| | The Correct Attitude in Working for Master | A Longing Heart Is the Key to the Kingdom of God | The Tao Comes First and the Mundane World Second | Appreciate the Value of Initiation | Initiation Is the Most Precious Treasure in the Universe | The Real Initiation | Be a Courageous and Honest Example | We're Not Responsible! | What's All the Screaming About? | A Good Alibi |
When you come here to practice, do not rely on your work achievements. Because we all help each other in spiritual practice, everyone makes some contribution. Even those fellow practitioners who have never put up a lecture poster, never helped me do anything, or never contributed any money have helped me a lot, too. Their coming here is already a help. Their practice is already a help. Their faith in me is already a help. They have been helping a lot by trying their best to be good, observing the precepts and a vegetarian diet, and keeping their own thoughts, words and deeds pure.
If you can offer some extra help in addition to that, then it is for your own good. It is your own merit. What is there to talk about? For instance, you help post a few posters. There is no way to know if anyone will see them. However, you have already gained merit. When you help in my work, you will have merit, regardless of success or failure; so there is no need to talk about it.
The more you help in my work, the more merit you will have. But you should not rely on this type of achievement, or it will be ridiculous! And besides, some people are sentenced by the Heavenly King to come down here. If they do not do well and gain merits here, later they will not be able to go back up there. For example, the Monkey King, Pigsy, the Water Spirit and the White Horse (characters in the Chinese literary work Journey to the West) have to help their master bring back the Buddhist scriptures and will attain liberation only after their mission has been accomplished.
Therefore, in helping to do my work, you have no idea whether it is your own merit or your karmic debt. But whatever it is, just do your best, and don't talk about it. Maybe some people will think that it is because of your karma that you have to help me, just like the Water Spirit and Pigsy. That only makes it worse! They do not acknowledge your contribution; instead, they say you have karmic debt and make you feel more miserable! So when you do anything for me, just do it quietly. If you talk about it, after a while, there will be obstruction from Maya. Some of you have experienced this already.
Sometimes during retreats or group meditation, you are allowed to talk about your inner experiences. It is all right when I allow you to share them in my presence. However, if you happily reveal yourselves afterwards without my permission, saying, "That day Master said that I had attained a level of .." If you continue to speak without discretion and then feel proud of yourself, you will encounter Maya's obstruction after a while.
It is not that I want to scold you. I just want to remind everyone that this "self-pride" will bring us trouble. If this Maya of pride emerges, it will be bad news. Some people may degrade or be kicked out without being aware of it. Only later will they feel the pain, but then, they will not know how to turn back. Maybe only after the karma has been eliminated can they return to start anew from scratch, that is very not good!
That is why I often say that you can only share your experiences with my permission. Without my permission, don't talk about it. Even if we talk with no pride but with much humility, we will still encounter hindrances because others may come to bother us. Hearing that our experience is so good, sometimes they may come and ask, "Hey, what has your level of spiritual practice been recently? What's the big deal in telling about it! I admire you so much!" Then they open their eyes so big. (Audience laughs.) Ah! At that time we cannot bear not to tell, and the more we tell, the more trouble there will be!
And then they will agree with us, making us feel great about ourselves, as though we can slash demons and kill monsters. And after a while, we will lose this power. And when people keep complimenting us, we have to keep matching up with their imagination. Suppose we originally do not have this power, or have not yet reached this level, but people keep praising us, and then we feel ashamed to pull down our face. As a result, our level keeps floating up in the air, without a seat. Then we are unable either to come down or go up. Therefore, there will be obstructions!
It is the same with our merits. It is best not to let others know. It does not matter if others come to know about it naturally. We do not have to take the initiative to talk about it. Otherwise, we will really get into trouble! I know too many such examples, but I do not want to reveal names. It will do so for these people to know it themselves. >From now on, they should repent and mend their ways.
For the initiates, I told you it is the soul, not the body, not the outside. Someone might repeat the Holy Names all the time but not do the good things that the Master teaches. They don't really respect and want the Lord. But the person who is very pure and innocent, like a farmer, and doesn't deliberately forget the Lord and the Holy Names longs in his heart for the Master all the time. Even though he might forget, he still remembers and wants the Master.
