Maya’s force specializes in binding people in this world, testing their greed, anger, and ignorance, testing their wisdom and their ability to overcome. In itself, it’s neither good nor bad. It depends on how we handle it, and accordingly, it becomes good or bad. The negative force enables us to learn how to overcome it, and how to transform it into something useful.
And now, an Enlightened Master – like Shakyamuni Buddha, Lord Jesus Christ, Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), Socrates, Plato – came to this world to teach people how to overcome this negative force, the force from the left, and to transform it so that it can be united with the positive power. In Chinese, we call this “the union of yin and yang.” There must be both yin and yang; only then is it good. Why should it be so? Do we not also have yin and yang?
Don’t we, as humans, also carry both yin and yang within us? Yes, we do. But sometimes, there may be too much yin and too little yang. When they are not in balance, we become unstable. We are like a leaf blown about by the wind, with no sovereignty over ourselves. If we follow this world, if we follow our greed, anger, ignorance, and desires, then we are following the yin – the negative power. An Enlightened Master will tell us to add more yang. Otherwise, you are leaning too much to the left side, too much yin, and will forever be bound by it. Then, what is “yang”? It’s the positive power. the positive power is the power of compassion and love. It is enlightenment, it is light, it is bliss, it is blessing. It comes from Above. The yin power, on the other hand, comes from the world or from below. One drags us down, while the other pulls us upward.
In Heaven, in the abodes where angels reside, they have too much yang. Therefore, they do not know suffering. They do not know how to sympathize with the suffering of others. But here in this world, there is too much suffering. So, we only remember suffering. We rarely remember happiness. We know little about what happiness is.
Happiness comes in brief moments, while suffering is plentiful. Let me give you an example: You work eight, or ten hours a day, and when you return home, you only get to have a couple dishes of food. That meal is our happy moment. But you have exchanged ten hours of labor for it. When we spend time with our husband or wife, we are very happy. We say “this is Heaven.” But you forget how much responsibility is tied to that happiness. After marriage, twenty, thirty, forty years of responsibility are bound to that one person. Then come children, and responsibility toward them. Day and night we must work, provide food, clothing, and care for them until they are twenty, twenty-five, thirty, and it doesn’t end there. Later, when they marry and have children, they’ll bring their kids for you to take care. So, there is very little Heaven in this world. Moments of happiness are too scarce. We must spend much effort, much energy, to get just a little happiness. The audience today are not as enthusiastic as yesterday.
You forgot to laugh today. OK. Because today, it’s more serious. It’s alright, you’re all wondering “What is initiation like? Will Master give initiation later? Why doesn’t She finish the lecture quickly and just give initiation already? Why is She talking so much?”
There will be initiation, but the lecture is still necessary. If we blindly believe without first understanding the principles, without first seeing whether what Master teaches is logical, whether it accords with our own inner ideas, then that is superstition. That is why Master must first explain a little and advise you to take some books and audio tapes to read at home. It’s not because we want to sell books. If you don’t have money, just tell them, then you will get it for free. If you do have money, then you can pay only the printing cost, so that I have the chance to print more for others. That’s all. If you have no money, it’s fine, take them free. My only intention is for you to understand my teachings first, only then can you believe it. If we believe without understanding, that’s superstition. That’s what I mean.
OK. So, why must we seek this yang? How do we obtain it? When we’re short of yang, we’ll not be happy. We are tired from work, and we have little happy time. So, at the time of initiation, I will help you open the yang like turning on a faucet. One faucet is cold water, the other hot. The cold-water faucet is like the negative force; the hot-water faucet is like yang, the positive power. If we turn on both together and mix them, then we can take a bath without catching a cold, and it will be very comfortable. Then, we can truly bathe happily. Then our body sickness and pain will be eased a little. Then we will have strength and energy tomorrow to continue to face the troubles, work and responsibility of the world.
If we bathe every day only in cold water, sometimes if our body is strong, it’s still OK, otherwise, it could endanger your life. Already, this world has given us too much cold water, too much suffering and hardship. We long for some warmth. That’s why I’m here to tell you, there is another faucet which supplies hot water. If you mix it together with the cold-water faucet, you will feel much better, and won’t get sick easily. Even if you’re sick, you will recover more easily and not worsen.
