There was a person call Abraham.
He and his wife called Sarah
lived in the city of Ur. One
day, God said to Abraham: "I
want you to leave the city of Ur
quickly and go to a very far
away place. The place is called
Canaan. If you follow my
instruction, I shall make you
the leader of a great country."
Sarah had no children. However,
they very much believed in God
and therefore did what Hes had
instructed. They had a nephew
called Lot. They brought along
some servants, animals and some
possessions and left the city of
Ur.To leave their relatives,
friends and all the familiar
places to go to a very foreign
country was very unpleasant to
them; they had a hard time and
hesitated about leaving. During
the migration, they used camels
and walked very slowly. The
country was very far away.
Nevertheless, they finally
arrived. There they set up their
tents.
From that day onwards, they
lived very happily together.
However, their herds and flocks
- cows and sheep - continued to
grow in number. Therefore, their
location did not have enough
water, and could not provide
enough grass for them to eat.
Gradually, they started to
quarrel - "this land is mine,"
"that tree is yours," "this lake
was mine and that was yours,"
"my sheep can drink but yours
cannot". They started to quarrel
for these things.
These people who quarreled were
the servants who looked after
Abraham's and Lot's animals.
Since they quarreled, Abraham
and Lot decided to separate.
Abraham let his nephew Lot
choose first where he wanted to
go. He did not want to use his
position as an uncle to
overpower him and therefore he
let him choose first. Lot
decided to go down the mountain
to the plain because there was a
basin in the plain. There was
water there as it was close to
the Jordan River and it was
close to a city called Sodom.
Besides, it was very green
looking and seemed to have
plenty of grass. Since he
thought that there was plenty of
grass and water for his animals,
he then walked away with his
flock.
This decision meant that Abraham
should stay on the very dry,
bare mountain. The grass there
did not seemed to be plentiful
and the water there also seemed
scarce. The basin that Lot was
going to looked very abundant
and all green. However, Lot's
decision was wrong. Although the
basin area seemingly looked
good, there was something
unpleasant which he discovered
after he went there. This was
that the people living in Sodom
were proud, cruel, greedy and
lazy. They had a very ferocious
character. Very often many
horrible things happened in
Sodom. However, no one felt
ashamed, no one would take care
of such matters, and there was
no one to protect the weak ones
and to punish those wicked ones.
However, God was very fair. Hes
would not close Hiers eyes to
such unfair happenings; Hes
would not close Hiers eyes to
allow those ferocious people,
those who intentionally did
wicked things to continue to act
freely. Therefore, Hes decided
to let the city of Sodom be
punished since the people there
did not feel ashamed of
themselves and had done many
evil things.
One day, the weather was very
hot and Abraham was resting in
his tent. He saw three strangers
walking towards his tent.
Abraham stood up to greet them;
he invited them into his tent to
rest and gave them something to
eat. Since the visit was not
expected, Sarah and the servant
hurried to prepare some food.
They baked some fresh bread and
cooked some fresh food for their
guests and also gave them milk
and cheese. After eating, the
three strange men started to
explain why they had come.
At that time, both Abraham and
his wife Sarah were old already.
However, God gave them very good
news. Hes said: "You have longed
for a son. He will be born not
too long from now." After
hearing this, they were very
surprised and happy. Although
they were already old, but since
they believed in God and God
would not cheat them, therefore
they knew that it was going to
happen and so they were very
happy. However, those three men
also told them something which
made them worried: God decided
to punish Sodom and destroy it.
Since their nephew Lot was
living in Sodom they were
worried. In Sodom, the only
virtuous people were his
nephew's family and some
servants; all others were not
good and God did not forget
them.
God sent Hiers messenger to
Lot's home and warned him of the
coming disaster and told them to
flee. However, Lot's family did
not want to leave Sodom as they
were living very comfortably
there. There they had everything
- rich in material and there was
no lack of grass and water. They
had become very rich there and
life was very comfortable.
Therefore, they did not want to
give up everything to leave. At
the last minute, God's messenger
had to push them outside the
city to a safe place. When they
were just outside, there was
great fire in the city. They
almost did not make it. Before
they were far away from the
city, the earthquake and fire
had already started in the city.
Falling from the sky, blowing up
from the ground; the wind and
fire seemed to come from nowhere
and destroyed the city! The air
was full of dust.
When it was already so serious,
Lot's wife was still not willing
to leave quickly. She was still
hesitating and slow to move. She
stopped to look back and
therefore, she was killed. Her
husband and two little children
were not hurt. But the wife and
all the others were killed
because they did not listen to
God and did not run quickly.
They did not think it could be
so serious and thought that it
might be all right. They were
still attached to their
possessions, their homes; and
consequently, they were all
killed. Only Lot and his two
daughters ran away safely. God
rescued them.
God is the inner Master - called
God or Buddha. When God wants to
appear to us as a human being,
Hes transforms Hirmself to be
the inner Master. Otherwise, as
God is omnipresent and great,
how could we catch Hirm and talk
to Hirm. It was the inner
Master's instruction and they
said it was God's instructions.
