After Fool (Sounds similar in
Chinese.) (Eve) and Bold (Sounds
similar in Chinese.) (Adam) had
gone down the hill, they gave
birth to many children who later
scattered and lived in different
places and countries. Gradually
the world became chaotic and
people became worse and worse.
They didn't follow God's
instructions and didn't respect
Hirm, nor did they care about
how Hes wanted them to live.
That is, they didn't care about
virtue and the commandments of
God. No one listened to God.
God Regrets Creating Human Beings
Then God began to regret having
created human beings. There was
only one thing that Hes could
do, that was to re-create human
beings. Since Hes felt very
annoyed, Hes decided to destroy
the entire world. However, this
decision brought Hirm a lot of
anguish. Hes wanted not only to
destroy human beings, but also
to destroy the entire world.
Therefore, Hes decided to flood
the world, to submerge
everything.
However, there was a person who
was very good, who had lived
according to God's instructions,
rules and precepts and who also
loved God very much. This friend
of God was called Noah. God told
Noah about the flood and
explained Hiers plan.
God said to Noah, "I want to
save you and your family. You
should build an ark big enough
for all your family members.
With the remaining space, you
may bring some animals - two of
each type, a male and female, so
that they can multiply." You
see, God was very thoughtful! If
Hes had let Noah plan it, Noah
might have brought three females
and two males of each type, and
then they would have quarreled
and not even been able to lay an
egg. (Laughter) God also said,
"There should be enough space to
store food for you to survive a
long time."
Noah followed God's
instructions and began to build
the ark as Hes had asked. This
work required a very long period
of time. Many people came to
see him and always asked, "What
are you doing? Why are you
building such an ark?" Noah told
them God's plan, but no one
believed him. They all thought
that Noah was crazy. They
thought that he must have had a
mental problem to do such a
thing. Can you imagine that?
Noah lived on a high mountain,
which was far, far away from
oceans or rivers, several
thousands of kilometers away,
yet he was building an ark! They
all said, "How stupid he is!"
and laughed at him. But Noah
still believed in God and his
faith didn't waver.
The Flood Submerges Everything
The ark was finally built, and
then it started to rain. So
Noah, his family, the birds and
other animals in pairs all ran
into the ark. God then told them
to lock the door, so they did.
They saw that the rain was
pouring down and it kept pouring
down each day. Soon all the
rivers and seas overflowed and
the water level kept rising.
Gradually the ark was lifted up
and Noah and his family floated
on the water. However, the rain
didn't stop and one day,
everything was submerged, even
the highest mountain
disappeared. Nothing could be
seen, nothing was alive, and
nothing could be saved. Noah,
his family and the animals were
in the ark with only water
around them, nothing else.
Can you imagine that the world
could become like that one day?
Suppose we are drinking tea
here, but suddenly water is
everywhere. It's hopeless even
if we go to the top of the roof,
and even the highest mountain
disappears. At that time, the
world became a very lonely,
quiet and pitiful place.
Eventually, the rain stopped
and the water level gradually
fell. One day, the water receded
sufficiently so that the ark
came to rest on a mountain top.
After some time, Noah wanted to
know whether the land had become
dry or not. He had to make sure
before he went out. So he opened
a window and sent an animal out.
But the animal didn't come back.
It might have drowned, because
it had rained for a long time
and the forests had become
rotten and muddy. Then he
released a pigeon. But for the
pigeon, the land wasn't dry
enough, so it flew back. Pigeons
are trained to fly back. Noah
opened the door and let it come
in.
After another period of time,
he sent the pigeon out again.
This time when the pigeon
returned, it was carrying a
green leaf in its mouth. Noah
knew that the trees were
beginning to grow and the land
really had become dry enough for
them to go out. He opened the
door allowing everyone to go
out. All his family and the
animals were very happy so they
went out cheering and dancing.
They had stayed in the ark for a
long time, so they must have
felt bored.
God told Noah, "Now you can
leave the ark and go out to
start new lives." They thanked
God for protecting them. They
then collected many stones and
built a very big and tall altar.
They cooked food and made
offerings to God. At that time,
a rainbow appeared in the sky,
with which God showed Hiers
compassion, and kindly promised
Noah, "From now on, I won't
destroy the world again." God
made this promise so that people
could start new lives.
Do you know why God did that?
It's true that when God created
human beings, Hes gave us Hiers
spirit, to let us have Hiers
wisdom and love. However, when
they wanted to use them, these
qualities were filtered by their
minds. If our minds don't work
well, we'll reduce the love or
use it to do evil deeds. So the
mind is a very important
instrument. If our minds don't
work well, we become different.
So God didn't destroy human
beings but only their damaged
instruments. When Hes did it,
Hes knew that Hes had done it
correctly and it was nothing
fantastic. However, to create
such a beautiful world, it takes
a long time. It takes millions
and billions of eons to create
such an Earth.