So it's not just the Holy Names that bring you to the Kingdom. It's the soul. If the person really wants it, then the Master can do anything. Even without initiation, the Master can take them. They don't need initiation. People with the Convenient Method can go up to Heaven. For people who just see the Master one time and then are praying in their heart at the time of death, the Master comes.
But some initiated people are stubborn. They think that being initiated means they can do what they want. They have to learn their lesson. If they want to go back to transmigration, it's their own choice. The Master doesn't interfere; the Master just helps. This is the problem with many initiates of different traditions, maybe including ours. They rely on the Master power. They think initiation gives them everything. And then they go out and do wrong things. Many of the so-called sects in India and elsewhere do a lot of wrong things to people; people are scared of them. Because they think that if the master initiated them, they can do anything they want and they will never transmigrate. That's wrong!
But there are those who at least try in their hearts. They try their best under the circumstances, within their power. It's not that they have to try their best according to the Lord, or to the Master, but try their best according to their ability and their strength. For the people who don't want to try even when given the opportunity, it means they want the world, not the Lord. And they have to go back to where they want.
It's very difficult alone. That's why we need group meditation. If a person doesn't meditate, if he doesn't repeat the Holy Names and doesn't eat vegetarian, then he goes on his own. Whenever he is ready, the Master will come back again. But at the time of death, if he still is not ready, if he still doesn't call upon the Master, and he still doesn't care and wants to go back to the world, then he can do that. It depends.
Sometimes outwardly people don't meditate very well, but inside their hearts, they do. So whether a person wants it in his heart is also important. But this is a subtle thing that you cannot always explain in words. You must know it from your heart. For example, if you love a woman, you just love her - you know it in your heart. And she is the only woman you love. You can't explain that, and you can't prove it to anyone. But you know in your heart that she is the only woman. It doesn't matter how many beautiful women are around you, you still love only that one.
That is the same thing with spiritual commitment. It doesn't matter what I say, and it doesn't matter what you say - you know in your heart that you want God or don't want God. And that is the important thing. It's not that you sit so many hours, or you go to so many group meditations. Group meditation only helps you. Suppose you really want God, then group meditation helps you more. It strengthens your faith and makes you sit better.
But just because you go to a lot of group meditation doesn't mean you want God. Not necessarily! You might want to see the lady next door, instead of going to see inside. It's like love. You have it or you don't have it. No one can force you to love another woman, no matter how much more beautiful, intelligent or rich she is. You love that one, and that's it. You know it. It's final. (Applause)
It's very simple. I don't want to give you the wrong notion that initiation physically alone will bring you to God, because that would be blasphemy. That would be forcing you to do it. Suppose you want to change your mind afterwards. I can't force you to go to the Kingdom of God. It's all by your free will that you come, and it's all by your free will that you stay. And it's by your free will at the last moment of your life to come back to where you belong. In the last moment, if you change your mind and say, "No, Master, forget it! Bye-bye! I want to go back to see that lady next door." Then you will go. We are all God, remember!
No one can give you anything that you don't already have or that you don't want. Initiation just awakens your own God power, if you want it. If you don't want it, you can put it aside, just like before, and then continue with your ignorant life, no problem. Initiation is a help, group meditation is a help, vegetarianism is a help, and discipline is a help. They're not the ultimate. They're not the end. They are a means to an end only. Your heart must want it above everything else. Then all these things will help you.
If you don't want God, you can eat vegetarian for a thousand years, you can sit for two thousand years and you can get initiated three thousand times, but you are still nowhere. These are just outer rituals, like people who go and bow to so-and-so. They don't understand; they don't commit. But there are other people who don't look like they meditate well, and they can't even repeat the Holy Names properly. But God knows. And they know that they want God. It's simple! (Applause)
It is not easy for us to leave this world because there are so many beautiful things in it. Many people want very much to leave this world, but cannot because of its many beautiful things that they fall in love with at first sight. If we have not seen more beautiful realms, of course, we will think that this world is the most beautiful; so it is not easy for us to go away.
But never mind, we have practiced the Quan Yin Method, one day we will know which realm is really beautiful. Perhaps we still do not know it, but there are fellow initiates who do. After listening to their descriptions, we already can feel the inspirational power urging us to practice spiritually and we want to be like them.
