Master, does each Buddha have a life span? For example, in the Earth Treasure Sutra, it's said that one of the Buddha's Life spans is 60,000 eons. Once the Buddha's time is up, where will he go?
 

It's the story of ancient Buddhas recorded in the sutras. Suppose Shakyamuni Buddha took his disciples to a high level realm and they held an assembly. Many Buddhas attended and some didn't attend. Shakyamuni Buddha said this is so-and-so Buddha, and tha so-and-so Buddha, and his life span is like this. If he lived in the Golden Age, he could live a long time, such as a few eons, a few million years, a few thousand million years.

I have explained about the Golden Age already. Those Buddhas might have taught in those times, so they stayed on Earth or a planet and taught for 60,000 years or 600 years or 6 eons. It's possible. Pengzu lived for 800 years, right?

So these stories are beyond our imagination. If we want to know, we have to practice the Quan Yin Method. Then occasionally, we can visit the higher realm and meet those high level Buddhas. Then, we can listen to those stories ourselves.

At that time, we will understand. I can't use this worldly language to explain everything to you, because these things are from inconceivable and unspeakable realms. They can't be imagined by our ordinary brain, or this computer or machine.

In the movie “The Gods Must be Crazy,” there is a Bushman named Xi from Africa who has never seen a machine. He said, “What kind of animal is it? Why are its feet so round?” When he saw the gun, he took it out and asked, “What kind of tree is it?” Right?

Then when he saw an American beauty, he said, “I have never seen anyone so ugly.” So even though we can read the scriptures, we should be enlightened first. We should go to the high realms first. Even if you haven't reached the high realms, you will understand more than before after listening to my lecture and receiving initiation. Later you can experience the high level realms and meet those Buddhas. You will know things yourself.

I want to clarify one more thing. You can tell when someone is an enlightened master because while she is lecturing, her responses are very fast, and she is very humorous, etc.

Master, can you please stay in Formosa (Taiwan) forever?
 

Thank you for your love. Whether I stay or not depends on the will of Buddha. Okay? It's not that I don't want to stay, but I can't stay too long.

Master, does Truth exist in the human heart? Is the Truth sought by all the religions the same?

 

 Yes. In the end, it's the same. The Truth is in ourselves. Of course, when we know who we are, when we understand the secrets of the universe, and when we have almighty power to save ourselves and others, at that time we know the Truth. If a person knows the Truth, wherever he stays, that place is a temple and that place has a religion. If there is a religion but no one knows the Truth, it's just an empty temple.

Master, what's the difference between practicing the Zhunti method and the Quan Yin Method? Many people talk about the Zhunti method.

To my knowledge, the Zhunti Mantra doesn't teach the Quan Yin Method. But if one practices it diligently, he can also hear the Sound.

Master, can you let me practice the Quan Yin Method for a while before I get initiation so that I won't make you waste your compassion? Is this possible?

No. How can you practice the Quan Yin Method before you get initiation? They're the same. Initiation means at that time I'll teach you how to practice the Quan Yin Method. It doesn't mean that after you get initiated, you are bound by me and will be imprisoned in my tent. What for? Initiation means “the Master transmits the method to you” or “transmits the Quan Yin Method to you.”

 

But this Quan Yin Method isn't transmitted through language. That's why it's called “initiation.” It's transmitted from heart to heart, or from one's wisdom to another's wisdom.

Master, what's the transformation body, reward body, and spiritual body? How can one achieve these three bodies?

The spiritual body is the Tao or the Buddha Nature.
 

It's the heavenly kingdom or God. Understand? It's the Creator. It's eternal. It has never been born, and it Can not be destroyed, it cannot be separated. It's neither good nor bad, neither compassionate nor vicious The transformation body comes from the spiritual body which is never born and cannot be destroyed, and is neither good nor bad, and which is neither born nor enlightened. Since the transformation body comes from the spiritual body, it's also the spiritual body itself. Understand? When sentient beings suffer too much pain and they beg the Creator, then an energy is formed.

