(Master, the "Gift" You’ve given us, it’s ours for eternity, isn’t it?) I don’t know. How long you will live here? (Oh, I mean...) Up there, you don’t need that. Up there, you don’t need protection. You just develop accordingly. But of course, if you need it, you use it. Anywhere you want, anytime! It’s just for here, it’s more necessary for you to speed up your spiritual practice. Protection.
(Master, the "Gift" You’ve given us, it’s ours for eternity, isn’t it?) I don’t know. How long you will live here? (Oh, I mean...) Up there, you don’t need that. Up there, you don’t need protection. You just develop accordingly. But of course, if you need it, you use it. Anywhere you want, anytime! It’s just for here, it’s more necessary for you to speed up your spiritual practice. Protection. One day at a time. One world at a time!
Yeah? Here! What? Tell me. (No, I just wanted to say that I’ve never really had a happy New Year, and now is the first one I’ve had.) First happy New Year you ever have? Why? You didn’t have any happy New Year before? (No.) What happened? (Well, not good things.) Not good things? (No, but this time was good. Thank You!) OK, I’m glad for you.
Mostly people expect that a New Year is something good, but mostly it’s just work like hell. (Yes!) You know, Christmas, rush, rush, rush, “What present to buy for whom?” You know, every year struggling and rushing last minute in the crowd of the end of the year shopping. It’s really frantic and sometimes really unnerving. And makes you tired and exhausted as well. Of course, it’s a very happy occasion, Christmas and New Year, but it has lost a lot of the meaning because now they kill chickens, they kill turkeys, and make us suffer so much.
I suffer a lot every Christmas, before Christmas, around Christmas, after Christmas. Oh, it’s not much fun for me! You know, cut trees, cut necks and cut throats, and oh, horrible! Can you imagine? People, the unenlightened, the ignorant people, can turn anything into poison. You know, such a joyous occasion, God born onto Earth, and they turn it into a killing spree! Millions of chickens die, turkeys die every year, and other things die. And cut the trees and destroy the environment and all that stuff, just for what? Just for a few days! And they call that Christmas! And I’m powerless against this. Do you understand me? (Yes.) Can you imagine how I feel, not to talk about the things I have to suffer? And New Year, oh, the same. Christmas, New Year are similar, the same. These few days are just crazy!
So maybe you are only the best thing that happens for me at Christmas and New Year, because you meditate. Yes, truly! Because you don’t kill, you don’t add onto the suffering of the beings on this planet. You meditate and you’re peaceful. And maybe sometimes try to go out and help people, the way I told you, help the unfortunate people or do whatever good things we can do. So, perhaps you’re the only good things at Christmas and New Year. And Happy New Year, because you are! So be happy. You are the happy! You are the Happy Christmas. You are the Happy New Year.
Look around you. Where else can you go at Christmas? What else can you do? Even if you just go in somewhere, just to say even sometimes in a vegan restaurant... Or some normal restaurants, you can also have a vegan section, no? But there’s smoke and the people talk loud, and sometimes it’s very terrible. So, you are the one who makes yourself happy. And because of you, I come here. And because I come here, you are happy. So, you make yourself happy. (Yes.) See the circle!
In a way I’m very proud of you, and I love you of course. Originally, I meditated very well upstairs. You know, with the “Gifted” brothers and sisters. But I thought, “Oh, I haven’t seen you for a long time, and I guess you really want to see me more, even we just sit here and talk about the things that are not really that important.” Well, it is, but it’s not urgent. But I thought, “You never know what’s tomorrow.” So when I can see you, I let you see me. So I came down, sacrificed my good meditation. It was really good! I mean, of course it’s good many times, but when it’s good I don’t want to get out. But I did get down here, truly, purely, just because of you. (Thank You, Master!)
Also, because you are good, because you deserve it. Oh, one or two, here and there, even some haven’t climbed up, but that’s OK, you try your best, and you will get there, you’ll get there. It’s just that if you are not yet on a higher level, you can’t handle this - it could do you harm. It could do you harm, the ones that have not climbed up. So, wait. Maybe later, OK? Not that I reject you or don’t love you or anything like that. It takes time. Some take longer to go up, because they came from a long way. Right? Like if you come from Belgium it takes you three hours, but if you come from Crawley, three minutes. So, maybe you come from a long way, the brother and sister before.
Whew, it’s hot, man! Wow! Can we open a little window? No, I’m worried. The neighbors can get anything? No, we’re OK, huh? All right. It’s not that I’m afraid or anything, but suppose they don’t understand. And the same happened to Jesus. He died, then it made a lot of karma for them, and it set the clock backward again, and then I have to climb up again.
So, it’s not I’m afraid or I fear anything, but when I go out there, I react very humbly to everyone so that they don’t have a chance to offend the gods, by offending me in any way. They’re not offending me, but the guards, the protectors, the angels, the Lord of Judgment, they’re all watching. And if they do something bad to me or say something bad to me, they might create karma for themselves. That’s why I’m very careful. That’s all. So, sometimes I’m more humble than I should be. That’s what it is. So, suppose if I go out and lecture or anything again, I don’t know what to say. That’s what I mean by “I don’t know what to do now.”