Someone wrote to me saying, "Master, can you please take back this blessing power? After the seven-day retreat, I feel so blessed that I don't seem to be able to cope with this world." (Laughter) Isn't that being stupid beyond words? (Audience: Yes.) Some people pray to Master, hoping to receive a few more blessings; but then, someone feels that the blessings are too powerful and want me to take them back. Why should I take back the blessings?
This blessing power is not controllable. It is not that I press a button here and you have the blessing. It is not like that. You want me to take it back, but I won't! (Master and audience laugh.) When it is given, it is given. What is there to take back? It is not like cows regurgitating the grass they have swallowed to chew it again!
The blessing power is very precious. Very few people can transmit it. You cannot have it even if you exchange the whole world for it; and here you ask me to take it back! If I really do, you will be meditating for nothing and suffering even more than you do now. It is because previously you had not had that uplifting experience of not clinging and non-attachment to the world. Now you have experienced it and realize what is good. If I really take that away, you will feel more miserable than before you began spiritual practice. Previously you did not know what happiness was, and you could live on. Now that you have known happiness, you will not be able to live on once it is taken away.
I once told you a story about an Indian woman who received immense blessings. Perhaps she had just returned from a seven-day retreat. She remained elated every day. Whenever she was making chapatis (round Indian flat bread), she fell unconscious; her soul would fly out and leave her body behind. The flour would fall all over the place and her whole body would be stained with flour and become white. Things were strewn around, the pan in front and the chopsticks behind. You know that kind of situation. Or maybe no one does.
Then the hungry husband came home and saw his wife lying there. There were no chapatis. The butter was left here and the milk spilled over there. It happened like that every day. He thought that his wife was lazy and slept too much. So he beat her, and the wife went to her master and cried, "Master, please take back your blessings." Just like our stupid fellow initiate! She begged her master a few times saying, "My husband beats me every day. I cannot bear it anymore. Look at the bruises all over my body."
Then the Master said, "You should bear this. The blessings are very
precious. You can go into samadhi any time. Not many people can have this."
Because her inner Sound was very powerful, her soul was pulled out whenever
the Sound came, leaving just the body behind. Our body is just like our
clothes. When the soul goes out, it is like a person taking off his clothes
and leaving. However, she said, "But I can't bear it. There is no
peace in my family. Every day my husband beats me when he comes home. Please!
You must take back the blessings." Master said, "All right, I
will."
After her master took back the blessing power, it became even more unbearable. The woman came and cried again, "Master, it is worse now! It was better before. Even when my husband beat me, I could sometimes enjoy the experience of samadhi. Now, although he does not beat me, I can no longer hear the inner Sound. There is nothing! That won't do!" You know disciples are all like that, fond of creating trouble for the master. Then her master said, "Go away, and don't bring me trouble. You want it today and do not want it tomorrow. It cannot be this way. This is not something to be joked about." The woman left and continued to suffer a lot. Of course, her master would still take care of her when she passed away. But after that day her whole life became meaningless, and there was no more experience, nothing! That is because she considered the mundane world more important than her spiritual practice!
Therefore, we cannot chop and change again and again in our spiritual practice. We should realize that this world is ephemeral; so are all the pleasures, anger, grief, happiness and suffering. We should not lose our eternal treasure for these ephemeral things. We receive blessings, enter samadhi in meditation, and have wisdom. These things are the most precious. We cannot trade them for anything in the world.
Many spiritual practitioners were threatened in ancient times; history tells us that spiritual practitioners were not very safe sometimes. When Jesus Christ was alive, His disciples were intimidated and punished. For example, people cast stones at them, beat them and killed them, using barbarous ways to punish those who followed Christ and practiced the esoteric method. But they persisted in their practice resolutely. They were willing to die for the Truth. It is the same in India today. Many spiritual practitioners are misunderstood by others and subject to oppression, threats, harassment and punishment, but they still continue their spiritual practice.
Not very long ago, the Sikhs were also suppressed by some government or king, and many people were killed. But they did not waver and continued to practice spirituality. A master of the Lotus Sect in Japan was also threatened, suppressed and chased away when He preached in public. Some of his disciples were also killed by people in power, but the rest remained firm.
