The Secret To Awakening

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

http://www.thespiritscience.net

Meditation

Excerpt from Master Ching Hai Lectures

Why should we meditate? To still our minds, in order to receive the teachings from heaven, from the Kingdom of God, or from higher worlds. We always keep praying and asking, ‘Please give me wisdom, please give me that,’ and then when God wants to speak, He has no chance anymore because we are busy all the time. We talk, we ask and we do not listen.  So meditation is the listening time. Just like when you ask me a question, you have to still for a while, quiet, then I have a chance to tell you what I want to tell, or what you need to know. Yes? So meditation is like this. Sit still and receive the message. Otherwise, God wants to tell you a million things and you have no time to hear it. You are too busy talking, praying and singing, and prostrating, and counting the rosary. It is all right to do this. I do not mean that it is not good. It is very good, but then, we must be still for some time, so that God has a chance to communicate.

Peace has been within us all along. It is just that when we are too busy, seeking outside, we perhaps forget this real peace within us, and we encounter some uneasiness or difficulty in life. If we can somehow find the time, or the sincerity with which we can sit down, or just quiet ourselves down, and then search within ourselves, we will find this peace and happiness again. This is the true meaning of meditation. We don’t really have to sit in a quiet corner of our house only. We can sit anywhere, or stand in the bus station, or in the bus on the way to work, or sit where we work, and quietly search deep within ourselves for the true spirit which always exists. Because we are not the body or the mind. We are not what we are doing, or what we are learning, and we are not what we are brainwashed into believing that we are. This is difficult to explain. I just understand it clearly myself, and many of our fellow practitioners also understand it.

If we truly, even intellectually, realize or analyze even the one who we call ‘I’, or ‘Mrs. Smith’ or whatever we call ourselves, we will know clearly that we are not that. We have no existence, if that is the way we understand ourselves. If we think that we are the one with a lot of school knowledge, or the one who has anger when confronted with frustration or problems in life, or the one who is loving, who is satisfied with many successes etc., this is not the real ‘we’. Before we were born we didn’t have this knowledge of school degrees, or book-clinging wisdom, for example, and we didn’t have this quality of anger, we didn’t have this loving attitude, or the way we feel about pleasant things or reject unpleasant events, etc. So these are just habits, the knowledge that we accumulate while we grow up.

Everyone already knows how to meditate, but you meditate on the wrong things. Some people meditate on pretty girls, some on money, some on business. Every time you pay full attention, wholeheartedly, to one thing, that is meditation. Now, I pay only attention to the inner power, to the compassion, to the love, to the mercy quality of God. But it isn’t by sitting cross-legged in a quiet place that one gets something. You have to be in contact with that inner power first and the real Self inside will meditate and awaken itself. That is our meditation. We must awaken the real Self inside and let him meditate, not our human brain and our mortal understanding. If not, you will sit down and think about a thousand things and won’t be able to subdue your passions. But when you are self-awakened, the real inner Self, the God power within you, will control everything. You only know real meditation after you are awakened by transmission by a real Master. Otherwise, it is only a waste of time wrestling with your body and mind.

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INITIATION

Excerpt from Master Ching Hai Lectures

Initiation actually is just a word for opening the spirit. You see, we are crowded with many kinds of obstacles, invisible as well as visible, so the so-called initiation is the process of opening the gate of wisdom and letting it flow through this world, to bless the world, as well as the so-called Self. But the true Self is always in glory and wisdom, so there is no need of blessing for that.

Initiation means the beginning of a new life into a new order. It means that the Master has accepted you to become one of the beings in the circle of saints. Then, you are no longer an ordinary being, you are elevated, just like when you enroll for university, you are no longer a high school student. In the old times, they called it baptism or taking refuge in the Master.

The Process of Initiation

By the grace of the Master and by the God power inside, we get cleansed, even though we are not very pure at the time of initiation. We see light and hear sound when we break through the prison door, because they exist beyond the material existence. That is why we call it instant or immediate enlightenment. It means that at the time of initiation, we are in contact with higher worlds, and that we are no longer disconnected from them.

