| Why Do We Need a Living Master? |
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Many people ask me, "Why do we have to find a living Enlightened Master to transmit God power to our world? We have heard that God power is omnipresent. Can't we just pray and ask Hirm to bless us? Why do we need a living Master?" I wish that it could be so, that God's power could bless us directly, and help us become enlightened, attain sainthood, enter the heavenly kingdom, attain the Truth, and reach the blissful dimension that we seek. But the Creator did not arrange it this way. Let us take a look at this world. If we want to have children, we must first get married. God does not "hoola-hoop" to create a baby and drop him or her down from heaven right before us! If we want rice and vegetables, we must sow the seeds and have a farmer nurture them in order to reap a good and plentiful harvest. We do not know who established this law of Creation, but without it, our world would be in chaos. Everyone would be praying for anything and everything they wanted. Our ordinary human minds are ignorant. We often pray for the wrong things and turn the world upside down. On second thought, this law may not be so bad, after all.
Earthworms, for example, turn acidic, coarse, and sterile soil into fertile, arable land. Why doesn't the Creator do the job? We don't know. The fact is, thanks to the earthworms, we have good soil for farming. Earthworms serve some function, as do humans. For example, a husband and wife together can produce children, which cannot be accomplished by reciting mantras or through miraculous work by the Creator. It is said that "all sentient beings have a Divine Nature," but we don't know how this comes about. We also know that Jesus Christ once said, We are all God's children! But we don't understand how this is so. Being God's children means that we have the innate ability to create. Without us, there can be no humans or children. Even the Savior had to be born through human beings in order to come to this world. Don't you think that humans are great? All sentient beings have an innate yearning for life, and this nature is the power of Creation, the merciful love of God. Hes desires that all sentient beings should live and spread all over our planet.
We are the children of God, yet we cannot communicate with Hirm directly. This is very difficult for us to accept, but such is the law of Creation. For example, although we know that our children are the children of God, they still have to be born through us. We can grow many species of flowers, fruits, and trees on the same soil, but each plant absorbs the nutrients it needs and yields different flowers or fruits. Likewise, although we are all born from God, we all look different. Each person is like an individual flower, fruit, or tree absorbing different nutrients. These nutrients are karma in Buddhist terminology. What exactly is karma? Everything we do in this life or all that we did in our previous lives will transform into a magnetic field and attract similar qualities to our body, making us what we are.
It is said that one can become an Enlightened Master through many lifetimes of spiritual practice. The Buddhist scriptures say that sainthood can be attained after trillions of years of practice. Perhaps this is because we need to acquire many qualities and functions before we become perfect and fully equipped. This is very true. However, this truth seems to contradict my theme "Immediate Enlightenment and Liberation in One Lifetime"! [Laughter] It is true that it takes trillions of years to attain ultimate enlightenment, but then, why do I say "Immediate Enlightenment and Liberation in One Lifetime?" It is because we attain immediate enlightenment when our time comes. Those who have already practiced spiritually for eons become enlightened immediately! Otherwise, how would they know that countless eons have passed?
For many lifetimes, we have had many Enlightened Masters, including Jesus Christ, Shakyamuni Buddha, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Confucius, and Mencius, yet the world is still full of people. This means that not many people have been liberated. Very few people have! All the while, we have been transmigrating within the "six paths," as the Buddhists call them. What are the six paths? After we've been angels, we fall from heaven when our time comes to become beasts or hungry ghosts, or to go to hell, etc. We can never transcend the six paths of transmigration until we have attained the highest level of consciousness. The six paths of transmigration lie within the three realms. What are the so-called three realms? In addition to our world, there are three other worlds to which we can ascend or descend. But it is very difficult to even go and take a look at these three worlds. To do so, we must pursue spiritual practice.
