method will not have to be reborn again in this world, unless that person wants to come back as Buddha, a Bodhisattva to help the suffering of humankind, because there are many more beautiful, extraordinary, magnificent worlds for the practitioners of the Quan Yin Method to go. He has no need of this suffering world. His wisdom, his vibration, after practicing the Quan Yin Method has risen to the level of sainthood and enables him to be fit to live in the glory of Kingdom of God or Nirvana. Otherwise to the ordinary person, the Light, the glory of Heaven is terrible, is unbearable for them. They will not be able to bear it. This is just like the beggar not used to the palace of the king. He will feel very uncomfortable and humiliated. In which case, even the servant, the lowest kind of servant will look better and more confident than him.

Therefore we have to be prepared for the Buddha Land or for Heaven. We have to change our internal wisdom, we have to change our vibration, the frequency of our internal being. I just wanted to give you an example to understand. Even in this world, we have people with different frequencies.

That is the reason when we see someone we feel very comfortable or when we see someone else we feel very disturbed and we do not understand why. That is the reason why many people like to come to see the monks, to see the religious leaders, to see the yogis, or to see the practitioners of some kind. That is the reason why people loved to see the Buddha or Jesus Christ when they were alive, which caused a lot of envy and jealousy amongst the contemporary so-called practitioners. It is because when people see such persons, their vibration, their holy frequency, their very enlightened, comfortable, healing energy will make people around feel so comfortable, so blissful and so enlightened. Therefore now you remember and understand that the different vibrations, the different frequencies truly do exist.

So after we practice Quan Yin Method for some time, we will feel ourselves, the different vibrations between different people, we will be able to sense it, and we will be able to know ourselves. We will be able to know what kind of level we are in. When we reach the level of “non-level,” the “non-discriminating level,” then we can say that is Buddha hood.

Of course, you are all welcome and are invited to join this circle, free of charge, no string attached, free of any condition. Of course, you ask me where do I get all this money from. You can be sure that it is not forced from you, from your pocket. God gives me all the money I need, and much more that I ever needed so that I can donate to the poor and the needy of this world. God also gives me the spiritual wealth, more than I ever need, so that I can share it with all the people of the world. The money does not rain from the Heaven. God gives me many talents so I am able to earn money through these. Now if you have any questions and issues that are not clear to you, I am honored to answer.

Thank you for your attention.

One Can Attain Enlightenment Anywhere – part 4

The ultimate way to reach the Buddha hood is mentioned in the Surangama Sutra, and in many other scriptures of the world religions. After practicing the Quan Yin Method you will understand exactly what I said, without anyone having to teach you so. In the Surangama Sutra, it is said that the ultimate way, the last road is the Quan Yin Method. Quan Yin Method is to listen to your own inner Nature.

There is a kind of Energy, a kind of vibration that can be heard without the ears. These silent Words of God, of Buddha are the source of all wisdom. If whatever I said appeals to you and seems a little wise to you, it is due to the Quan Yin Method that I have practiced, that I have learned directly from the source of all creation. Of course, these are the things that I can express by words. There are many more things that only I can understand and cannot be explained in human languages. But there are some things that you could know without explanation.

For example, at the time of initiation, at the time that you want to learn the method which is called Quan Yin in Surangama Sutra, you will immediately attain what we call enlightenment and have many kinds, or some kinds, or one kind of experience, which is stated in the above mentioned scriptures of the world religions. And you will continue to have this enlightenment, you will develop the enlightenment, and the enlightenment will even get greater, because we are in direct contact with our Buddha Nature or the Kingdom of God. My disciples can testify to my words.

You are always welcomed to write and ask any of them. You can write to American disciples. You can write to English disciples. You can write to European disciples. You can write to Chinese disciples, Vietnamese disciples, disciples in Philippines, disciples in Singapore, disciples in Thailand. Just pick any name and ask them whether what I have said is true. That is how we know whether the Quan Yin Method is truly in accordance with the great religions of the world. At least I mean the five great religions.

Now religion is not merely recitation of the words of the past Masters, like Buddha, like Jesus Christ…but it is the incorporation of their wisdom into our daily lives. It is the sincere upkeep of their precepts, their commandments. And it is the polishing of wisdom daily within a very wise method. If all of this is combined together, we can call it a religion.

A true Buddhist must be able to contact the Buddha inside, knowing what the Buddha is. A true Christian should be able to contact Christ or God, otherwise how do we know if God exists. If Buddha is real, a true Buddhist should be able, at least to have a glimpse of something from the Buddha Land, or some glimpse of the great Light of the Buddha, or be able to hear  Buddha’s teaching directly. This is what Quan Yin Method enables you to do.

The Buddha does not teach with the ordinary English or with ordinary Korean language. But the Buddha’s teaching is with a quiet voice, in the universal language, which is very much like a beautiful melody. That is why in the Buddhist scriptures, it is stated that the Buddha speaks only in one kind of language, but all beings are able to understand in their own languages. It is the true scripture, the true teaching of the Buddha. That is why the more we listen to this inner Sound the wiser we become. The more we see the inner Light of God, of Buddha, the wiser we will be. This is how we become the true followers of Buddha or of Christ.

