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From Cao Đài’s Divine Path to Eternal Life, Chapter 1
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Over 80 years ago,
a new religion was founded
with the name Cao Đài
in the country
of Âu Lạc (Vietnam)
and has quickly grown to
become the third largest
religion in this country.
Cao Đài recognizes
that the ultimate goal
of all true religions
is the same;
to teach humankind
to live peacefully
and compassionately
with all sentient beings,
and to realize
our divine origin.
The term Cao Đài
literally means
"Supreme Palace,"
referring to the place
where God reigns
over the universe,
and was also the name
God used to impart
Hiers divine instructions
in the creation of Cao Đài.
Followers of Cao Đài
believe that Venerable
Ngô Minh Chiêu
was chosen by God
to establish
the Cao Đài religion.
It was believed that
God directly transmitted
the teachings and method
of practice to Venerable
Ngô Minh Chiêu
until he attained the
ultimate self-realization.
Today we present to you
excerpts from
Cao Đài’s holy book,
Divine Path
to Eternal Life.
Thank you,
kindhearted viewers,
for your company
for today’s episode of
Between Master
and Disciples
here on
Supreme Master Television.
Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants
is up next after
Noteworthy News.
May your life
be endowed with God’s
blessings, love and light.
Chapter 1:
What is the Divine Path
to Eternal Life?
From tonight I would like
to speak to you about the
most important of topics.
I am doing this
to make an essential
and precious gift
for the children
of the Supreme Being –
a cherished secret
for them to keep at hand.
With this you may,
one day, find out
how to attain the Way.
Tonight’s topic is:
the Divine Path
to Eternal Life.
What is this “Divine Path”?
If our understanding is
based on the true dharma
of the Supreme Being,
the “Divine Path
to Eternal Life”
is that path reserved
for true souls to travel
after they have left
their physical bodies.
By this path
they make their way back
towards the “Ultimate.”
These true souls
shall return to
their spiritual domain,
rising higher,
or falling lower
as their previous life’s
merit dictates.
If we wish to understand
this path according to
the Way of the Buddha,
then the Divine Path
to Eternal Life is known as
the path of reincarnation.
This is a very difficult
topic to speak about.
If all the Children
of the Supreme Being
were to understand
this path completely,
a massive book
would need to be written.
Such a tome
would comprise
several thousand pages!
The Path that takes you
back to Heaven
is not an easy path
to travel, and your return
will not be instant.
As we desire to travel home
to the Supreme Being,
we must pass through
many temples,
many palaces.
In each temple
we will be confronted
by strange things.
In each palace we will
face a different mystery.
Yet we must struggle
to understand them
and pass beyond them.
Only by desiring
spiritual evolution
can we progress along
this Path to the Eternal –
and return home
to the Supreme Being!
There is no happiness
equal to this.
Even after a lifetime
of cultivating the way,
there is no guarantee
that a soul will return.
Over ten thousand years
and a thousand lives
if a soul
never cultivates the Way
it can never return.
Brothers and Sisters,
you must try
to remember this.
What is cultivation?
The Cao Đài religion
has already explained
cultivation to you.
I have already
spoken of it a great deal.
You must uphold
the virtues (Lập Đức),
do good works (Lập Công)
and speak the words
of the Great Way
(Lập Ngôn).
Now I return to the topic
of how we can, by desiring
spiritual evolution,
progress along
the Divine Path
to Eternal Life.
A little while ago
I mentioned that,
by the special grace
of the Supreme Being,
I was granted the favor
of an audience with God.
Before this audience
I was able to meet
the Divine Beings in
the realm of Eternal Life.
From tonight I am not
really teaching you,
I am only recounting
what I have seen, heard
and learnt when meeting
the Divine Beings
in the Spiritual Realm.
Telling you this
is also a way
of allowing the children
of the Supreme Being to
visualize the spiritual realm
in advance.
This will save your soul
from confusion in
the event of your return.
As I talk,
the Children of God
must listen and imagine
that you have a guide.
Wherever you go
the guide will explain
the scene to you.
For example,
when a foreigner comes
to Âu Lạc (Vietnam),
the visitor is provided
with a guide to
help explain the scenery.
