Spoken By The Supreme Master Ching Hai, Kaohsiung, Formosa
January 10, 1990 (Originally In Chinese)
Do you know why there won't be any saints if there are no sentient beings? We have the great wisdom, the great compassion and the great power within us, which comes forth when we want it in earnest. Our inner wisdom is one with the universe, and we can, after becoming saints, manifest into any form we wish or any form preferred by sentient beings. It is very scientific. There is nothing mysterious about it.
In the higher dimensions, great spiritual practitioners have access to million times more information and material than we do. They can transform light photons into many tools and things they need. Beings who have attained the ultimate Truth do not bore themselves with nothing to do, or just fly around on clouds or lotus flowers. They have all kinds of missions and that is why the saints have many different names. For instance, the Eastern Medicine Buddha is so revered because he specialized in medical research and healing people. Since he loved to conduct research on medicine before he became a saint, he continued to do so afterwards. Of course, he possessed other qualities after he became a saint, but he was superior in this aspect.
Scientific Knowledge On Superior Planets
Even before we have attained the highest level of enlightenment, we are already capable of manifesting many things. Just suppose we are living on a very advanced planet or in a country that is not visible to the human eyes. When the superior beings there want to build a house, they create it with their own power and wisdom. Here on Earth, we use clay to bake bricks, pulverized stones to become cement before we can build a beautiful house. In the higher dimensions, houses are built with crystal.
The beings up there do not have to dig, grind or pulverize anything to create crystal the way we make bricks and cement. It is not necessary. All they have to do is use their imagination. Crystal, diamonds and all kinds of gems are readily available up there. Should you wish to build a house with crystal, just take a small piece of crystal, place it before you, and then use your supernatural power to transform it into any size or amount you wish. Just as we plant crops and flowers here, crystal can also be planted and then used to build houses.
Sometimes people say: "Sow seeds of merit and reap blessings." This is certainly true! Whatever merits we have sown here, such will be the blessings that we will reap up there. We can take the blessings with us when we leave this world and go up. If we have as great a merit as a saint, we can have anything we want very quickly. However, the saints and heavenly beings in the higher dimensions need things only to help the less capable sentient beings or inhabitants of underdeveloped planets. They do not need anything for themselves.
In their houses, there are no kitchens, because they do not do any cooking. They never go grocery shopping because they virtually eat nothing. Even if they do, they can use the power of the universe. They are free to use any resources in Creation should they need anything, being one with Creation. Having transcended to the higher dimensions, every being is very responsible, very wise and intelligent, very loving and eager to help others. There is no corruption; no one is tempted by the richness of the universe and brings things home to store them. No one would abuse the wealth of Creation.
The homes of most saints and heavenly beings are unfurnished, because they do not need any furniture. All they have are many advanced tools which they use to help sentient beings below. You may ask me: "Why do the saints and heavenly beings still need tools?" It is because of the tremendous difference between their level and ours! There has to be an intermediate tool to dissolve and neutralize the difference, so that people down here can receive them or what they want to give. Otherwise, we cannot receive anything from dimensions that are so much higher than ours.
Take, for instance, the high intensity of electricity in our world, which must be distributed through transformers that lowers the electric voltage for home use. We cannot use the electricity if the voltage is too high! (Applause) Why do you applaud? Have you never heard of this before? This is simple. When the saints want to communicate with us, they have to take on a physical form,which is also one of their many tools. In the Western Paradise or other superior worlds of the saints for example, they can create tools using materials from the universe. However,that is not even necessary, because there are many departments that specialize in producing physical bodies, just like many factories produce garments for sale to people in this secular world. It is not the responsibility of the President, the internal affairs minister or the foreign minister. I am not saying that they are incapable of doing it; they can if they need to,but this is beyond the scope of their duties. So, they do not have to do it.
Suppose you want to take a short trip to the secular world below after you have become a saint. This short trip will take you a hundred years, because the time scale is different! There are no time or space concepts above, unlike the way we are confined to the cage of time and space in this world. Sometimes, the saints might want to take a walk in this cage, but to do that, they have to clothe themselves with this garment of human skin. They can just pick one from those "factories" and then run! This is nothing! To them, it is even faster than this! (Master snaps Her fingers.) Faster than a brief instant! However, in the human world, this is equal to nine months in the womb, a dozen years of growing up, and then six months or six years of questing for the Truth. After graduation, one spends decades spreading the Truth. For the saints, however, all these take less than an instant.