This is not expressed in the Bible or in the Buddhist Scriptures. It only mentions the Quan Yin Method. It only mentions the experiences of the practitioners of the Quan Yin Method. It does not mention how to practice it. Even it does mention, but without the Power of a realized Master, it is not real.  Because the way of the Buddha cannot be taught by language, or by action. It can only be transmitted from inner wisdom to our own wisdom. It is our wisdom that receives the initiation, the awakening, not our brain or our mind. Therefore, there is a necessity of a so-called “initiation,” to bring down the Buddha’s Power from Nirvana to awaken our own Buddha’s Power.

When I say Nirvana you should also understand it means the Kingdom of God in Christianity. I am also like the Korean people,  I do not discriminate amongst any religion. I think we have the same kind of understanding. That is why I feel so good in Korea, even at the first meeting with the Korean people.

So it is not explained in the Scriptures how to do it, because it has to be transmitted internally. But, because there were so many experiences, the results of the practice have been written in the Scriptures. Therefore, if we now have the same kinds of experiences, we know that we practicing the right method.

Actually, the method is not as important as the transmission of the Power of the wisdom. It is just because in our society we have to offer some kind of a concrete project, otherwise people do not accept. Therefore, we have to say I have a method for you. Therefore, you will understand, yes there is something to learn, something to know, something to develop. Otherwise, even if there is such a method, or even if it is written down in black and white, you have no benefit when reading it, because the Master’s power, the transmission lineage is missing.

Therefore, from ancient times you do not find such a method was written down. That is why most people understood the practicing of the Buddha hood to be a kind of mystery, very difficult to understand, very difficult to obtain. Yes, it is, but no, it is not. Yes, if we do not find someone who knows it, but if we find someone who has already known it, it’s very easy. And we can get immediate enlightenment, provided that we are sincere and the master accepts us.

That is how I learned. So that is how you can learn also. Even though there is nothing material to obtain, but there is something that we will know very well, when we are enlightened.

Are you tired already? (Applause) Should I continue? (Loud applause) Thank you. I appreciate your sincerity. That is what makes Korea become a great country, because of the spirituality that Korean people are after. Even though they are very capable of building a nation.

One Can Attain Enlightenment Anywhere – part 3

There were many other Saints, who were sent down from time to time to help to enlighten the people of this world. But then the Buddha had forgotten for almost thirty years, until he saw with his own eyes the suffering of the people of India at that time.

Therefore we do not know whether we are also Buddha, until we get enlightened, by chance or by the grace of any enlightened Master. Of course, you are invited to know yourself, to know whether you are a Buddha or not a Buddha.  Then you will know what the Buddha said is true Everyone is a Buddha. Everyone has the Buddha Nature inside waiting to be discovered.

But of course the ability to discover ourselves varies from one person to another. Therefore the levels of enlightenment are different. But if two persons have the same level of consciousness, their experiences are much the same. That is why the way of practice is called the “Tao,” which means the Path, the Road. Since it is a “road,” each one who travels this “road” will see practically the same things. The things which they see difference only by the length of the road that they have discovered. But if two persons have discovered the same distance, they should have experienced the same scenery.

If the Tao is different, how come all the Buddhas reached the same Buddha hood and did not reach anything else. If there are many roads, then the experiences of the people must be different from each other. But according to the Buddhist Sutras and other Holy books of different religions, the experiences of different people, who practice the Holy way are the same, or more or less the same.

There are of course, many, many wonderful experiences, when you become realized inside. But I’ll just cite some practical examples. Such as, in all kinds of religions, it mentioned the great Light of God, the great Light of the Buddha or scenes from the Buddha Land. I have studied various Scriptures of different religions, and whatever is mentioned is very similar to other scriptures. It is difficult to discern this matter before enlightenment, but after enlightenment, or even with a small degree of enlightenment, we will be able to see this very clearly. That is why I have mentioned earlier that the great people of Korea are very elevated, very high level of consciousness.

It is the same people of India, because they have understood the basic similarities of many religions. Some people think that the people of India worship many Gods. It is not that a multitude of hierarchies of Gods exists in India. It is just that they symbolically respect all the leaders, all the masters of different religions past and present.

In Korea we have many temples, so many churches and so many other practicing centers. It is much similar in spirit. But I think the Korean people are blessed with the more practical aspect of life. Therefore they understand both, the spirit and they take care of their material comfort. I have stated that it is very rare.

Now let us come back to what I just have said before. We do not have to lose all this attainment in the material world in order to gain enlightenment. We can sit in our house, enjoy all the comforts, fulfill our duties, and become great enlightened Saints at the same time. Provided that, we sincerely want enlightenment in order to understand more about life, death and the universe, about any other matters that we could not understand previously in order to serve the world in a better way, in a wiser way and to be of use to ourselves and the whole universe.

We have to think like the Buddha. We have to live the way of the Buddha. We do not just worship the Buddha. The Buddha said that we are the future Buddhas. He said it two thousand six hundred  years ago. We are in that future now, so there is no more time to wait. We could become a Buddha now; at least we learn the way of the Buddha or how to become a Buddha.

The way of the Buddha is laid out in all the Scriptures, but how to become a Buddha is not explained. Therefore, we have worshipped the Buddha for many thousands of years but we have not dreamed of becoming a Buddha. Because how to become a Buddha is not to be done by spoken languages. It is the Power that is inherent inside us, and we have to do it, to discover it ourselves. If you could do it alone, it is fine and good. If we could not reveal our own greatness, then we have to seek someone to show us how to do it.