The government of Formosa here is very kind, allowing its people to have religious freedom, and it is even better that they are protected by its laws. But you are aware that I also encounter calamity sometimes. What you know is only a very small part that is exposed. There are many things you do not know and I have not told you. What I mean is that even if we have mundane problems and troubles, still we should not trade our fortune and merits in spiritual practice for worldly comforts in life because these are too valuable!
We should bear any difficulty or trouble we have in our spiritual practice. We should regard any adversity as a test to measure our confidence and courage. We should not withdraw, with shaken confidence, crying and complaining when a situation arises. What kind of spiritual practitioner is that, with no courage and acting like a child?
When we practice spirituality, we should check on ourselves, instead of keeping our eyes on others. We should look after how much courage we have, and whether our faith is strong. We don't have to look at how well or poorly others are practicing. It is enough already to look at ourselves. Each day we take care of our courage, our conduct as a great human, and our faith in the spiritual path (Tao), not allowing them to diminish, waver, or be destroyed. This is our responsibility.
If any fellow practitioner puts the Truth first and this mundane world second, he will be liberated for sure, no matter how quickly or slowly he progresses in his spiritual practice, or how much or less his experiences are. This is the best way to measure it. The world exists only for the purpose of tying us down. All the pleasures, anger, grief and happiness in this world are there to test our confidence and courage, our attitude as great humans, and our faith in the Tao.
It will be too cheap if everyone who practices casually also can become a Saint! What then would a Saint be if he is just the same as the ordinary person? If anyone can become a Saint even though he cannot tolerate anything, do anything, or pass any test, then what good is a Saint? How can he be worthy of praise by humans and heavenly beings? How can he be worthy of being a "Teacher of heavenly beings" or a "Compassionate Father of the Four Forms of Birth"?
So if you want to be a Saint, you should clearly understand that any unfavorable condition is there to test us. We should live on bravely. Even if it is very painful, things will get better in a couple of days. The darkest and longest night will only last till the next morning. The night cannot last forever; neither can our suffering. We must have learned this lesson as a child, that no painful situation will last forever. Even the most painful situation will not last too long. The happy situation will last even less time. So this world offers nothing for us to hold on to, nothing for us to become attached to!
Only one thing is eternal, and that is our inner Sound. It is always present and takes care of us every day. After a while we can rise and reside in that eternal place, where there is no night or day, no spring, summer, autumn or winter, and no pain like we have here. But when I say this, maybe someone will think, "Every day would then be the same and it'd be so monotonous!" It would not be monotonous! It is because our mind is still at the level of the mundane realm and we cannot imagine that kind of realm. That is why after reading the Amitabha Sutra, some people have asked me, "Who wants to live in that kind of realm?" And I've answered, "That realm is not as boring as you imagine."
Only after we have personally experienced it will we know the Pure Land and want to live there. Otherwise we cannot understand just by listening to others talk about it. When Shakyamuni Buddha was in the world, He had a disciple who was a queen. As a queen, she already enjoyed the most beautiful things and the happiest situations in the world. However, when she visited the Pure Land, she was eager to stay there. She asked Shakyamuni Buddha, "Can I live there after I pass away?" The place she had seen was that beautiful!
I'll say something to the new initiates. I don't know what initiation really means to you, but it means a lot to me. It's not that you sit there, listen to the instructions, and still struggle inside about whether I'm worthy for you to accept as your teacher, or if this initiation is worthy enough for you to accept. It's not like that. It's a once-in-a-million-years' chance. I don't know how much it means to you. But you should know how much I have to do, before and after your initiation.
It's not that you sit there on your backside and still wonder whether you should stay with me or if you should go. If you stay or you go, it's your problem. It's your right and your choice. I have no intention to bind you, to keep you or to do anything at all to you physically, mentally or psychically. I just stand by as a very unconditional friend. Whenever you need me, you can come. Should you decide to go, you can go. If that's all the initiation means to you, it's like you're going shopping. Only your mind is so imperfect that you cannot recognize the difference between a true diamond and glass; therefore, you struggle. But you don't know what it means; you really don't.
