Everybody already knows how to meditate. It is that only you meditate on the wrong thing. Some meditate on pretty girls. Some meditate on money; some meditate on business. Every time you pay attention a lot to one thing, one-pointedly and wholeheartedly, that is meditation. And now, I pay attention only to the inner Power, to the Compassion, to the Love, to the Merciful Quality of God. And that is my meditation.
(How do you meditate?) How? Of course, everybody already knows how to meditate. It is that only you meditate on the wrong thing. Some meditate on pretty girls. Some meditate on money; some meditate on business. Every time you pay attention a lot to one thing, one-pointedly and wholeheartedly, that is meditation. And now, I pay attention only to the inner Power, to the Compassion, to the Love, to the Merciful Quality of God. And that is my meditation. But to do so officially, we should just sit in a quiet corner and be by ourselves. And that is the process of meditation. But it’s not by sitting quietly in a corner, one gets something. No, no, no.
You have to get in touch with that inner Power first and then that inner Power will meditate. Actually, it is like that. So that is called Self-Awakening. You must awaken the Real Self inside and let Hirm meditate, not you, the human brain and the mortal understanding. That Power will meditate. Hes meditates, Hes awakens Hirmself. Hes knows how to work now. At the moment, you let Hirm sleep and you do everything mechanically with the brain, the order of the brain. So, even if you sit down, you will think of 1001 things, and you cannot subdue your own passion. But when you Self-awaken the real inner Self, the God Power within you will control everything, will meditate, will come back to its own Self. And that is real meditation.
You only know real meditation after you are awakened by transmission from a real Master. Otherwise, it’s only a waste of time: mind wrestling, body resting; only rest your body but the mind is tumbling and fighting. That is not real meditation.
(Is there right? Is there wrong? Any difference?) No, there is no difference. You need to ask me this? If you want to go out and steal another’s wife, is that right? If you ask that person’s husband, he’ll say no and that is not right according to our human society, behavior and virtue. What’s right, what’s wrong, according to the law and according to the human standard, we must observe without any excuse. We do not say I’ve become one with God and God has no discrimination. Right is wrong. Wrong is right. No, no, no. We don’t make this kind of nonsense excuse. Therefore, to practice with me, with this method, I emphasize virtue.
One must take to heart to keep the commandments, the Five Principal Commandments, like thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not tell lies, thou shalt not drink alcohol, or take drugs, any kind that make our minds confused or our body weak. Or any kind of so-called films, movies that excite our passions and are no good for our quiet and very calm nature. These all are called drugs, including films, gambling, alcohol. This is all drugs. So, these Five Commandments I may ask you to keep, if you want to join our circle of practitioners.
You must not follow me in person. You must not do any service for me. You must not offer me anything except your commitment to yourself, and meditation every day you must keep, as far as possible. And then, the Five Commandments I also demand you to keep. And that’s all you have to do.
(Why is initiation limited mostly to people under 65?) Under what? Oh, 65. Oh yeah. “Why do the initiation people have to be under 65?” The question is simple. When we are a little bit older than 60 or 65, our brains are no longer so alert. Most of the time, we could not understand the Master’s teaching. And the vegan diet, a sudden change from (animal-people) flesh-eating to the vegan diet at such an old age may cause inconvenience for you. You may not be able to follow. Is that clear? Not that I discriminate between ages. If you are a long-time vegan already or if your body is fit and you’re willing to take the rigorous practice every day, two and a half hours, morning and evening, and follow the vegan diet – of course, I also welcome you. But this is the general rule.
(When are You giving initiation?) “When You give initiation?” (Yes.) How many people want to get initiated? If there are enough, we can get it today. Please raise your hand higher, so I can see. OK then, I may give it today. Or another day; later we’ll discuss. The thing is, when we give it today, we are a little bit in a hurry. It’s good. And so it might feel a little bit rushed for you, or you may feel that you have not yet completely understood what my theory is, that’s all. But if you’re willing, if you’re really, truly sincere, we can make it together today, no problem. It takes a few hours, maybe up to 1:00 in the morning, if you can stand it. Is that alright? It’s not just a few minutes.
(Why are the leaders in Christianity failing? Why do they accentuate the negative and the punishment?) Why? (Why do they emphasize the negative and punishment?) The negative and punishment? Why are they falling? (Yes. Why they fail?)
I have told you also: because of ignorance, lack of enlightenment. They have not practiced anything at all. What is the difference between a priest and you? Can you tell me? They also eat animal-people meat, drink wine and maybe some have a woman. And you also do the same. And they read the scriptures and you do every day. So what is the difference between them and you or any other people?
They do not realize that. That is their mistake. Therefore, of course, they can only think negative and punishment, because they do not reach to the Love Power of God by practicing quiet contemplation on Hiers Merciful Quality. They only preach and talk. They repeat the Bible only, every time you come to the church or in a temple. I don’t mean only Christianity. And then you would take out the big book, and then they get out and say, “Saint Matthew such-and-such says so-and-so.” And then you chant together, and you go home. How do you find God so simple like that? And then they are called priests and Father and Mother or master. Oh. If it’s so easy to become a priest and master, why don’t you all become? I’m surprised and ask myself. I wonder myself. It’s so easy to become a missionary. No? You still can marry even, like the Protestant priests can also marry. So why haven’t you become one, I wonder?
(Is eating vegetables a form of killing because they’re alive like the animal[-people]?) Yes, yes, it is true. But the life in vegetables is very less. The soul is sleeping. You know, all things are composed of many elements. We human beings are composed of the most elements, including soul, ether, earth, metal, wood, all kinds of these substances together. But the plants consist of water, 90% is water, and the other substances are very less, and the soul is almost dormant. But then, we still take life if we eat a vegetable. Therefore, the Buddha said, if you eat anything, even vegetables, you have to consider it like eating your own child’s flesh.
But what shall we do, if we live in this world and not eat anything? We can do that also, but it takes tremendous willpower to overcome the material needs of our body. Some people don’t eat anything. There exists such persons. But I do not advise you to do so. First, people will look at you as a “zuru,” as some kind of nut. Or if people stream to you, it’s only because they are attracted to your non-eating diet. They will overlook your spiritual quality and your highest goal that you want to set before them.
Fancy I, Ching Hai, don’t eat anything and then I advertise on the paper, “Master Ching Hai doesn’t eat anything.” And so, many people will flock here and all day they will ask me, “How? Why? How long, how long since?” And that’s it. And I will have a lot of trouble to tell them, “Please convert your attention to God and to my topic. It is the Quan Yin Method. It is life and death. It is serious. It has to be about meditation – two and a half hours, vegan and all of these.” And they won’t listen a bit, because all their attention is diverted to the non-eating diet and that’s it. I know all about it. I know in Taiwan (Formosa) there is one who didn’t eat anything for 20 years and everybody comes there asking the same question, including myself.
OK. (When…) So therefore… Excuse me. So even we eat vegan, we also have some karma – it means the influence of the bad effect. So, we have to practice this method in order to cleanse out this even minimum karma, so that we can be free and purified.
