the TEN COMMANDMENTSMoses led his people out of Egypt to the desert andthen came to settle down at the foot of Mount Sinai. One day,the Lord spoke to them through Moses. The Lord said, I've takenyou out of Egypt to this place. I've been protecting you and givenyou plenty of good food, because you're my favorite people! I'dlike you to become my special friends. Would you obey my words?
They answered together, "We would!" Then the Lord said,The day after tomorrow, I'll come down upon Mount Sinai in thesight of all the people. So the people started to cleanse themselvesand wash their clothes, because the Lord was going to see them.Keep The CommandmentsIn Order To Become Special Friends Of The Lord Indeed, when that day came,the people all heard thunder and saw lightning and a thick cloudupon Mount Sinai. They all trembled, because they knew that theLord was coming! Would you tremble when you saw God? No? Of courseyou wouldn't, because you haven't seen Hirm. (Laughter) However,they deemed, as what's recorded in the Bible, that the thunderthat they heard and the lightning that they saw were in the sky.In fact, that wasn't true! They were from inside. We all havehad these kinds of experiences. When Moses and Aaron, two friendsof the Lord, climbed up Mount Sinai, the Lord bestowed on themthe "Ten Commandments" and instructed them to tell thepeople that only when they kept these commandments could theybecome special friends of the Lord.
The Lord also said, I'm theLord. You should worship me and respect me only. You must notmake any graven images or bow down to them. Each time you mentionthe name of the Lord, you must do it with veneration. Also, youshould rest on Sunday. (This means meditation). Originally, thesixth day was the Sabbath Day. Since Jesus Christ resurrectedon Sunday, the Sabbath Day was shifted to Sunday. However, theJews still observe Saturday as their special Sabbath Day. On thisday, people aren't supposed to work, but only do things for God,such as chanting scriptures, reciting God's name, meditating,or getting together at church to remember God's name. It simplymeans to stop doing any worldly work!
An example of this is thatyou come here today and we study the scriptures of God and doGod's work together; and we meditate and remember God's greatname in order to serve Hirm. This is correct and is to Hiers liking.So you see, the wind stopped as soon as you came here today. (Masterand audience laugh. Applause.) After you meditated for a while,even the rainstorm stopped. There was supposed to be a heavy rainstorm!This shows that God is pleased! (Master and audience laugh.)
The commandments include beingfilial and respectful to parents, not harming other sentient beings,being loyal to one's spouse, and refraining from having relationshipswith other men or women. They also include refraining from stealing,telling lies, and coveting things that belong to others.
This is just like what I'vetold you, that you shouldn't covet things from other people. Weshouldn't take anything that doesn't belong to us or that peopledon't personally give to us, even if it's only a blade of grass,because it's not worth ruining our reputation and gentleman'smanners, not to mention breaking the precepts. It's very bad alreadythat our self-esteem has been damaged! Do we have to wait forpeople to put us in jail?
Being human beings, our self-esteemis very important. There's no need to wait for others to tellyou whether you've broken the precepts or to judge whether youwere right or wrong. No matter what other people say, we knowwhat we've done. This means that God knows or that our inner Masteror God inside knows that we've done bad deeds. This is bad already!Therefore, we actually keep the precepts only for ourselves.
What I've just read to youare the "Ten Commandments" set out by the Lord. TheLord explained to Moses about how to apply these commandmentsin various worldly situations and wanted Moses to explain themto the people. When the situation was different, the commandmentswere to be applied accordingly. The commandments were meant toprotect people, not the other way round.
For instance, a person almoststarves to death and is very weak. He and his wife and childrenare dying of hunger or his parents are dying of hunger. If hegoes out and steals some bread or rice to feed his family, hedoesn't break the commandments. I'm speaking frankly, if thisperson stole from me, I wouldn't accuse him; instead, I'd givehim more. By doing that, he wouldn't break the commandments. Inthat kind of situation, we can't say that he stole.
On the other hand, if we haveenough to live on or people have offered us enough to live on,yet we desire to be more comfortable, more beautiful and moreglorious, in this case, even if we steal only a blade of grass,it's stealing, because it's unnecessary! Therefore, we shouldmake a judgment only after we've clearly understood the commandmentsand considered the intention and situation.
In another instance, I've toldyou not to accept other people's offerings and not to casuallyaccept gifts from others. However, if you're ill and have no moneybecause other people have not repaid you, in that case, if I giveyou some money, but you still refuse to accept it, you're beingreally stupid! (Laughter) At that time, it's not that you're covetingit, but that you truly need it. If you don't need it, even ifyou accept only a dime, you'll incur heavy sin! However, if youreally need it, it's no problem no matter how much you accept.
Therefore, we shouldn't clingto the commandments. We should see whether it's suitable to applyany of the commandments to a situation. Of course, we ought tostrictly keep the commandments in the event that we may harm othersby doing otherwise. Sometimes when others try to harm us, we shoulddo our best to protect our lives. In case we're killed, we shouldn'tharbor any hatred against them, nor should we kill them for ourown lives. It might not be bad for them to kill us, because theymight help us to get liberated from the life and death cycle sooner.(Master laughs) In that case, we ought to be grateful to them!Therefore, when Jesus Christ, Shakyamuni Buddha and all the otherMasters of all the ages were harmed by others, They wouldn't resistlike the worldly people usually do. Although the worldly peoplemay be good in some respects, when they aren't treated well, theystill have the notion of killing or taking revenge. As spiritualpractitioners, we leave everything to God no matter whether it'sgood or bad. So we have nothing to fear.
Then, Moses began to explainthe commandments to the people. Hence, those people promised tokeep and respect the Lord's commandments. Then Moses went up toMount Sinai, because the Lord told him that Hes would write theTen Commandments on a big stone tablet. He climbed up to get it.
However, Moses might have stayedin samadhi for too long this time. He didn't go up there onlyto get the commandments. He might have studied the commandmentswhile sleeping. He might have meditated, become tired, and aftersome rest, continued to meditate. He might have wanted to havea retreat. Before he received the commandments written by theLord, he might have wanted to purify himself and strictly keptthe commandments first in order to have more wisdom to understandthem. So he might have meditated there for too long.