Suppose you become a saint and ascent to the superior dimensions with your Master. You will continue to learn whatever work you used to enjoy. While learning to become a saint, you also learn more about your original specialty, so you can be of assistance later. Down here, we study the computer or atomic science and help people with this knowledge later. Compared to those of the higher realms, the scientific technologies of this world are inferior.
If we study in the superior dimensions, we would learn more advanced scientific knowledge and become well-known scientists when we come back to this world. We could teach the less capable scientists here and raise their levels a little. Then we could take them up for advanced training so they could become masters in their field of expertise, that is, masters of science. They would be wiser and more capable of doing many things.
Most of the scientists in our world are taken, either with or without their knowledge, to the higher realms to learn some lessons while they are asleep at night. Some scientists in the higher dimensions are very concerned about how our planet is developing, so they come frequently to take our scientists up there for training. Very often, it is not that easy to take the scientists up, so some top scientists are sent here from above. However, when they are here, their wisdom diminishes, compared to how they were above.
They seem to live two lives simultaneously -- one here and one above. Their spiritual body lives up there, and their physical body lives down here. The two bodies are interconnected, so they can adjust their minds and bodies from above, and command them to work. What is the use of the physical body? It is for communicating with other people. There are many levels of sentient beings engaged in many professions. Among them, the scientists wield greater influence on the world, so it is necessary to train them to change this world.
Enlightened Scientists
The saints send some heavenly beings here as top scientists, and through them, develop contacts with other scientists. Due to these contacts having been established, the scientists can, with their consent, be taken to higher realms to be trained at night. They have more or less been influenced by the top scientists who contacted them, so their inner concepts have changed a little. Some scientists never make any progress. They come here life after life, yet they are stuck somewhere and cannot advance because there are some theories or laws that they refuse to accept. Then, the top scientists, who are enlightened, come to provide proof to them, explaining and persuading them to accept the theories. When they are convinced, their mental barriers dissolve, they become open-minded, begin to make progress, and slowly accept more advanced laws and theories.
Therefore, it is essential that we have saints and heavenly beings here at all times, though they function in different ways according to the levels of sentient beings. Aside from the scientific aspects, the saints and heavenly beings are also good at many other things; they have learned everything. For instance, if you want to be a very good scientist, you have to study for over a millennium before you can become an expert -- a "master"-- in this field. After millions of years and many lifetimes, you master several subjects and become a saint.
This is a very tedious process of learning many things through repeated transmigration before you attain the great enlightenment. Saints who have attained the great enlightenment can understand things with one glance; they do not need to go through the arduous process of learning. Those top scientists, of a lower status of enlightenment, are only working for the saints, who do not have to do these things. The tools in the houses of the saints are only used to transform superior power so that it can be received by our inferior world.
Creating With Light
Suppose you want to know how human beings in this world are born and how human bodies are created. Once you are enlightened, your Master can take you to places where human bodies are made so that you can see for yourself. It is very simple and no big deal. All things are created with light. For instance, if we want to create something, perhaps a cup, in this world, we have to melt some materials and mold them using our hands, minds and equipment. Up there, we use two or three light beams and adjust them with a tool, which is equivalent to a computer in this world. However, we have never in this world seen the kind of computers that are used up there. The computers and other equipment in this world lag far behind and can in no way compare with the equipment up there. So I cannot tell you what the equipment up there is like.
I can only give you a brief description. Let us take as example a heavenly being who wants to create something with a tool he has. He happens to be a low-level heavenly being rather than a high-level one. High-level ones do not need to go through such trouble. So this heavenly being presses two areas and two or three beams of light converge. One light beam may be red and the other blue. You choose the light you want to use depending on what you want to create. You do not have to use red and blue light beams all the time. Different light beams have different functions, qualities and intelligence levels. All light has intelligence, in contrast to the stone-like things in this world which have no feelings. All light up there has feelings.
