(I can hear the inner [Heavenly] Sound 24 hours a day. What is the difference between one inner [Heavenly] Sound from another?) It takes some time. I’ll tell you at the time of initiation. I won’t take up the whole time of the people. There are different sounds, different levels, different ways of listening to the inner (Heavenly) Sound, so I must tell you in detail, and it takes some time.
(I would like to help humans in this world and in the Universe to love each other and live happily. I would like Master Ching Hai to guide me too.) It’s my honor. It’s good that you have such a noble intention. Now you must practice the right way in order to fulfill your wish. It took the Buddha six years. But maybe you’re better – will take six days or something. After initiation, we will see how long.
(As we try to search for liberation for ourselves, which can take a lot of time, sometimes we have to leave our family, our son, or our parents. Is that a sin? And the thing that we obtain, can it help to lead us away from the sin that we have left our duty?) I don’t understand. Why does he have to leave his family? Did I say that after initiation you have to leave your family? Is that written outside like that?
(I think they would like to know about normal people who try to leave their family to be a monk.) Well, if your family is happy about that, then it’s OK. Even the King of Thailand had become a monk for a short period of time. The present King. And I think He’s the most busy man in Thailand. So, are you busier than Him?
There’s no sin when we do good things in a virtuous way. Otherwise, the Buddha would not have left His country, His throne and even His family to become a monk. But in Thailand, it’s very convenient. You can become a monk for one day, one week, one month, one year. I have been a monk for ten years, no problem. My husband cried a little bit, but he remarried again after six years. What’s the big deal? My parents are still alive without me.
But we don’t have to become a monk to become enlightened. That’s my message. Occasionally we have a retreat if we can afford to stay away from business for three days or one week. That’s alright. To be a monk is suitable for someone who is free of obligation to family and social duties. And then he can devote all his life to practice spiritually as well as to help other people to be enlightened. And that’s why people must become monks, because there must be someone who is free of obligation in order to continue the message. Otherwise, it’s not monkhood that makes you enlightened. We have many people in our spiritual group who are laypersons, as well as monks. Whatever their choice, that’s alright. Their level of spiritual practice is the same.
(This person would like to know the secret of the Himalayan mountains.) Oh, it’s a long story. But it’s dangerous to go there. If you get initiation, maybe you can go with the astral body and don’t need to face the dangers the way I did. I told some of the stories in different tapes. Maybe you inquire outside. Otherwise, if I tell you here, you would never go home. We’d all have to stay here until we die, and even then I wouldn’t be finished. And then you would have more sins, “leaving” your family.
Next. (Is the direction of the world and the direction of the Dharma in the opposite direction?) The world (The world.) direction and the Dharma direction? (Right.) Not really. Apparently, only. After enlightenment, you see everything is in the same direction. It’s difficult to explain, but it is like that.
(Will we have a meditation teaching today? If we have, I would like to thank You.) After the lecture, yes.
(Dear Master, my question is that I had received the Anuttara dharma path from a teacher in Taiwan. Can I still be your disciple or not?) (Dear Master, I have received some kind of method from a master in Taiwan. I wonder if I can ask to be Your disciple?)
If you have studied the (inner Heavenly) Light and (inner Heavenly) Sound, then you don’t have to, but if you have not received the (inner Heavenly) Light inside and the (inner Heavenly) Sound, then you could enroll outside. Because without seeing the (inner) Heavenly Light or the Buddha’s Light inside, without listening to the (inner) Musical Teaching of the Buddhas, we would never get liberation. It doesn’t matter how hard we practice. The most would be we go to a kind of (lower) Heaven and come back again and go back and forth again, again, again. The people who get initiation are guaranteed liberation, and many of their relatives and friends, up to many generations before and after, will be also guaranteed liberation. Because one person who attains enlightenment through Self-realization has great power to liberate other people as well.
(To practice the Quan Yin Method, why are we prohibited to practice controlled breathing?) Because it is an ephemeral phenomenon. Breathing is an ephemeral phenomenon. If we want to reach liberation, we have to know the Self, our real eternal Self, and that cannot be realized through an ephemeral phenomenon. And breathing methods, without a good Master and without purity of the body and mind, will bring some danger. Alright? (Yes.)
(After Master has left, if we would like to get initiation, can we get it by telecommunication or something like that?) Yeah, I can fax enlightenment to you. The Master doesn’t have to be physically present in order to give any disciple initiation. The verbal instruction is only for your daily practice, but the enlightenment is done through spiritual transmission, and that doesn’t need the presence of the Master because the Power can reach anywhere in the Universe. If you would like, then you have to contact the center in Thailand. There’s a telephone number or address somewhere in the book, perhaps. Then they will let me know, and then you can be initiated while I’m not in Thailand. It’s the same – same result.
Photo Caption: Going Through Hardship to Bloom Well
