In this episode, Supreme Master Ching Hai explains the importance of a living Master and the laws of karma: “As you sow, so shall you reap.”
If we truly believe in (Lord) Jesus and want to see Him, we can go, but we must rise up to where He stays. And that only can be done through perseverance, meditation, prayer and the Grace of a Living Master. Because a Master, the One who is in the flesh, is easier to contact. And the One who is in the flesh is also in the spirit. But the One who is in the spirit only cannot be in the flesh. That’s why the Living Master is more important than an in-the-spirit Master, because otherwise you cannot see, you cannot rise to that level.
The Master, when in the flesh, They are also in the spirit. Therefore, (Lord) Jesus, when He was on the Earth, He said what? “I and my Father are one.” He was on the Earth, having the flesh body, and had to eat, walk, drink, like any other mortal. But He said, “I and my Father are one.” He did not tell a lie; He told the truth. Because He was in the flesh as well as in the spirit. He had both instruments to help people in the flesh as well as the people in the spirit. Buddha was the same. When He was in the flesh, He could even manifest to go to Heaven. He took His disciples to many different Heavens.
If we read different Buddhist scriptures, we will see different kinds of Heavens or different kinds of Buddha’s Lands in them. This is due to the Power of the Buddha; He could manifest at the same time in many places – on Earth, in hell, in Heavens, in Buddha’s Land, in the Kingdom of God, etc. So, at the same time, He taught disciples in different places and at different levels, and took different people to different Heavens at the same time. That is the Power of a Living Master. A true Living Master should possess this kind of Power. If not, he is not a Living Master. Therefore, (Lord) Jesus, He wasn’t only in the flesh. After He died, He resurrected; He flew up to Heaven, but that was not His real physical body. It was a light body, a spiritual body.
The Bible is too short. The experiences are too few, too rare. Therefore, we cannot understand very much the similarity between Christians’ experiences and Buddhists’ experiences. But for what I understand from my own experiences, I know (Lord) Jesus had the same Powers like Buddha did – He could appear anywhere, any place, any time. He had attained Buddhahood, in other words.
“Christ” is just the Hebrew name for Buddha; “Buddha” is only a Sanskrit name for Christ. It means an Enlightened Person, Enlightened Saint, a Living Master – Embodiment of Truth, Light and Salvation.
Once you attain that level of Buddhahood or Christ, you can save as many people as come to you. Whoever comes to you for help, you can help them. Your treasure is endless. The only difficulty is that not many people will come to you – not the whole world. Because most people are covered, obscured by their own ignorance and misunderstanding of what a Buddha should be, what a god should be. Too much hallucination and too many doctrines, too many dogmas keep people away from such a Living Embodiment of Truth. If you are a Buddhist, you’re stuck in Buddhism. And you always pray to the wooden Buddha, hoping for salvation after you die.
Well, if you are really sincere, you’ll get it, no doubt. If you really sincerely repeat the name of Amitabha Buddha, the utmost purity from your heart will touch His Spirit, and He will take you to liberation after you die – that’s no doubt – or even in this life. But very seldom can people be purified by themselves to such an extent.
Therefore, the Buddhas, Christ or the Saints have to manifest Themselves time again and again into this world to show Themselves in the flesh, in order to get direct contact with them (people) and help them to go Home. Therefore, we see many periods of time, the Buddha came, Christ came, Prophet Muhammad Peace Be Upon Him came, etc. – all these we call Prophets or the Messengers of God – They are truly the Messengers of God.
They have contact with God in Heaven, and They have contact here in the world as well. Just like you are a big boss of a big company, you have your office everywhere, and your representatives everywhere. And they can take care of people’s problems when they come to your company. If you have no representatives in Australia, for example, it’s difficult for [Australian] people to know that you exist in Germany or in America, that your company sells such and such in America. And for so many small problems and details, you need to be in direct contact in order to solve the problems. So, the Messengers of God or so-called Enlightened Saints are Representatives of God. Coming in contact with Them, we will come in contact with God in due course, and it’s a direct line.
So, when we get enlightenment, we will create a new Heaven. And when we do something bad or sinful, we create a new hell. Do not think that hell exists already and waits for you to fall into it. No, we create it. Heaven and hell are all our own creations.