Similarly, if we could not speak English and we could not learn it ourselves, then we must find a very good English teacher. It is very simple and similar to any kind of science. As I have said the way is the same. There may be many sideways before the highway, but ultimately there is only one way.

One Can Attain Enlightenment Anywhere – part 2

It is very comfortable to stay in the Himalayas or to stay in some remote, quiet place to enjoy the bliss of the meditational fruit. But it is a greater joy to share this bliss and practice, the fruit of our practice, with the multitude of the people, and practice. It took me a long time to realize this. It was also difficult to forsake Nirvana. It is difficult to realize, after you have attained peace and happiness inside, to remember that in the world there are many people still suffering. It is not very difficult, but it just happens to be not so easy to convince yourself to go out into the world again. Because, when we are in a blissful state of mind, we think differently. We feel differently. We feel everyone is a Buddha. We see the world is in perfect order. It is because of the different state of mind. That is why Lao Tzu in Tao Te Ching said; There is nothing to do under the Heaven.

But in fact, there is something to do, because when we remember our previous ignorance before enlightenment, we were also in a kind of spiritual suffering. Then somebody came and asked me to come out and teach them, to help them, and it is difficult to say no. But it is good for someone to come and ask for enlightenment or for help spiritually. Otherwise, I think no Master ever thinks of going out into the world to share the knowledge and the bliss, that person or Master has attained.

As I have stated earlier, it is not the selfishness of the Master. It is just that the realized person thinks differently and feels different. That is why someone had to force Lao Tzu to write the great book, Tao Te Ching. He was forced to write it. He was forced to reveal along with the book, the invisible written secret, which was revealed only to a few. It is not the book that is important. It is the mystery, the unwritten words that Lao Tzu has revealed to these chosen few, which was important.

Buddha, when He was enlightened, did not want to go out into the world to teach anyone, because he thought he should enjoy Nirvana. In case some of you do not understand “Nirvana,” it is a word in Sanskrit to indicate a very high state of consciousness, blissful, tranquil, desire less state of mind. But then the God Brahma appeared to him and appealed to him to go out to teach the eager people. Probably at that time, he was hiding somewhere and no one was near him to come to appeal to him for enlightenment. So the God Brahma had to do it.

Now we would wonder why Brahma had to make this request like this. It was because many people prayed to Brahma for blessings, enlightenment and deliverance. Brahma is the God of the Third Heaven. According to Hinduism, Brahma is the creator of our world, of this universe….

…..

So we answered the question why Brahma requested Buddha to spread enlightenment doctrine to the world at that time. It is because Brahma being one of the Gods, not of the highest rank in the hierarchy of the Universal Government, could see and hear the suffering of the world, whereby the Buddha at that time, in his highest realization could not. So someone like Brahma had to remind Him.

We often think that the Buddha, the Almighty God will listen to our prayers. But according to my knowledge, it is not so, because according to the highest power, the world is already in order, and all the sufferings in the world are lessons for us to go through in order to grow and mature.  God, the Almighty God, the highest Buddha, does not worry much. It is some other kind of God or lower Bodhisattva who understands and sympathizes with our suffering.

Just like the highest authority of the educational system gives orders for a team to think up the questions in the examination. He does not worry about whether the students can answer them or not and the sufferings of the students who cannot answer. So some of the teachers have to take care and help the students to overcome all these obstacles.

I think I am getting into trouble now – talking about something so abstract. Are you all right? Can you still follow? (Applause) All right. Then I shall continue.

When Buddha reached the highest realization, he reached back to his original Self again, and this original great Self is always in bliss and eternally peaceful. Therefore, he could not understand much of the suffering of the ignorant people, who have not reached the state of enlightenment like he did.

Brahma was the one who looked after the welfare of this world, seeing who is doing good, who is doing bad, so he knows better. Just like the president or the king of a nation has to rely on his ministers, his subordinates of lower ranks like congressman, the ministers, etc… to report to him the wishes of his people.

So now, when we the people suffer enough from the cloud, the prison of our ignorance, we will pray to the Almighty or the greatest Buddha to help to deliver us. And then when it is reported to the Almighty, someone will be sent here to lead these people out of their mind of suffering. The Buddha was one of those who was sent down; so was Jesus.

How to Make Peace on Earth – part 4

My purpose is not to preach Buddhism or Christianity. All these things you can read in books, you can inquire from churches, temples or from many other monks or nuns. All of them can tell you what Buddhism is, what Christianity is, etc. I have no intention to preach about these things, but I have the intention to build some peace in this world because we are all brothers and sisters.

Peace can only be obtained through wisdom and enlightenment, not through any illusionary imagination and money wasting talks at any table or in any nation. Everyone thinks if he becomes a politician, a priest or a monk, he can bring some peace to this Earth, or at least to their nation. But without wisdom, what can we do? The more we do, the more we go wrong. Also, if one person has wisdom and most of the people in the country have no wisdom, what shall we do? Only if we can get in contact with the original wisdom can we ever do things in the right way. Otherwise, even if we want peace and sincerely want to build peace in this world, we make war. That is because some people believe in making peace with force “If you don’t listen to me, if you don’t listen to my country, I will force you to listen.” Only when we have God’s wisdom and enlightenment, we can  then do things in the correct way. Therefore, we see many kings and queens come and go and the world is still at war. Maybe we have not had enough enlightened kings and queens!