Each soul on this planet,
when leaving
the physical body,
must gather here at
this Great Divine Temple,
you must go from inside
this building in order to
reach other realms.
Why must you enter
this Great Divine Temple
and not other temples?
This Great Temple is a
great examination center.
Just as every year
the Government holds
the baccalaureate,
the location
of your soul's elevation
has already been decided.
You must come here
if you want to be
qualified or valued.
It is this
Great Divine Temple
that the Supreme Being
has made for His children
to do good works,
uphold virtues,
speak the words
of the Great Way
and prove worthy
of their return.
To enter
the Great Divine Temple
means entering
the Temple of the
Divine Alliance (or the
Heavenly-Union Palace),
and moving from there
to the Religious Palace.
In order to reach
the Religious Palace
you must make your way
along the Temple of
Nine Degrees of Evolution
(or Nine Spheres Palace).
At each of the nine levels
of the Temple of
Nine Degrees of Evolution
your soul will be
confronted and tested
by the Divine Beings.
Also, on each step, one of
the Nine Female Buddhas
will appear to offer mercy
and guide the soul
who begs for salvation.
If you are not sure,
Children
of the Supreme Being,
read again the prayers from
the Đệ Nhứt Cửu Prayer
(chanted nine days
after death) then
read all the prayers until
the Đệ Cửu Cửu Prayer
(the last prayer in a cycle
of nine prayer days
which take place
once every nine days),
and Tiểu Tường Prayer
(said 281 days after death)
to Đại Tường Prayers
(said 581 days after death).
In the Cao Đài religion
there are three methods
of returning to
the Supreme Being,
and gaining a position
in the spiritual hierarchy.
The first method is
for the soul to manifest
inside a physical body
that must follow
the ranking of the Masters,
Divine Beings
of the nine Heavens,
or following
the Sacerdotal Council
or the Temple of
Nine Degrees of Evolution.
This method requires you
to use your talents
and abilities to contribute
to the Religion (and thus
to humanity) as a path
for attaining the Way.
This path leads
from a normal believer,
to Student-Priest,
and from Priest
to Bishop and so on…
On this path you must
serve from novitiate
to intermediate
and then to superior,
these categories include
practicing vegetarianism
from six days a month to
ten days a month and then
full time, respectively.
One must
cultivate the way
firstly within oneself,
then within the family
and the country, and
finally for all humanity.
When you follow
the ranking of the Masters,
Divine Beings
of the nine Heavens
your soul must
have confidence in
its own spiritual direction
so that you can lead others
towards their salvation.
This is what makes
the Cao Đài religion
different from others.
You must save yourself,
your family, people
outside your family,
only then you can
save all humanity.
One must study in order
to understand the Way.
When you understand
you must
teach your family,
but not just your family,
you must teach
the whole of humanity.
One studies in order to
understand the Way and
this is to uphold virtues,
to teach the Way
to one's family,
this is to do good works,
to save the whole
of humanity,
this is to speak the words
of the Great Way.
These three duties
must be fulfilled
in order for one to return to
the Supreme Being along
the path of the Masters,
Divine Beings
of the nine Heavens.
The second method:
To gain a ranking
in the spiritual hierarchy
by following the
Twelve Spiritual Levels
means that you must
follow the Charity Body.
Here, besides practicing
a vegetarian diet,
following the religious laws,
and also
the true teachings
of God the Father,
one must use virtue
to rise to a position.
In order to uphold virtues
one must start and serve
from Bright Virtue,
New Citizen,
Hear Only Good Things,
Do Good,
Teach Only Good Things,
Perfection,
Dharma Being,
Saintly Being, Virtuous
and Talented Being,
Saint, Saint-Teacher,
Buddhist.
What is “upholding virtue”?
It is using love
in order to save humanity,
as God said
"love is the key
that opens the door
of the Jade Palace."
Souls incarnate through
life on this planet
over the turbulent waves
of the suffering
that Buddha spoke of
in the Four Noble Truths.
In order to
escape from suffering
one must first
endure suffering.
By enduring suffering
one can
triumph over suffering.
One who follows the
Twelve Spiritual Levels
shows others
how to endure suffering
in order to
triumph over suffering.