There were not too many tests in
this story, but there were some.
It was actually not a kind of
test, God just spoke the truth.
But because their mundane minds
did not want to listen -
thinking that these kinds of
things would not happen: "It
won't! Nothing will happen!" So
their minds were slow to accept
and then a lot of disasters
occurred. It's all because we do
not listen to the instructions
from the inner Master.
Sometimes, we depend on our
limited brain and ideas and then
there are a lot of disasters.
It's all created by ourselves.
Therefore, Lao Tze said that
troubles are made by ourselves.
A practitioner, if being looked
after by God, being looked after
by an inner Master, usually
would not have any serious
problems. Even sometimes when
they do happen, the inner Master
would take care of them. It's
when we don't listen to Hirm
that we cause trouble for
ourselves.
Just like in the story - Lot's
wife, even when God had already
sent people to warn them to
leave quickly, she was still
attached to their possessions.
As a result, the possessions
were gone but her life was also
gone. When we have life, the
human body, we can get back some
possessions after a while. But
when the body is gone, it's not
useful anymore. So, sometimes
most of us do not know what is
of secondary importance and what
is the most important. Just like
those sent by God to deliver the
warning, they seemed to be
illogical. To tell them to leave
their family, their relatives
and friends, to leave their
possessions - all seemed to be
illogical to them. It was like
asking them to do something bad,
something wrong and detrimental
to them.
Being attached to our
possessions and homes is very
common and seems to be very
logical. However, it is those
who use an urgent tone of voice
to push you out who are really
helping your life. What use are
those who spend time to comfort
you, to shake hands with you
only to die together? Because
Lot's wife was still attached
when she left, was still
squandering her time and looking
back. She still wanted to go
back. Those servants who
sympathized with her died with
her. Those who hastily pushed
them out and raised their voices
were the real saviors.
Sometimes we find it difficult
to distinguish who is good and
who is not good. It is because
our mundane minds are used to
sweet talk and do not use wisdom
to judge. Many kings of old were
the same. Since they listened to
the sweet talk of those bad
ministers, their kingdoms
collapsed. Those good ministers
were usually straight in their
talk and very often were not
placed in important positions by
the king. Being a Master is just
the same. Since the talk from
others is so different, many do
not wish to listen to the Master
and relatively few people like
the Master.
In USA there was a monk called
Yogananda and he was very
famous. He said his Master was
very direct. He said if his
Master was not that direct, his
Master would have become the
most famous teacher in India and
had the most number of
disciples. Since his Master did
not always talk sweetly, the
number of disciples was less.
He wrote in a book that there
was a person who practiced the
Quan Yin Method and had contact
with the inner Master. One day,
there was war in India and he
ran quickly from the street into
another person's home so that he
could escape the bombing for a
while. However, though the house
was very big and not crowded,
the family wanted to kick him
out and pushed him away. They
were very unkind to him and
pushed and kicked him out, so he
had to leave. He was rather
surprised, "Why was it like
that? Why was Master not
protecting me? I have run for
such a long way to find a family
and go in to hiding, but I was
kicked out." He was complaining
all the way on his way out.
However, soon after he left, the
family received a 'bang!' and
everyone inside was all killed
by the explosion.
Sometimes we think that some
situations are not good for us
or are harsh to us. But after a
while, we know. It's similar in
this story. Those strange people
went in to persuade them to
leave their possessions, to
leave their home and friends,
and to leave their many flocks
of animals. This seemed not to
be good to them. However, it was
the only way to save them. What
was important was their lives
and not their possessions.
Sometimes, we cannot understand
how the inner Master works. We
think that Hes should be very
gentle to us everyday or that
everything should be very smooth
and good. It's not always like
this. Sometimes the situation is
not smooth, but after a while it
becomes better for us.
Therefore, we'd better not ask
to have smooth sailing all the
time, we should only ask the
inner Master to do whatever is
good to us. Whether it is smooth
or not, it doesn't matter. After
a while, it will become smooth.
In our daily living, unavoidably
we will encounter many
difficulties and many situations
that are not smooth. We cannot
be happy everyday. If we are
happy everyday, we won't
treasure it. It's really like
this.
Just like the story of the
'stupid' and the 'daring' who
were living in the Garden of
Eden that I told you last week.
I called Eve and Adam stupid and
daring. Being too ignorant
therefore they were stupid. God
had given her everything except
an apple, yet she was still
calculating and wanted to
possess it. She stole the only
possession left behind for God.
That was no good and therefore
she can be called stupid. Being
too happy and too comfortable
everyday, one would not treasure
it and subsequently one would do
silly things. If there were no
lessons from society, no
turbulent situations to educate
us, we would never learn. In
very good circumstances, one
just lays there. 
Then, the
spirit could not be strong, the
body would not be good, and our
disposition would be corrupted.
Besides, there would be a very
high sense of dependence and no
humility. Therefore, no matter
whatever difficulties we
encounter, don't just think that
it is not good.