In Au Lac and in China also, we call a good king an enlightened king. This is very clear that even if we want to govern a nation, we should also be enlightened. What is meant by enlightened? It means that our wisdom is opened. We are more intelligent, super intelligent, so we see things differently than we did in the ordinary state. Just like when we were babies or children, even though we could speak, eat, and understand, we were not wise enough to take care of our parents’ business, and not wise enough to take care of the household.

So, if we use our brains only 5%, how can we talk about governing the nation and the world? In China they say, “First, be enlightened, then you can take care of your household, then you can govern the nation, and then you can bring peace into the world.” “First be enlightened,” Practice, and your virtues and light will develop. Only then you can take care of your household. Can you imagine? To have a good household, we have to be enlightened? Only when you can take care of your household then you can talk about peace in the world.

Therefore, man like Jesus and Buddha were truly messengers of peace, truly kings of the world. Therefore, in India, they call such a person “the great king,” or “the king of kings.” We must not have any ambition to be “the king of kings”; but we should have ambition to contribute to the peace in this world, to construct a beautiful structure for this world, where our children and grand children will live in prosperity and happiness. So, that is what we call “First be enlightened, then we can take care of the household, then we can govern the nation, and then we can bring peace to the Earth.”

If we only talk about peace and want to bring peace to the Earth, and we ourselves are not peaceful, then it is a joke. If we only build churches and temples, but we do not care for the living temples, then it is a wrong attitude, because in the Bible it says, We are the temple of God and the Holy Spirit lives here. (Master points to her heart) God lives here, God lives in you. Make the temple pure. If we begin with ourselves and let peace begin from here, (Master points to her forehead) and from every person, then we don’t need any church, we don’t even need the Bible or the Buddhist Sutras. We don’t even need any master, we don’t need any organization or the United Nations.

So, I hope that whatever I do, I would bring some inspiration to you so that you might also be inspired to find peace, to find wisdom and God within yourselves. That is why I am here; not for Buddhism, not for Catholicism. I just want to offer you enlightenment so that you might take care of your household better, so that you might take care of your nation better, and so that we might together bring peace on this Earth. Amen!

How to Make Peace on Earth – part 3

December 16, 1989 Argentina

At the moment, we are abusing the natural resources. For example, hydrogen is for us to breathe, also to make the universe stable. If we draw hydrogen into a block and make a bomb out of it, which we call a hydrogen bomb, then our air will become thinner, there will be less hydrogen in it, and the whole universe might be disturbed. Just like when we use bricks and visible materials to build houses, the universe has invisible materials to build the universe. If we disturb this structure in any place, then the universe might not be stable. Similarly when we destroy part of this house, or break one wall, the whole house is affected.

Therefore recently we have seen many UFO’s, or space ships. Someone asked me about extra-terrestrials yesterday, “If they exist why didn’t they come before?” They didn’t have to. “Why do they come now?” Because we are too threatening to them and to ourselves. We are too ignorant  playing with dangerous things.

Do not think I come to preach Buddhism or want your sympathy or any of your properties. I want nothing. I only want the world to have peace so everyone can have time and a chance to develop their own talent, or their own capabilities. Humans should live together as humans, not as beasts. Up to now, most of the things we do are just similar to that animals do, nothing for humans to be proud of. Animals eat, make children, and love each other. We do the same. If we do not know God or the Buddha Nature within us, we are not much different. Is that not so? Please don’t be angry with me, someone must tell the truth sometimes. Otherwise, we all sleep, dream our dream, and feel proud of ourselves. Proud of what? What can we be proud of? All these atomic bombs? All these hydrogen bombs? All the poverty in this world? All these miseries? Hatred? Violence? Over-population? Hungry kids? What have we made out of this Heaven?

You were told that this world was Heaven before. What have we done to make it become like this? A handful of people are worrying about this beautiful planet. Other people sleep, eat, make love, and make money. Even when they go to church, I don’t know if they pray. Even if they go to the temples, I don’t know what they pray to the Buddha. Yes, they do pray! They pray for their own welfare, for their own business and for their own sons and daughters. How about the neighbors? Should we pray for them also? Praying is not a very active thing. We should also do something, but it is very difficult for most people to realize it.

Therefore, you see, when someone goes to a lecture like this, a few hundred, a few thousand people come to listen. But, when you go to the football game, theater or to hear pop singers, you see many tens of thousands watching a ball, watching people fighting over a ball. Isn’t that amazing?! It isn’t even the people on the outside who play, it is the people on the inside who play. If all the people would play, then I can say, “OK. They are exercising; it is good. Everyone is excited, because they are competing in a game.” But no, only a group of people are playing and forty thousand of fifty thousand people outside are excited. I am always amazed to watch the illusion games of this world. I cannot understand it either.

But I do understand why we do not have peace. It’s because everyone just does not care. We can watch football, it is no sin. We can get to the theater; it is good sometimes, to pass time, and to make a change in our life. But, we should also remember who we are and where we will go after this life. We must also give time to prepare for this departure. We prepare for everything – for birth, for death, for old age, but we don’t prepare for the next life. And even if we don’t care for the next life, we should care for this life. We should work together to make our world more beautiful, more peaceful.