At least at the time you die, you will know. You will know what initiation means to you. At that time, no one is around you and no one can accompany you. No money can buy you power. No position can protect you from hell fire. At that time, the Master is the only one who comes to you. Then you will know.
Whatever you do, you should do it wholeheartedly. Then you'll get the sum total result. Otherwise, you get nothing. Even during initiation, if you just sit there and think of your past master, your past Buddha or your past whatever, you will get nothing. And then you ask me why you didn't get it. You wonder why you came here, wonder if this is right or wrong for you.
You will continue to wonder all your life, if you keep doing things the way you do. And no one can ever give you enough answers. Your time is very valuable, as mine is. If your time is not valuable, my time is. I don't have time to run around on a bus and airplane for fun, just to come so that you can see me whenever you want. And then you hang around, go for a stroll and do anything you want. But then you come and complain that you get nothing, that you don't know why you came here, that you don't know why you are sitting here, or why you do this and that and the other. You expect me to do everything for you, but you don't do anything, not even just come here and sit.
We organize everything for you, so it's not even that you have to organize! You do nothing; there's nothing to do. The cooking people also cook for you. And then you don't even take that little bit of responsibility. So what do you think? You think that's going to be OK? You think you will get God's blessing at all this way? And then you think you have everything, but I have to do everything. And some of you still criticize!
In the old times, if you wanted to find a master or even any kind of teacher, do you know what you had to do? Even now if you go to college, you still have to pay. If you don't pay, then your parents pay. If they don't pay directly, they pay taxes to the government and then the government pays for the teacher. And you have to go there and enroll your name and pass exams and all that. It takes a lot of time and trouble.
You keep asking me why I don't go out and lecture and save people in the world. Is it easy to save people? Today at the initiation, the highest God power was already here, present, and it still couldn't touch some of them. Only hell fire can burn. It's so difficult; so hard are some people's hearts that even when they sit in God's presence, in God's power, they don't feel moved.
I'm frightened to think about it. I'm so frightened to think of how hard people can be, that even the power of the Most High cannot touch them. That's why the world is as it is. So don't ask me why there is war, disaster or killing. What can the poor Mr. God do? This power can shatter mountains; it can dry up the ocean or make the whole universe crumble into dust. And yet it doesn't touch some humans' hearts. It's very frightening, what we have become.
Then you always ask me to go here, go there, talk to you, go to stay with you, save your friends, save your family members and do this and that and the other. And if I refuse you, you feel like, "Why doesn't Master do Her job? Why doesn't She have compassion and love for humankind? They're suffering enough," and things like that. If I could do it, I would. If Jesus could have done it, he would have finished it. We wouldn't have had to wait until our time. If Jesus could have saved the whole world, he would have done so. If Buddha could have saved the whole world, my turn wouldn't have come and your turn wouldn't have come.
You see how difficult it is? It is because we are too proud and too arrogant. We think we know too many things. We know this sutra, we know that Bible, we know all this and that. We learn everything by heart, and then we're so proud of our own stupid knowledge that we think we know everything already. So whenever someone wants to teach us something new, we refuse. Or we try to find fault, we try to criticize or show other people that we are fantastic, that we know everything or we know better than that person. But we are only harming ourselves and blocking our road to freedom, blocking the road of real knowledge. We're just taking all the advertisements as the real thing and feeling proud about it.
Q: Recently, I've been reading a book called The Ocean of Love by Kabir; he was an incarnation of the true God. (M: Yes, yes) He talks about the mouth of Kal. After uninitiated souls die, the messengers of death come and kind of trick them. The souls go towards Kal, and then Kal chews them up. I don't understand what that means.
M: If you are not initiated, Kal, meaning the negative power, will come to you. Kal means negative power in Sanskrit. If you're initiated, the Master will come, and Kal cannot trick you. After initiation, Kal stays away because the soul doesn't belong to him any more; he cannot control you. But he still tries to trick you, of course. He tries to make trouble, but that's his job. And your job is to walk your way, no matter what he says.
Q: It just sounded scary.
M:Ah, no, life is scary; its end is always deadly! (Master and everyone laugh.)
Q: It's scary for uninitiated people.
