In this episode, Supreme Master Ching Hai reveals that sincerity and a genuine longing for liberation are essential to guiding us toward enlightenment, transforming our inner attitude, and deepening our understanding of life.
(“What is instant enlightenment? And what are the criteria?” What’s the shortcut to enlightenment, and what are the criteria?)
Immediate enlightenment means you get immediately enlightened. That’s all there is to it. Just like immediate cash. You go to the bank, you get immediate cash. If you come to me for initiation, you get immediate enlightenment, OK? And now, the criterion is that you have to be sincere and truly long for liberation and enlightenment. Just be sincere and be open, knowing that we need help. Give me a chance to prove it to you.
Also, afterward, we have to sincerely practice every day in order to discover more Heavens within us and go back to the Most High Heaven, or the Nirvana, or the Buddha’s Land. And also, after initiation, we should take a vow of compassion, charity, and loving-heartedness: no eating animal(-people), no harming anyone of any kind. That’s the foundation of a good and lasting enlightenment. And if you keep these, you will get more enlightened each day until you get fully enlightened, become Buddha or become Christ-like. Then you can help yourself, help others to get liberation, if they have affinity with you. Become a Master.
(This is also my own experience, too. I was wondering when I was signing up for my initiation in California on May 29. And during the initiation, immediately I saw [inner Heavenly] Lights and hear the [inner Heavenly] Sounds. This is absolutely the truth.
OK. This is the following question. “How does one put the theory of enlightenment into everyday life’s practice? What activity do we do? What books do we read? What prayers do we pray, etc.?”)
You see, we have no set formulas for what you shall pray, but you may pray that you get more enlightened each day and become nearer to GOD. And that’s the highest prayer. Nearer to Buddhahood, to GOD or Buddhahood, it’s the same thing. And you meditate every day. You pray whatever you wish to pray for. Noble prayers are always accepted by GOD, by Buddhas. And activities, you do like every day you do. If you are a doctor, you look after your patients. If you are an engineer, you take care of your machines. If you are a taxi driver, then you take care of your customers and drive them to the right place. After enlightenment, there is just a little difference. You do it with devotion and love, not with ignorance and just earning money like before.
Activities are normal; just the attitude changes and the mental understanding will change. We do it with utmost humility, love, devotion and knowing there is an extremely Supreme Power behind our every action. That’s very reassuring and very encouraging. Not just boring, doing boring work every day without any life, without any inspiration.
(I have heard that some religious sects forbid the change from one sect to another. Do You think it is OK to do so? When a person found that another Master is more appealing and suitable, do You forbid Your disciples to do so?) No, I will not. I will never forbid anyone to do anything. If you think other masters are better, more enlightened, more powerful, then welcome. Go quickly. And if you have something, please come back and share with me. But I doubt it though. I doubt it. I doubt it that anyone would be more appealing. If you have affinity with me, you will feel I am OK, I am the best, I am the Most Supreme. It’s just that we have affinity with each other; we feel fine with each other, so we do not look for others. The other people who change from one sect to another, it is because they have no enlightenment experience. They are still wavering in their faith. They have doubts about their sect, about the power of their so-called leader, spiritual leader, so they have to change. If after you have some experiences from a Master and you know that Master has enough power and protects you, and guides you through your ignorant stages, then you don’t need to look elsewhere. The other Master, if enlightened, will do exactly the same.
(“Do You think the world is reaching the end?” I think You already answered that.) No, I do not think so. (OK. “Jesus Christ said, ‘In the Last Days, many masters will appear.’ What do You say about this?”) Many false masters, right? Or many Masters? (Many Masters.) Well… I already told you. If necessary, many Masters will appear; no need to be the Last Days or second day or first day. Anyhow, we should not always think in a negative way. We should believe in the Mercy and Power of God or of the Buddha. If we do righteous things and pray to God or Buddha for help, or get enlightenment through a living Master, we have nothing to fear. We have nothing to fear.
(“Can one achieve complete physical hearing through the meditation?”) Physical hearing? Yes, some do, some do. But the physical hearing isn’t that important; the inner hearing is more important. We can only hear the sounds of this world; mostly they are not very pleasant, all gossip and all violent arguments. If we can hear the Celestial Language, Message, it would be better. I could not guarantee you that through meditation, your physical hearing will be restored, but I can guarantee you that you can hear all from Heavens to hell, from all the Buddhas’ Lands, or from the most-high to the most-low. That I can guarantee you.
