together WE CAN DO ITOneperson makes a lot of difference. If you truly believe in yourgoodness, in what you are doing, you will influence other people.But if you don't believe, they will influence you. They'll tryto make a weak person out of your personality. Whatever you believeis good, stick to it and don't let other people make you waver,because the good example in this world is rare. So make yourselfa good example. Try your best in everything so that people willknow that because you practice, you have become better. Then youreally are being useful for society. That's how you prove. That'show you help other people. That's how we rescue the world fromthe great destruction that may be coming.
..... Therefore,we have the choice to think positively. Everything that is beneficialto other people and ourselves at the right moment, that is positive.And everything that hurts you and hurts other people, that isnegative. So every time we have to consider what is negative,and what is positive and that is how we fight. And when we alwaysthink positively, speak positively, and love people, and alwaysact in a positive way, which means properly, in the right timeand beneficial for ourselves and to other people, that is whenwe are siding with the positive force and the positive force hasone more storehouse of power to overcome the negative energy inthis world.
..... Thefuture is in our hands really. There are no aliens who can doanything about it. There is no God who punishes us. There is noenlightened being who blesses us. It's only ourselves. We haveto make a choice, because that's how we grow -- by making a goodchoice.
..... Theworld is in need of such fast working people. It is so desperatelyshort of these fast thinking, intelligent, conscientious, moraland honest people. Therefore, the more the better.
..... Another example: you may have run into trouble todayon the road or in a certain place, you may have had a car accidentor another accident. Then, you met two very compassionate peoplewho cared and helped you, making you feel loved, safe and verycomfortable. Later, you left when everything was alright, or afterspending a week in the hospital and that loving feeling was stillaffecting you. Whomever you saw thereafter, or in a conferencewith many people, you would be very loving and patient to themand then, those who you treated compassionately would continuespreading the love outward, also treating others with love. Andthen, those whom they had lovingly treated would again spreadthis love to more people. The transmission would go on and on,just like a drop of oil, spreading outward continuously.
..... Youhave to reprogram your thinking and reorganize your reaction.Otherwise, you have wisdom, you have blessing from Master, youhave power to act for success, but you always step back and worry.Because of your habit, you think you cannot do that. Some of ourdisciples are still like that. For example, last time Hong Kong...everybody wrote a humanitarian letter, to send to Hong Kong Government,but the Hong Kong didn't write. Said "Oh no! No, we can notoffend Hong Kong Government." Things like that. They arebrainwashed by some of the false information that some of thepolitical people want to spread around to get the support fromthe people, so that they can get together and abuse the handfulof the Au Lac refugees, because just want to get rid of them.And so even the disciples, they also go with the strong. You know,and suppress the weak.
..... Neverthelessour fear is not the real fear. We can conquer it. That's the difference.And we know how to do it. We know how to conquer it. But we aremade like that, so that we help in cleaning the planet. EveryQuan Yin practitioner shares the responsibility of cleaning theplanet in some degree or another.
..... Q. Master, I am confused about what position to adoptwhen I see countries at war, being invaded, women and childrenbeing abused and tortured. Do you have any words of advice?
M.Your question is one of many concerned and considerate people,but there is no cure if people do not cure themselves. You knowthe law of karma. Suppose you succeed in killing the murderersand protecting the women. How can you do it in the whole world?And sometimes the innocent is not always so pure and the murdereris not the only one responsible. The whole society, the wholeworld is responsible. So what can we do? You can put that personin jail, but another person will come. We cannot change the worldif people do not want to change, but we must try. Therefore, Mastersgo out risking their lives telling people to change themselves.So why don't you join them and light one more torch instead ofsitting there and feeling sorry? Do something. Maybe you can saveten, maybe he can save twenty, and little by little we can savethe whole world. There is no other way to change people, but totell society how to change its pattern of life. Not to changethe victim alone, but to change the whole society. And if we cannotstop the whole misery, we can at least stop some parts of it,and this is already a good accomplishment.