We can reach the second realm by practicing Zen, by asking questions like "Who am I?" "Who are you?" and "Who is chanting holy names?" and by deliberating over Zen enigmas. By practicing yoga, we can also attain the first or second realm, or at the most, the third realm. But that's as far as we can go. We need a more powerful method to go beyond that, and that is the Quan Yin Method, which brings immediate enlightenment. If we want to go to Kaohsiung in southern Formosa, we can go by motorbike or car. To go to the offshore islands of Penghu, we have to go by boat. For distant places like the United States, flying by plane is faster. Therefore, if we want to transcend the three realms, we need some means that can help us to go beyond these realms. We cannot make it by asking questions in worldly language. No matter how efficient our worldly language is, it remains, nonetheless, a language of this world. No matter how fast a car can run, it is a vehicle for the road only; it cannot cross the sea or traverse space.
Similarly, there are many methods of spiritual practice. I introduced some methods to you for practicing at home because I needed to comfort some people who were with us yesterday. There are many other methods, but I could never teach them all to you, even if I wanted to.
I can offer you any method you want, but some are more dangerous while others are safer. The methods that I taught you yesterday are the safest ones. They are safe for those who are not in contact with me. It's better not to practice other methods if you cannot be by my side every day! Otherwise, you may develop mental, physical, or other problems after some time. That is why I don't teach you.
Many Indians are still practicing very complicated methods today because they happen to meet such masters. Perhaps they have a more complicated fate, but that is what they practice. For instance, they may take a clean, soft, narrow strip of cloth about five meters long and roll it up. With the help of a little water, they swallow the cloth, leaving one end outside. Then, they do some abdominal exercises to clean their stomach and intestines before slowly pulling out the cloth. There are many more weird methods that I dare not speak about here because they don't sound very good. For example, they practice on the male and female organs, about which I dare not elaborate for fear that it might send many old ladies rushing home! [Master and everyone laugh] Sometimes they insert a cloth inside the nose and then slowly pull it out. This cleans the nose thoroughly, and they regard it as cleansing their karma. However, I don't think that karma can be cleansed away with cloth. It can only be cleansed thoroughly through merit, virtue, benevolence, and the power derived from spiritual practice. Since karma is intangible and created by the mind, it is only right that we cleanse it also from the mind.
In India today, many people are still practicing in seclusion high in the Himalayas. There are some places in very high altitudes that are extremely cold where humans have never set foot. These people come down only once a month or rely on food brought by other people. They practice seriously and never leave the mountains. To reach these places, they must travel on foot or by levitation. They walk as though they are flying. No one can catch up with them. They cannot bring any luggage. Therefore, they must first practice the trantric warming method to transfer the heat from the solar plexus to other parts of the body. It will keep them warm and they won't have to wear any clothes. Or they may cover themselves with a flimsy piece of cloth and walk all the way up. Since it is a very long journey, they cannot bring many things. There are no motorcycles in the snow-covered mountains. One misstep and they will end up at the bottom of the deep Ganges valley. It won't be necessary to recite the Death Mantra because they will be reduced to dust before they have uttered a single word. They have to practice many different methods in order to survive in those places.
Milarepa, a well-known master of an esoteric sect in Tibet, used to practice many methods so that he could survive in the Himalayas. He practiced levitation so that he could fly. He also practiced the trantric warming method so that he could warm his whole body with abdominal heat. He wore no clothes. When an occasional avalanche cut off the roads, he would starve for three to four months since there were no passersby to offer him food. In ancient times, traffic was inconvenient and life was very simple; therefore, people practiced many of these kinds of methods. We can also practice these methods today, but most modern people are physically weak and mentally exhausted. They do not have the patience to walk that toilsome journey and practice so many complicated methods. Very few people can withstand the Himalayan climate. When I was in the Himalayas, it was very difficult to cook any food. It took a long time for food to get cooked when the air pressure was so low. The food remained cold, however long I cooked it. I stared at it and it stared back at me; it simply would not boil. So, I just ate it raw after washing it in the Ganges. That tasted nice, too. Despite the bitter cold, wild vegetables manage to grow in the Himalayas. I was very surprised. Wild vegetables are edible, but don't eat too much, or you will look like them - greenish and hairy. [Master laughs] That was why Milarepa's body was covered with greenish hair when he lived in the Himalayas. When people saw him, they asked, "Are you a bardoba?" Bardoba is the Tibetan word for "ghost". [Master and everyone laugh] He answered, "No! I am a human!" Then people asked, "If you are a human, why do you look like this? Why do you have green hair all over your body?" Yes! We will become whatever we eat.