Any more good questions? Anything in your mind? Anything good you want to say? (Well, there’s one thing in my mind is just something You said at Christmas, that You were crying for us.) Oh. (And I was just... it kept in my mind.) Why? (I don’t know.)
It was the truth. You know, because I wanted to come to see you, but something happened, I could not. Because I have to share the obstacles with you, and even though I was at your doorstep already, well, something happened, so I could not come. I can’t explain this. It’s a long story. Sometimes maya works in the form of somebody nearby. It’s just if you are not pure enough, sometimes it can work through you. Some fraction of a second is enough. It doesn’t have to work through you every day, every month.
Just when I need it! And then when at that time, when you’re selfish, you’re not pure, you’re not devoted, you’re not big, loving enough, then the maya can seep in. Just that moment, that second, and that’s enough. Sometimes just one second is enough to do some harm, some trouble. And then you say something wrong, you do something bad. Not wrong, like you kill people or something, but you do something, you say something, that’s obstructing my work. Understand that? I don’t mean you, but any of you can, it can happen anytime.
And the maya always works with the one next to me. Because, who else? If you’re far away, OK, the worst is they make me sick, they make me suffer mentally, emotionally, physically, but that’s all they can do. But that doesn’t mean I cannot go out. You know what I mean? Yeah! But there’s something more that sometimes happens. I can’t explain. It’s too complicated, the system.
So, I feel... because you were crying, so I shared the tears. I had to, otherwise you’d cry more! It’s just like when some of you are sick, I’m sick. When some of you are sad, I’m sad. Affect each other. So, it’s nothing me anymore. Just all you. All right? And that is for the physical, mental and emotional bodies, because those are still here. But the Real Self is not. So when I’m laughing with you, it’s my emotional, the instrument of emotion. And when I’m sad with you, that’s the instrument of emotion at work. It’s the one that’s still fitted in this body, for you, to see and to work with you, to share with you things.
But the Real Self is not this one. But the Real Self is still using all these instruments to help you in any way, or to make you happy, or to share with you the suffering in this world that you have to go through - and the world, the other people, the people who are not even initiated. The body is for that. The body, the emotions, the mental, even the spiritual body, are also for that. But not the Real Self. All right. The Real Self is more than 70% already almost Home. Almost. But I’m slowing down already, otherwise maybe gone. It’s no hurry. I’ve been around long already. Just a few more seconds doesn’t matter.
Anything else you want to say or to tell? Yeah? (Master, we have many bottles of wine, fruit wine, to celebrate Your presence here.) Wine? (Yes, well... Wine. Champagne!) Ah, vegetarian! A non-alcoholic champagne. (Yes, yes!)
OK, we can drink it. Yeah, sure. You have to say non-alcoholic wine. Otherwise, after I die, they’ll say, “Ching Hai drank wine!” They already made Jesus drink wine and eat meat, so I don’t want it to happen again to us. We eat vegan stuff, we drink non-alcoholic beverages, not wine! We drink non-alcoholic beverages, OK? (Yes, Master.) All right.
If you want to say wine, you say non-alcoholic wine, non-alcoholic champagne. Have to say non-alcoholic! Well, because... oh, but somebody still can cross that out and say, “Oh, it must be a mistake! How can it be wine, non-alcohol? There’s no such thing!” Cross the non-alcoholic out, and then we drank wine! Good idea!
Anything else, meanwhile? Yes? (Master, I have two questions to ask You.) First question? (The first question is: You know before, You mentioned that any bad beings that try to harm the high Saints, they will be in trouble. How come maya can get away with that, then? Or do You mean just by physical people that are harming the high Saints?)
The physical people. (Oh.) Sometimes even if the maya works through them, still they have to bear the karma, some of it. It takes some instrument to do that, you see. If they are a bad instrument, the instrument for maya, that means at least they are a similar level, and they still have to bear some karma. The maya, they cannot get punished anymore. They are already in hell. Understand? (Yes.) They are already maya!
Yeah, another question? (Even though You’re so high, how come maya can still like, get to You? Is it...)
Because I let him! I let him, so that you can be relieved somewhat, to some degree. Yeah, OK? (OK. Thank You.) Just like Jesus let Himself be killed. He didn’t have to. Even physically, He could escape at that time.
Any more questions? Good questions, though. Very smart. Do they taste good, by the way? They taste good? (Yes.) (We’re just waiting for Your glass, Master.) Oh, really? You give me, give me that... That’s fine. There, there. (White or red?) Red! Don’t talk into the food and the (non-alcoholic) wine, because you don’t have a mask right now. First, I have a red, and then I have a white. Why not? White not? I want to see which one is better, so next time we’ll buy more.