Knowing that he had been awayfor forty days, people who were waiting for him down the mountainbecame impatient. They began to get angry, sway, and their faithbecame weakened. They murmured to each other, "Well! I wonderwhat happened to Moses and why he hasn't come back!" Theytold Aaron, "We want another God and a different master.Moses led us from Egypt to this place. So he's our only master.However, now since he's gone now, we need another one. Let's haveone quickly, okay?" (Master laughs and says, "They evenplaced a fast delivery order for a master!)
Aaron was rather dumb. He agreedwith the people and asked all of them to give their gold and gemsto him. Then he molded the gold into a calf. He proclaimed, "Thisis your new master." He then made an altar to put the calfon to let people bow down to it. Then the people were pleased.With the passage of time, they forgot what had happened beforeand said, "Oh! It was this golden calf, this master, wholed us out of Egypt to here and liberated us from slavery."They kept worshipping it. Then they reveled in dancing and singing,while worshipping the god of the golden calf.
Seeing that in such a shorttime period, people broke what they had just promised to Hirmand worshipped another god, the golden calf, the Lord became angry.It's written here that the Lord was in wrath. I don't know whetherGod would be angry or not. However, if Hes was angry then, I wouldn'tblame Hirm. When Moses came down from the mountain and saw thepeople dancing, singing, and worshipping the golden calf, he alsobecame angry. At that time, Moses' anger was very intense. Hecast the tablet carved with the commandments of the Lord downthe mountain and it was broken into pieces. He then burnt thegolden calf and ground it into powder.
Moses scolded the people, "Howcould you do such a terrible thing? You're senseless and stupid!"He kept scolding them, not simply like that. He might have scoldedthem a lot, but only a couple of sentences are written here. Afterthe reprimand, since Moses always loved his people deeply inside,he prayed to the Lord to forgive those ignorant people, not beangry with them, and give them another chance to repent and becomegood again.
The Lord was also very patient.So Hes wrote down the commandments for them again. This time whenMoses took the Ten Commandments back to the people, they behavedwell, didn't sing or dance, hadn't mold another golden calf astheir master, and didn't worship other gods. They became veryhumble, and listened attentively and patiently to Moses when heexpounded on the decree of the Lord, the Ten Commandments. Fromthen on, a covenant was made between the Lord and the Israelites,and everyone was pleased.
Thou Shalt HaveNo Other Gods Besides Me To comply with your request,I'll explain more about the commandments. The first commandmentis, Thou shalt have no other gods besides Me. When people followBuddhism, they need to keep a similar precept. The master willdemand the disciples to vow, "From now on, I follow the Buddha,the noble teachings and the practicing assembly. I won't followany immortals, celestial beings, gods, ghosts or any other beings."That means the same thing! Following the Buddha is the highestlevel, that is, the level of supreme enlightenment or the levelof God. The noble teachings come from the Buddha, as only thenoble teachings spoken by a Buddha are the true teachings. Sothey are also the supreme teachings. The practicing assembly isalso developed by the master. People in the practicing assemblyare the children of the Buddha or the children of God. Therefore,they're the supreme sentient beings.
Of course, it wouldn't be goodfor us if we go in the direction of an inferior level. For instance,if we want to make a friend, we should find the best person; orif we're going to elect a king or a president, we should go forthe best, the most virtuous and the wisest person. If a bad presidentis elected -- we wanted the best president but we voted for aninferior person -- it's of course no good for us! Similarly, ifwe want to worship, we ought to worship the supreme and the highestGod. It's not right if we worship demons and deities such as localgods, water deities, mountain deities, a sun god or any othergods, because their powers are all limited.
Only the Supreme God has thesupreme and boundless power. No matter whether you venerate Hirmas the Supreme God, the True Lord or the Buddha power, Hes isthe highest. You should understand inside that Hes is the supremepower of the universe. So you shouldn't bow down to local deitiesor local gods, or it would be no good for you. Therefore, theLord said, Thou shalt have no other gods besides Me. Hes wasn'tbeing autocratic, but only speaking the truth.
For instance, since we havea president in our country, we may just as well respect him. Whyshould we pay respect to a false president or a presidential candidateas our president? Even if such a person claims, "I'm thepresident. I would like to be the president," but he hasn'tbeen elected. If we pay respect to him as our president just becausehe says that he would like to be one, is that appropriate? Ifwe entrust our feelings and our political opinions to him andask him to manage the national affairs, for sure it's not appropriate!We already have a president who was elected by the people. Weknow that he's the best and superior. So we may just as well supporthim. Therefore, when our president tells us, "I'm the president,the chief official of the country. Don't listen to any other president.Listen to me only." Is it appropriate for him to say so?(A: Yes) Similarly, God also told us to worship Hirm only.
In fact, God is the inner Master,the highest power. Hes had been taking care of those Israelites'ancestors for many lifetimes until the time of Moses. This wasbecause their ancestors practiced the Quan Yin Method, which hadincredible power! Even after many generations, God still continuedto take care of their offspring. Since Hes had been taking careof them so meticulously, Hes had the right to say, Thou shalthave no other gods besides Me. When the Israelites as well asus happen to meet God, the inner Master, who takes good care ofus, of course we should worship Hirm only and not seek elsewhere.When the Lord told Hiers people, Thou shalt have no other godsbesides Me, it was not for Hiers own benefit! Hes knew that itwas good for the people who worshipped Hirm. The more the peopleworshipped Hirm, the better they would be. It was not due to Hiersarrogance, but Hes told the truth for the benefit of the people.
Similarly, those who have childrentake care of their children in every possible way every day. Thechildren get whatever they want, including an allowance for school.Their parents also take care of their physical health, cook nutritiousfood for them, and prepare sufficient clothing for them. If thechildren then take the people next door as their parents, theremust be something wrong! Those people have nothing to do withthe children and they didn't even give the children a dime ora set of clothes. They don't love and care for the children. Sothe children can't just take whomever they like as their parentssimply because of a similar outward appearance. Only their realparents are their parents!
Therefore, if our parents tellus, "You should only take us as your parents, not anyoneelse," they aren't being arrogant. They are saying this forthe good of their children. If we always go to our neighbors,today this neighbor and tomorrow that neighbor, to take them asour parents, what will happen to our physical health? What willhappen to our identity? Then even our real parents can't takecare of us, because we aren't around. So this won't be good forus.
God loves Hiers people justlike parents love their children. So, Hes tells them to recognizeHirm, and believe in Hirm, and only then will everything be fine.This is Hiers intention.