M: But you are initiated, so you are always protected by the Master. If you
really, sincerely want to go Home, even 10,000 Kals can do nothing to you
at all.
Q: Is it the same for the people we love and our close friends?
M: Yes! Definitely, yes. The Master will take care of them all. That is the
great, great merit of being initiated. If you knew about it, you would
die of gratitude and the shock of knowing how great it is, this initiation.
Really, it's great.
I cannot describe how great it is. I can only be happy for you. You're really lucky -- yes, very lucky. Absolutely, you have no idea. There's nothing that can buy you this, nothing you can exchange for this and nothing that can earn you this, except God's grace. Of course, it's your time also. But otherwise, even if you pray for a thousand years, you won't get this gift.
It's the greatest thing you can ever have anywhere in the whole universe. Anyone who doesn't have it, even some higher spiritual beings, will envy you. They will envy you very much because you are on the road to mastership, and they're still just spiritual beings, or angels or devas (beings living in the various realms of Heaven). They will die one day, but you won't. They will go lower, but you won't. You'll keep going up all the time, past them, higher than they are, being more glorified and more beautiful. You'll have anything, anything at all. You'll be next to God while they're still swimming somewhere in the three worlds, looking for guidance.
It's very difficult to get this initiation. Oh! My God, when I think about it, oh, wow! Do you know how to win the lotto for six million dollars? This can compare to that in the spiritual world. If you know too much, you might have a heart attack. But how lucky can you be? In the whole universe, you are the best, the picked ones, the selected, the very, very fortunate.
Really, you do not know until the time comes. Sometimes you have to work in this world, so God lets you know very little. Also, we are still in prison, no matter how many things your parents give you to comfort you. You might have a TV or a radio there. But you can't have a lot of things, like your fast car, your helicopter, your palace, your 'air-con' living room, your swimming pool, etc. You're only comforted in prison; you just have livable conditions.
But once you're in there, even when your time is up and you're free from your sentence already, you still have to wait for the bureaucracy. Also, there may be some things you have to take care of. Or maybe your time is not up yet, even though you will be free soon; the lawyer is helping you to get free more quickly, and for sure you will be free since you're not sentenced to death. But still you have to wait. While in prison, you are as comfortable as a prisoner can be; you have the best in the prison. But you're still a prisoner. You have use of all the facilities, but you're still in prison. Therefore, when you really know what your parents have for you to welcome you Home... my God, you cannot imagine it!
Q: Master, if anybody was initiated in the past by Master, but did not repeat
the Holy Names, and did not sit in meditation - at the time of death, do
you go to meet him?
M: No.
Q: Why not? Because he was initiated in the past...
M: But he doesn't want to go back!
Q: Because at the time of initiation, initiation goes to the soul, not to
the body.
M: I know that. But if that soul doesn't want...
Q: Because my son is initiated, but he does not meditate.
M: I know. That's what I am trying to tell you now. The soul is initiated,
if he comes for initiation. Maybe he comes, but the soul does not want
it; maybe just his body comes. So that's why after initiation he drops
everything. He's just curious. He comes there, but he is not committed
in his soul.
So the soul is important. If he comes there, and his soul is still not ready, he doesn't want to go home yet. So he doesn't meditate; he doesn't repeat the Holy Names; he doesn't keep the precepts. Then it's up to him. It's his freedom. I cannot force him to go Home.
Q: Because he got initiated by the Master ...
M: I know that, but he himself has to want it.
Q: He wants Master to take him, so I have him initiated so he can go in this
life, go back to the Lord.
M: If he wants it.
Q: Will he go to the Lord in that condition?
M: If he wants it. But I also said that if you want, you can come back. If
your soul wants it, you can come back. I also said that. The soul has to
want it, not the body.
Q: Not the body.
M: Yes. So at the time of initiation, if his soul doesn't really want it
yet, he might come with you, because you are the father, because here is
the Master, but he isn't truly committed. If the soul still wants experience
in this life or the next life, then he is free to experience again. Then
he will find another Master another time. Because I am talking about the
real initiation.
Q: Master must go to meet him, because he belongs to the Lord; he appreciates
the Lord.