To show people
how to endure suffering,
firstly we must endure
suffering ourselves.
When you want to
endure suffering
there is nothing better
than by using the virtue
of love: therefore
the first level of
the twelve spiritual levels
is Bright Virtue.
Love enables one
to endure suffering.
Loving your parents
means that you must
suffer as you serve
and protect them
in their old age.
Loving your children
means that
you must work hard
to take care of them
as they grow.
Loving the disabled
and the destitute means
trying to find a way
to help them,
finding this way
also means suffering.
To endure suffering
allows you to overcome it;
but not just for one day,
you must do this
right to the end.
For example you must
look after your parents
throughout their old age,
and your children
until they grow up.
Yet these two things
are easy when compared
with the task of helping
the whole community.
When you look after
the whole community
suffering, never stop.
When you are finished
taking care of one person,
there are always others
that you must deal with.
This continues
until the end of your life.
By doing this, one can
overcome suffering,
and in doing this
you will be able to return
to the Supreme Being
by way of the
Twelve Spiritual Levels.
The third method:
“Tu Chơn”
or “Tịnh Luyện” styles
of meditation
comprise the third method.
Those who have followed
the path of
the nine spiritual levels
or the path of the
Twelve Spiritual Levels
and feel that
they have fulfilled
the upholding of virtues,
doing good works,
spreading the words
of the Great Way, or feel
that they have already
endured and
overcome suffering, and
still feel able to progress
in their spiritual quest,
they can enter
a meditation center
for the practice
of mystical meditation.
At the meditation center
adepts will learn
the method of:
refine the essence and
convert it into energy,
purify energy
and convert it into spirit,
refine the spirit and
return it to nothingness.
This is the unity
of the three treasures,
that is a returning
to the void.
Now we return back
to our discussion
of the Divine Path
to Eternal Life.
When we pass through
the Temple of
Nine Degrees of Evolution
(or Nine Spheres Palace)
and enter
the Religious Palace
suddenly we look up,
we will no longer see
the Council
of the Great Spirits
(which heads
the Eight States of Soul,
the Eight-sided Palace
of God's presence,
the Eight Trigrams Palace),
but the vast sea,
which is so great,
it is unimaginable.
At this point we begin
to walk the Divine Path
to Eternal Life.
If you follow
the path of the Masters,
Divine Beings
of the nine Heavens or
the Twelve Spiritual Levels
you will wait until
the end of your life
before returning
to God the Father
and return with both your
perispirit and your soul.
However, today
we can travel back
to the Supreme Being
by the perispirit or
by a special favor of God.
I have been permitted to
travel by this shorter way.
We look up to see
a vast sea, but in fact this
is the sky of the universe,
and there in the distance,
sometimes visible,
sometimes not,
you can see a magnificent
and beautiful palace.
The moment you see it
you want to rush toward it.
But you realize
that you don't know
how to move,
it is then that you realize
that your astral body
is attracted to this palace
by an incredible force.
You do not propel yourself
yet you come,
you move fast as though
flying in an aeroplane.
When you arrive, you see
innumerable beings,
human beings,
coming and going –
there are too many to count.
The crowd is silent,
very ordered and secure.
This palace is called
the Cung Thánh
(the palace of heavenly
arrival or departure),
that is, the place
where souls leave
the spiritual realm
to journey back
for reincarnation.
It is also the place where
souls are welcomed back
after they have left
their physical body.
It looks like an airport
or a railway station,
people are coming
and going
at an uncountable rate.
Departing is sad,
coming home is joyful,
but the face of each soul,
whether they are coming
or going,
carries the strain
of a common worry.
Those going down
are worried, wondering
if they can carry out the
duties of the assignment
given to them
by the Supreme Being.
Those coming home
are also worried because
they do not know
if they have retained
or lost their position
in the hierarchy
of the spiritual realm.
They worry too much,
so much worry,
everybody is worried.
Next time,
Bần Đạo will preach
on the subjects
of the Cung Thánh
(the palace of heavenly
arrival or departure)
and the Cung Thừa Thiên
Hành Hóa
(Palace of Divine Beings
who missionize the Way
at the Command
of Heaven).
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