..... Q. Thank You Master Ching Hai, for having the patiencewith us today, (Master: It's okay) for answering our questionsand being so generous. You spoke about a level where one is awarethat they have powers that come from that awareness. Now whatif you are aware of the powers, you don't know that you have thembut you are aware of them. You may even feel like you do. Howdo you access it or not access it? If you don't access it, howdo you not become impatient with the process that's going on around?Like you see the process taking a slow, mundane way when you knowyou can just pray or do something else to bring about a betteror quicker resolution.
M.Yeah, understand.
Q. What does that mean and how does one access it withthe blessing that it will come out okay? Do you understand whatI mean?
M.I understand, I understand. What you meant is that when we havethe power to change things and when the things around go in abureaucratic way and a slow way, how would you have the patienceto bear it, right? Or would you just pray or do some magic orpoint a finger and push it, right? No, I have patience becausewe have to work with the pace of this world in order not to bringit into chaos. Yes. For example, a child cannot run. Not becauseyou are in a hurry or you want to run that you make the childstumble and fall. So we have to be patient. Even though we havethe power to run, we walk with the child, yes. That's why sometimesI am also frustrated and impatient but I have to teach myselfto be patient. That's why I have to go and bow my head from onepresident after another for the refugees, even though we wantto add all the financial support. We would give all we have, everything,millions of dollars, or billions even. We have to go through thebureaucratic system. Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Understand?I am not going to wield my head or to point a finger at the U.N.even make them run. No, no. We cause disaster in this world ifwe use physical, magic power. Understand? It has to go the wayit goes. But we can elevate people's consciousness by spiritualhealing, by spiritual wisdom, understanding. Impart to them theknowledge that they are willing to do it, you understand, andcooperate. That's the best way, not to use magical power. I neverintentionally use magical power in any aspect of life. But miraclesjust happen around the spiritual practitioners. That's very natural,but not intentionally. You understand? Not trying to push things.Yes, that's no good. The child cannot run. All right? You satisfiedwith my answer? If any of my answers don't suit you, please letme know, because I can explain further. But I trust you are veryintelligent, being the most chosen and intelligent people of allnations. Therefore I don't elaborate very much, yeah. Any morequestion? Yes, behind there. It's good that we have United Nations,I have to say, by the way. Yes, yes. We eliminate many of theworld's conflicts and wars, even though we cannot completely minimize.But I read your books of United Nations. Everyone is United Nations.And I have followed some of the United Nations work. And I mustpraise its effort and efficiency in rescuing hostages where otherpeople cannot rescue, all the power of the world cannot rescueand one United Nations' commissioner did it.
Yes, and many other things concerning disasterrelief, refugee problems. You have about twelve million refugees,I heard, responsibility. No? It's a lot of work, and the warsand everything. So it's good that we have United Nations, yeah!It's very good.
..... Q. Thank You, Master Ching Hai, for sharing Your wisdomwith us. I have a question. It's about the escalating world populationand its accompanying problem of further environmental abuse andthe further greater demand for food. Would You like to commentsomething on this escalating world population? Is this a worldkarma? Or is this going to create certain kind of karma in thefuture?
