“The Living Messiah of Our Time” Lecture by Supreme Master Ching Hai Hawaii, USA - September 3, 1994



Any more questions?

*To get initiated, do you have to be a vegetarian?

Yes.



*And then what exactly does initiation do to you? Like, I believe in while we are on this Earth that we live as close as possible to the real God, which is love yourself and love one another (That's good.) and be non-judgmental, and not only meditating and praying, but to do, actually do, the will of God. In other words, try to be the light of this world, instead of giving people a bad time or giving them hard feelings.

It's good. That's good. You're already there, yes?


*Plus the deed is not only what you do, but did, in your thought-life, as well.

Sure, sure, sure, sure. We'll take care of all that at the initiation.


*The initiation will enhance that I can do all those? Because daily I self-examine myself, sometimes I see myself… I'd rather really walk the walk of love. (I understand.) Sometimes I'm very temperamental, sometimes I get angry at the people who… so slow! (Yes, yes.) And I get so tired. (Very honest.) “She shouldn't be on the street, because she doesn't know how to drive!” Then I get mad and I don't know… (It's all right.)
 
 
And I do it exactly opposite to what God is: total forgiveness. And when I do something for people, I said, “I did this for him or her, she didn't even say 'thank you.'” Because I shouldn't feel that way when I do something.

I understand, yes. You're already very good. You're already very good.


*But I want to do it, (All right.) but I can't be…

So what do you expect now? What next?


*My question is: So, what will initiation do to me?

No promise. Report! Report! Please report. You see, the initiation is not about personality cult. It is the inner connection with what you want to see, the God that you always worship and want to know the will of. See, you have to get in touch with Hirm. The line of the “telephone” has to be connected. That's all. Now it's broken, okay? I have to connect it, and then you will see God for yourself and you'll hear Hirm speaking in a musical way; and then that musical without language, will change your life, and whatever way He wants to transform you or She wants to transform you, that I cannot promise. But 99.999% is for the better, unless you don't want to.

*Thank you very much.


 

*Master, you asked for some report. May I say something according to that?

Please.



*My personal experience changed me dramatically. I'm much more tolerant to people, driving-wise and otherwise, in every way, shape and form. And all I had to do was meditate two-and-a-half hours a day, just as the Master requested, and day by day it's changing so gradually, so subtly, inside. One day I realized that, yes, it has affected my life tremendously. So I just wanted to share that with you.



*I wasn't sure if I could report this, but after initiation, March 28, 1993, you spoke to me and you invited me to your house. I had been in Honolulu for 10 days. I didn't know where the address was, so I went home. The next day I meditated on the bus and when I opened my eyes I was in a strange place. So I got off the bus and I was in front of the address of the house where you were staying. So I went inside and I met with people and they explained the vegetarian diet to me so I could follow. But since then I wanted to thank you for this.


No improvement except the wrong bus? The wrong bus to the right direction, nothing else?

*Well, actually, that was just the first of many miraculous events.

All right. Of course, after initiation, every day is a miraculous day, but sometimes we take it for granted. Too many, we can't write it. (*It sure is.) It sure is.


*I would like to be able to say in words what it's done to me, but that's kind of difficult, because it isn't easy to articulate. I know that I have done several forms of meditation. I've been in Buddhist temples in Japan and in other countries, and done silences and have been really moved in my life by those, but I have not… The clarity and the freedom and the peace that I have now is 100% more than I had before.
 
 
It doesn't mean I don't have a long way to go. Not only from the meditating, in the way that you've instructed me, but also from the vegetarian diet. I grew up in the Midwest, on the mainland, where cows and pigs were what you ate, and I truly didn't think I could ever get those out of my diet, and it's amazing that 24 hours after I heard the way you said it, something cellular struck me that this is what I was supposed to do - and I did it for me. And now I care about the animals, too. I mean, it strikes a very lovely chord in me that I could even say this to you. I wanted to say that to you.


This is it, yes. This is what the vegetarian diet is about: the true love from within for all beings. Not because the Master says so or Jesus said so or Buddha said so, or because I don't want the bad karma (retribution) of killing. It's truly because we have love for the animals. That is the way you started. That's the right way, and I'm happy for you. (*Thank you, deeply.) Good for you.



*I was a vegetarian before I had initiation, but this last year, it's been very strange. I was a macrobiotic eater before, and just recently I went to a naturopathic doctor and he recommended that I go on a juice fast, a vegetable juice fast.