This is what happens to our physical body. Mentally, our thoughts make us what we are. We have all heard of this before. But then, why can't we attain the Truth just by thinking that we have achieved it? Wouldn't that be simpler? You can go home and try thinking every day, "I have attained the Truth. I have attained the Truth. I have attained the Truth...." Will you succeed? You don't have to recite this! It is futile. If we do not have an Enlightened Master, recitation is futile. Lots of people recite the name of Amitabha Buddha constantly, but they never become Amitabha Buddha. However, if we meet a Master who has attained the Truth and He/She tells us how to do so, then it is useful.
Why is that so strange? Just now, I said that many people ask me, "Why must we have an Enlightened Master in order to get the lineage of the Method? Why can't the God Power transmit it directly to us? Since the Goddess of Mercy is omnipresent and responds to all prayers, why doesn't She just appear to us instead of doing so through an ordinary human form?" Here is the answer. It is true that the Goddess of Mercy is omnipresent, but we can never behold Her. We cannot see Her even if She is right before our eyes because our thoughts and vibrations are too coarse and totally different from Hers. For beings who have reached ultimate enlightenment, the vibrations of Their bodies are so subtle that they seem invisible to us.
In the book, "Autobiography of a Yogi", Paramahansa Yogananda, a famous Indian yogi that practiced very well, mentioned his grand master Babaji, an immortal who has lived for over a thousand years! He has been living in the Himalayas for a very long time! One day, his millennium-old grand master came to visit his master. Very excited, his master quickly went inside to prepare tea. When he came out again, Babaji was nowhere to be found! Why? Because he had hidden in the sunlight! I have told you this story before. How can we hide in the sunlight? Can you imagine a person hiding in the sunlight and making himself invisible to others? This is a fact that only spiritual practitioners can understand. One of our fellow practitioners just now reported that I sometimes disappear. "Where could I have gone? The physical body has its weight; how could She run away so fast? How could She disappear into nowhere? She has hidden Herself in the light, so people cannot find Her!"
Some bodies are very subtle, and we cannot see them unless our heavenly eye has been opened. We lose sight of them when our ordinary human mind stirs. When we meditate with the Quan Yin Method, sometimes we see the dimension of God. Suddenly, we become overjoyed and God disappears. Is God afraid of us? No! God vanishes because our mind is no longer its usual self. Later, when we have practiced and reached a superior level, instead of seeing fully enlightened beings, we ourselves will become fully enlightened beings. This is a very high level that very few people can attain. Apart from Quan Yin Method practitioners, I dare to say that no one will ever reach this level! [Applause] And not every practitioner of the Quan Yin Method can attain it. Yesterday, we talked about master Chinshan, who had an exceptional and incredible healing ability. Do you know how he healed people? He used body dirt, bathing water, sputum, nasal secretions, ear wax, etc. Do you want to take that medication? [Laughter]
Even when Enlightened Masters do come to us, it is difficult for us to get any blessings because we have a discriminating heart. Even when they have manifested into a physical body, we still have difficulty believing in them, not to mention when they are intangible and invisible. Most of us cannot recite the holy names with undivided concentration because we do not believe in the past or future masters whom we cannot see. This is the problem! We do want to believe in them, but we cannot do that easily because we cannot see them.
One day, master Chinshan was asked to heal a lay person, the wife of a high officer. As soon as he entered the house, he embraced and kissed the woman, and spat sputum into her mouth. The woman fled. She had never met such a master before. And, of course, her angry husband took her away immediately. When another woman heard about the incident, she lamented, "What a great pity! You don't know how he heals people. Anything from his body is miraculous medicine." Even if that is true, we cannot blame most people, because it is impossible for ordinary folks to swallow that. If it were me, I definitely would not have accepted it! [Laughter] My apologies to master Chinshan. [Master and everyone laugh] I am just being honest!
