enlightened masters QUESTIONS & ANSWERSQ. What is the meaning of the manifestationbody of the Master?
M. Do you know what the manifestation bodyof a Master means? A light body, you understand? The light body.Yeah? Because I have just asked them if the translation was correct.She didn't make it correct, she said the Master comes in the nightand appears in your dreams and tells you what and what. No, no.This is not the light body of a Master. A light body of a Masterappears anywhere any time, not just in a dream. Understand? Andsometimes you could even see it with the open eyes, like you seeme now; maybe in the train station, maybe in the train, maybein the airplane, maybe when you are working, maybe when you arecleaning your toilet, anywhere. If you need to see the Master,then the Master will appear. That is what we call the manifestationbody or the light body, because the body is full of light. Itlooks like the real flesh body, but it is not made by flesh. Youmay be able to grab it, but only for a while and then the Masterdisappears into the air. Sometimes you see the Master flying throughthe window, but that is not the physical body which flies. It'sthe manifestation body through the samadhi power of the Master.That is why the Buddhists say "many ten thousand bodies,many ten thousands of manifestations of the body." In theChristian terminology, or Hindu terminology we say "omnipresent",meaning "no where he is not, and everywhere the Master isthere." Any real Master is able to manifest thousands, tenthousands, hundreds, hundreds of thousands of bodies, and millionsof bodies in order to help the disciples at any place and at anymoment. If the Master cannot manifest so many bodies, the Mastercannot take care of so many disciples. And if a master could notmanifest so many bodies, he or she is not a real Master.
..... Q. Can we become Masters by studyingthe words of God in the Bible and by knowing how to interpretthem correctly?
M. Oh. He means if he studies the Bible canbe become a Master? I am sorry. No! Before Jesus was born therewas no Bible, and He became a Master. Before Buddha was born therewere no Buddhist scriptures and He became a Master. Today we haveso many Buddhist scriptures, so big, Catholic Bibles distributedfreely, but no one becomes a Master. Books can not make us becomea Master. We can become a Master if we study with a Master. Okay.You want to become a doctor, you study with a doctor. Readingbooks is helpful but it's not practical. Yeah, you have to learnhow to give injections by practicing under the guidance of a doctor,of a licensed doctor, of an experienced doctor. No? Medical doctor,yeah. You have to learn to feel the pulse, many many times, underthe guidance of an experienced doctor. You have to learn to cutthe stomach of somebody, how much, how long, how deep. You mustdo it with the watchful eyes of an experienced surgeon. You can'tjust do it from books. Understand? Otherwise you will kill thepatient and put yourself in jail. Si?
..... Q. Why is it that after so many years of religious teachingsand past masters that the world has not gotten better but muchworse?
M.It is because the past masters cannot teach you. You have to lookfor a present master, who can answer your question, help you whenyou are in doubt and take you by the hand back to the Kingdomof God. We need a person to person contact, not the past lives.Just like it doesn't matter how great the beauties of the past;you cannot marry her! She cannot produce any children to you;cannot produce the love feeling that you have with a living wife.
..... Q. Honorable Master, thank You for the insight You havegiven us. I wonder if You would like to address Yourself to somethingthat is in my conscience. Why are so many masters on earth todaygiving us a chance to learn so quickly, whereas that in the pastit has been so difficult? Can you address Yourself to that?
M.Yes, sure. Because in our times, the communication is better.So we know better about the masters, not that in the past, mastersdid not exist, or masters were inaccessible. Of course, it istrue that some masters are more accessible than the others. Itdepends on his choice, or his willingness to give, or his affinitywith the people at large. But then, in any age, always there areone, two, three, four, five masters. Depends on the need of thetime. Just we are more aware of the presence of many differentmasters, maybe different degrees of masters, because in thesetimes we are fortunate to have the mass media, to have television,to have radio broadcasts, and books, which we print in millions,in thousands of millions of copies in no time. Yes. In the oldentimes, we want to print a book, we have to cut the whole treedown first and chop them with very unsophisticated axes, whichare kaput in no time and no use in another time, and have to polishit with stones and all kinds of things, and to carve one wordafter another. And when you want to transfer a whole set of Bibles,it takes a whole convoy. You understand? Big trucks, if you havea truck at that time. So that's why we know of many masters. Youunderstand? Yes, so it's lucky, this is very good for you thathave... you can shop, you know, you can choose what you want.So no one will be able to cheat you and say "I am the best."Yeah, you can have comparison and use your wisdom, intelligenceto judge. "Oh, this one is better" or "I like thatone better." "Face looks terrible." "Oh, thatone - ugly." (Laughter)
..... Q. I have noticed that many spiritual masters have agreat sense of humor. What is the relationship of humor to spiritualpractice?