Sometimes, a master tells usto believe in him, and pray to him in any situation, but not prayto any other gods. This is for our own good and he knows thathe can give us everything. If we go to someone else, we won'tget anything but will waste our time and miss the opportunityfor the master to take care of us. That's why he tells us, "It'senough for you to believe in me only. Don't believe in anyoneelse." He isn't being jealous. Why should he be? The wholeuniverse belongs to him. He can get anything that he wants. Sowhy does he have to compete with other people and be jealous?Whether we believe in him or not, he won't lose anything, becausewe're his in the first place, just like we're our parents' children.Our parents don't need to compete with others for this, becauseit is the fact! However, if some children don't recognize theirparents, they may have hard lives, which is no good for them.They may not get the legacy, and their parents may not be ableto look after them. If they're never around, how can their parentstake care of them? They don't know the children's whereabouts.So it's bad for the children, but not for the parents. (Applause)
When we follow a master, weknow that he'll take care of all our major and minor things withinand without. Therefore, when he tells us to believe in him, it'seasily understandable. The more we believe in him, the more opportunitieshe'll have to take care of us. He tells us so only for our ownbenefit. If we're ignorant, we'll think that we belong to ourselvesand have nothing to do with him. However, he knows clearly thathe has affinity with us. We're just like insensible children.
Sometimes when parents arestrict with their children, their children will get upset andrun away, thinking that their parents don't care about them anddon't love them. This isn't true! Parents are strict only forthe good of their children. They know that their children arerelated to them. They know that they want to take care of theirchildren out of love. They wish their children to be brought upwell. However, children may not understand this. So they may runaround, blame their parents, and do strange things that make theirparents worry and make it hard for the parents to look after them.
The same thing applies to God(or a master) and Hiers disciples. God clearly knows that we'reHiers children and Hes ought to look after us. Hes will do anythingthat we want Hirm to do. But it's us who don't understand this.We think that we have sovereignty and we take care of ourselves.So we make a mess. The more we do, the more trouble we make. We'rejust like a child who tries to take care of himself when he hasn'tgrown up yet and has no wisdom, intelligence and ability. Themore he messes around, the more upset he'll feel and the furtheraway he is from his family. This will only make his life moredangerous and difficult, and make his parents worry more abouthim. Therefore, we should recognize God and believe in Hirm, becauseHes is our supreme wisdom! Hes is no stranger; Hes is our mostbeloved kin. If we reject Hirm, go out to worship wooden Buddhas,mountains, deities or ghosts, we'll only become more upset. Thisis all because we have forsaken Hirm, rejected Hirm, and won'tlet Hirm take care of us.
I teach you meditation to findyour own nature. I want you to recognize your own God and wisdom,and let Hirm appear to you so that Hes has opportunities to guideyou and make your lives more bright and comfortable. That's whyI tell you not to worship the outer deities, ghosts or Buddhastatues. All statues are useless! The Buddha is in our heartsand God is within us. If we don't look for Hirm inside, whereelse can we find Hirm? All methods of seeking outside are wrong.(Applause) So I don't have to tell you a lot to get you to understand.
Here the Lord said, Thou shalthave no other gods besides Me. Hes was right! Worship "Me,"the inner wisdom, not any idols. What Hes said was correct! Hesdidn't try to intimidate people. Hes is indeed the supreme, thegreatest and the highest. Hes doesn't need anyone to worship oradmire Hirm. If we recognize Hirm and believe in Hirm, it's onlyour good fortune. Hes teaches us only because of our sufferingand our sincere prayers. So Hes says, "All right! If youwant to feel good, want comfort, and to be wise, intelligent andrelaxed, believe in Me and worship Me only. Then you'll be fine."
God didn't force anyone. Hesonly spoke the truth. Apart from the truth, what can you tellyour child? You can't, only out of politeness, tell your child,"All right! It's fine whether you recognize us as your parentsor not. You can go next door and take the people there as yourparents." Can you tell your child that? If he does what youtell him, he'll go astray, live a difficult life, wander around,and have no money and no food, and no one will take him as theirchild. People usually don't take care of other people's children.Although he may get food and clothes in an orphanage, he won'thave a comfortable life, family feelings and the pampering loveof real parents. Humans not only need food and clothes, but alsothe love of the parents. If children are brought up by their neighborsand have no relationship with their parents, they'll look dullwhen they grow up.
Due to love for their child,parents should clearly tell him, "You're my child. If youleave home, you'll have a hard time. If you want to have a comfortableand nice life, just trust us and let us take care of you!"Do parents have to be polite or feel embarrassed to say that?When we tell the truth without being arrogant, we shouldn't feelembarrassed.
Sometimes when you hear whatI say, you think that I ought to feel embarrassed, but I don't.I would feel afraid and embarrassed if I were deceiving you. CouldI deceive so many of you? No way! Some of you are teachers, doctorsand business people with high IQs. I couldn't deceive you forlong. So I just tell you the truth. Since I tell you the truth,it's all right whether you believe me or not. I won't feel embarrassed.If we want to be good to a person, we should always tell the truth.Only when someone has a bad intention for others, then he willspeak cautiously.
We've Gone Too FarAway From God If We Worship Graven Images Of Hirm We've gone halfway throughthe second commandment, which is, Thou shalt not make any gravenimage; thou shalt not bow down to it. Why was God especially concernedabout these things? Because human beings have intelligence, wisdomand the ability to do things. So if we worship a piece of woodor a stone which doesn't move and has no consciousness, aren'twe being very dumb? Then why do some people still do it and thinkthat they're fine?
The father of our nation, Dr.Sun Yet-Sen, was wise. No wonder people all revere him as a nationalfather. He broke a wooden statue and asked people why they saidthat it was the Buddha, didn't he? (A: Yes!) I think that he wasgreat. A person who has wisdom possesses strong charisma. No wonderhe succeeded and is venerated by people until today. We can'tenvy him, because he deserved it!
I heard that he saw Quan YinBodhisattva when he went to Putuo Mountain. This indicates thathe had faith and was pure. He was a Catholic. If he had been attachedto the Catholic idols, he would have seen only Jesus Christ. Sincehe saw Quan Yin Bodhisattva, it meant that he had no discriminationand was really pure. Hence, the Bodhisattva didn't discriminateagainst him, "It's all right that you worship Jesus Christ.I'm just appearing to you to let you have a look." This indicatesthat he was very pure and was a very good person.
