Even the Maya and demons are strong, but you are stronger, remember. You are the Buddha. Remember that. You have Buddha inside. Call unto that Buddha, Master Power, to protect you all the time, the inner power, OK? Because you have the same power as the Buddha. If you think of the Buddha, you’re connected with the Buddha. Even if you’re not strong enough to protect yourself, the Buddhas protect you, the Saints, all the Saints in all directions.
So, the Buddha continued. “When you cultivate dhyana,” meaning meditation, “and attain samadhi, your mind tallies with the minds of the Bodhisattvas and the great Arhats of the ten directions who are free of outflows, and you abide in a state of profound purity.” When you do that, when you truly attain real samadhi, then your mind, your soul connects all the real Bodhisattvas, true, high enlightened beings and the Arhats, because they are pure themselves, so you also became pure. Profound state of purity you will attain at that time.
And now what will happen? What will happen when you attain this state of profound purity and connecting with all the Saints and Sages in the ten directions? What happens? (Become Buddha?) Of course, yes. You become a Saint at least. But what will happen? What terrifying things will happen? “All the kings of demons, ghosts, spirits, and the ordinary gods see their palaces collapse for no apparent reason.” Because these are from false births. You remember above, the Buddha said everything, they created it from false thinking. So, they have their own palace and they think they have this, they have that. But when one person even, realizes the Truth, and connects with the Truth, in the pure mind of all the Buddhas, then their palaces collapse.
The Buddha said all the worlds within collapse. All the false worlds collapse. You see? For no reason at all. Shaking, trembling, all collapse. So, “The earth quakes, and all the creatures in the water, on the land, and in the air, without exception, are frightened,” in their world, in these false delusional worlds. “Yet ordinary people who are sunk in dim confusion remain unaware of these changes.” So, heavens collapse, mountains, rivers, all tremble, but normal people who don’t have any perception of spiritual instinct know nothing, see nothing.
“All these beings have five kinds of spiritual powers;” you know, those who have these palaces, ghosts, demon kings, “they lack only freedom from outflows.” They have everything; they have magical powers, very powerful, but they still have defects; they are not perfect. That’s the only thing they lack, meaning they don’t have love, they don’t have enough moral quality, they don’t have virtuous ideas, even though they are powerful. They might have some merit from a past life to become a king of heaven and all that, but they’re not perfect. They don’t have enough compassion and love like the Buddha. “Because they are still attached to worldly passions. How could they allow you to destroy their palaces?” Buddha’s talking about these kings whose palaces collapsed. “That is why the ghosts, the spirits, the celestial demons, sprites, and goblins come to disturb you when you are in samadhi.” They are scared.
Many times, remember many stories I told you that one god in heaven, he’s the Sakra. He always came down and bothered these practitioners and even disturbed the Buddhas and all that. He is one of those whose palace suddenly trembled, because they sat there enjoying doing nothing and then suddenly, they felt the earth shake. I mean the ground of their illusionary world shake, their palaces tremble, and then they looked down and saw what was that then, what was the cause of that. Then they saw that one practitioner truly devoted all his might to become Buddha, so that he could help all beings, not wanting, not devoted in meditation because he wanted to be king of heaven, or not devoted because he wanted to be a king of the world or anything, but wanted to be Buddha. At that time, his world shook, the world of the lower heaven shook.
But most of the heavenly kings, they’re still attached to their possession and power. They are very jealous of anybody who wants to be above them. Or they even doubt, they suspect that these monks or practitioners maybe want to be king of heaven to replace them, to replace those kings of heaven and their retinues also. Therefore, they want to destroy you, disturb you, tempt you, distract you, leading you astray.
So, how many ghosts? We are not there yet. You have only a few days and I have a lot more. My calendar is not that long. And we still have a lot, because even just a few precepts take a long time. But what are you here for, right? You’re supposed to meditate all night anyway, and you already sleep enough all day. So, at night I keep you awake, at least to make up for the time lost.
I’m telling you truly. If you can sleep less at night, you stay awake, really it pays. It happened to me. I told you from my personal experience. When I was at the beginning of my journey, I stayed awake at night and it really helped. You really know so many things that you never knew before. You really awaken to some truths that you never thought would happen. Really, really it will come to you when you calm yourself down and save as much time as possible to meditate, and be alone. Really, you will realize many things. Because enlightenment is not just here, but it keeps growing in different ways, different directions. And realization has so many aspects. It will answer so many of your questions. You don’t even have to ask me anything.
So now, the Buddha said… So, that’s why they come to disturb you when you are in samadhi, meaning when you meditate, you want to go higher, but they want to disturb you. You and your wife had headaches before, remember? (Yes.) So, I have to tell you to reason with them, say “OK, we just want to follow Master Ching Hai. We don’t want to bother you. We have really good intentions. We don’t want to snatch you, nothing. We want to go higher.” Then they leave you alone, no?
Now the Buddha continues, if you are still awake. It’s not yet twelve o’clock. It’s OK, right? If you want me to stop, just show me the calendar. You can sleep if you want, your soul will listen. Your mind will understand. Even if your body is in a comfortable position, your soul is awake. I am talking to your soul, not your brain. Thank you. Thank you for your hurrah, hurrah.
The Buddha continues. “Although these demons possess tremendous enmity, they are in the grip of their worldly passions, while you are within wonderful enlightenment.” It’s a contrast, you see? Even they have great hatred for you, I mean, not just hatred, but are fearful of your spiritual height and determination to reach purity and your true Home. They’re fearful of you. Even though they have so much power, they are nothing compared to you. So, they are so fearful. They try to find your loophole to harm you. That’s why you have to be vigilant.