M.Oh, I see. I guess they are just feeling happy, and relaxed, youknow, and light-hearted about everything. And they could laughat themselves and laugh at others, laugh about ridiculous thingsin this life when many people cling so tensely and taking so seriously.After we practice somehow, we just get loose. You know, we don'tfeel so serious any more. If we die tomorrow, we die; if we live,we live, you know. If we lost everything, we lost everything;if we have everything, we have everything. Yes, we have enoughwisdom and ability after enlightenment to take care of ourselvesin every situation. So we are not scared of anything. We loseour fear, we lose our anxiety. That's why we're relaxed. We feeldetached to this world. Whatever we gain or lose doesn't meanmuch any more. If we gain a lot of things, it's only for the benefitof people, then we offer; and for the benefit of loved ones. Otherwisewe don't consider ourselves or our life that important to go throughall of the struggles and sufferings to preserve it. If we preserveit, it's all right. It doesn't mean we sit in bed all day on thenail bed and then meditate. But we do work. You understand? Forexample, I still work, huh! I do my painting, and my handicraftworks to earn my living. So I don't want to take donations fromanyone. And even my earning is so much I can help people. I canhelp the refugees, the disaster victims and all that. Why shouldn'twe work? But we have so much talent and abilities, and life isso easy for us after enlight-enment that we feel there is justno need to worry. You understand? We just naturally relax. That'show the sense of humor is born. I guess that is what it is, huh?Do you find me humorous? (Audience: Yes) (Laughter and applause.)Yes (Master laughs.) Then maybe... I must be a master of somekind huh? (Laughter). Okay. (Master laughs.) Let's hope so, foryour sake huh, so that you didn't listen to an unenlightened personfor two hours, waste your time. Okay. Any more question?
..... Q. Master, were Hermes, Zoroaster, the Essences, theGnostics masters? And who were the first masters? And who is thegreat white brotherhood?
M.All masters, all true masters are one. They come from one source.And the highest master is the supreme master, the almighty whichis in all of you. When we first came here we were masters before.And we came here, we blessed the world. And, we forgot all aboutour power and our glory. And our energies were also exhausted,because we paid attention to outer phenomenas. So, all the masterswho came here are the ones who are awakened in this awarenessand know their true glory, and they can travel the road home frequently.And they can lead us back home. So, no need to discriminate betweenany master. All the religions are founded after the master hasgone. Therefore we have Christian after Christ, Buddhist afterBuddha, etc., okay?!
..... Q. Please let us know if God, the comforter that Godsent, the spirit of truth, is only one comforter or a few comforters?If there are a few, please let us know how many?
M.You want to shop, uh, shopping for enlightenment! (Laughter.)One is enough for you, right now, okay?! (Applause.) Because evenif there are a few, who knows if they will come to you and when,and whether you are still alive when the other comforters come,understand? Okay?
..... Q. How can wetell true masters from false masters?
M. Oh, that I don't know. I haven't metany false one. I've met only true masters. False or true, it'sup to you. There are many ways to discern a true master. Whenthe so-called master just clings to one part of the truth andforsakes the rest and then teaches the disciples only one partof that from the whole truth and then we call him a false master.But actually the name is not very correct. Maybe he is a kindof "partial master." "Part-time master" (Masterand all laugh), but not false. And when a master teaches you thewhole truth that is within yourself and awakens that which alreadyexists within yourself, that is the true master because he awakensthe true master within yourself. That is the true master. Andwhat is your true nature? What is the true master within yourself?That is God! That is the holy spirit which dwells within yourchurch, your temple. (body) And when that God manifests, we canhear the teaching through the heavenly music. We can see him throughvisions, through abundant illumination like thousands of sunssometimes. That is our true nature when it is awakened. So ifany master can awaken these heavenly wisdom, vibration and heavenlylight within you which is your self nature, which is your selfmastership, then that is a true master. It takes one to know one.