Of course, he had taken partin battles and possibly killed some people, but that was inevitable.I've told you that you should apply the precepts according tothe situation! If you're a soldier and you have to kill the enemyto defend your country or due to your national law, then you don'tcommit a crime. Even if you kill a hundred people, you don't commitcrimes or break the precepts. However, if you only injure a persondue to personal animosity, you incur heavy karma. It's becauseof your intent to kill. But soldiers are different; they're compelledto do it, so they don't break the precepts.
Therefore, you can't judgeyourself by how many times or how badly you've broken the precepts,how many people you've killed, or what your morality is like,but by the situation and your intention. We can't only look atactions. Sometimes, it's very difficult for ordinary people tojudge others. We have to be very careful distinguishing betweengood and bad. Otherwise, we always misjudge. When we see thata person kills, we say, "Oh! He's bad!" When we seea person donating money to build a temple or a hospital, we say,"Oh! He's good!" It's not necessarily true! We don'tknow where his money came from and what the intention is of hisdonation. He may want to become famous or get other things bydonating the money. In that case, he won't gain any merit by hisaction.
If we worship an image, itmeans that our level is too low to be repaired, that we have nowisdom and no ability to make a judgment, and that we don't knowthat the image is only made of a piece of wood. If we worshipthis piece of wood, it would be same as worshiping any piece ofwood. Then it'd save the time and effort of carving and paintingas well as the money. To worship an image means that we can'ttell good from bad, don't know where our wisdom is, and don'tunderstand what's recorded in the scriptures, that "The Buddhais in our hearts" or "God is within us." We justignore the scriptures, ignore the teachings of all the masters,and ignore the words of God and the saint. We've gone too farand been too ill! Even if we have a little bit of wisdom left,when we bow down to an image, our wisdom is gone.
There is an Indian story. Awoman acknowledged a master. Once she saw her master appear toher inside, and she was very happy. However, when she mixed withother people, she forgot about it. Hearing people making pilgrimagesto mountains and rivers, she followed them. One day, she was illand wasn't healed after she prayed to her master. Perhaps hermaster deliberately let her become ill in order to erase her badkarma. But she blamed her master for not helping her. So she worshippedimages! There are many gods in India. If you go there, you cansee all kinds of big gods, small gods, medium gods, fat gods andthin gods. So she just bowed down to them. Before that, she couldsee her master appear to her for a while. But after she boweddown to the images, her master disappeared.
When she came home, she thought,"How strange! How could this happen? The master was therea moment ago. But as soon as I bowed down, he disappeared."She felt sad and kept thinking about it for several days. Shedidn't want to eat, but meditated, demanding her master to appearto her and explain why he had suddenly left her. (She blamed hermaster again.) Since she was quite sincere, her master was moved,appeared to her, and told her, "When you worshipped the woodenstatues, you degraded me to be even lower than they were! So Ididn't have a place to stand. Since it was too low for me to stand,I had to run away."
Why are we called "humanbeings?" Because we're different than animals. We can distinguishbetween good and bad, high and low, moral and contemptible. Wehave the ability to make our own choices. Animals are different.They'll become whatever they are trained to become. Even tigerscan be tamed to behave like cats by people in the circus. Lionsand elephants can also be trained to do whatever they're toldto do and dare not resist. In this respect, animals are ratherstupid, and they can easily lose their independence.
Human beings aren't like that.Sometimes even when people are imprisoned, they'll try to escape.When they're oppressed, they'll try to resist. When they're wronged,they'll try to clear themselves. This is because human beingshave wisdom. If our great wisdom has been deceived and becomesconfused so that we worship the statues of ghosts and deities,of course we'll become the most miserable and drift too far awayfrom God! It's stated very clearly in the Buddhist scriptures,The Buddha is in one's heart, and You can't perceive the Tathagata(Buddha) through tangible light and sound. Rather than worshippingtangible forms, it's more meritorious to go home and worship ourparents. This is the truth.
If you like to worship, gohome and worship your parents. They're living Gods and they haveGod's nature within them. If you break wooden statues to havea look, you won't find anything inside them. Even if your parentsare ignorant and haven't recognized their God nature, at leastthey have God's nature within them. It's just that they don'tknow about it. However, there's nothing inside wooden statues!If you truly want to worship wooden things, just worship trees.At least there's a little bit of God's power inside living trees.Without God's power, nothing can go on living. So if we worshipdead wood, a material form of a very low level, of course ourwisdom and level will be degraded to an inconceivably low degree.
Therefore, God particularlyreminds us to be especially cautious! Hes keeps telling us notto create images and worship them. This is because Hes is verycompassionate and wants us to preserve the tiny bit of wisdomremaining in us. If we keep on worshipping images, we'll be finished!Our tiny bit of wisdom can be developed or be destroyed. Whenwe're with spiritual people and wise friends, our wisdom willglow more brightly and develop more. But when we're with ignorantpeople and follow them to worship images, we'll be contaminatedand pulled down by them and our level will be degraded further.The Lord wanted Hiers people to avoid this undesirable situation,so Hes told them not to do such things; because if they did, thetiny bit of wisdom that they had would disappear.
Suppose you have a little moneyleft. If you save it, you can use it to buy bread. However, ifyou're cheated by people and use the money to buy stones, you'lllose the money and then starve to death. Besides, you'll haveto carry the stones and become more exhausted. You're tired already,and yet you have to carry the stones. How can people be so stupidand be cheated to such an extent? How can stones be edible?
Therefore, your parents adviseyou not to buy stones and save your money, because they know thatthis is all you have. If you save it, you can sustain yourselffor a while and think of a way later. Perhaps when you have regainedyour strength, you can find a job. But if you use it to buy stones,you'll be finished. You're weak and hungry already, but you'llhave to carry the stones; then how can you survive? You'll dieimmediately! Similarly, when we worship images, we're incurable!Unless someone quickly pulls us up and imparts to us the superiorwisdom, then we'll be cured; otherwise, we keep sinking down.
Yesterday, I let you watcha documentary film, which was about a group of people in India,how they make pilgrimages to mountains and rivers, how sincerethey are when they bathe in the Ganges, and how sincere they arewhen they worship gods. However, you can see that the populationin India hasn't decreased, but it's increasing, instead. And they'regetting poorer. This is because they apply their sincerity inthe wrong place!
