Questioner (m): Dearest Master, I would like to mention a concern that we are having in Canada, as a result of global warming. Senior scientists have been telling us that by the year 2013, we will have lost 80 percent of our forests here in British Columbia.


Yes. That’s right. And the result of this is a Small little beetle, about the size of a grain of sand called the Mountain Pine Beetle. To date, we have lost almost 13 million hectares of forests to this little beetle. And in 4 short years, we have lost almost 50% of our great pine forests here in British Columbia.

The result of this is that the dead trees left behind are now producing five times more carbon dioxide into our atmosphere than all the planes, trains, trucks and utomobiles in the country combined. And many British Columbians now face the threat of forest fires and flooding due to this. And senior scientists are telling us that our best viable solution to this matter is by re-planting our country, (Supreme Master Ching Hai: Yes.) reforestation. So my question to you Master is, should we in our Canadian Quan Yin society, perhaps our little family, focus some of our attention on this, what is rapidly becoming a very important environmental concern, in the hopes of saving our forests and the little animals that live in them? Thank you, Master.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Well, of course you have to plant trees and all that. But planting trees alone is not the solution, because nature, as you see for yourself, has a way of balancing out the bad retribution that we have caused. Even if we plant more trees, there will be something else happening, or as you say, maybe wild fire, or the beetle will be more in abundance and then they will also begin to eat away all the forest. And Canada is a country that is valued for her forest. So this is a really terrible situation. My goodness!

We are trying hard to do something, and nature itself is doing something else also. Looks like we keep racing forever. So the only thing is we have to be morally fit, and have to be virtuous. Otherwise, there’s no getting away from the retribution for whatever we do, as you can see that. My goodness! Even if we try to cut out carbon dioxide from the cars and transportation and all that, and nature is doing something else to us, because we are not taking care of our moral standard, and our virtuous way of life has been lacking somewhat, to some degree. That’s why I keep telling people, the only refuge we can take is in our own virtues. We have to be compassionate again.

We have to look into our heart to live the noble way that Heaven intended us to live. We cannot be killing anyone and animals and expect to live long. No matter what we do, we cannot run away from the retribution. As you sow, so shall you reap. Whatever we do will have a reaction. And it depends on good or bad, the reaction will be good or bad.

So, planting trees are good, but the tree we plant will not be as big immediately like the tree that we have lost in this case, and in probably many other forests around the world, which we have not discovered yet, or that have not been reported. So planting trees alone is not the solution. It’s not the absolute solution. We have to be vegetarian. The government will take care of it, anyway, if the governments already know the problem with the forest, then I’m sure they will mobilize many forces in the population or in a governmental force, to plant some more trees. Because your group, no matter how many you are, it’s not the whole Canada.

You can keep planting trees forever, it won’t be enough. So maybe you just continue distributing the flyers of the SOS because in the SOS, there’s also “Alternative Living” solution so if they want to know more, if they really care about the survival of their lives and the lives of their loved ones, they will be logged on into other green agencies or into our website to find out more. Of course, plant trees is good, but I don’t know if we have enough time to keep planting trees.

The only refuge would be the virtues, the noble way of living that we have to adhere to Heaven’s standard of life. Otherwise, no matter what solution, there will be some other consequences coming. We’ve been planting trees, and we thought Canada is safe because they have a lot of forest, and now the beetles come from nowhere, and they’re destroying your forest. I’m really at a loss now. Just too much, everywhere there’s something that happens, then we cannot compete with nature forever, except we are listening to her call

And planting trees and all that is secondary.