Sometimes Enlightened Masters dare not venture outside to save people because the world is topsy-turvy. We regard the really good things as bad. Conversely, we consider the evil things or drugs that make us arrogant, sick, or angry to be good. Nonetheless, some Enlightened Masters do not use these methods because they are beneficial to few people. We cannot blame sentient beings, because their ordinary minds think differently and their concepts cannot be changed immediately. Therefore, I use more comfortable methods because I know that those methods are not feasible. How can we do things that way in this age? It was unacceptable even in those days. Many people dared not accept his treatment and left as sick as when they first came.
Some Enlightened Masters do not need to use that method; They don't use any method. We have heard that reciting the name of Amitabha Buddha or the Goddess of Mercy can benefit and save us. Is this not a lot more comfortable? By reciting the name of the Goddess of Mercy, we can realize our dream of begetting a son, getting promoted, having a long life, or transforming into a male body. However, this kind of Enlightened Master is rare! We might have heard about the Goddess of Mercy and Amitabha Buddha, but They seldom come here! Besides, there are many people who do not have a chance to hear their names! Take the people in Africa, for example. How could they know about the Goddess of Mercy or Amitabha Buddha? Then, are they deprived of salvation forever? Wouldn't that be a great pity? Let us temporarily forget Amitabha Buddha and the Goddess of Mercy, and direct our attention toward the more fantastic Enlightened Masters. We don't have to recite their names; even before we know about them, they have been saving us already. They are the Supreme Masters and are extremely rare. Even if they do come to this world, we won't recognize them. Even when they declare, "I am an Enlightened Master," we won't believe them. Of course, they usually do not make such a claim. So, how do we know about them? It is extremely difficult to meet great masters who can save our lives.
It is not always useful to constantly recite the name of the Goddess of Mercy, because we cannot see Her! We can only hope that God will manifest and incarnate into this world and communicate with us through a physical body. Only then will there be hope for us. I mentioned yesterday that when God does come here, Hes might not be dressed in the same attire as we imagine, so we feel disappointed. Sentient beings will forever be disappointed because even God cannot satisfy the mind of every person. Some people like Hirm to be in male form, others prefer Hirm in female form. Therefore, we had better negotiate with our ordinary human mind first and try to convince it, "Whether Hes is man or woman, big or small, and however Hes looks, we will accept Hirm! You should try this way!" [Applause]
When I first came to Formosa, I attended a seven-day saint-chanting retreat, which means we had to chant the saints' names for seven days. "Namo Amitabha Buddha, Namo Goddess of Mercy, Namo...." The whole day long, we chanted the names of three to five saints non-stop, until our voices were hoarse by the time we got home. That is what you do at a saint-chanting retreat. I had some response when chanting the holy names. I was then practicing the Quan Yin Method, but since I had nothing to do, I wanted to observe how the Formosan people practiced spiritually. So I visited a famous Zen master. I liked spiritual practitioners regardless of their level. I liked their aspiration for the Truth, their simple lifestyle, and merciful vow to save sentient beings. I liked them all.
When I chanted the holy names with them, I received some response and made contact with Amitabha Buddha. A thought came into my mind. I felt that sentient beings were in great misery, so I started crying. It was during a repentance ritual and we were chanting the name of Amitabha Buddha, but I was shedding tears. I complained to Amitabha Buddha, "Sentient beings are in such great pain but not all of them know Your holy name. By the time they learn to recite Your name, they might have gone to hell!" And then I said, "Should I become a Buddha (an Enlightened Master) one day, people will not have to recite my name. As soon as I am aware that someone is suffering, I will go render help!" [Applause]
Any vow that is made sincerely will be realized. This is my personal experience. I had made several vows before, and all of them came true. I would like to share this with you. Should you really want to help sentient beings, please be sincere, and you will attain the Truth quickly! Helping others is the fastest way to attain the Truth, but you must also practice the Quan Yin Method. When we long to attain the Truth, our sincerity will touch God. When we want to help suffering sentient beings, our sincerity will touch the heavenly beings, and eventually our vow will be realized. However, the vow will not be realized the instant it is made; we must work hard to find an Enlightened Master. The Master will appear, indicating that our time has come! If we make such a grand vow, the Master will appear and superior beings will come to help us. Very soon, we will be enlightened and attain the Truth!