Therefore, before, when I sawthem doing such things, I got furious. I kept scolding as I camedown the Himalayas. (Laughter) I wasn't satisfied to scold bymyself. So I told some monks about it and let them scold withme. (Master laughs.) I was angry with those gods! I pointed attheir noses and scolded them fiercely. Of course they didn't hearme; I was only venting my wrath. They were made of wood, so howcould they hear me? I knew that very well, but it's just thatI was really mad.
I saw that millions of peoplewere being deceived, and had wasted a lot of effort, vitalityand money, as well as risked their lives to climb up to the summitjust to make a bow. They didn't know whether they would be ableto make it home alive, because the road was very dangerous. Somepeople were very poor. They could only borrow or earn just enoughmoney for the trip and they would have no money after they returnedhome. In order to gain merit and to worship the wooden statues,they had to come a long way. Sometimes, they had to walk on footand their soles cracked and bled. Some of them were too poor tohave shoes, so they had to walk barefoot on the icy road. I criedwhen I saw that! Innumerable people were deceived. Even thoughthey were sincere, it was useless.
If we have no spiritual friends,our wisdom will become smaller and smaller and gradually disappear.Then, we will transform into animals, plants, stones or minerals.The less wisdom we have, the lower our status will be; while themore wisdom we have, the higher our status will be. It's similarin society. If you're more knowledgeable and more intelligent,your work is more effortless, your social status is higher, yourjob is better, and you can make more money. But if you have noknowledge, aren't intelligent, and have no ability, you have todo low level work. The lower level your work is, the more toilsomeit is and the less the money you'll make.
A similar situation happensin the universe. If we have more wisdom, we'll become superiorsentient beings; conversely, if we have less wisdom, we'll becomeinferior beings. Therefore, due to differences in wisdom, thereare all kinds of sentient beings in the world, including insects,frogs, animals, cows, human beings, immortals, enlightened beingsand God. We should aim to go upward instead of downward, becausewe'll suffer more on lower levels. It's not that we're afraidof anything, but that if we have a choice, why choose to suffer?If you choose to suffer for the benefit of others, like what I'vetold you earlier today, I agree with you. However, if you chooseto suffer not only alone, but also involving your offspring offive or six generations, I'd beg you not to do it!
I've chosen this hard pathand I'm willing to stay here, because of other people's needs,and because I want to make them happy and encourage them to pursuespiritual practice and rise to higher levels. Therefore, I willinglytake on this hardship. If I had chosen the hardship because Iliked it, it would be different, understand? (Applause.) Our worldis very painful already. So if you can choose happiness, justdo it. Don't say, "Since Master has chosen hardship, we shoulddo the same." Then you're being too stupid! If we can makemany people happy by our individual suffering, it's worthwhile.However, if we deliberately look for suffering, we're idiots justlike committing suicide, which isn't good!
Thou Shalt Not TakeThe Name Of The Lord Thy God In Vain Now let's talk about the thirdcommandment, which is, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lordthy God in vain. Who is God? How can we respect God if we don'teven know Hiers name? If we don't know Hiers name, we can't revereHirm as God, the Supreme Master, Anuttara Samyak Sambodya or Buddhapower! We must not make use of Heirs name to swear, to vow orto curse others. Even when we use it to swear to God, it's nogood. You shouldn't say, "I didn't do this. If I'm lyingto you, I'll be struck by lightning..." or things like that.We must not force others to take oaths, nor must we swear in thename of God. Some people are even worse. They use God's name towage wars. They use God's name to kill people, to invade anothercountry, or to abuse other people's children or women. These areexamples of making bad use of God's name.
When God sends a person toEarth to represent Hirm, such as Jesus Christ or Shakyamuni Buddha,when He's in the world or after He's gone, we must respect Hisname, too; that is, we must respect God's name or a Master's name.We must not slander or joke about Their names nor must we sayTheir names casually without respect.
Why does God want us to respectHirm or Hiers representatives? It's because, the more we respectthem, the greater blessings we'll gain. Otherwise, we may neversee masters and the sun for many lifetimes; we may fall in a darkplace where there's no sunlight, no parents' name and no masters.That's why God tells us to respect Hiers name or Hiers representatives'names, that is, the masters' names. Only then will we have lightand our inner Master will have a chance to develop. When there'sa cause, there's a consequence. Like attracts like. If we don'trespect God, we'll have bad consequences. God reminds us aboutthis only out of Hiers compassion.
It's not that God needs ourrespect. Many people have been worshipping Hirm or not worshippingHirm throughout the ages, but Hes has never changed a bit. Hesis forever neither unborn nor destroyed and neither defiled norcleansed. Hes only gives but never takes. Hes doesn't need anything,because everything in the universe is created by Hirm.
The Seventh DayIs The Day For Group Meditation The next commandment is, Onthe seventh day, thou shalt not do any work. Respect the SabbathDay! In the Bible, it's stated that God created the universe insix days and hence rested on the seventh day. I'm doubtful aboutwhy God needed a rest. Hes doesn't need it at all! You also thinkthat I don't have to rest. So, every Sunday and holiday, you alwayscome here for a vacation and tire me to death. In that case, Godis more fortunate than I am, (Master laughs) because Hes can takea rest on the seventh day.
Hes even asked us to rest withHirm. Why? Because Hes worried that we work so hard throughoutthe whole week that we don't have time to remember our Selvesand God. God is our inner Kingdom and our inner Buddha nature.What Hes meant was that we should get together for group meditationon the seventh day! It's stated clearly in the Bible that peoplemust not do labor or physical work and can only get together toworship God. It implies that we should practice spiritually tolook for our highest status and the greatest wisdom within.
This tradition has been passeddown to today. Every Sunday, people group together in church torecite the scriptures written in the past. However, they justcome to a church, read the Bible, and then go home. Besides, theyhave some refreshments. They eat biscuits that aren't blessed.In the past, biscuits symbolized the blessed food from the masters,for biscuits were convenient to store, cheap and light. Sincethere were too many people, they made biscuits very thin. Peopleate them not for the taste but for the blessing power containedin them.