How to Make Peace on Earth – part 2

Now, I will explain to you what the Three Worlds are. The Three Worlds are very well known in Buddhism, but in the Bible, it is hardly mentioned. Have you heard of the Third Heaven? In the Bible, someone was brought up to the Third Heaven when the Holy Spirit had lifted him. The Third Heaven is the highest of the Three Worlds. It is the end of the so-called spiritual world. Our world is called the Earth world or material world. Besides our world there are another Three Worlds which are invisible, but visible to the heavenly eye. If we practice some kinds of meditation, sometimes our heavenly eye will be opened and we may be able to see higher invisible worlds. These worlds are sometimes similar to ours.

For example, in the Astral world, which is the nearest to our world, the scenery, the structure of the houses and the wishes of the people there are very similar to ours. Most people after they die will stay in the astral world. The astral  world also has heavens and hells. Heavens are the places for the virtuous people, hells are so-called “hospitals” for the sick. If our bodies have cancer in some places, then the doctor will operate on those places and remove the cancer to make our bodies well. If the whole body is sick due to hatred, greed, lust, etc., then all the cells are sick. Therefore, they have to be put in a so-called hell, and there they use a kind of laser beam to operate on all the cells and remove all these traits. This is why we say that hell burn people with fire. It is actually a kind of treatment to remove all our mental sickness. If we are unloving to ourselves, and unloving to other people, that means we are in some kind of mental sickness. If we continue to do so during our life or for many lives, then every cell in our bodies will be afflicted by these unloving actions, thoughts or habits.

Therefore, the Astral so-called doctors have to cure our astral bodies, putting all the cells back in order by using very high frequency beams of Light, and it is very painful. They keep doing so until we are cleansed of all traits of greed, hatred, lust, etc. This is a kind of treatment actually, but we call that hell because it is very painful and full of suffering. It is just like when we are in a hospital; there is also a lot of suffering due to the treatment given by the doctor.

Now, the Astral world is one of the Three Worlds. Above the Astral world there is another world, which is the so-called Mental world. Above the Mental world, there is another world called the Third Heaven, or the world of Brahma. The higher the world, the more beautiful, the more light and the more power there is. Therefore, if someone is the king of the Three Worlds, he is so-called on top of the creation. Therefore, to be the king of the Three Worlds is a very great position.

The king of the Three Worlds is what we call the king of Maya. However great his position is, he is a king of illusion, and he has not enough wisdom and love. Everything in this physical world is made and created by this king, therefore it is not perfect. So we see roses with thorns, and people sometimes with ugly-looking faces; sometimes there are human beings who look like beasts or act like animals, with no dignity as human beings. This is the result of the Maya king’s work. Anyone who descends to one of the Three Worlds, including ours, has to wear this kind of imperfect apparel, although originally we are perfect. When we are above the Three Worlds, when we are back at our Home, then we are different.

Now, I’ll give you a very clear example. When you go swimming and diving into the sea, you have to wear very big eye-glasses, an oxygen mask, a big oxygen tank and a kind of frogman’s clothing. You look neither like a fish nor like a frog… even not like a human! But these are the things you need when you dive into the world of the sea. If you stay in the sea and wear these kinds of things long enough, you will become used to it and you can never take them off, as you need them in the deep of the sea. Every day if you look in the mirror, you will see yourself like that and you will think you are like that. Once you go back on land, you no longer need these, and you are beautiful again. So, that is the problem with us when we are in this world. We need many instruments.

For example, our mind is also an instrument, but the instrument sometimes becomes an obstacle, it is not natural. Just like when you wear the frogman’s clothes, your feet become so large like this (Master shows everyone) that they are hard to control, and your nose is bundled with the oxygen mask, which is very troublesome. Your movement is not really very natural due to the equipment on your back, on your face, on your hands and on your feet, etc.

Now we are in this world and the brain is a kind of computer which our souls need in order to gather information. But when we use it too long, we are kind of dependent on it; so dependent that sometimes even when the computer goes wrong, we still do not know that we are getting the wrong information. You know computers sometimes go wrong. For example, I heard of a computer which can translate many languages. A German person brought it to China to translate from German into Chinese, and there was one idiom in German which meant golden but it was translated to blond. That is how we get stuck in this world, because of wrong information.

Yesterday someone asked me, “If God decides everything, how come there are wars, disasters and miseries?” It is very simple.  For example, sometimes you wanted to do something. Inside, you have an intuition that you should do it this way, and then suddenly you say “No. My mama never did it like this, my teacher would not approve, or my girlfriend, my boyfriend, my whatever… “So, you start to do it the way you learned from the people in society, and then it went wrong. You knew you should have done it the other way, your original intuitive way, so you tried again, and you succeeded. Is that not so? You know many times that it is so.

That is the difference between wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom is intuitive, that is what we call the original Self and God wisdom. Knowledge is what we have from other people, from books, from tradition, from national customs; it is not necessarily correct. Sometimes it helps but mostly it doesn’t. Therefore, we have many conflicts and incorrect incidents in this world, because most people do not use the direct wisdom; we only use second-hand, third-hand or fourth-hand knowledge.

If we want to use the direct wisdom, then we must be in contact with that original wisdom. In order to do so, we must open some of our inner compartments, we must put some of the apparatus in use. We all know that our brain contains 95% unused capacity. These are places we must open if we want to have peace on Earth, if we want to know how to make peace on Earth. Everyone wants it but does not know how to go about to making it. Instead of using scientific research and inventions to serve humanity, we use it for destruction.