M: Then he has to do his own work. I don't initiate lazy people! I did not
say that initiation brings you to the Kingdom of God. I said initiation
gives you enlightenment. And meditation, discipline, vegetarianism, and
the longing of the soul will give you the Kingdom of God. You have to earn
your keep. Otherwise, I would say, "Okay, come, come, come, everybody's
initiated; you don't even need a vegetarian diet, then go home." It's
not fair! Brother, you want cheap food. (Audience laughs)
There was a story about a man in Chi country. His name was Tien. One day he held a very big festival to make offerings to the god of the road and the land. Many thousands of people came to participate in this festival, and also they had a lot of cooking, eating, merry making and things like that.
Then one of the guests came and offered Mr. Tien a very rare species of fish and bird, and a rare swallow's nest. It was very expensive in China and was supposed to be very nutritious. To make the nest, the swallow had to spit out its own saliva. But then when people came and robbed the nest, it had to continue by making another nest. But by that time, the bird would have no more saliva left and no more nutrition in its body to spit out any more. So it would spit until it bled. And the saliva on the nest at that time became bloody red. But the red ones were even more expensive than the white ones. And that's how people ate them.
So be careful: Not all that's vegetarian is vegetable. Even if you don't kill the birds, they die from suffering, starvation and undernourishment all the same. Because the season comes when they have to make ready the nest for their offspring. That is a spontaneous, natural reaction of the birds. If we take away their nest, they will just make a new one. And so they keep spitting and spitting until they make their nest. Maybe it's not completed, and maybe it is completed, but at the expense of their own lives or their precious health. They probably become exhausted, and by the time the offspring come, no one can take care of them. Of course, the humans are there; they "take care" of the children by putting them in their own warm stomach and keeping them forever. So things like that always happen.
Now, at this festival of Mr. Tien's, when someone offered him such a rare species of the bloody swallow's nest, for example, or a very rare fish, Mr. Tien was very touched and elated. He probably was a very highly important person in the society; otherwise, he wouldn't have had such a festival and not so many people would have come like that. So he was very touched and elated, and then he let out a sigh, saying, "Oh! God is so loving to us. Look at what he gives us every day to eat. He creates all kinds of animals to satisfy our hunger and taste."
So everyone heard his sentence, praising God like that, and they all clapped their hands in praise and agreement. But among the guests was one boy, just twelve years old. Perhaps he was a vegetarian; perhaps he was a just newly and fully initiated 12-year-old from The Supreme Master Ching Hai. (Laughter) He stood up and said, "Dear Sir, it's not so, the way you said." And the "sir" was very surprised and taken aback. He asked the boy, "What do you mean, it's not so the way I say? Do you have another opinion, you who are so young? Do you know anything?"
The boy said, "My teacher taught me differently." My teacher said, "All beings are equal in this world. God created all beings with the same love, the same artistic, creative talent and creative intention." So there is no one in this world who is better than any other being in this world. God created different beings with different purposes and motives. If you say that all the beings like fish, birds, buffalo and so on are for us to eat because God created them for us to eat, then I think you are wrong. Because look at the mosquitoes: They sting our skin and draw our blood. And look at the lions and the tigers: They eat human beings. Do you think then that God created human beings for the mosquitoes, and for the tigers and lions as well?" So the sir, the VIP, did not know how to respond.
The boy continued, saying, "My teacher said, 'In this world, every being is equal. But most of the time, human beings use their intelligence, strength and craftiness to harm and take advantage of other weaker, softer, sweeter and more harmless sentient beings. That's all.' We cannot say that God creates any beings for us to eat or for us to use." So of course the VIP and all the other, smaller VIPs in the party shut up.
I think some of our boys one day will make the same statement somewhere, maybe in the White House. (Master and everyone laugh.) I'm just kidding. It may not be in the White House. It could be in the "Blue House," the "Pink House" or the "Yellow House." And now most of our children are so clever as well. Sometimes they say directly what they think or what they have learned from here without being fearful of offending anyone.
On the contrary; it's we adults, the more intelligent, stronger, grown-up wise persons who are sometimes afraid to speak. Even within the family, we are afraid to say to people that we follow Master Ching Hai, follow the five ethical precepts and follow a vegetarian, compassionate diet. Because we fear that people will ridicule us. We fear that people will fall away and won't be friends with us anymore. We fear that our position will be shaken. We fear that our boss will withdraw favors from us. We fear that our wife will not love us anymore. We fear that our children will think that we have gone nuts. And we fear that our friends will go away from us. We fear that everyone will look upon us or look down upon us as if we are crazy or from another planet.