Our popcorn here is also notvery tasty but looks rather cheap. You can buy popcorn easilywith money, yet you like to get it here, because ours is different!You'd be even happier if I personally gave it to each one of you.This is what it meant. It's possible that when someone outsidesees me handing popcorn to each one of you, he'd think that youcame here only for popcorn. Then he may build an ashram and handout popcorn every day, without knowing the real meaning. The personwho gives popcorn must have power so that the popcorn will beblessed; otherwise, doing it is meaningless.
We spiritual practitionersnaturally emit loving power that attracts people to us. Afterthey leave us, they feel that they've lost a very important thing,as if their vitality had been taken away. When I left Costa Rica,people cried like babies. They said, "Oh! It seems like myflesh is being cut off, or a part of me is being cut off and takenaway." That's why we like to stay together with spiritualpractitioners, not because of their attire or that they're Buddhistmonks with their hair shaved, but because the intangible vibrationemitted from them makes us feel very comfortable. This is justlike if we have water to drink when we're thirsty, have food toeat when we're hungry, or have effective medication when we'reill. We feel very comfortable, but we can't describe it.
Similarly, the blessed biscuitsare good only when they're given by a powerful person; otherwise,they're nothing if they're bought from outside. However, the biscuitsare useful. They can remind people of God. Then when they go home,they may ask, "Who is God?" They may long to see Hirm.Later, they may hear someone giving a lecture and saying, "Ican help you to find God." Then they'll go to that personquickly out of curiosity. In that case, the biscuits are useful;otherwise, they're virtually useless. It's not that we shouldgroup together and recite all day long, "I long to see God.I love God." No! Although God is within us, Hes can't helpus if we don't find Hirm.
Respecting Our ParentsIs Respecting God The next commandment is, Honorthy father and thy mother. Perhaps, in Moses' time, children werenot filial, so this commandment was necessary. If everyone wasfilial, no one would know what "being not filial" is.If people are all beautiful, we wouldn't know what "ugly"is. If all the people in a country are rich, no one would talkabout poverty. For instance, this is a Buddhist country, so thereare monks here. However, people in some other countries have neverseen monks, so they don't know what monks are and won't talk aboutmonks at all. Similarly, people then were not well disciplined.The Bible describes the chaotic situation at that time. AfterMoses was away for only forty days, the people gave up the Lordand worshipped a golden calf. They were low in spirit and lackedmorality, so they changed their master in only forty days.
Of course, we're becoming morecivilized and more advanced. We used to live in caves and eatraw food and live animals. We had no fire, no houses, no airplanesnor any civilized tools. Now we're more civilized, because throughoutthe ages, extraterrestrial beings have been coming to impart modernknowledge to us and make us become more intelligent and our childrenmore clever.
For instance, you're now followingme to practice spiritually and the children that you bear arealso different! Those who were vegetarians since they were intheir mother's womb look plump and rosy. Have you ever seen theirarms? They have at least three to four folds of flesh. I wonderwhere they get the nutrition from. They only drink milk! Thesekids will definitely grow up to become more intelligent than weare. And those who've been initiated in their mother's belly maybecome even more extraordinary when they grow up! And their children,of course, may be even more outstanding, being morally stable,emotionally steady, mentally happy, and more developed in wisdom.So our offspring will become better and better.
Look at the time of Moses.It was really chaotic. People's wisdom was very low. God had giventhem a lot, manifested Hiers magical power many times, and protectedthem in every way. Yet, after the master was away for only fortydays, they abandoned God and worshipped a golden calf, instead.Can you imagine that? In modern times, some people are also likethose who worshipped the golden calf, but they're relatively fewin number. Few people who follow me will regress. This means thatyou're more stable and you have more wisdom. It's possibly becauseI have more merit so that God sends me the best disciples. Don'ttake my word for it before you check your own hearts. (Masterand audience laugh.)
Why must we respect our parents?Because God's love takes care of us through the law of cause andeffect and through the love and physical forms of our parents.Respecting our parents is respecting God. In fact, it's not thephysical forms of our parents who look after us; but it's God'slove that does so. We should understand this point clearly! Lifeafter life, the Supreme Mother through our physical mother andthe Supreme Father through our physical father have been takingcare of us, teaching us the basic virtues, compassion and love.Because our parents love us, we know what love is when we growup. This is a fact!
If we're raised in a stableand loving family, we'll become more loving, and feel more securewhen we grow up. Sometimes, we see that some children do evildeeds, become scoundrels, or are accused of being criminals andimprisoned. Don't blame them too quickly! It may be because theylacked loving care and education when they were young. It maybe because their parents died very early or were too busy to lookafter them. Or it may be because their parents were not lovedby their own parents before so that they couldn't treat theirchildren with love.
As the sequence repeats itself,people will have less and less love and will make more and moretrouble. When they go out into society, they may be treated unfairlyor oppressed and lose their sense of security. Later, when they'rebullied or misunderstood, due to their inferiority complexes,they'll resist, revolt, and resist society more and more. Themore they resist society, the more they'll lose themselves andtheir love, and the more their hatred will grow. Eventually, they'llend up miserable in jail.
For the above reasons, we shouldbe filial to our parents. If our parents don't treat us well,we ought to think that it's our retribution and unfavorable destiny.Perhaps we owed our parents something in our previous lives anddidn't repay it. Perhaps we were bad parents in our previous livesso that we have to have bad parents in this lifetime to learnour lesson. So we have to endure it and be filial. This'll begood for us as well as for our parents.
In Costa Rica, there was afellow initiate who was a little more than twenty years old. Twoor three days after she was initiated, she came to me crying!I asked her why she was crying. She said that she couldn't getalong well with her family, especially her father. Her motherhad passed away and her father didn't treat her well. He was cold,stern and hard to communicate with. He always oppressed and dominatedher. So she couldn't bear it.
I asked her, "Have youever thought that you might be just as cold and stern to yourfather and that you've shelved your love for him? Have you everthought that your father also needs your love. It's not only thatyou need his." She was stunned and then said, "Whatshould I do? It's possible that I've never expressed my feelingsto him." I told her, "When you go home today, buy amost beautiful red rose. Then kneel down in front of your fatherand offer the flower to him, hug him, and tell him, 'AlthoughI've never shown my love to you because I forgot, I was youngand not sensible, nevertheless, I love you very much.'" Soshe did what I told her. As a result, the two hugged and criedtogether. Since then, they have become very good to each other.