M.Ummm, to have more people for this world is also very good. Whynot? More crowded, more noise, more fun. No? It's not that weare overpopulated, really. We just not spread out evenly. Peoplejust condense in certain areas of the world and do not want tomove to another area. That is all. Yeah, we have so many vastareas of wild land that have not been used. Many virgin islands,many vast.. you know, plateaus which are only green with forestsand nothing there. Ummm, people just like to concentrate in NewYork, for example (Laughter) because it's more fun here. Yes,because if a government or any government is able to create jobs,you understand, and industry... and employment of different kindsin different places and people would go there also to work. Theyjust condense in some places because it's easier to find employmenthere, or safety. If the safety, security and employment opportunitypresents itself in those other different places, people wouldgo there also. They would go for security, for their livelihood.That's very natural. Yeah? So, it's not that we should fear aboutoverpopulation. We should be more organized to give people ofthe world more benefit of employment opportunities and housingand security. Then everywhere is the same. We would never be overpopulated.And about your question concerning food, you should know better.Because in America, we have so much information concerning howto preserve the world. Vegetarian diet is one of the best, topreserve the world's resources, to feed the whole population ofthe earth. Because we waste a lot of vegetarian food, energy,electricity, medicine, to raise animals. Understand? Whereby itcould feed other people directly. And many countries of the thirdworld nations, they sell their protein-enriched vegetarian foodfor cheaper price. But that is not a help to the other world nations'populations. If we spread all the food evenly and vegetarian dietwill help this, not only for ourselves, not only for the animals,but for the whole world. One of the research something... magazines,they already said that if want... if everyone in the... how tosay... Oh, last time, I was in United Nations, I mentioned thatalready. I've forgotten. If we eat vegetarian, the world willnot be hungry anymore. And also we have to organize, yeah, organize.I know some person, he can make rice bran into nutritious foodand milk even. And we have talked last time about that. He saidhe spend about three hundred thousand dollars and he can feedsix hundred thousand people in Ceylon - the poor, the under-nourished,the mothers, and all that. Yeah, it was fantastic. Because theway we do it in many parts of the world, it's that we waste thenatural resources, not that we don't have enough. God wouldn'tput us here to starve. Actually, we starve ourselves. So we haveto rethink... rethink, reorganize, and that needs the blessingof many countries' governments. They have to bless us with theirabsolute honesty, cleanliness and, you understand, dignity, andthe will to serve people instead of serve themselves. If we havethis blessing from all the countries' governments, you understand,we have no problem really. No problem. We have to have good leadership,good economic organization and ruling talents and honest governments.But that can come about more rapidly when many people or mostof the people or all the people become spiritual. Then they knowthe discipline. Then they know the precepts. Then they know howto be honest and clean. And they know how to use their wisdomthen. Then they can think of many things to do and reorganizeour lives. Understand? Otherwise if you just run for power withyour pocket money or with the money collected from the publicand then you try to collect the same money again before you runout of power then. Does not help at all. Does not matter if yousit on gold mine, we die all the same of poverty. The leadersof many nations have to be aware of their power and responsibility.Have to think of the people, reorganize the system. Uh! Yes.
Q. That seems to be very difficult because as I see,much of the... as I understand, much of the environmental abusetoday has to do with a growing population's demand for more livingspace, for homes, for living the way we in the 20th century knowand want to live. Say the jungles in Brazil. The environmentalabuse there. The destruction of the forest there, the rain forest.The land, it's being defoliated and that results in floods. Andthese are not unrelated to the problem of overpopulation.
M.Yes, everything is related to each other, of course, in this world.And the only solution is to solve it from the root, not the branches.And the root is spiritual stability. Understand? So all we haveto do is to try to spread the spiritual message, what we know,and keep to the spiritual discipline. That's what people don'thave. It's okay to plug yourself in the electric machine and havesome lights and some buzzing music and get samadhi. But if youdon't have moral discipline, then you only use the power for badthings sometimes. Can't control it. You understand? That's whywe in this group, we keep... teach people the precepts first.Precepts are important. We have to know where we go and maneuverour power. Power without love, without compassion, without properunderstanding of the moral value, then it's no use. It becomesblack magic, abuse. Yeah. That's where black magic comes from.Understand? So it's easy to get enlightenment, it's hard to keepit. In our path, if you are not truly disciplined and morallyequipped, the master will take away some of your power so thatyou cannot abuse it and do bad things to the society. Understand?That's the difference. Master has control. The master power, themaster power, okay? Yes, I am very happy with all of your intelligentquestions. Very intelligent. People do these things because theyare not wise enough, you know, like abusing the land that youhave said, or doing something just because their lack of wisdom.Yes, so the root is wisdom, spiritual practice. Get enlightened.Yes man.
