So how about you, Master? How about your merits? How do you earn or lose merits, Master? Thank you, Master. Every time I touch one of you, I lose 100 points, automatic, but you gain 1,000 points. It’s not fair, is it? Who wants to be a Master?

If the Master touches to bless the disciple, then he loses 100 points. If he looks at someone, disciple or not - look at, just a glance - loses 500 points, and that person will gain from 5,000, 10,000 to 30,000 points. But if he’s not a disciple, somebody else, then maybe he will just lose it anyway by doing something else or by eating meat or drinking wine or doing bad stuff, or by not practicing; he will lose it anyway. But if that person happens to have already good merit somehow and didn’t squander his merit, then just one glance of the Master will add on to his spiritual store and then he will be elevated, or he will be liberated. That’s why in the Buddha’s time, the Buddha…

You asked me how to go spend your spiritual merit – spiritual merits are not to be spent. It’s better to keep it. Even material merit, we should do it more, so we can keep more, because some of the so-called material merit will be translated into spiritual merit as well, or how many certain points of material merit will be also translated into spiritual merit also, or maybe influence the spiritual level of practice as well, you see? And so, in the Buddha’s time, the Buddha advised the monks to protect themselves.

When they’d go out begging, for example, or went out in any way, they should just look on the floor, about one meter, before, where they’re going, that’s it. See, because even if they went out begging for food in that way, they still lost 20 points each time – each time they got a meal or got some offering from other people outside. Even just to go out and doing nothing, we’ve lost 200 points But you have a protective mean, I told you already, so please remember. The only problem with going out distributing flyers or opening a Loving Hut restaurant or doing Supreme Master Television work is that… or to go out to eat in some other restaurant or anywhere.

Why we have protective means and still lose some points is because you forget. You forget the five means of protection, that’s why. We are distracted by outsiders, by the food, by people, and then we forget. That’s why we still lose the points. If you always remember the protective measure I have taught you, then you will not lose anything, and people will only gain. Wherever you go, you bless the people and the environment in any case, but if you don’t protect yourself, people will gain, but you’ll lose. That’s the only problem, okay?

For example, I could protect myself also, but when I look at other people, I want that person to completely get the benefit, so I probably also, at that second, I forget. You can’t just protect yourself every second. Now, even if I meditate with the disciples, I will lose 1,000 points, but the disciples will gain 300,000 points an hour. I’ll lose one hour, 1,000 points, but they will gain 300,000 points. I also gain – don’t worry about it. But when the disciples meditate alone, they will gain from 40 points to 1,000 points, in a group together. That is when they are not very concentrated. When they concentrated well, I already told you how much, and in samadhi how much.

Meditation is always the best way to earn spiritual merit. There’s nothing else we do, no matter how good, how noble, can earn the spiritual merit as quick and as high as the meditation on Quan Yin Method, Light and Sound, the true direct connection with the universal Light and Sound, which is God Self. Now, concerning disciple, if the Master looks at the disciple once, the disciple will gain 5,000, 10,000 to 30,000 points. That’s why in India it is advised that people always look into the eyes of the Master – looking is more than touching Looking is always more than touching. If the Master looks at a disciple once, that disciple gain 5,000, 10,000 to 30,000 points, immediately like that, just for that split second.

Master, if you lose so much points when you touch us, when you teach us, how do you gain merits, how do you gain points yourself? Yes, it’s true. Even not touching, even just sit there and lecture, with outside people, lose something. With disciples, lose something else. You see, less, yes? But still lose: sit there and lecture and laugh and talk jokes and all that, all losing. Yes? Losing business for the Master so that the disciples can gain, yes? How? This Master, whoever, has to have a big vast store of merit before coming to this world – if he still has any after touching and lecturing for the past life already. Come back here, still have to continue to earn merit in order to give. Do you understand me? Yes, Master.

Okay. Because giving in this physical world demands earning in this physical world. Even God comes here, Hes must also earn it in order to give. Do you hear me? Yes, Master. If I meditate with the disciples, for example, I will gain like 2 million points per hour, but if I meditate alone, can gain 5 million or more, because more concentration when the Master is alone. In Heaven, nobody needs to earn anything; nobody needs to give anything where God is. Hes doesn’t need to give, Hes doesn’t need to earn, because Hes naturally gives, Hes naturally earns. It’s like recycling and it’s just natural like that. But when a God or a Master descends into this world, he has to work like everybody else, just like he has to earn money. You understand me? Yes, Master.

If he doesn’t already have money, then he has to earn money. Similarly, if he doesn’t have enough spiritual merit, he has to earn merit and it depends on how many people he gives, how much he has to have. And if he doesn’t have enough sometimes, then he’s in deficit, then he suffers, either sickness or loses his life, because he doesn’t earn quick enough for all the sinful people of the world or the disciples. That’s why you heard that Jesus suffered for the sake of the disciples, for the sins of the disciples. It is like that. Do you understand? Yes, Master. It’s not like, okay, he’s God, he comes down and then automatically he has everything, so, no matter how many disciples, how sinful the disciples, come it will not affect him: it does affect him. Okay? That’s why he has to suffer at the cross. Now do you understand?

Otherwise people will always think, “Why? He’s a Son of God, how can he die? How can he suffer?” He has to, because he comes into this world, he will be subject to the law of this world like everybody else. Whatever he wants to give to his disciples, he has to earn it. Yes? Yes, Master. If he has already some merit that he took with him from the past lives, which is very doubtful, because in every life he has to give already. Understand me? Yes, Master. Maybe he has, maybe not, but still the people in the world, the Buddha says, “If the sinful karma (retribution) of the people in the world has form, then the whole universe cannot contain it.” It’s in the Buddhist Bibles, understand me? Yes, Master. So, even if the Master comes with a vast store of merit, still cannot always be enough, yes? Yes, Master. So that’s why life after life you can see many Masters suffer from one form or another. Okay, Master. Now you know. Okay? Yes. Yes, Master.

What’s the best way to help the world? Meditate and elevate yourself so that you can help others as well. That’s how you help.

Join us on Supreme Master Television on Monday, September 6, for the conclusion of the teleconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai titled “The Truth about Merits: How to Gain or Lose Them” on Between Master and Disciples. Tune in to Supreme Master Television today for the teleconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai titled “The Truth about Merits: How to Gain or Lose Them” on Between Master and Disciples.