Let’s say that it is a sunny day and you are in your house. If you do not open the door, you can’t see the sun. Similarly, the light and the sound of God exist, but we are closed out in the prison of our own thoughts, prejudices and actions from many lives, and cannot see or hear. During initiation, the Master gives us a chance to break through once and for all. But we have to keep going because there are many more levels to discover. Actually, initiation is only the beginning, although it is a great start because many people work from the lowest chakra up to the top one, and this can take maybe ten years, whereas we begin with the top one. The Master draws the whole power all the way to the top of the head so we can see the light. This (Master points to the Wisdom eye) is the door to Heaven, and you will go to many mansions.

When we transmit this method we do not even speak, and you will get the best enlightenment. You will get something you never felt before, so light, so relaxed, so beautiful, so sinless. That is the meaning of baptism. When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, He saw the light that came down like a dove. So when we are baptized by a person that claims that he can baptize you, he must give you at least some light, just like this dove that came from heaven, or a light like a big flame that is mentioned in the Bible, or you will hear the sound of God like the thunderous voice of God, or the sound of many waters. Then you are sure that you are baptized.

You will hear the inner vibration or God’s voice but without these ears, you will see the light of God without these eyes. I cannot speak of it. You see, language and intellect belong to the realm of mind and matter (limited), not soul and God (unlimited). Our thinking arises from data, from learning, from other people’s thinking. Our soul and God’s nature are spontaneously self-born, self-existing, supporting and pure. So anything that is influenced by society, by thinking, by philosophy or by language belong to intellect and not to wisdom. So I can only transmit it in complete silence. This is why we call it mind to mind or heart to heart transmission.

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Why We Need a Living Master – part 2

Excerpt from Master Ching Hai Lectures

When you have a living Master, you can pray in silence, and ask him for advice if you encounter problems with your meditation. If you feel far away from God, you will need an intermediary. You are still a little weak, just like a child needing the help of his parents to guide his first steps. But later on, you will walk all alone, and know that your goal is to walk alone, and no longer depend on your parents. You will be able to learn directly from the Masters of the past with the Quan Yin Method. That is how we learn about the Truth, not from hearsay, from sermons or doctrines. The Truth is revealed through our own intuition. When we reach higher dimensions, we discover other beings and a more ‘civilized’ universe that can only be perceived by concentrating our attention within ourselves, and by reaching a level of deep contemplation. The Quan Yin Method is a way to achieve this state.

Past Masters cannot teach you. You have to look for a present Master, who can answer your questions, help you when you are in doubt, and take you by the hand back to the Kingdom of God. We need a person-to person contact, not someone from the past. It doesn’t matter how beautiful a women was in the past, you cannot marry her! She cannot give you any children and produce the love feeling that you have with a living wife.

A living Master is useful. I have electricity. A dead wire doesn’t work, only a living wire can conduct electricity and bring it to you. Any wires, no matter how powerful, if they have been destroyed, cannot carry any more electricity. Any bulb, no matter how beautiful, once it is broken, cannot give you light. But a bulb, even an ugly one, if it is intact, can give you light. That is why, when people pray to a dead Buddha, they will rarely get a response.

Through your thinking of the Master, you become one with the Master, and the Master is you. The Master is your own real Self, but since you do not realize it, you just have to think of the Master because that is yourself. Through the thinking, all the qualities of the Master gradually, by and by, will transmit to you, and you will find your Self through the Master. And later, you will realize, ‘Oh! Master is me. It was me all the time.’ That is why, since ancient times, people worship sages and enlightened Masters, for themselves, not for the sake of the Master.

Q. So, what it sounds like to me, is that until you can find the Master within yourself, you’ll need to have one outside for a while?

M. But the Master is also an inner guide, not only on the physical level. Otherwise, the Master wouldn’t be able to help the disciple from a thousand miles away, and all over the world. The Master must be at a very elevated level in order to help all the people anytime, day and night, no matter where the person is.

Q. In the West, there is often a danger when a seeker falls down and adores the teacher. Do you think this is a problem?

M. Not if the teacher is genuine, because then you only worship yourself, you only worship the greatest spirit which is already one with the Master.