Yes, it sounds all right. And then what happened? Why? You were sick?

*Not really, but it's like a cleansing diet.


You want some kind of purification for the body? (*Yes.) All right, then what happened?

*And I was on a fast for like about almost 100 days.


What for?

*He wanted me to clean out my colon.



That's a long purification. And then, so what happened now?


*And I stopped because it was pretty long. But I was just wondering if this is part of that purification of the...?

I didn't recommend that. (*No.) But if you want to, you can try. I am all for liberation.


*It sort of just unfolded by itself.

Was it good for you? Did you feel better anyway? You lost weight? (*Yes.) Very skinny now. You feel okay? If you feel okay, it's all right, I guess.


*I guess that's my experience of vegetarianism, since I was initiated.

That is very, very “vegetarian,” extremely. We didn't recommend that. It's all right. You just be normal, okay? But if you want to sometimes go on a fast because you feel heavy or something in the body, it's all right with me. But you don't need to, all right? Every day if we eat not too heavy, about 80% and then drink 10% of fluids, that's enough. That should be a very ordinary diet, and no need to go into extremes, unless the doctor recommends you sometimes, yes? He did? You're so skinny. That's enough, 100 days. That's a lot! What did you drink all that time? Orange juice?

Carrot juice, potato juice, celery juice?

Yes, yes. And a kind of sprout juice and the wheat juice. Okay.
 
 


*My name is Ken Wu from Chicago. I'm attending the Anthony Robbins seminar (Hi.) and I'm so happy to be here. And I didn't expect this when I left Chicago for this seminar to be able to meet you, because I know you were in Chicago in February, and I missed you and I read about you in the paper. I said, “Oh!



It's wonderful that I can meet that Master someday.” And then July the 24th, there was a street fair in Chicago Chinatown, and there was a booth of your disciples there. And I picked up for the first time some books and I purchased some videotapes of you and I immediately decided, after reading the free booklet, that I would want to be a vegetarian, (Good for you.) and I started that and there were some struggles from that day on, but I think I will overcome that. (Good for you.) It's just, like, magical that I'm here, because it's, I guess, destiny brought us together and also with all these people. (I guess so, too.) And then my wife is here with me.


Where is your wife?

* And she was skeptical, and I said, “You've got to come, for some reason there's got to be something great happening.” So that's why I'm here. Thank you very much.


All right. Don't force her. Are you still skeptical, wife? (*No.) No. I'm pretty honest. Don't I look so? Yes.

*Master, I too am very honored to be here. I am too from the Robbins seminar.


*From what I have discovered in the last 24 hours about you and your teaching, and from what I know, having spent nine months listening to Tony Robbins' teaching, there is so much similarity between what he teaches on one level, and what you teach on another level altogether, that I pray that somehow the two of you will come together.
 
 
And I think that many, many of his students - and I only put it at that level because he is not a spiritual teacher, he is a psychologist - but so many of his students are meditators and so many of them would be able to take their lives to a completely new level if they could hear you speak. So I think that all of the people from Robbins here, and many of the meditators who wished us luck in coming over to see you tonight, who regretted that they weren't able to, I think they will pray that somehow you and he, or certainly you and his people, will get together at some stage when the time is right.

Thank you. It's up to God.
 


Sometimes I work very hard for something, I thought I would be able to help or do something, and then God says, “Plop! No. Forget it.” Then I just forget it and go to sleep. All right. There is no hard feeling. I want to tell you, God always tricks me into going somewhere. I told you already in the beginning of the meeting. He tricks me all the time, or She tricks me all the time. I am used to it. That's nothing. I am always laughing at everything, because I know. I'm used to it with the Old Man, or Old Woman, Old Mother.


Actually, it's very, very clear to me, all right? So if I come here and miss the opportunity to be with your people, to be with your teacher, that is also all right. It's not the main point, okay? I know very clearly. Thank you, anyhow, and please convey my love and regards to your teache
 
r.

*Master, I live on the Big Island of Hawaii, and I was also at the Robbins seminar, helping my friend with her children. And I just wondered if you have any insights into... It's so frustrating, being on the Big Island and seeing them wanting to end all the growing of food and the agriculture and all that. They want to just build everything all over the whole island and turn it into, like another French Riviera and all this sort of thing, and I just get so frustrated, because every time I try to… I go to the meetings and I say, “You know, don't you see that this has happened everywhere else?” It happened on Oahu.
 
