In this episode, Master explains that we can know GOD whilst living life as a layperson, what enlightenment is, and that the Quan Yin Method of meditation is the contemplation of GOD’s inner teaching.
Bonnie: Master, I’m recalling that the last time You were on this program, Seeing Beyond, that You told a very moving story, and that was how You were in a marriage and all of a sudden – well, maybe it wasn’t all of a sudden – but life started shifting for You as You got to be more and more on Your spiritual path. I know that lots of our listeners have lives that maybe feel like that, also. Would You share that time in Your life with us again?
Master: Yes. I wouldn’t recommend everyone else to do this, anyhow, because married life is a sacred life. We should keep it first. I wasn’t enlightened then, so please forgive me. And maybe, perhaps my life had to be this way, but not for every one of us.
And it was also a tremendous struggle between family, love life, and another calling somewhere inside of your heart. (Right.) Yes. But after all, enlightenment doesn’t involve leaving home or forsaking family happiness. We can do both as well. So many of our fellow initiates are happy with the normal life they’re leading while getting to know GOD at the same time. So that would be better for all of us. If I had known that before, I wouldn’t have left my husband. He was a wonderful man. Yes.
(So, what I hear You say, I think, is that no matter what we’re doing or where we are, we can be enlightened.) Very definitely. Yes.
Bonnie: Supreme Master Ching Hai, you know, this word “enlightenment” is used often. (Yes.) What does it really mean?
Master: Yes. It is difficult to pinpoint in just a few words, but it is the process of knowing what is greater than life, what is greater than the things that we can see with our physical eyes or can touch with our physical instruments. It is the moment when we begin to know something greater than that, the true Governor of the whole Universe, which is also within ourselves.
(It seems to me, Master, that we… well, I remember myself as a little girl having a kind of feeling like that, and forgetting it for some time.) Right. Mostly when we are born, we are more enlightened than when we grow up, (Right.) because we’re nearer to the Providence at that time. And when we grow up, then we identify slowly, gradually, with the knowledge that we accumulate every day and with the knowledge that people pass down to us, saying, “You are this and that. You are Mrs. So-and-so,” and then we identify ourselves slowly more and more. The older we are, the more identification we have from the knowledge we gain and the habits we happen to accumulate due to our background or association with other people in society.
(So one of our great authors, English authors, Shakespeare, said, “Everything in the world is a stage.” And it sounds like what You’re saying, Master, is that we get caught up in the roles of being the actor, the actress, and we forget who we really are.) Yes, Bonnie, you got it.
Jared: Supreme Master Ching Hai, I want to go back for a minute to Your birthplace, to Vietnam. (Yes.) And Bonnie and I just recently spent some time, along with thousands of other people, with Master Thích Nhất Hạnh, the Buddhist Teacher. And I’m wondering what kind of influence did Your time in Vietnam have on Your life?
Master: Maybe, subconsciously, it had an influence on me, because since I was young, I saw death and I saw hatred, I saw the destruction of the war and the misery of the people in some places when I was young. (Yes. You were there during the French and the American War, when the war was going on?) Only under the American. My father was under the French.
Jared: I see, (Yes.) I see. So You did see what was going on with the war? (Yes, very much so.) Do You have any lingering feelings about that with Americans in terms of that war against Your country?
Master: I never thought that the Americans had made war against my country. In fact, I’m grateful for what they have done because people might think they made a mistake about going to the Vietnam War, but people make mistakes sometimes. It’s the intention that is important; it’s not the result. And I’m sure all the young Americans who went to Âu Lạc (Vietnam) at that time held a very high and noble ideal of a hero to protect what is righteous and freedom. And, even though, unluckily, we failed, it might be GOD’s plan, it may be the karma of my people, or maybe all. But I never hold the Americans responsible for this. And whomever I met in Âu Lạc (Vietnam), the American soldiers that I met, or some of them were doctors… I used to also do some interpretation for them when I was young, for the doctors. And they were very gentle and kind. Just like you are, just like most of the Americans I met here, there’s no doubt about that. And that is what I think of… my memory of Americans. (Sure.)
Bonnie: Master. (Yeah.) Will we always have war on this planet, or are we moving towards a place... I know that You have been the recipient of the Peace Award, the World Peace Award. Are we moving to a place on this planet where war will be stopped, where it won’t be a physical reality any longer?
Master: Let’s pray that it’s so. But, as you know, whatever we sow, so shall we reap. And so, if all our past action seeds have already been washed out, then we don’t have any more war. And if we don’t sow any new war-like seeds, then, of course, we’ll have peace. But it takes some more time, I think, and it depends on how willing all our people on this planet are.
(I know, Master, that You have dealt with many large problems. I mean, problem is an understatement, I suppose. What I mean is the natural disasters of flood, fire, and so forth, recently the fire in Southern California. At the same time, we’re continuing to see events such as the ongoing struggle in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the former Yugoslavian Republic. Do You have any sense that You may be called to go there and, in some way, bring some peace into the midst of that war-torn area?)