When the two light beams converge, they might produce something small, perhaps purple in color. Then the heavenly being uses his power to enlarge and mold it into any shape he wants. He can use his wisdom to adjust it. This is like how, when we were less scientifically advanced, we used to put a piece of iron in the fire and after it became malleable, we would compress it and hammer it flat. If we wanted it to become a circle, we would hammer it into a spherical shape. If we wanted to make a knife, we would hammer the iron into a long shape. But up there, no hammer is used and no force is required. The heavenly beings used their wisdom to create whatever they want. Many things can be accomplished through the merging of the power and the light of the universe.
However, this is still low-level and in development stages. A saint does not use, or need, such complicated tools. He may teach heavenly beings to do these things, but only as a part of training, because many of them like to do this kind of work. They get bored when they have nothing to do all day. Can you imagine that? The heavenly beings up there have nothing to do, so they play with light, get two light beams to converge, and then create many things out of them. Why do we suffer so much in this world? Because it is always troublesome to create something. Even making a knife requires effort. It was even more troublesome in the past. Many intelligent sentient beings have come down from the Astral World and the World of Causality to teach human beings. That is how we have become more and more intelligent and have advanced, creating scientific things to make our world more comfortable and our people happier. Can you imagine that places with higher wisdom and which are more advanced are billion and trillion times more superior than our world? That is why these places are called the Western Paradise, the Buddha's Land or the Kingdom of God.
Why do we suffer after we are born into this world? It is because we desire many things that we cannot get. When we want something, we have to make an effort, and use our strength, get sweaty or shed tears before we get it; and sometimes we may not even get it. We lack many things, so we feel annoyed. This world is different from the higher realms where beings can quickly have what they desire and, therefore, do not suffer much.
From this, we can see that if our desires, or even material or low-level needs, are easily fulfilled, there would be fewer painful situations. Due to material shortages, many countries in the world have been destroyed and many people killed and conquered by other countries. Because of war, many people have become slaves and are controlled by other countries. This is also a kind of suffering. If there were no shortage of material things in this world, it would have become heaven.
The Difference Between Heaven And This World
I am not using material things to attract you to heaven. I am only telling you the differences between heaven and this world and letting you know why we suffer so much and why the heavenly beings are happy, can do things easily, and are more intelligent and more advanced. Why do most of us desire many things? It is because we know the higher realms and have been there before; we have seen them and studied there. The scientific knowledge and the saints' levels are recorded in our memories. If we open our memories, we will see these things clearly and gradually understand, "Oh! I used to have that many abilities." That is all.
We came down from the saints' realms to this world to have a look, but we forgot who we were after our descent. However, we
can perceive the saints' realms when we meditate. Where do these realms come from? Did I buy them at the supermarket for you to look at? Did I turn on a television to let you see them? No! They are all inside you. They are recorded in our memories. God is not outside. No one has brought Hirm to you. It is you who see Hirm when you close your eyes.
Therefore, there can be no saints without sentient beings. God is our friend, our nature. Hes is not outside. If anyone is looking for and worshipping the God outside, it is very sad, because he is walking on an outer path, a wrong path. We should look inward. All things are within us. Now you understand that my teachings are logical. (Applause)
If anyone disagrees with me or feels allergic when I say, "You don't have to worship God in order to become God. One who worships God can't become God." It means that he is not enlightened enough to understand the logic. Throughout the ages, no one has ever found God outside. Once one finds God, one realizes that everything is
created by the mind.
The Buddhists always recite this in their morning and evening prayers, "If one wants to realize all the past, present and future saints, one should contemplate his own true nature and hence understand that everything is created by the mind." Even God is created by the mind. So we should look for God inside and not elsewhere. We should not worship mountains, rivers or idols. I have just told you about that realm only so you can compare it with this world. It is not the highest realm where there is no need to do all those things. I only told you about some low-level things to let you understand. If I tell you that you do not need anything in the highest realm, you may be afraid, because you like to have many things; the more, the better. Now if you hear that you do not need anything in the highest realm, you may not be able to bear it and may find it too far away from you. God has everything. Hes does not need any tools, nor does Hes need to adjust two beams of light. Hes does not need to do those things. Hes is omnipresent and can turn into whatever Hes wants to become. However, some people still cling to certain appearances and want Hirm to look like this or that, so Hes just complies with their wishes.