 
It happened on Maui. It happened all over California, where people don't have a balance with nature and they just start destroying nature and the reef and the water and everything, and I get so frustrated, because I am friends with the dolphins, and I swim with dolphins on the Big Island, and it's almost like they communicate to you about what's happening to the ocean. And so that is a big concern to me, the ocean and what building and all this development does, and it really changes the island.
 
 
And I just wondered if you have any insights. I am frustrated about what to do, what we can do to save the Big Island - at least, hopefully keep it, the Aina, safe, and the animals and the ocean clean and pure. And, is it possible on the planet anymore to stop this madness? And no matter what you do, the politics… they just pay off the politicians. And everyone just pays them off and they vote against, even though you pointed out all the things that are really bad about this. So many people have moved from other places because they want to be where the land is pure and beautiful like Hawaii.


 

Yes, I share with you your anxiety. The other day I had breakfast with one of the natives. He took me out to buy some books and magazines. I thought I'd just get out for a few minutes and get some books, and then we talked about Hawaii

And I say I share sympathy with the people in Hawaii. There are always the good and bad points of everything. For example, we talked about nearly 100 years ago, Hawaii still had a Queen, yes, the monarchy?


Of course, there are never perfections in this world. And one good point is that our native initiates told me, the good point is that it's developed, the island has developed, and it's also more prosperous, and also good education for the people. And another, bad, point is that some of the Hawaiians lost their land unjustly. They cannot prove that they have a paper that they owned the land, which they did not need before. Everybody


in the neighborhood would know that land belonged to that man, and they'd live honestly together and they'd just shake hands to do business: no transaction paper and no lawyer, nothing. And now probably some other foreigner comes, and the native people could never prove - some of them never proved that they owned this land and that land, and then they've been pushed out, and then became like homeless, and even treated not very nicely sometimes.
 
 
These are the bad things. So, similar to Big Island now, probably it will be developed into a very well-known spot for the whole world to enjoy, but then, at the sacrifice of the natives. And I do not know what is the best to tell you, apart from being very sympathetic with the native people and the people like yourself; I do not really know what the answer is the best.
 


*So it's best to continue to speak out, even though it seems fruitless to do so?

Well, at least it makes you feel good and brings you in contact with the people with the same mind, and then you can comfort each other. Maybe you can find a better way or a compromise. I heard that Molokai also now is being bombarded with civilization, new buildings and things like that. Is that right? Actually, I wrote to the government of Hawaii.


I wrote to them last year, or two years ago, or something, a long time. I said Molokai is a very desolate island, people don't live there, only a small community, compared to other places, which is not developed. And I said, it is very good for development, can make it into a more prosperous place; otherwise it's a waste of a very beautiful and big island. Because before, they used to put leprosy people there only, and a handful of the community there.
 
 
I heard there are only a few hundred people even. When I heard the report about that, about the island, so I wrote to the government, I said, “Well, they need some good management and know-how technical people to come and develop the island.” Because the other islands are so crowded and polluted, and Molokai is like empty. People told me that it's a superstition in Hawaii, the people don't dare live in Molokai because it used to be the ancestral burial ground. Is that not so? I'm not sure whether the information they reported to me is correct. Is that so?


*I'm really not that familiar with Molokai. (Okay, fine.) On Molokai they have a big water problem.
 


A big water problem. Water problem! Okay. So if they drill the ground, they would have it. ( *It's difficult.) They don't have water in Molokai? (*Not too much.) But that I don't think is any problem; we can get it from other islands, if it's developed But they don't answer me on this. And, they say, well, if they let the Aulacese (Vietnamese) refugees come in on this… I'm reported that nobody wants to live there because of the ancestral burial ground, and people are scared, and things like that. Something happens there, always.
 
 
That's what I'm reported, okay? I'm not native also. Anyhow, so I thought, okay, if it's a waste place and nobody wants to go there, then why don't just give the Aulacese (Vietnamese) refugees? I wrote to the government.


And we finance whatever we can, according to the number. If they say our money is not enough, then we finance a half or something.


But now, I heard that they developed Molokai Before, nobody wanted to develop; everybody just wanted to get out, and now everybody wants to get in, according to the newspapers I read recently. Is that not so? Some of the native people there also don't want development. They say that will destroy the landscape and affect the peaceful atmosphere of Molokai.
 