But now, this faucet is stuck. You have the faucet; the water is ready inside, but the faucet is blocked, there is an obstruction. Just let me fix it and it will be fine. Then you can turn it on and get water immediately. That’s initiation. I am like a plumber. Master connects the electricity, then you have electricity. I fix the faucet, so you’ll have water. That’s all. I worry that if you bathe in cold water too much every day, you will get sick and cannot be saved. Now, some might say, “Oh, no, no. I bathe with cold water, it’s more economical.” Fine. I agree. But you should know that in the long run, you’ll have to pay doctors or pharmacies even more.
So, some people say to me, “I don’t want to be initiated by You. I am fine with transmigrating in the cycle of birth and death. I can bear the suffering of this world. I don’t want to go to Heaven. To go there, one has to be vegan – it’s troublesome. I don’t want to quit eating animal-people meat, it’s so yummy. Or I need to abstain from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct. It’s too tough; there are too many complicated precepts. Oh, so troublesome! Your initiation costs too much, I don’t want it.” But you should know that when you go to hell and get barbecued, it’s more agonizing. It’s even more painful than keeping a few precepts now; more painful than quitting animal-people meat and fish-people now.
Some people tell me, “After initiation, we must meditate for two and a half hours. Oh! I can’t stand it. Better to use those two and a half hours to enjoy the world. I care only about the present. Who cares about the future?” But we will know the future at the time of our death. Then we will regret, but it will be too late. No one will come to accompany us.
Moments of enjoyment will only bring more trouble. For example, if we enjoy animal-people meat, fish-people and alcohol, then our body will feel even more uncomfortable later. That’s why hospitals are full of animal-people meat eaters, and alcohol drinkers. Vegans don’t get sick so often. Also, when we die, only our karma will accompany us. No one else. None of our relatives can accompany us. If we follow a Master, practice spiritually, get initiation, and practice the Quan Yin Method, or if both husband and wife practice spiritually, not only can we enjoy family happiness now, but later we can continue walking together forever. Sacrificing one or two hours to meditate together, and then we will be together forever. Isn’t that a good bargain?
Absolutely no loss. Practicing spiritually with me will bring endless profit, never loss. The Law of Yin and Yang is like this: if we have too much yin, we sink into yin. This is cause and effect. If we plant yin, we harvest yin. If we plant yang, we go up to Heaven. But if we cultivate both, balancing yin and yang, negative and positive, then it becomes bright. Then we will attain Buddhahood. We will become balanced beings – Buddhas.
“Buddha” doesn’t mean only yang. Buddha has both yin and yang. That’s what we see in that symbol of Taoism. One side yin, one side yang, with a dot of yin inside yang, and a dot of yang inside yin. It means that a true Taoist, one who has attained the Way, must embody both negative and positive together. He is neither all yang nor all yin. If he is all yang, he would not understand the qualities of those in yin. He would not be tolerant of beings; he won’t know their hearts, can’t communicate with them, can’t comfort their sufferings. If he has too much yin, then he is just like us: eating, drinking, enjoying worldly pleasure, and being ignorant, unenlightened, powerless, unable to help anyone.
The positive power, the saving force is within us. That is what is meant by “human nature is originally good.” Right now, it is blocked, surrounded by karmic obstacles, so we cannot see it. If there is someone who specializes in opening this positive energy and fixing the problem, then we can benefit. That is what initiation is. I help the fellow initiates or disciples to open their compassionate loving Power. That compassionate loving Power will take care of them every day. In Catholicism, we call it God. When we get to know the compassionate loving Power, we know God.
If we don’t practice spiritually, where will we go? Is there hell or not? Is there Heaven or not? The answer is “yes.” What is hell? Hell is created by our own karma, our own dark thoughts, our own wrong deeds, which stir it up. When concentrated, it becomes a kind of magnetic field, a kind of atmosphere. Nothing ever really disappears; everything continues to exist in this Universe. Whatever we say will not be lost. Whatever we think will not be lost.
There are certain things that specifically record our deeds, speech, and thoughts. Then, our deeds, speech, and thoughts, whether right or wrong, will form a particular kind of atmosphere, and this will surround us. It will follow us wherever we go. While we are alive, it surrounds us. This, in science, is called a “person’s magnetic field.” Magnetic field. This magnetic field, even after a person dies, still surrounds his other kind of body. Unless you are a very great practitioner with tremendous spiritual power, you can dissolve it. Otherwise, it may take hundreds of years before it can be dissolved. It’s not that simple. After hundreds of years, that magnetic field will gradually disappear by itself. Either it transforms into another place, or it is affected by circumstances, or absorbed by others, until it disperses and fades away.
Photo Caption: Everything Has Its Own Beauty in the Wild Too!