How to Make Peace on Earth – part 1

Spoken by Master Ching Hai
December 16, 1989 Argentina

I would like to offer some good things to your country, and I would like that my stay will be of benefit to your hearts, your souls and your bodies, at least from human to human.  Also that we may understand something about the cultures between the East and the West, which sometimes we have very little chance to do, to understand. Because I will stay here for only four days and if I have not brought some good to your country, I will feel very sad to leave.

Everyone thinks that to propagate peace is the work at the United Nations, or to preach the Kingdom of God is the duty of priests or monks. But it is not so. We all have this duty. If the priests preach about God and we do not listen, then what is the use? If I talk about enlightenment, and you do not come to listen, then shall I talk? So, your presence is very much appreciated. I thank you for giving me a chance to fulfill my duty towards God and towards humankind, because I am also citizen of this world. We cannot think that one person or a group of persons is responsible for peace or anything in this world, because we are all part of the system.

Yesterday, someone asked me if we were living next to a holocaust, and I answered, “Yes, every minute, every day.” Why? Because we are always in danger, we are always in constant war. If not in an atomic war, then in a hydrogen bomb war; or worse, any other kinds of bombs! If not with these bombs and other weapons, then we are at war with anxiety, with jealousy, with hatred and with ignorance.  Anyway our hearts are constantly at war. So, to propagate peace is not only my duty. I am happy that you have come so that we may join together and do something about it.

Everyone’s heart, thinking and actions always affect everyone else. For example, if you go to the office and you see your boss or secretary, and that boss or secretary is very angry, not at you, maybe at someone else, at his wife or her husband at home, and you walk in, how will you feel? Very comfortable? No, not comfortable. Maybe you would like to hide somewhere first.

Sometimes, we go on the street and we meet a friend or an acquaintance, who is smiling, and their heart is happy. We also feel affected by his or her happiness and then we also feel happy. So, from these small examples, we can think a little deeper and know that everyone affects everyone else.

Therefore, my work is your work also. I am concerned about peace in the whole world, so this is also your concern. Therefore, if you have come to support me by your attentiveness, your love and open-mindedness, then you support yourself. Some people do not understand this simple logic. If they see someone doing something good, but that person will be threatening their own personal business or their reputation, then they try to break, try to destroy that person. But this is only an illusion, because a good person, a selfless person, would never affect anyone else business or reputation.

For example, when Jesus was preaching the Truth, the high priest at that time was very worried. The kings and the political leaders at the time were very anxious. They worried that Jesus might affect their fame and business, that everyone would follow Jesus and give him all their money and their properties, that nobody would give them anything, that nobody would join their churches or organizations, and that no one would give them any donations or listen to them. These were the worries of the priests.  The kings and political leaders were worried. They worried that Jesus would become too famous, that people would love Him too much, and that they might select Him to be their king. So they worried! That was the political worry.

But Jesus had never cared for the church nor for the kingdom of this Earth. He said, My Kingdom is in Heaven. Indeed, it is so.  Because for real enlightened Masters or persons, they do not care for anything in this world. They have looked through the illusion play of material existence. They have been through and through it. They understand everything. They have all Heavens and Earth. They have everything they want. Seek you first the Kingdom of God and all other things shall be added onto you. They do not care for material wealth and fame.

People are automatically attracted to these enlightened persons. It is because of their light, their invisible wisdom, their compassion and boundless love. Love is something we cannot see but we can feel very clearly. Therefore, a man is attracted to a woman by her love.  Children cling to their parents because of their love. An enlightened person has much greater love than these. Therefore, people are attracted to their love. People feel welcomed, loved, secure and protected by that enlightened person. But the worldly people do not understand this. They look at Jesus or enlightened persons with their mundane, greedy and worldly eyes.

If Jesus was given the whole world to rule, he wouldn’t care a bit. When he was meditating in the desert for forty days, Satan appeared to him and offered him the Three Worlds. If someone refuses the kingdom of one nation, he is already very great. If someone refuses the whole world, he is very great indeed!

Jesus Was One of the Saviors – part 2

God is within us. This everyone knows. So I came to tell you how to get in touch with Him. But the question is: Why do most of us believe that Jesus was the only savior of the world and why do these who do not believe in Jesus go to hell? This is the question.

God is ever merciful; since the beginning of time God has always looked after humankind. Before Jesus, people sinned, people suffered, and people needed God.  God also sent someone, like Moses, like John the Baptist and many others before them. Moses was also a messenger of God.

Before Moses, before many, many eons of time, God always sent one, two, three or four of His messengers to the world in order to save us from our wrongful thinking and actions, and bring us back to the Kingdom of God. Otherwise, if only Jesus could save people, then what about the people who were before Jesus, the people who were trillions of years before Him? Didn’t God love them? It is not logical. I think if we really worship God and understand God, we couldn’t believe that Jesus was the one and the only. The Buddhist people also believe that Buddha was the only one, and some of them don’t even believe in Jesus. So the people of these two religions have been arguing with each other. If we think carefully, or if we get enlightenment, we will know Jesus and Buddha were both sent by God to save humankind in different periods of time.

