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….

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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.

Real Doctrine and False Doctrine (part 3)

Lecture by Master Ching Hai
October 20, 1986 Taipei, Formosa (Originally in Chinese)

Part 3– As was said in the beginning, this world is the Maya’s (the dark force’s) territory, a land of Maya’s material with all kinds of temptations. The great Buddhas who come here from the higher world to take their kin Home, to make them become noble beings instead of the dark force’s slaves are in fact the ‘intruders’ who interfere with the work of the dark force. They have to fight with Maya, because the beings released from the Three Worlds will become greater and higher than the dark force and will never have to return to this dark world again to suffer; and that means Maya will lose a dear soul, a good slave, which makes him unhappy and then causes many troubles!

We have seen that since ancient times any real great Master who came to this world to rescue sentient beings would suffer a great deal. It has never been an easy task to deliver the world’s citizens. Even when they could deliver a limited number of beings, they themselves would encounter a lot of criticism and obstacles.

Shakyamuni Buddha also encountered a lot of opposition. Some wanted to kill Him, some criticized Him saying He was teaching the ‘outer path’ (heterodoxy), etc.; Jesus Christ, before He could preach long enough, was already nailed to the cross; Confucius was driven out from several states; Lao Tzu had only a few believers, though He is now even more famous than two thousand years ago. When He was alive, no one recognized Him and He became famous only a long time after He had died.

Why is it that ancient Masters have become more famous than present living Masters? It is because after the living Master left this world, the Maya king (negative force) would make use of the Master’s fame for his own purpose, changing the Master’s true preaching to the opposite direction to serve the negative philosophy. That is why the Truth a great Master preached while descending to this world would become superstition after some time.

For example, Lao Tzu had never taught people to worship Him or anything or any symbol, much less to sacrifice animals as offering to Him. He did not say that He would bless anyone, or that after His death people should make offerings to Him or worship Him. In the Tao Te Ching (the Virtues Sutra) He only taught people to find the eternal Tao (the Path), to be connected with and united with the Tao as the only way to find the Truth. This was the most important point that Lao Tzu emphasized in Tao Te Ching. It is no doubt the highest ideal.

However, if we have a look at today’s Taoism, we will see how this perfect ideal has fallen. At each and every Taoist temple there is always the sacrifice of animals’ flesh, offered to ‘whom’ I do not know; because there is no doubt that Lao Tzu has been frightened of it and has run away. Being a great and compassionate Master, how could He ever stand to eat sentient beings’ flesh? The same with Confucianism. It was originally intended to encourage people to become highly moral and erudite, but has turned to many flesh sacrifices– swine, beef, etc.

China has a great and long tradition of many thousand years in literature and moral development, where Buddhism spread quickly far and wide, lasting for many a glorious, golden days before it met with a lot of opposition and fell to the ground. Buddhism in mainland China almost died out. At present, it seems that only in our little ‘potato Formosa’ is there still a little section of old Buddhist tradition, where the monks are keeping celibacy and vegetarian diet.

FINDING THE LIGHT – The Kingdom Within

Excerpt from Master Ching Hai Lectures

There is a better life, a more perfect life inside. Once we are perfect inside, our outside life will be perfect too. We can use our wisdom and power inside to make our work more efficient, faster and more beneficial to the world. So actually, if we want to be in any important position or to be successful in any field, we must get the proper power to work for us, not our minds. There are two levels of power: the first level, the power level, is the mind. The other higher level is all grace, love and miracles. By miracles, I don’t mean changing the weather but we can do that too!

Scientists have proven that we only use 5% of our brain. Fancy if we could use 100%! The one who can use 100% of his brain, that is a Christ, a Buddha, a Lao-tzu or whomever you believe is the greatest brain power in the world. They are the ones who know the secret power in the world. They are the ones who know the secret access to the whole kingdom of our intelligence, what we call the Kingdom of God. Everything lays within ourselves. No one has been born without this Kingdom of God, just like the waves born from the ocean. Now, is there a way to gain control of this 100% of our intelligence? Yes, there are many ways, some take longer than others, some are more difficult than others. Some people do prayers, fasting, austerities. This we read in book of ancient wisdom, how people sacrificed everything to find God. But nowadays, if we follow this rigorous path, it is too hard, too time-consuming. We cannot just go in the jungle and leave society behind. In the ancient times, people had less desires and less comforts in life. Nowadays, we have more temptations due to comfort. They had less temptations and more free time to practice and find God.

How to find God? By reverting to the principles, that is, all loving, all forgiving, all compassion and all wisdom, by repenting our previous misdeeds committed through ignorance, and by resolving not to commit them again. With such a true repentance, the light of God will sprout forth again, and all our past sins will be forgiven. That is the true baptism; not by water, but by the Holy Spirit, by the light of wisdom and logic. That is why nowadays when we are baptized by water, we do not see any light from God, and we do not feel free of our sins, wisdom is not opened for us, and deep repentance is not evoked in our souls.

It is not as difficult to find God as it is to make money, I may tell you! When I was earning money, it was very difficult, working very hard 8 to 10 hours a day, and even that we squander away very fast. But if we are careful, we can make ends meet and save a little bit more for old age. But if we find the Kingdom of God, it lasts forever. Whatever intelligence, wisdom, happiness, joy we find, it will always be ours, never, ever will it be squandered way, never, ever can anyone steal it away from us.

Everyone has the inborn heaven because the heaven is within us. Everyone has it and can find it. This I may assure you, that you may find it also, and immediately. The moment you want it you will get is as quickly as that. But this nature has to be nourished every day, just like seeds need to be watered in order to grow. You can know your Buddha nature today, but you will become Buddha after some practice. Because we have been ignorant for so long, it takes a long, long time to wash out our habits, our lack of confidence in ourselves. We are used to people telling us what to do, that we are sinful, etc. After we get enlightened our head becomes clearer, we will experience how great we are, we will become more confident. We will know day after day with the practice of the Quan Yin Method that we are truly Christ, Christ-like or God-like, because God made man in His own image. He didn’t make man to become a slave, we and God are made of the same essence, the only difference is whether or not we find it. God make everyone equally, some people found it and became great like Christ, like Buddha, and others have not found it and groveled in darkness life after life.

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