Let me tell you a story from Hindu mythology. There was a man who was very rich, and he died. He died, and then he lived in a very beautiful palace in Heaven. He lived there, no problem. Everything was beautiful, and there was a golden palace for him. But he lived there for many days; he saw no one around him, no one at all. So he went very far, far away and then he kept asking an Angel, “What happened to my palace? I have no servants. I have no one around, no relatives, nothing; no one loves me, why?” The Angel said to him, “It is because when you were on the Earth, you did not love anyone. You didn’t treat your servants very well, so you cannot have them here.”
OK. So the man was very miserable, went back to his palace and pondered over this. He said, “Well, if I come back next time, I will be loving to people, so that I’ll attract many people to come to me, otherwise I’m too lonely now.” So he was pondering. And then, as he pondered over this matter, he got hungry. He kept searching in his pantry for food. There was nothing there, nothing at all, not even a piece of dry bread or chapattis. Chapattis – Indian bread. And so he was sitting there, thinking “I’m so hungry.”
And then he kept praying again to the Angel. He said, “Please come. I cannot come to you now. I’m too hungry; I cannot walk. Please come to me. I want to ask some questions.” So the Angel, out of compassion, came to him. And the man asked the Angel, “What happened? I have no food, why? I thought in Heaven, there would be plenty of food. Why did I come here and get hungry?”
So the Angel said to him, “It was all your making. When you were on Earth, you did not give anyone anything. People who were hungry came to you; you didn’t give them food and shelter. Therefore, now that’s what you get. You have to create them in order to have them here.” Oh! So, the man was enlightened somewhat. He said, “Well, that’s what I get, yeah, I guess, the law of karma.” And there’s nothing to drink, so he knew it was the same thing – that what he did not sow in life, he could not reap after death. “As you sow, so shall you reap.”
So, now he was very miserable, so he prayed to God. He said, “Please, give me some more time to live, at least two weeks, so I can create my better environment, so that I can have something to eat and to drink.” So because of his sincerity, God gave him two more weeks to live. And during these two weeks, he gave food and drinks, and loved many people. So when he went back to that palace, he had plenty of people to serve him and love him, and food and drink.
But this is only a small story. In order to create the infinite Heaven, meaning the long-lasting Heaven, we need much more perseverance and virtues.
Now you may tell me, “Well, I just have this one life. How can I create infinite Heaven for myself?” Well, then you go to someone who has already created infinite Heaven, then you join Him or Her and go to that Heaven, and you can also stay there. But also, according to Buddhism, we have life after life; we do not have only one life. Therefore, maybe we have accumulated enough virtues and merit in order to live in such infinite Heaven, like that of Amitabha Buddha. That was the one He created Himself.
It says so in the scriptures, and it is the truth. That’s why whenever a Living Buddha is on the Earth, people flock to Him to take refuge, because they cannot have enough confidence that they can create their own Heaven. But nevertheless, the Buddha or the Enlightened Master would tell them, “Look! You are your own Heaven. You can create it through this and that discipline, through such and such virtues and spiritual practice.”
Because God’s Grace or Buddha’s Mercy are infinite. If we turn to Them for refuge, then we get it. Now, God or Buddha Nature is what we have inside ourselves; It’s the infinite power endowed to humans alone. We can discover this infinite power and create anything we want. And forget about hell. We do not create hell, then we don’t have it.
But that is, we have to live according to the instructions of the Master and not create a new hell for ourselves, but create Heaven. Otherwise, all the hells are always empty and waiting, and all the Heavens are empty and waiting for us – it’s not true. We create them.
OK. I will stop now. If you have any questions, welcome. You can write or you can ask. Alright. (I came in late and I don’t know if You might have already answered this. But, let me ask this question anyway. Do You know about Sant Mat or Surat Shabd Yoga?) Yes, yes, I know.
(How does that compare with what You are teaching, and what is Your impression of that?)
Maybe similar. It’s just more extensive in my lectures, more extensive – the knowledge and the explanation. (So, are You saying that You are teaching the same thing then?) I think so, yes. (OK. Is this explained more in Your books which I can get?) Ah, no, it isn’t explained in there. But because the Quan Yin Method, you cannot explain, you can only transmit in silence. So what I explain is only a kind of philosophy. (So, Your method of meditation involves inner [Heavenly] Light and inner [Heavenly] Sound?) Right. (OK. Thank You.)
Photo Caption: “Just Seek U the Wise, Not Climbing the Hard Way for Enlightenment!”