Then the Creator will transform Hirmself and go to the place in need. So from where Hes is, Hes sends a beam of light down, and that's the transformation body. This transformation body, or the beam of light, comes from the One who is neither born and can never be destroyed, the One who is extremely bright, the One who has no one above Hirm, the One who has no name, and the One who doesn't move. Then this bright light, this sheet of light or this beam of light, can be called the transformation body. When the transformation body or the light of Tao descends, it will become coarser, understand? It will transmute into a form.

In Heaven it's still light, transparent light, which can't be captured but can be seen. However, it can't be seen with physical eyes. Sometimes, though, physical eyes can also see it. Then, the further it descends, the coarser it becomes, until it transforms into a physical body.
 
 

This physical body is exactly the same as the transparent light body in Heaven. But the light body in Heaven is much more beautiful, much more attractive, and more pleasing to the eye than this physical body,

and it has greater power because it's not hindered by this physical body or this useless instrument. So this is what the spiritual body, the transformation body and the physical body are like. And this is what the reward body means. Understand?

A person who has attained the Tao (the great wisdom) is one who can use all three bodies. Those of us who haven't attained the Tao (the great wisdom) only have this reward body, or this physical body. So day and night we suffer sickness, pain, and we feel helpless. We can't help ourselves and we can't take care of ourselves, let alone other people.
 

The one who has all three bodies, which is the reward body, the transformation body, and the spiritual body, all in one, can do anything.

His physical body is connected with the transformation body, and the transformation body is connected with the great power, the One of no birth and no destruction, the eternal, the greatest universal power. So the three are in one, understand?

Catholics also talk about the Trinity, right? The Buddhists talk about the three-body Buddha. That's what it means. We call those people “enlightened master,” “Buddha,” “Great Bodhisattva,” “Christ,” or “a saint” or “one who has attained the Tao (the great wisdom),” etc.

Master, I have following Yi Quan Tao. Can I still get initiated?
 

Yes. I also teach Yi Quan Tao, don't you know that? > We have the same ideals. Yesterday I said that Yi Quan Tao also teaches people to do good deeds - right? - and to be a moral person, and to fulfill one's duties to the country and to the world. I teach exactly the same thing. I just add the Quan Yin Method, so it's more powerful. What's the difference Yi Quan Tao also emphasizes saving people as its goal, right?

My goal is also to save people. After you start to practice the Quan Yin Method, your goal is also to save people, to do good deeds, to fulfill your duties, to attain the Tao (the great wisdom), and to be reunited with the Supreme Power, whose name could be the Golden Mother Goddess, the Supreme Buddha, or the Supreme God.

I don't care what you call this power, it's all the same. Understand? So if you don't understand this and you keep arguing with one another, you will make the Golden Mother Goddess very sad. She has told me to that effect.

Master, why is it that one will be confined within the three realms if he practices breathing methods?

  Breathing is not that kind of breathing that counts “one, two, three, four.” The kind of “one, two, three, four” breathing method is not a high method. If you ask any Zen master, he'll tell you the same, so it's not just me who says so. The Zen masters also know that ? this is only a convenient method.

It's also within the three realms. Everyone knows that. So to practice how to control breathing is also within the three realms. It won't work without adding the Quan Yin Method. Why is it so? It's because the method that controls breathing will stir up the energy in the meridians.

This method will purify the meridians and open them up. But the meridians only carry our fiery energy.

The energy in the meridians is a fiery energy, and the fiery energy is there to keep our body warm, keep our temperature, and help with the blood circulation and digestion.

It also takes care of the nerves in the brain. The fiery energy takes care of everything. Without this fiery energy in the body or the energy meridians, we won't be able to survive. So they are very important. But these energy meridians are part of the physical body and they aren't invisible things. For the invisible world, we should use an invisible method.

The Quan Yin Method is not a method. It's not something that can be clearly described in writing. It has to be transmitted through the heart. While transmitting the method, the Master doesn't say a word and yet the initiated one becomes enlightened, and then attains the Tao (the great wisdom).

That's why this is called the formless method. In order to reach the formless world, one has to practice the formless method, and one can't practice any methods related to the physical world. Do you understand the logic? If you practice a material method, you'll have material gains. If you practice a formless method, you'll reach the formless world. This is very simple, understand?