 
But on one hand, I'm sympathetic for the people of the island; on the other hand, I don't really know, because sometimes we have to share the good things with the whole world, and that is sometimes inevitable. And if we don't share it peacefully, maybe sometimes we are forced to share it in a violent way, and it is even worse. It is not even so pleasurable to do so. That's what happens with Wars around the world. What people cannot get peacefully, they force it on us by war, with war. That's how nations make war against nations, because they envy that piece of land that they don't have and we don't share with them.
 
 
Maybe it's God's will that we have to share everything, even though we don't like it. I do not really have the good answer for you. I'm very sympathetic to the natives, because I know what it's like to be homeless, while you own a piece of beautiful land before, and it's yours and suddenly you become homeless. And I told our disciple, the native, the Hawaiian that had breakfast with me that day, I said to him… you remember? I don't tell you lie.
 
 
Everything is correctly the way we said. So I said to him, “I can very well Understand the feeling of the people here,” because sometimes the law forces people into homelessness. It's too strict, too rigid Like I have a piece of land, I bought it about four or five years ago. It's supposed to be for our disciples but then they could not make use of it.


All right. So I came. I bought another land now for them anyhow, because I promised. I cannot go back on my promise. And that land, you couldn't even park the trailer on it


because of the law. I don't know whether the law is correct or not, or the person who represents the law makes trouble for fun, just to show that they have authority. The trailer is like a car, you can't even park on your own land. It's troublesome. And I paid every penny of it, and I pay tax every year and for four years I have not been there. I only came there once every four years. I could not even park a trailer to stay there for a while.


They came up to say “you have to pull out the electricity.” Electricity, we share with the neighbor, it's legal, that he uses only half, and then half of it you, it's all right - but cannot. “Pull all the electricity out, take all the trailers out.” Nothing in there, “You have to build the house first. But, before you build the house, you have to build a road.” It costs US$160,000, and we already have a road. They are not pleased with that road. “That road is too narrow, too high. You have to build another road.” We already have been up and down for many months, no problem. Okay, fine! I can afford US$160,000, but I don't pay for it. I don't want to destroy a piece of beautiful land, to cut hundreds more trees down just for another road and I said to the people, “Forget it! Drop it! Drop it! I don't even want that land.


Just leave it there, leave it there so that it keeps the environment,” because all the surroundings of my land is bald, no more trees. If it's fire or anything - destroyed - typhoon... And only in our place it's lush, it's green, and I wanted to keep it. I said, “I don't want to cut one half more trees. Half a tree more I won't cut.” And to build a road like this, it costs hundreds of trees and it costs hundreds of years to grow one tree, and the environment's already so dry. And I got hurt, that to think of a few billion more raindrops less next year if I cut these trees and make the road to build my house. I don't even need a house.
 
 
The law is fine, but they should know that the law is to protect citizens, not the citizens to protect the law. Like this, no one can afford to live there. And it is 40 acres of land - wasted. Nobody can live, not even a trailer. A trailer is not a mobile home -very small, and it's like a car, and you can't park your car on your land. That's how many Americans are forced into homelessness. How can a normal citizen afford a US$100,000 plus road before he can build a house? Without road, you can't build a house, you can't have electricity, you can't have anything, you know I mean?
 
 
So it's a must. And you can't even build the road yourself to save money. No! The government has to build it,  agents from government. You can't build it yourself. If you build it yourself, you have our labor, probably it's cheaper; and the government, all they have to do is just come and measure if it's up to the standard. Then it's also a little bit more logical. No! You can't do it -and they force some ofthe ordinary citizens into homelessness and into doing some crimes sometimes, because they are too angry and because they are forced into a corner and have nowhere to turn and no alternative.
 
 
When their kids are hungry and their wives are sick at home, what else can they do? So the law is good,but sometimes it's too rigid on people. Yes? I can afford it, but other people cannot afford. Yes? Besides, I don't spend that money on myself to come every 4 years, stay in a trailer. I have to build a house, a road for US$160,000. Even US$16, I won't build to cut the trees andmake the environment become worse. That's the problem.
 
 
So I can understand also the native people here, because it happened to me. It happened to me. The system sometimes crushes people, crushes the ordinary citizens, under their feet and make them feel very pressured and depressed. So try to work out a moderate solution, if you can. If not, well, you have God. All right? If you lose everything else, you have God. What else can I tell you?
 
*Thank you.
It’s all right.