At the moment, I don’t have any of that feeling, but whatever we are doing, even where we stay, would affect the whole world anyhow. So, we could just send goodwill, and our merit, and whatever we do in a virtuous way will affect the whole population of the world, whether or not we are present. But, of course, our presence, if we are kind of an instrument of GOD, somewhere would bring a kind of more elevating, I would say, atmosphere to the people. And whenever GOD wills me to go there, of course, I will be pushed there, whether I like it or not.
(Right. You keep using the word Providence here, a kind of a Divine Plan, and it sounds to me like You are the follower of that Divine Plan, going wherever that moves You.) Truly. Yes. (Truly. Master, could You describe a little bit about the activity of Your organization and what Your organization has done to so greatly help people in the world in a real physical way?)
Yes. Well, we did not start with that, and we didn’t start to make any organization, actually. It’s just that after I have been kind of a little bit famous around the globe, people started to make an organization for the governmental sake, so that we’re clear, that the government and the people around us know why we gather in such a great number every week or so to meditate. And so, we have a so-called organization, but we don’t have a hierarchy, (Right.) like who is higher and who is lower, etc. We don’t have that. And it’s just pure bureaucracy, just to help with the work as long as we’re in this world.
And the disaster relief and all these things that you call good things that we have done are just kind of by the way, because when we see someone in a disaster, we can imagine it could be us. It’s very easy, and so we feel the feelings of the people. So whatever financial or power resources that we have, we just give without thinking of making a deliberate action, or organization, or anything. We don’t think. I don’t know how to explain it to you. We just help financially, with manpower, and whatever sympathetic way they demand of us, we do it.
Bonnie: It sounds to me like You and Your organization, Your followers, feel the need, and go where that need is, and do what needs to be done. (Right, that’s it.) It’s a very feminine way of being, isn’t it?
Master: Yeah. Very simple. (Very simple.) Our life is very simple. Yes.
(Well, speaking of that feminine way, maybe this is a good time to talk about what You describe as the Quan Yin method of applying Your work and Your teaching.)
(And before we do that, we’re going to be needing to take a break.) OK. (But we’ll come back. That was a good tickler, Jared. We’ll come back and talk more about the Quan Yin energy. Definitely, we are experiencing more feminine healing energy coming into this world. Thank GOD for it. And we are speaking today with the Supreme Master Ching Hai. She’s calling us from the Los Angeles area. We’re delighted that you are with us on this Friday morning, and we’ll be right back.)
Jared: Well, welcome back. This is Radio 2000, Seeing Beyond, your hosts, Bonnie and Jared. We’re glad to have with us today by phone from Southern California, Supreme Master Ching Hai.
Bonnie: Hallo, Master, we’re back with You. (Hallo.) Hallo. Can you hear me clearly? Because sometimes the phone just goes a little bit lower voice. It sounds better now. (It sounds better.) It sounds better. You know, Master, as You were speaking in Your native language there, I’m just knowing how busy You are, and we’re going to be talking about that, too. I know that we’ve been talking with Sophie here in the studio about the fact that You don’t even go to bed, or just sleep until three o’clock in the morning, doing the work that You do. (Often yes.) Often. So I just want to acknowledge that, and to thank You very much for rising early to be here on this program with us. And now, we’re going to be talking about this increasing feminine energy that’s coming in.
(Let’s talk about the concept, the idea… Many people here in the West perhaps don’t have the slightest idea of who or what Quan Yin is.) Yes. See, people probably heard the Quan Yin’s name as the name of the Goddess of Mercy, but this has nothing to do with our so-called method. Because Quan Yin actually, the way we put it, it’s just to contemplate on the inner (Heavenly) Word, the inner Teaching of GOD, which vibrates each second of our life. And once we are connected with this Life Pulse or with the Teaching of GOD, then that is when we are into the Quan Yin so-called Method, but actually, there isn’t any method at all, physically speaking. But it’s just because we have to say something; otherwise, people say, “What do you bring to us? What do you teach us?” Nothing concrete.
So Quan Yin Method means you contemplate on the inner Teaching of GOD, the GOD Self, what the Bible says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with GOD and the Word was GOD.” And this is kind of like the melodious teaching, and the more we hear it, the more we become wise, peaceful, and happy.
(When You talk to students who are on the learning path here, how do You help them know what they’re hearing inside is the Word of GOD, if You will?) Oh, I see. It’s very easy. Because the more you hear it, the wiser you become and the more loving you become. And yet you just will know it, because the Self will know the Self. You recognize It. There’s no doubt about it. There will be no slightest doubt. To some people, it might take some time to be convinced what their real Self is, and what is real GOD; depends on the level of our consciousness, depends on the level that we recognize our Self at the time of so-called initiation. We will be quicker or slower to recognize this is the true GOD, True Teaching from GOD.
Photo Caption: “Be Ready When GOD Gifts the Real NECTAR”