Master, in the Bible, it records the miracles performed by Jesus. One of them describes how Jesus changed water into wine. In another it describes how he fed several thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Feeding people fish and wine violates the five precepts. So does this mean that Jesus didn't follow the five precepts?

No, Jesus was a vegetarian since he was born. He was born into a vegetarian family, just like the devout Yi Quan Tao followers or the devout Buddhists, so he was a vegetarian since infancy.

He was like, for example, this monk in front of you who has been a vegetarian since he was a child, or some of my disciples' children who have been vegetarians before they were born. So after he grew up, he started to spread the Truth.

You can't say that he ate meat because he had been a vegetarian in the womb. Some of our disciples were initiated before they became pregnant. Their children were vegetarians since before they were born. Jesus Christ was also born into such a pure family, so he was a vegetarian since infancy.

The fish and wine were made by Jesus through his magical power. He had great magical power; he was able to resurrect a dead person, remember? A person died and someone came to Jesus and begged Jesus to revive him.

Jesus said, “Rise up.” and the dead person arose and was resurrected. Jesus visited India for over 10 years and learned many kinds of magical power. Unfortunately, he showed too much of it. His Master had told him not to use his magical power, but he did so anyway. That was why his life was cut short. This is not a joking matter.

A great spiritual practitioner can't use magical power openly, understand? If you use magical power, you will incur very bad karma < (retribution). The only time a master can use it is for the benefit of his or her disciples, understand? But this power can't be revealed to anyone outside. Only the master and two or three of his or her disciples can know about it. This is the only situation allowed.

 If the master uses it openly, he or she will have to pay it with his or her own life. I think Jesus Christ wanted to save the man's life and resurrected him, and that was why his life was cut short. My own Master's Master had the same story while he was alive.

He had a child, about 10 years old. Up until 10, this child had had great magical power because he had practiced it in his previous lives. He came back to be the child of my Master's Master. It's not that easy to become the child of an enlightened Master.

The child used his magical power every day while he played with his friends. Everything his friends wanted him to do, he would go “hu-la-hup,” and he would do it. They all thought it was great fun, so they played like this every day.

If he had used small magical power, it would have been okay, like changing rocks into gold or changing dirt into candy for his friends. These were okay, no problem; and his father closed his eyes and didn't say anything. But he had warned his son not to go overboard.

One day, a friend of his… Well, four of them made a date to go out and play. These four friends were always together, but then the fourth child didn't show up, so there were only three of them. Then the one with magical power got upset, so he went to the house of the fourth one to find out why his friend hadn't come out. When he went in, he found out that the fourth child had died.

It was raining that day, so he use the handle bar of his umbrella, the kind that looks like a hook, to hook the dead child's neck and said, “Hey! You can't die. You have to play with us before you die!” Yes! That's what he said since he had magical power. So the child came back to life and went out to play with them.

 This was going overboard. When the child went home, his father said to him sternly, “If you don't leave now, then I'll have to leave.” Understand? It's because this is interfering with the universal law of karmic retribution. This child understood , so he laid down and covered himself with a piece of white cloth and then he died.

 He left the world. It's like this. Therefore, if one doesn't have very great ability to exercise self-control, one would misuse his or her magical power. Moses lived before Jesus Christ came. When he just came down from Mount Sinai, he also used too much magical power, remember? He changed his cane into a snake.

The other party sneered at him and also created a snake. Then Moses begged for forgiveness from God, admitting he was being weak, and he was misusing his power. So he didn't create any bad karma (retribution). Then one day, while he was in the deser he used his magical power again. He used his cane and struck a rock and water came out of the rock.

At that time, he was overdoing it a bi and God reprimanded him. Right? Therefore, for Moses life wasn't that easy. He suffered from lots of problems and pains. Even though he used so much magical power and saved so many people, they eventually betrayed him, which caused the wrath of God. In the end God punished them all by making them wander for years without being able to have a country, and they had to suffer much pain. It was like this.

Master, after we die, will we remember everything from past lives? Will we recognize you? Will we remember to pay back your love?