We have heard that after a person attains sainthood, that person becomes one with all Creation. But why is there still this saint and that saint? They are one with the universe, of course, but they still preserve their own personalities. Since we have developed our individualities, we cannot go back to what we used to be, when we were all one and had no individual identities. This is just like giving birth to a child. Although the child comes forth from your blood, your bones and your love, you cannot put him back into you. He has been borne and becomes an individual. Similarly, since we were born from the great light of the universe, we have been developing ourselves individually. Although we are one with the universe, after we have developed ourselves individually, we cannot become the original light even though we still have the same quality, power, strength and love. (Applause.)
We All Came From The Kingdom Of God
When we live in the world of saints, our concepts, views, intelligence, ways of doing things and ways of thinking are different than when we live in this world. In this mundane world, we are trapped by the space and time constraints and we think and do things differently. That is why we have to be enlightened, in order to break the constraints and go out to have a look. Most of us were saints once. We came to this world to have a look, bless this world, and educate the sentient beings, animals, plants and stones here; we wanted to teach them, bless them, and elevate their levels. But after teaching them for a long time, we became accustomed to it and attached to what we were teaching. We couldn't let go and that is why we are bound here.
I am not teaching you a new method, nor am I teaching you a new scripture. I have always told you that you are exactly the same as I and exactly the same as God. However, you need to practice in order to remember who you are. How do you practice? Every day, you should look for the God nature within and it will appear to you. After you have perceived it for a long time, you will wake up inside and then understand.
For instance, if we have not used our hands for a long time, we may forget how to use them. Sometimes after we meditate for a long time, we may feel that we have no hands, no physical form, and we may not be able to walk. Only after massaging can we feel our hands and are able to use them. Sometimes if we have been locked up or tied up too long,we may become numb all over. When we are released later, we may not be able to move our hands and feet. This is the reason.
The same applies to our God nature. If we do not practice developing it, do not wake it up or get it out and use it, we are no more than ordinary beings. Although we have the God nature and the great wisdom within, we cannot use them if we do not get them out. This is like saving money in a bank, not withdrawing it, and then starving to death. (Applause.)
Making It A Habit To Practice Using The Third Eye
When pursuing spiritual practice, before initiation, or for some of us, after initiation, why can we not see the light sometimes? Why do some of us see it only occasionally? This is because we have not used our third eye for a long time and it has become mildewed and rusted. Even if we want to use it now, we are not used to it. This is just like a person who practices using his muscles every day, and his muscles grow stronger and stronger.
Some people eat a lot and practice using their stomachs every day, so their stomachs get bigger and bigger. (Laughter) Some people practice using their third eye, so their third eye becomes more and more open and brighter and brighter, then they can see everything. If we can see the outside world with our physical eyes and the inside world with our third eye, we will have all kinds of eyes and can see both within and without. Only then will we truly know that the realm of the saints exist as do high-level spiritual dimensions.
Our world is only one of the realms in the universe. It is coarse and more material, but it has a spiritual form, which is similar to its physical appearance, though more beautiful, more subtle and more
elegant. We cannot see it unless we look at it with our beautiful, subtle and elegant eye. Just like human beings have both physical bodies and souls, we may see a material flower, but it has a spiritual, and more beautiful, form.
An enlightened person or one who has his wisdom eye open is no big deal. If you practice focusing your attention on something, you will get it. If you practice using your muscles, you will become muscular. If you practice using your stomach, your stomach will become very big. If you practice using your mind, you will become intelligent. When you go to college and study many things there every day, you will become more intelligent and gain more knowledge. Scientists practice using their minds and do research every day, so they can invent many things for this world.
Similarly, when we practice using our third eyes, it is like doing a job or pursuing a hobby. We should not renounce our wives, sons and families in order to practice using our third eye. I did not renounce everything. I have many sons and wives. (Master laughs, audience applauds.) I only renounced a small family, only one person;
but I received such a retribution. If you think that it is troublesome to have a husband or a wife and two or three children and that they hinder your spiritual practice, you can take me as an example. If you renounce your families, you will become like me; you will have to take care of more people. You cannot run away from it.
Therefore, you should still take care of your families, while practicing using your third eye only as a hobby. This is not a big deal, not is it a mysteriousr act. All the saints have been recorded in your memory. They have remained by your side while you did many things life after life. You will realize that when you remember them. You should remind yourselves every day and eventually you will realize, "I'm also a saint!"
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