Even Diamonds Are Created From Coal
You all know that in the
beginning, our Earth was
chaotic. There was no life, no
human beings, no animals or
anything. It was like a
fireball. No one could live on
it and nothing alive could
survive. After a long, long time
- millions and billions of eons
- the surface of the Earth
cooled down; but its center is
still hot even now. Occasionally
the center explodes and then we
say that a volcano has erupted.
The heat from the lava can melt
stones and minerals, which
gradually cools down and becomes
different materials. That which
cools down more quickly becomes
harder materials, while that
which cools down more slowly
becomes stones, et cetera.
Although they're different kinds
of materials, they're all
similar in quality. So you see,
wood can turn into coal after
being compressed for a long
time.
What can coal turn into if
compressed for a long time?
(Audience answers: "Diamonds.")
Yes, diamonds. That useless
black material can become
diamonds, precious stones. It
consists of the same elements,
but the different pressure turns
it into different things.
Similarly with us human beings.
We're all equal originally. But
what we become depends on how
much effort we put into it. It's
true that we're all equal and we
all have the Buddha Nature
within, but it depends on
whether we train ourselves to
become Buddhas or not. We can't
just half-heartedly hope to
change ourselves, or we'll only
be like coal and emit black
light. Nevertheless, diamonds
also come from coal. All
precious stones are created from
coal or from ordinary wood.
It takes a long, long time to
create a world like this. We say
that it's not perfect and
sometimes we dislike it. But in
fact it has taken a lot of hard
work to create it. Even an
insect, a mosquito or a fly is
of a great design. The Creator
had a great plan and made a
special design for each kind of
living creature, not only human
beings. It took a lot of time to
create even a small animal. So
God was also in anguish when Hes
destroyed the world.
But one has to give up an
instrument after using it for a
while. Just like when we drive a
car for a long time, and it
becomes old and damaged. What
can we do about it? We have to
discard it and leave it in a
junk yard. Later it'll be
crushed into a piece of metal,
which will then be used to make
other things or parts for
another car. Similarly, after
this world was destroyed, it
could have been re-created by
other instruments.
Only The Instruments Are Destroyed
The human brain becomes bad
when used for too long a time,
because it collects bad
influences. When it's filled
with bad information, a person
will become bad. After a while,
it becomes too bad to be used
anymore. Then it has to be
erased and re-created all over
again. However, our souls exist
forever.
God has given everyone a
living-loving spirit. Hes can
take it back and integrate it
within another instrument, then
Hes won't lose anything. It's
the instrument that has been
damaged or destroyed, not the
person, not the soul, not God or
the Buddha Nature. This is what
happens when we die. If we can
separate our Buddha Nature from
the instrument, we'll be free to
find another instrument to
attach to; but if we can't,
we'll be attached to our old
instrument unable to
disassociate from it.
After initiation, God's Power
helps us to repair our
instruments. In case it can't be
repaired, after we die, Hes will
help to permanently separate it
from us, and then we'll be free
to find another useful
instrument - better, more
perfect, more useful and more
easily maintained and reparable.
That's all. It's not that we
lose anything. We'll still be
the same, but our instrument
will be new.
It's just like buying a new car
when our old one doesn't run.
But we have to have the money.
The initiation gives us the
"money" -- makes us wealthy, and
gives us merit to buy a new
instrument later, since we can't
repair our old car and can't
sell it for the time being, even
though we ought to drive it away
to discard it. That's why we
still drive it for the time
being. That's why it's said that
fixed karma can't be changed. We
have to wait until we buy a new
one. That's all.
The World Can Be Saved If More People Practice Spiritually
This world is really not a big
deal and nothing happens
actually. It's just that if it's
reparable and if we can repair
our own instruments, there's no
need to destroy the whole world.
We can gradually repair our
instruments one by one. For
example, if you've fixed your
car, you can help to tow another
car or fix it, or you can give
people a ride so that they don't
have to drive their damaged cars
and have an accident. So you
save your own car, then take
others with your good instrument
-- tow their cars to the airport
or to the garage to get
repaired.
Therefore, if many people
practice spiritually, this world
wouldn't be destroyed but could
be repaired gradually. It'd be
enough to repair a portion of
the human being population. Then
these people could carry others.
If everyone carries some and
takes care of his share, then it
would be balanced and everything
would be all right.
We can see from this story that
at that time, no one believed in
God except Noah's family, who
followed God's instructions.
That was why God destroyed the
entire world. If more families
in many places had believed in
God, Hes might not have done
that. Since there was only one
family, it was very simple for
Hirm to handle.
Our world will not be
destroyed, because there're some
people practicing spiritually.
However, I think that it's very
difficult. After practicing for
a while, they become sluggish
and forget their purpose in
coming here. They quarrel over
trivial things, struggle with
nonsensical feelings, and forget
the matter of life and death. We
should first strengthen our
faith regarding life and death;
and then whatever we do, we
won't forget God.
It's not that we can't do other
things. For example, Noah had a
family -- he had a wife,
children and many animals -- but
he didn't forget God. This is
why he was different from
others. 
Other people also have
spouses, children, businesses
and animals; but they're
completely attached to them. So
we spiritual practitioners
should know what's the most
important thing and what's
secondary.