So one of them has to openhis/her heart first. Parents work outside. They're often exhaustedphysically and mentally. They have many worries and many debts.In addition to heavy family responsibilities, they can hardlylaugh when they're home. However, children may not understandthe hardships of their parents. They may keep demanding and expectinga lot but don't realize that their parents also need some supportand love. On one side, parents may be stern: "We're yourparents!" They may be strict because they worry that theirchildren won't respect them; and in addition to their heavy workpressure, they can't laugh out loud. On the other side, the childrenthink, "Our parents are very strict. They don't love us anddon't give us this and that." Then the children may get upsetor harbor enmity. This will deepen the misunderstanding betweenboth sides and broaden the generation gap. In fact, both sidesare anxious and eager to hug each other. They love each othervery much, but they can't express it.
You can just try to expressyour feelings; you don't have to feel embarrassed. They're yourfamily members. If you really can't communicate with them, trythis method, that is, hug each other first and talk later. Whenyou tell them truly out of sincerity, your words will be touching.You'll gradually communicate with each other and understand thatthe other side also has feelings and love, and then you'll reconcilewith them. Family members always love each other. But sometimesthey're too proud to be the first to speak out. So both sideslock themselves up and wait for the other to knock. However, noone ever knocks first. (Master laughs.) And then both sides becomeanxious.
Sometimes this happens to husbandsand wives, too. They want very much to reconcile, but both arewaiting and no one takes the initiative. As days go by, the atmosphereremains tense and stern. Although they've forgiven each otherinside, they can't put aside their pride but worry about losingface and what the other party may think of them. "Will he/sheridicule me for giving in?" In fact, that won't happen. Itdoesn't matter even if your husband laughs at you; he's your partner!It's also fine if your wife laughs at you! In fact, she won't.She's only waiting for you to apologize to her. Now you understand!
Why do we have to respect ourparents? Because they work hard for us. The precious bodies thatwe are able to have were given by our parents; not by the physicalentities of our parents, but by the grace of God's love actingthrough them. Therefore, we should respect them in order to respectGod. Everything is created by God. Hes gives us birth throughthe bodies of our parents, but not that our parents do that themselves.However, since our parents have God's love within, that is, sincethey have God inside them, when they love us, they have God'sloving power. They're very noble, gracious and superior beings.So how can we not respect them?
The Subtle MeaningOf "Thou Shalt Not Kill" Now the next commandment is,Thou shalt not kill. It means to refrain from killing. I've expoundedon this millions of times. However, don't always think that it'sgood enough if we don't kill; sometimes when we try to save alife, we're killing. Have you heard me tell the story about twonuns trying to save a centipede? I don't have many examples tocite on this; I only remember that story.
One day when I went to takea bath and brush my teeth, I saw a centipede in my cup. The cupwas covered with a piece of cloth. When I lifted off the cloth,I saw a centipede in it. I was frightened, of course. The centipedewas also frightened. (Laughter) So I screamed, "Ah!"(Master laughs.) That was a natural reaction. Since the centipedecouldn't go "Ah," it jumped. So both of us were scared.Hearing this, two attendants outside quickly ran in and asked,"What's the matter, Master?" I said, "I'm all right.There's a centipede." (Master and audience laugh.) Then theysaid, "Okay. Master, you may go out and let us handle it."I said, "Okay. Be careful! Handle it if you wish!" Therewas a basin outside. So I brushed my teeth there.
A long time after I had brushedmy teeth, I still didn't see them come out. (Laughter) So I asked,"Are you done with it?" They replied, "Not yet!"I said, "How can two of you not be able to handle only onecentipede?" (Master and audience laugh.) I went inside tohave a look. Well! I heard a noise, "Tze, Tze, Tze, Tze."I asked, "What are you doing?" They said that they weretrying to drive it away to with the shower head, but the centipedewouldn't move! I said, "Of course, it won't. It's surroundedby water." (Laughter.) If I spray you like that with theshower head, wouldn't you drown? The centipede was very smalland was surrounded by water. It could hardly breathe. How couldit possibly run away? It didn't know where to run!
Well! The centipede almostdrowned. I saw it going "Hu, Hu, Hu." It was callingfor help. So I said, "Stop! Stop! Stop! Let me handle itmyself." They were really great and compassionate for "notkilling it," but trying to drive it away with water, flushingand surrounding it with water... Even if we were the centipede,we would have drown. The centipede was very small. When they keptdoing that, the centipede couldn't withstand it! So I said, "Forgetit! Leave the centipede alone!" So that was how they weretrying to save a life.
Therefore, it's not good enoughto just refrain from killing. We have to be cautious. When wewalk, we have to be careful and watch out for insects. The sinkwhere we wash our faces and brush our teeth should be coveredup or be drained to prevent insects from drowning inside. Theoil lamps in temples are also professional killers. They're supposedto be offerings to the Buddha, but they're filled with corpsesof insects. Since the oil lamps are uncovered, insects are killedinstantly as soon as they fall in.
When I lived in a temple before,each morning when I wiped the altar table, I always saw the lampsfilled with dead sentient beings. I supposed that the Buddha wouldn'tbe pleased with it! In ancient times, since there were no otherkinds of lights available, people had to use oil lamps. But nowwe have electric lights, yet people still stubbornly insist onusing oil lamps. In ancient times, people used oil lamps and fragrantoil to make offerings to the Buddha.
Why did people light oil lampsto make offerings to the Buddha? Because oil lamps could illuminatethe road for Him. In addition, they were to lite up the face ofthe Buddha to let people see. They were also used to light upthe hallways in the temples, just like our road lamps here. However,in ancient times, people covered up oil lamps. Shakyamuni Buddhaalso instructed that when oil lamps were lit or put out, theyshould be covered up to prevent insects from being injured orburnt. Nowadays, people use big pots of oil as oil lamps. In thetemples in Tibet, hundreds of oil lamps are lit all day and allnight. First of all, they waste oil. Secondly, they kill lotsof sentient beings. When we pursue spiritual practice, we're supposedto refrain from killing and deliver sentient beings' lives, butwe actually harm them, instead.