(“Why did not Jesus Christ preach vegetarianism, as far as I can understand and can tell from the Bible?”) Please read my article, “Why People Have to Be Vegan (The Benefits of a Vegan Diet).” I’ve mentioned enough about the Bible. Jesus preached vegetarianism to people. He Himself was a vegetarian. Most people do not understand (Lord) Jesus.
(“Where did the negative, creative force come from? From God? Why does He allow that thing to happen? Any purpose at all?”)
It’s a kind of theater to have the negative and positive. There is fun. Otherwise, no fun, huh? Just like in this world we have daylight and we have nighttime. Nighttime is for us to rest, and daytime is for us to be active and work. What I mean is we need some periods of rest. If you cannot sleep for two, three days, you’ll feel terrible. So night is to put everything in sleep, to rest and restore. Winter is the same. You see all the leaves falling down and all the things looking all dry and terrible. But then they restore their strength in spring. They need rest. So, everything is created in opposites, in pairs, order to complement each other. Now we are not to be afraid of the negative force. We just have to know how it functions in order to control it and not to get into its clutches. That’s why we get enlightenment. Not that we get enlightenment and then we shun the opposite force, or we hate the negative force or Maya, etc. It’s not the case.
To get enlightenment is to know through the positive and the negative, and then they can harmonize each other, and then we break through the negative and the positive even. Go through the un-negative and un-positive, go to the Most High where all are blended in harmony and there’s no differentiation between negative and positive like here. Everything comes from GOD; everything is good. In reality, it’s only a play; it is a complement for each other. Just like on the theater stage, there are roles of good kings, virtuous people, and there are roles of killers, of bad and vicious people. All kinds of things. Otherwise, the theater is no fun for us.
You may ask the director, “Why did you create that bad man? His face looks so ugly, and his deeds are so wicked. Wicked, wicked person, why did you create him? What for? You can write, with your own pen, all the good people.” It is all your own pen and you create all these people. But he needs it to earn money, no? And he needs all these bad people also to amuse us. So, what the audience must know is that this is all theatrical, it’s all performance, and not to be involved in this. In similar fashion, we have to be like an audience. We have to be wise enough, enlightened enough to watch all the games of the Universe and get out of the suffering. That’s why some people, when they go to watch movies or theater, they become so involved in the performance – they cry, they shriek, they choke with emotion. You know that? Yes. That’s like we are now. When we are ignorant, we are choked, or we get excited, we get angry, get emotionally involved with the game.
If we are enlightened, we are cool and recollected and we look; we enjoy, but we do not suffer. We “enjoy” all the suffering. We see all things as a film, a theater. We do not feel any longer involved or personally get hurt. Therefore, hells or Heavens, all these are illusions.
(Master, I’m sorry I can’t go to the microphone. Could I follow up on that question? Why is there such a state of fun? Is there a purpose, like learning purpose? And if it’s so fun here, what’s the incentive for finding a Paradise, a Heaven? We are having fun here anyway.) Alright! Then you stay.
The first question is, “Why is it their creation?” Because we like it; we like it. Just like we go to the theater – we pay money for it even. In life, there is enough misery, there is enough fun, but we pay a lot of money to go to the theater just to see the same thing, no? To see people quarreling and fighting, and all these kinds of things, which happen in life sometimes anyhow.
So people like it, people like it. The same, we like it. We create all that sometimes. Do you think we stay in Heaven all the time and just do nothing? It would be very boring, so sometimes we like to have fun, to frolic. And then we fall into trouble because we have too much fun and then we cry. When you cry because you’ve had enough of the fun, then the Master will come and take you Home. And say, “Hey, that’s only theater. Come back.” But when you have not yet had enough of the fun thereof, then you stay, of course. No one can tell you to get out; no one ever will. Therefore, people are still staying in this world. Only a few want to go Home; they have had enough of it, they are tired. I am only for those who are tired. If you still find it very fun in this world, well, welcome, stay. When the time comes, you will call, you will cry.
Photo Caption: “Let Life Surround You with Cheerful Brightness”