Q. So you are saying that if the Master is a genuine Master, He or She then holds a mirror up to the person to help them see themselves deeply?

M. Right, that’s it.

Q. What about the disciples of previous Masters? If a true living Master leaves this world, do His disciples have to seek another Master, or is there no need for that?

M. No need. But if they want to inquire something about practical things, or physical things, then they could come to another living Master, or to the successor of that Master. Otherwise, inside, there is still the spiritual guidance of the deceased Masters. He is still responsible and still has the power to carry on, because the connection is already made. Only when we don’t have a so-called connection with a past Master ,we  do need a new Master. Why we didn’t go to a past Master from many hundreds of years ago was because we didn’t make a connection with Him while He was living, therefore the connection was not made. If you have made a connection with a Master a thousand years ago, it doesn’t matter how long it has been, He still takes care of you. But if you didn’t make a connection with Him before He died, then how can he take care of you? Do you understand?

Q&A After Lectures (11-15)

Excerpt from Master Ching Hai Lectures

Q11: Could you please explain your precepts against killing. Specifically against abortion.

M: Wa! You get me into trouble.  ‘Thou shalt not kill’ is the precept of all religious scriptures, not only Christians. It’s even in Jainism, Hinduism and other religions also. If they truly take this ‘thou shalt not kill’ in a true sense of the precept, abortion, of course, should be avoided. And the doctor should be very precise in determining what is the special situation that people should undertake this. Because maybe sometimes it’s dangerous for the mother, or dangerous for both. So, the doctor should be fair in determining that situation. Otherwise I think we should save life in any way we can. Whatever special circumstance with you, that you have to answer, your self- conscience, and the doctor has to determine that. Okay? I am not here to condemn anyone, because I know life is very hard, and very difficult to say which is right and which is wrong. Because we are also all under the sway of karma, of the law of cause and retribution, and sometimes it is very difficult for a person to go above that, to be saintly, and to be decisive about anything in life. But, bear in mind that if you have faith in God, and in all our wisdom and if we are enlightened, no circumstance is difficult, no situation is hard to handle. So, I just propose enlightenment, and no condemnation for anything.

Q12: Is it okay to receive initiation from more than one master?

M:Yeah, it’s okay. But why is it necessary? For example, if your master has already taught you the light and sound within you, and you are satisfied and you’re making progress with that path, then you don’t have to be initiated by another master who will teach the same method. But nevertheless, if you are not completely satisfied and you would like to have more, I mean you are more convinced in some other master, of course you may do so.

Q13: Jesus ate fish, why do you not?

M: You always put fish in Jesus’ mouth. (Laughter.) Alright, suppose he ate fish, he is Christ, he can do many other things that you cannot do. Why you look at the piece of fish only and not at his qualities and his holiness? As soon as you become holy as he is, and powerful as he is, you can eat human beings also, okay?! (Laughter & applause.) If you are that desperate for meat… Oh God! We always compare the things that other people do to suit our taste. But we do not respect their qualities and their talents. We have to know what we have and other people have, and then we can say what we can do or not. The president he can stay in the white house, he has a lot of bodyguards, he has power over the whole nation. So, something he can do, we cannot. Okay?

Q14: Are pain and illness always the result of present karma? If so, how do we clean them out?

M:We clean it out by enduring it. Because it’s already too late now to reverse the wheel of karma. But we could minimize it, we could lubricate it by being enlightened, by meditation on the perfection of the Father every day through the guidance of a teacher, through initiation. Then, we minimize a lot of things.

Q15: Do you have homosexual disciples?

M: Yes. Do I have to report to you their private business?

You see, homosexuality is just a misconception about their awareness. They misunderstand their body’s function. And when they become enlightened, this will be less and less, because they will identify themselves less with the body, but more with the spirit. Therefore there’s nothing wrong with that.

When the children are very young, they play with plastic models and they cling to their teddy bears, but when they grow up, they will leave them. So do not worry about your miss-identification with your body or with your birth appearance. It’s alright, just get enlightenment, and everything will fix itself in due course.

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