Therefore, we must be careful.Refraining from killing includes a broader sense. Not only killingwith a knife is killing. Of course, we should avoid killing ifpossible. We don't intent to kill by lighting oil lamps. However,we can avoid it, by not using oil lamps. The Buddha didn't saythat we must make offerings to Him with oil lamps. In case someplaces have no oil, how can people make offerings? Whatever weoffer, the most important thing is our intention. Besides, thelamp actually refers to the lamp within us! Of course the scripturespoint out that all temples should light lamps or fires all thetime so that people can see the paths and go to meditate. It'sthe same in our ashram! When you come at midnight, or during aseven-day retreat we get up at three or four o'clock. If therewere no lamps in temples or ashrams, how could you see where youare going? You might step on other people's heads, or some malepractitioners may go to sit in the females' place and some femalesmay go to sit in the males' place, causing embarrassment. So thisis the reason for having lights. It's not that the Buddha needsany lights!
For instance, when I sit here,you always shine bright lights on me to let people see me, butit's not that I need the lights. So all kinds of lights are fineas long as you can see me. However, as to the wooden Buddhas,no one comes to see them at night. Visitors only come in the daytime.So no lights are needed at all in the night. Besides, all thetemples have electric lights now and it's easy to turn them onto allow people to practice their morning and evening services.
What I mean is that we shouldavoid killing if possible. There are many other things, but Ican't go through all of them. As to any insects or bugs, we shouldavoid killing them if possible. Similarly, we should avoid cuttinggrass and trees if possible. If there is no other way, we cancut them, of course, to build houses or for hygiene. We can doit when necessary. However, it's different if we destroy themwith a vicious heart for no reason.
Thou Shalt Not CommitAdultery, Not Steal, Not Lie Another commandment is, Thoushalt not commit adultery. That is, to refrain from having morethan one husband or wife. I've explained the reason. If you havetoo many husbands, you won't have any next time. Suppose you haveseven husbands. Then in the next seven lifetimes, no one willmarry you, because you once had too many! For example, you maketen thousand NT a week. If you spend it all in one day, of courseyou have no money left for the rest of the week.
The next commandment is, Thoushalt not steal. This everyone understands, and I've talked aboutit many times. There are many kinds of stealing, and stealingmoney is only one kind. It's okay to steal if you're starving,but don't do it if you have money. Stealing also includes casuallyreceiving offerings from people. As well, you must not hint atpeople to offer! Sometimes when we talk for too long, we're alsostealing, that is, stealing people's time. When people are impatientwith you, you still keep on babbling. That's also stealing.
If we sell something for tendollars when it's actually worth only two dollars (if we say thatit's very good when it's actually not and only worth two dollars,but we sell it for ten dollars) and cheat others to buy more,this is wrong and is stealing, too. Stealing doesn't only meanto go out and steal. When we go to work and see that the bossisn't there, so we slip away and go home early, it's also stealing.If we take home something from the factory that the boss didn'tgive us, it's stealing, too. When we live in a group, there aremany things there for the public, not only for us. It's stealingif we take something that isn't given to us.
The next commandment is, Thoushalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. You understandthis one already, and I've also talked about it many times. It'sexplained at the time of initiation, too. There are many kindsof lying. The worst kind is that, our spiritual level is low,but we cheat others that we've attained a higher level by sayingsome mysterious things. We coax people into believing that ourlevel is higher than theirs by talking about mystical things.We hide our real level and make people think that we know manythings that they don't know. To cheat people in this way is thebiggest lie. For another instance, after a Master passes away,some people like to become masters and then cheat people thatthey're the successors. By doing that, they incur the worst karma.
Sometimes we make a mistake.And when people ask us about it, we don't admit it but let Masteror our boss punish the whole group. This is also lying and isbad, too! If we admit our mistake, it'd be fine. Don't involveother people in it. Sometimes, I have to punish those people.It's okay if they make a small mistake. But they don't admit itand the issue becomes worse and involves the whole group. Theywouldn't be punished because of the small mistake, but since itinvolved the whole group and made a lot of noise, I have to punishthem. They didn't admit it, but forced me to bother the wholegroup and question people one by one, and still didn't confess,of course I'd have to punish them. I'd punish them for lying,but not for the trivial matter.
Don't Covet OtherPeople's Belongings Another commandment is, Thoushalt not covet thy neighbor's house, ... Of course we shouldn'tcovet other people's belongings. We wouldn't accept them evenif people gave them to us, not to mention coveting other people'sthings. I've told you that if we accept other people's offeringsthat we don't deserve, we're only taking their karma. However,we don't know whether we deserve it or not, so we had better notaccept any, unless people really force us to accept it. If wehave no alternative, we should just accept it and then give itto someone else or give them something in return.
I think that the Chinese understandthis rule very well. During the Chinese New Year, people givegifts to each other. After gifts are passed on too many times,the gift that you gave earlier may come back to you. Is that notso? This is also fine! At least we won't owe others anything.The Americans have a tradition, that is, when two people go outfor coffee, each one will pay his own bill. This is also good!They don't have to display false courtesy, and then fuss aboutwho drinks more and who drinks less, (Master and audience laugh),or they may feel embarrassed.
There is a very funny Au Lacesestory. Two people went out to eat a kind of food called jackfruit.It's a kind of fruit that has spines outside and looks very ugly.It's this fat and this big with many seeds and sweet knobby fleshinside. These two people reached an agreement, "We don'tknow who will eat more and who will eat less, of course. So we'llcount the seeds, and then we'll know how much each person shouldpay." After they both agreed, they went out to share a bigjackfruit together.
One of them was very honest,but the other swallowed all the seeds. (Master and audience laugh.)Seeing that, the first person didn't say anything. After finishingeating, the first person suddenly screamed, "Oh! My stomachhurts very much! My stomach really hurts!" He rolled on thefloor and kept on screaming. The second person wasn't done eatingyet. While eating, he asked, "What's wrong with you?"The first person said, "I accidentally swallowed a seed.Now it's growing. Oh! It's getting bigger and bigger. Oh! It hasgrown up to here now! (Master points to Her chest.) Oh! It's upto here now! (Master points to Her throat.) Oh! Quickly thinkof a way to save me! Why is it growing so fast?" The otherperson was frightened to death. He asked, "You swallowedonly one seed and it has grown this big. (Laughter.) What willhappen to me since I've swallowed five seeds?" (Master andaudience laugh. Applause) So don't swallow any fruit seeds! (Masterand audience laugh.)