It is so interesting after you get enlightenment and go deep into communion with God. When you read any kind of religious Bible in the world, you will see exactly the same teaching inside. Some of you will agree with me about this, but some of you will not, because some have read and some have not, some are a little enlightened and some are not. However, just talking about Jesus is enough to prove it, that He was not the only one and He didn’t mean to be the only one.

He sacrificed His life for the sins of people at that period of time, and His blessing continued for a few hundred years afterward. But it has been about two thousand years since then and we have forgotten most of His teachings. The Bible has been cut in half, censored, changed, and misinterpreted in many places. If we do not get enlightenment, it’s difficult for us to differentiate, to perceive which are the true words of Jesus and which have been misinterpreted.

I just mention that Jesus said and proved that He was not the only one. Whatever miracle I can do today you can do also, and you may do it even better. Is it not so? Yes. So we must believe in His words. He meant that we can become like Him. Furthermore, He said that we all are children of God, not that He was the only Son of God.

It seemed paradoxical when He said, No one can go to the Father except through me, and then on the other hand He said, All of you are children of God. Whatever I can do today, you may do even greater in the future. But this is not paradoxical. What He meant is that He already knew God. He realized that He was the Son of God, and although the people at that time, the humanity at large, were also children of God, they did not realize it.

Buddha also said the same. I have become a Buddha, and you will too become a Buddha. He also said, All beings have the Buddha Nature, meaning all beings are equal with Him, just the same like Him. The Buddha Nature is the same as the Spirit of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of God and the Son is His creation. Whatever He makes is the son of God. The Father makes the son, the children and embeds in them the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the essence of God. All of us have the Holy Ghost within us. So we are all called “the children of God.”

Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed realized this Holy Ghost within Themselves, and there were also others, like St. Peter, St. Paul, San Francisco and San Jose, etc. Whoever realizes the Holy Spirit within becomes one with God; he realizes he is the Son of God.

Jesus Was One of the Saviors – part 1

Excerpt from Master Ching Hai’s lecture
June 9, 1989
Costa Rica

Why is it that we need a Master to learn meditation, to be reunited with God? If you read the books of my lectures that my disciples have collected, you will see that the Master is referred to as just a water pipe. A water pipe takes water to your home. Without the protection of the pipe, the water will get dirty or lost on the road before reaching your home.

Our world is a world of illusion, a world of matter. If God Himself would descend into our world and be invisible, it would be unsubstantial, we would never be able to grasp Him. Therefore, if He wants to come to the world or send His spirit, His love into the world, He must wrap it inside a body. It’s like a perfume bottle holding the perfume inside. We don’t care whether the shape of the bottle is round or square, long or short. We care for the perfume inside.

If, however, the bottle gets damaged, we may transfer the perfume into another bottle, Jesus was a bottle. (Laughter) I do not mean to make fun of Him, but just to make the message clear to you, OK? Buddha was a bottle, too. So you see, it’s equal now; I also mention Buddha as a bottle. I am also a bottle, a very small one. (Laughter) But the perfume contained inside is God. No human can make this.

It is by the grace of God that we are enlightened or unenlightened. When we love God above everything else, when we desire enlightenment above any other things in this world, we will get it. We cannot blackmail God, we cannot lament to Him, we cannot complain to Him, we cannot push Him or press Him, but we could charm Him by our devotion and longing, sincere longing.

This longing sometimes is like a pain, like a suffering. It’s worse than all the pains in the world. Once you are enlightened, then the pain settles down. But then it grows and grows into wanting more; it becomes a comfortable pain. I don’t know why I say a “comfortable pain.” It’s just like an addiction. I am sorry, because it is terrible to use our worldly language to describe something in connection with God. The more I say, the worse it sounds.

It’s like this. For example, you have heard that in the neighborhood there is a beautiful girl and you long to see her. You haven’t seen her before, but you feel a longing, you’re so curious. You’ve heard so much about her, so you want to see her. That’s only a curious desire, but sometimes the desire becomes very urgent, “Why is she there and I cannot see her?” Once you see her you say, “Wow!” Then you want to see more. It becomes worse than before, because you have seen how beautiful the girl is, how talented she is, how virtuous she is, and how very suitable to your taste she is.

Similarly, before we see God we have heard so much about God. The Scriptures describe that God is love, glory, eternal bliss and that you’ll get intoxicated if you see God. But you are not yet intoxicated because you have not seen God or been in touch with God. Once you are intoxicated, just once, then you’ll always long for more. Then you are satisfied with everything in the world, because just the love, just the intoxication of God takes away all your worldly desires. It makes you detached from the pleasures and sorrows of this world. Then you’ll lust more and more for the presence of God until you eventually become one with God, just like what Jesus said, I and my Father are one.

Jesus reached that state. But He was not the only one who has reached that state in the whole history of humankind. If it were so, if it were true that Jesus was the only one who has reached the state of God-realization, then I think would be very, very depressing for us. Just think of the millions, billions, even trillions of people before Jesus’ time. Did they all go to hell? Do you understand what I mean? Can you believe that? Tell me yes or no. No? Yes? OK. I accept both of your answers and will explain later.

Why “Yes”? Please explain to me. Who said “Yes”? Please stand up and explain why God would let all the billions and trillions of people before Jesus’ time go to hell? How unmerciful God was! The “Yes” person please explain to me why God was so terrible. (The person cannot explain.) Then, do not speak so quickly next time. (Laughter) We must think first before we speak; or else we will make great mistakes sometimes, leading ourselves and others to the same mistaken direction.