Ordinary people do not make such grand vows, but they do make vows like wanting their children to graduate with the best grades, their daughter to marry a high-ranking official, a promotion, or to become the most beautiful woman in the world. Few people forget their own lives and blessings to make wholehearted vows for the well-being of others. Of course, those people were spiritual practitioners in their previous lives; therefore, such a noble ideal was recorded in their subconscious. No one taught them that! Besides, other people may not be able to teach us anything. It is true that many people are teaching others. For instance, we all have religious beliefs; many believe in and know about Buddhism, about the compassionate Goddess of Mercy, and the loving Jesus Christ. We all know about these things, but we do not develop a very merciful and loving spirit. Sometimes, we make the same vow as they did, but we are not sincere! We think we are sincere, but after we have made the vow, we become scared, "Oh, come on. I was only joking!" [Master and everyone laugh] That is why few people succeed in their spiritual practice.
To succeed, we must be very sincere and practice very diligently with the help of a great Master. Why do we need a great Enlightened Master? I have just explained why. Now, let me elaborate on that again. Rice seeds can grow into crops and yield rice. However, if there is no one to sow the seeds in the wet soil, they will not sprout. After they have sprouted, if there is no one to take care of them, transplant them in neat rows, apply fertilizers and insecticides, and irrigate them, they cannot survive either. Even in worldly things, we need the attention of an expert in order to have fruits, and much more so if we want to attain the Truth. We cannot succeed by searching blindly on our own, or by seeking guidance from another ordinary human that is not an expert. We need an Enlightened Master because even after we are enlightened, we still need to enhance our level and develop our newly opened wisdom. Otherwise, it will wither and die.
Many people think that daily chanting the holy names is good enough, but I don't think so! Yesterday, I taught you a more powerful way to chant the holy names, but please do not blame me if you cannot become fully enlightened, because one cannot attain sainthood simply by chanting them. Why? Because that is a "discriminating method." It discriminates between God and "I". I chant the holy names and I worship God, but that doesn't involve the concept "I am God". You need another method to reach the state of "I am God". Actually, it is not really a method. Rather, it is a lineage, an invisible force, the transmission of which can only be possible from a person who has attained Mastership, or a disciple authorized by this Master. You do not have to learn it from the Master; you can learn it from a disciple sent by the Master to transmit the method! Since the Master has given inner permission to this disciple to pass on the lineage, it will work! We can believe that.
Milarepa was once subject to a seven-year punishment by his master in order to cleanse the bad karma he had incurred through his earlier use of black magic. His master refused to transmit the method to him until seven years had passed. During these seven years, Milarepa was so anxious that he tried to learn the method behind his master's back, but did not succeed. One day, Milarepa conceived a plan with the help of his master's wife, who forged a letter in the Master's name and stamped it with his seal when he was sleeping. Milarepa took the letter to one of his master's disciples who lived far away. This disciple had the Master's permission to transmit the method, so Milarepa went to him with this lie, "Master asks you to transmit the method to me." This senior disciple believed him, so he offered Milarepa a seat and began transmitting the method to him. But it didn't work! How can one cheat his master? Milarepa thought that his plot would work, but he had failed to deceive the wisdom of an Enlightened Master. He had no choice but to return to his master and humbly beg him with great effort.
We can entrust someone to transmit this method, and we can revoke the authorization too, because it is the Master, and not that person, who transmits the method. Even when I transmit the method to you, it is the Master Power doing it, not Ching Hai, this ordinary human body. The Master means the Inner Master! When our inner wisdom is mature and ready to accept enlightenment, it will need the help of a cooperative power outside, and then it will be opened. For instance, eggs are supposed to hatch into chickens, but mother hens must sit on them to give them warmth every day before the young chickens can emerge. Similarly, we have the enlightening nature and wisdom within, but without the help of an outside Master to open it, we cannot use it. This is the natural law of Creation, just as eggs need the hens to sit on them to give them warmth. Even when there are no hens, we have to use artificial warmth to hatch them. Otherwise, the young chickens will not emerge by themselves. In the same way, we have heard that we all have the Divine Nature, and that God or the Supreme Power is omnipresent and can help us anywhere, anytime. However, before we have met Hiers representative in this world, we simply cannot catch Hirm.