The Buddha does not try to condemn any of His monks or His disciples. He just knows that these ghosts, demons, they are envious and fearful of you, so He just warns them to take care. If you always believe in the Buddha or always remember to practice, then it should be OK. But as a human, forgetful sometimes, being disturbed by worldly interference, by business, children, wife, husband, kids, parents, friends, job, how can you always remember to protect yourself or even your Master? So, when you meditate, that’s when you remember the most, perhaps, and you’re getting higher. So, that’s when their palaces are shaking and they begin to tremble, and then they fear you, then they want to come down and disturb you. If you’re working in normal daily life, they don’t really care so much. But when you meditate, all kinds of thoughts, all kind of desires, all kinds of thinking that you should not have, coming, coming, from all the ten directions. They even appear themselves, personally, to bother you or they tell you things, or they use animals to disturb you. All kinds of tricks they do. But then you will overcome it. Just continue to meditate, recite the Five (Holy) Names, pray for help, and continue. Don’t give up. They will give up; they will have to give up.
And another helpful thing is you put Master’s chanting or lecture or Supreme Master Television 24/7, everywhere in your house. Even if you cannot see or hear too much, put it low, cover the computer so that it’s dark. You can sleep or cover it, even then, the background sound, it still protects you, Supreme Master Television, OK? Your Master. Even the demons are so fearful of Supreme Master Television. How you know? Why are you laughing? You know it?
Because even one time, they tried to cheat me, the Maya. I had the Supreme Master Television on, very low volume, and I was in retreat. The first day with still many of the business and disturbing things, still carrying inside retreat, the first few hours. Suddenly, they made the Supreme Master Television so blown out of proportion, the voice, so scary. Suddenly very loud, and I did not even have it so loud. So, then Heaven told me, “They just try to disturb You. They just want to tell You to turn off the Supreme Master Television because You,” They mean me, “and the Supreme Master Television are forming protective rings around Yourself and other people.” They tried to make the television voice blown out of proportion.
And then, they know I love animals, so they used one of the birds outside, while I was meditating. But that was at first, maybe hours and days, not afterward. I continued, then they shut up. But they still had to want to trouble me. They used some of the birds. That bird normally doesn’t talk so loudly; they made the bird so loud, like an elephant crying, crying in agony. There was nothing there. Just a little bird, but you hear it like an elephant trumpeting in pain. Even I was thinking it was true. How can there be any elephant in my garden? There’s no elephant around here, but it kept crying, until I had to go out. On a retreat I should not, but I had to go out. Even I thought it is Maya illusion, but they know I love animals, they know I cannot resist, and I really cannot. So, I walked out and had a look, and I even called some of the Supreme Master Television staff to come up and have a look. There was nothing. They used all kinds of tricks. Later I didn’t hear any more. Whatever, I keep the TV on, whatever they do.
Sometimes, they destroy my machines all over the house, like six air-cons destroyed at the same time, many machines, at the same time. Cars, the gate broken, everything all at the same time. Every time I go on retreat, they do that. They do all different kinds of things, but the first days. And then I continued, and then later it was no more. There was nothing more to destroy, so they quieted down or they just knew they could not do anything much more.
Even the Maya and demons are strong, but you are stronger, remember. You are the Buddha. Remember that. You have Buddha inside. Call unto that Buddha, Master Power, to protect you all the time, the inner power, OK? Because you have the same power as the Buddha. If you think of the Buddha, you’re connected with the Buddha. Even if you’re not strong enough to protect yourself, the Buddhas protect you, the Saints, all the Saints in all directions.
Just like a prince, he will be a king, but he is still an infant, and he’s vulnerable, but his parents are king. They protect him if he calls. If they’re near, the parents, the king, they protect him, of course, even though he’s just a small little king. Same thing, maybe you are a small Buddha, because you don’t realize you are a prince yet. You don’t realize you will inherit the kingdom and become a king, powerful. But you have parents who are kings. Don’t forget your parents.
So, even if they try all their might, they can’t do anything to me. But they will disturb my assistants around me every day. Really, every little thing. It’s not really their fault. They’re just weak, and then the Maya attacks them, so that they can attack me. It’s like that. And I know all that, but still, it’s not like I’m so happy about it. “I know the Maya. They’re cheating my disciples. So happy.” No, it is painful, because it could harm, it could cause pain as well.
So, just don’t forget you are the Buddha and nothing can harm you. Remember that. When you think of the Buddha, the same, think of the Master, you’re connected with the Master. You and the Master and the Buddhas and Jesus are one at that time. You win. You will win. Continue. Continue to meditate. You understood? Thank God.
The Buddha doesn’t say all this in here. Whenever the Buddha says, I will say Buddha says, but I have to explain to you. You know my calendar talent, right?
So, the Buddha continued, “Although these demons possess tremendous enmity, they are in the grip of their worldly passions, while you are within wonderful enlightenment.” It’s a contrast to them.
By the way, every word has power. You know that, right? (Yes.) By the experiments of this wonderful Japanese wise man, or even by the qigong madame shown on our TV. Even if you say, “no problem,” it still weakens your resistance. Don’t say any word that is not powerful for you. You are practitioners.
What is it, love? You want to say something? (Is it OK to say “Ching Hai Tim Qo Tu?”) Can do, can do. Yeah. (Because I use a mantra of “Ching Hai Tim Qo Tu, I love You.” That’s what’s been going through my mind all day.) No, you recite the Five (Holy) Names, OK? You call whatever name you feel is more powerful to you, all right? You must connect with your Buddha Nature Self by knowing other Buddhas, calling, addressing that Buddha, then awaken that Buddha within you, more and more all the time.
Not because I care what you call me. But when you address me less than the title, then it’s not very beneficial to you spiritually. It’s not for no reason that Heaven tells me to use this title. Supreme Master is you inside, Buddha Power, God’s Kingdom, Supreme.