Now, does the one who said “No” have any reason? Yes, please tell me. (The person answers, “I believe that God is within everyone of us. It is just a matter of knowing. God is within everyone of us. We have to develop the capacity that is inside us and use spiritual means to get in touch with God. Not our eyes, which are made to get in touch with matter, not our ears that are made to listen to the sounds; we have to use the inner Man to open the inner eyes and inner ears to see and hear.”) Yes, the inner Man. Right, right, I got it. Yes, that’s good. Open the inner eyes and the inner ears, and see God, hear God. That’s right. I think we mean the same thing.

Neither Man nor Women Exists Inside

Excerpt from Master Ching Hai’s lecture
June 9, 1989
Costa Rica

Now, one more topic I would like to mention.

Yesterday, someone asked me a question which I just read this afternoon. The person said he would like to follow my teaching, but because I am a woman, he hesitated. (Laughter)

If we had no women in this world, how would he have existed? How did Jesus ever come into the world? Or Buddha? Or any other great beings there may have been? This is a paradox.

You see, this is human nature. We very readily forget our origin, our benefactor. If we can so easily forget women’s benefit, loving care and devotion to this world, including our mothers’ and sisters’, then how would we even remember God? It would be so difficult. Women and mothers are visible “objects” and very, very close to us; every day we know about them, still we forget this and always despise women. So how could we know anything about God, who is so far away, so abstract, so metaphysical and whom we have never seen before?

I do not complain about this fact. I know my worth. I do not need your praise or your blame.  The merit of women to this world is undeniable. Women are mothers of all the Buddhas and of all the Saints in the past, present and future. Why do we worship St. Maria? She was an ordinary woman; she was also a women. It is because of the respect we pay to Jesus. St. Maria has not performed any miracles, nor has she helped anyone as far as we know. Why do we respect her? Because she had the worth, the merit of bearing Jesus, of bringing Jesus into our world.

So, if you can respect a woman just because she born  a Saint, then why don’t you respect a saintly woman? Do you see me any different than St. Theresa? Am I worse than St. Maria? Have I done anything terrible to you? Do I teach you anything bad or anything wrong? Man and woman – it is just a matter of perception because inside we are all the same. It’s only our wrong perception.

When I said a “saintly” woman, I didn’t mean to boast about myself. I was talking in a way of categorizing, as your Western terminology describes what a Saint is. But actually I don’t think I like any category. A Saint is a virtuous person, is the one who helps others and loves others, who is devoted to God, and above all, who is enlightened. So, if a person is enlightened, loving and devoted to God, he or she is a Saint. So, according to your Western Catholic terminology, I think I am a Saint.  Is that all right with you? Is that acceptable to you?

While I am saying all this, I am not proud of it. It’s not a matter of being proud. I’m just trying to explain things clearly and objectively to you so that I might “drive home” the Truth.  Just like a girl who has graduated from Cambridge College and becomes a physician, or a man who has graduated from Princeton University and becomes a physician. Both of them are on an equal footing. Understand? They both can say. “I am a physician.” Nothing to be proud of. It’s just a graduation. If Jesus didn’t say that He was a Saint or that He had graduated from the “metaphysical school,” how would we know Him? How would people know Him? If a doctor doesn’t say that he is a physician, how would patients come to him? It’s just a job.

Being a Saint is also a job, a metaphysical job, a job without money, without any position in this world, without safety, without praise and sometimes even without thanks. You can see the life of Jesus. How He had sacrificed Himself for the sins of the people, and how they paid Him?

Every time I read the Bible and come to His story, I cry again and again. I cry because of His love; I cry because of people’s ignorance and cruelty. Even now some people still criticize Him and don’t believe that He was a great Saint. This is the saddest thing.

That’s why I had trouble with my Buddhist believers. I often mention Jesus and praise Him, and they think it is a taboo. They think that I am a Buddhist monk, so I should only praise Buddha and talk about Buddhism. Many monks in Formosa don’t like me. (Laughter) But I still love them. It’s not their fault. It’s the brainwashing over long period of time, just as we are brainwashed into believing that Jesus was the only one, and that God was so merciless as to have let all the people before Jesus, all the trillions and trillions of people go to hell because they had never heard of Jesus’ name and had never had the chance to believe in Him. The Buddhist believers are also like that. They are brainwashed into believing that a woman can’t become a Buddha, meaning she cannot become an enlightened Master.

I invite you to reject all these ideas. It is too depressing. Every religion should bring hope, faith and self-confidence to humankind. We should reject any wrong interpretations in any religion. We believe in religion, but we don’t believe in wrong interpretation and brainwashing. Understand? (Laugh applause) Thank you.

Now, I think the best way to find God in ourselves and to understand the real religious essence is to get enlightened, to get directly in touch with God. If you believe what I have said, I may offer you the opportunity to try, without any financial donation, without any condition and without any binding whatsoever. You don’t need to bow to me; you don’t need to call me “Master” even. You can call me a friend or Ching Hai, whatever you like. You don’t have to change your religion. You can go to the church, you can read the Bible all the same. Just be in touch with God every day through the technique I will show you at initiation. OK?