..... Q. How can anenlightened human being who is living in the society which isin conflict help to remove the conflicts in their society?
M. Very difficult. We can only removethe conflict within ourselves. If everyone does that, there isno conflict to remove. Therefore even Jesus was so great, Buddhawas so grand, but they couldn't remove the conflict within theirown borders. And even sometimes the disasters will also affecttheir lives. It is because the majority of the people of the worldwere not at peace, were not enlightened; therefore enlightenmentis the only requirement for any illness of this world, for anywars, for any conflict. Nothing else is necessary.
..... Q. When one becomesa Master, will he or she ever have fear, doubt or anger? We callJesus a Master, however, according to the Bible, Jesus was frightenedthe night before he was crucified. And before his death, Jesuscried, "Why God deserted me?" Please explain, if Jesushad fear and doubt, how can we have no fear and doubt?
M. Yeah, they probably would have fearand doubt, but that fear and doubt is not deep rooted like us,you understand? If Jesus had no fear of the crucifixion, thenhis sacrifice was not so great. He had fear, but he accepted,understand? Whereby we have fear and we run away and we try toblame it on others or we try to escape, we try to put that crosson someone else. That is the difference. We might have fear. Wemight have emotion, but we can withdraw it anytime or we can makeuse of the fear or emotion to the benefit of other beings. Afterenlightenment, all the feelings, all the emotions are still there,because we are made to have these in order to use them to understandother brothers and sisters. If you have no feeling, no emotion,how can you understand human beings? How can you help them; understand?But the fears of the Master are different. The fears of the Mastersometimes are also affected by the fear of the disciples. He takesthe fear from the disciples so the disciples are fearless butthe Master will take some degree of that fear. But that is onlyvery shallow and not deep rooted. It's only illusionary. And theMaster on one hand has the fear but on the other hand definitelyhas no fear, you understand what I mean? He knows he has to havefear but he doesn't fear the fear.
..... Q. Master, why Krishnamurti said, "Gurus and religionare crutch?" So he refused to be their crutch for his students.
M.Why didn't you ask him? I am not responsible for anybody else'steaching. Everyone has his own independent thinking and philosophy,provided he keeps it for himself. Probably what he meant is thatif you are too attached to religious dogma or to any teacher atall, then you will be handicapped. In that sense he is correct.The teacher or the master is not the one on which you lean, butfrom which you gain experience and wisdom and then you walk yourself,Okay? Most of the time if a teacher is worth his salt he shouldteach the student this way. Do you know what I mean?
But never mind! Even then, if a student ofany master should feel that he is not yet able to develop himself,then he can pray to the master, in the initial stage of his spiritualpractice. Later when he grows up, he just automatically dropsthe master. It's just like a person; not everybody can walk straight.I need an umbrella to walk; my legs are weak sometimes. But whenmy legs are okay, I don't need it. Yeah? Somebody, sometimes theyare naturally born handicapped or accidentally handicapped, andthen they need the crutch. It's okay with him. Can you just kickhim out? And say, "You don't need the crutch. It will makeyou dependent!" Understand? (Yes.)
So we cannot just say like this, black andwhite; to say that the master, the guru or the religion are nogood absolutely for people. It's good to someone. Right? If youdon't need it, it's fine. If you need it, stay a while until youdon't. So I don't preach anything extreme. In my opinion, religionsare also very good for many people. At least they learn the virtuousway of life. They fear God. They fear the law of cause and retribution,and many people became good. I tell you the truth. But, as longas we know that this is not the ultimate. Do you know what I mean?Yes, not the ultimate, just like, for example, the master, inthe physical body is not the ultimate, you know? The ultimateis inside the master, and inside you! Through the master you willfind the ultimate. That's fine! If you have not found it yet,you can rely on the master, to help and carry you for a while,and then you can walk. It's fine. But there is no such thing asextreme as to throw everything altogether. Is it not so?