We fear everything. We even fear that the butcher shop will look at us with different eyes every time we pass by now. We fear anything, because we have learned negatively that everything different makes people stay away. But it's not necessarily the case. If we make a shining, good difference, then maybe people will follow. Otherwise, why should we live our lives differently if we so fear? We might just as well bow our heads, kowtow to everyone and live the way they do. This way we'll have peace, forever, perhaps. Because we will be forever here. And then we'll always have peace with all these beings, but not with the animals, perhaps. And then everywhere we go, the dog will bark at us and the bull might even gorge us.
I have seen many pictures of the bulls in the bull ring. Sometimes when he can get at the matador, he really gorges him - into Heaven. Well, that's the way we say may be karma. So now if every one of us can be as courageous as this boy who was twelve years old (it's a true story), then I think the world will be a better place. And we will have more brothers and sisters, less blood, less violence, less war and less talk about peace. Because peace will be there naturally.
And we don't have to spend a lot on five-star hotels in Geneva, and all these private airplanes and body guards and "guard-bodies" and first-class champagne and caviar. We don't have to spend all that mouth water to talk about peace, when peace actually visits upon our planet. If everyone so follows the way of the Saints, follows the way of non-violence inside-out from childhood on, then all our children will be like the child in this story. Because there must be one day when the people in this world become fed up with war and fighting and violence. There must be one day when they will sit together and put a stop to all this nonsense.
That we human beings can't even speak with each other in our own language is a shame. We have degraded ourselves to an animal state. And then we always use it to curse someone else, like, "You're a dog, you animal," and things like that. But animals are not that bad; they are not even as bad as some of us human beings. Animals sometimes fight because they are hungry. They eat and kill because they are hungry. But after they're satisfied, they are tame; they don't go and do any harm.
Sometimes animals fight others, but they defend their own kind. But sometimes we humans, we fight with anyone: our neighbor, our children, our anything, because we can't settle our own differences through words or arrangements or a gentleman's way of peace. It's very difficult for us. So if we truly think about it, some of the animals have many, many good qualities, sometimes even better than we do. The dog is very faithful, the horse is very loyal, and the cow is very peaceful. The cow gives and takes nothing in return except some dry grass. And I don't know if we have the right, or the mighty dignity to look down on the animals, which we always think of as inferior to us in the human race.
So if we continue to behave the way the world's people behave today do, by making war and everything being settled with guns, blood, human life and things like that, I don't think we have enough dignity or the right to look into the animals' eyes, much less to look down on them. So let's hope that and let's teach our children by good example. Let them be courageous and outspoken and honest, like the boy in this story. That is your duty; you have to make a good example for them.
There was a primary school teacher who took her students to see an art gallery. There everyone looked, looked and looked, and one student kept pulling the teacher's dress, saying, "Teacher, Teacher, I think we'd better get out of here quickly." And the teacher said, "Why is that?" So the student replied, "If we stay here longer, everyone will think that we were the students who did all these paintings."
Once a music teacher took her class to their first grand opera. The lights began to dim, the conductor began waving his baton, and the soprano started singing. After a while, one of the students asked the teacher, "Why does the conductor keep waving his stick at the woman? What has she done? So the teacher said, "Oh, don't worry. It's just the way it is. He won't hit her! Don't worry. And so the student asked, "Then why is she screaming like that?"
An opera singer who was married asked her husband, "Why do you always go out onto the balcony whenever I sing? Don't you like my singing?"
So the husband said, "No, no. I just go out so that all the neighbors can see that I'm not beating you."
Please visit the following web sites to enjoy the original video versions of these jokes,
and you may share the joy of Master's humor with those around you as well:
http://www.godsdirectcontact.org/eng/news/135/jk1.htm (USA)
http://www.godsdirectcontact.org.tw/eng/news/135/jk1.htm (Formosa)
http://www.godsdirectcontact.net/eng/news/135/jk1.htm (USA)