Why pay me back? What else do I need so that I have to wait for you to pay me back? Yes, you do remember. Since I have come here, how can you not remember me? Even if you don't, you would recognize me. The Master will come and say, “Hey, time is up. Let's go!” Like this. Then the two leave hand in hand, accompanied by music and angels. When Buddha comes how can you not recognize?

Master, suppose one day all sentient beings are saved, and Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva also returns to the highest realm, what will it be like then?

Then everywhere is Heaven. But you're dreaming. When Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva came, you didn't recognize him, and when Buddha came you also ignored him. So how can that day come? If you want that day to come, let's start from today.

Master, when we leave this body, we won't have ears, eyes, nose, or consciousness. Then what will we use to feel? Will we be using our consciousness?

No, we'll use our wisdom, the wisdom beyond this world. Consciousness belongs to the mind. We'll leave our mind in the second realm, just like leaving behind a machine. When we go home, we leave our car in the garage; we can't bring our car into our bedroom.

Our bedroom is for us to stay in; the car has to be left outside, understand? By that time, the car won't be able to feel the relationship or the happiness we feel with our husband, wife or children. It's the same with the mind. It won't be of any use by then.

Master, is the path you practice and the wisdom you have different from the wisdom of science? May I ask if Buddha knows how to do calculus or how to build spaceships?

What will Buddha be doing this for? Only in this mundane world do we need all this. They went to the moon and brought back some rocks, and they spent so much money. understand? Our Buddhas don't need to spend any money and they can go to a place full of treasure. Over there, the jewels are as plentiful as the rocks over here, which are useless.

Their speed is faster than the light of the sun. One can't calculate that speed with math. In one second, they're in the Pure Land. In our world, from here to the U.S., it takes the fastest plane over 10 hours. With the fastest astral projection, it takes a few seconds. But at the Buddha's level, in an instant one can reach the Pure Land and then come back here.

I forgot to tell you something really shocking. That's why we heard that a great spiritual practitioner, one who has attained the Tao (the great wisdom), for example, Shakyamuni Buddha or Quan Yin Bodhisattva, has billions of transformation bodies, and he is omnipresent, appearing in any place where people pray to him.

Suppose I can transform myself - suppose only - that I'm sitting here and my disciple in the U.S. encounters problems, and as soon as he thinks of me, I'd be there instantly. I'd be there even before he thinks of me. How can he travel so fast?

We cannot calculate this with mathematics. Or he (the Buddha) can be in France or anywhere else. He can be here and simultaneously in the Pure Land, in the U.S., in Germany or anywhere. Anywhere there are needs, he will be there. This is omnipresent. This is faster than the speed of light, and more powerful than a flying saucer. The speed of UFOs is even inferior to this.

Do you know any scientist more powerful than those who have attained the Tao (the great wisdom)? Do you know any? Do you know of any scientist who can invent things like this? Not yet. Even those extraterrestrial beings or their UFO are not as fast as the ones who've attained the Tao (the great wisdom).

Master, can a person have other spirits attached to his body aside from his own spirit? Master, have you attained Buddha's eyes? Are you able to know of some people's karma (retribution)? Wha is a psychic?

: Yes, there are other spirits if we are not careful. In our home, we could have many “guests.” It's because we've invited them, or we didn't lock the door or we opened it up carelessly. When the door is open, petty thieves can come in and robbers can come in, and the neighbors can come in.

They don't know when to leave, and they keep staying there and struggle with us. Then they talk inside of us and make lots of weird noises to keep us from sleeping. But sometimes this happens because of our bad karma (retribution), or because we had relationships with them in the past. Even if Quan Yin Bodhisattva comes,the spirit will just prostrate and leave and then return tomorrow.

Sometimes they come because we invited them. We like to have maya or other spirits to talk nonsense to us, gossip with us, or tell us about things happening elsewhere. We like it this way, so we are reluctant to let them leave, therefore, these things happen a lot.

The second question is: Has Master attained Buddha's eyes, so you can check out people's karma (retribution)?

Yes, I can. This is so easy. I just thought you might not believe me because it's so easy to do. The third one?

 

Master, what's a psychic?

It's like this. Some people believe that they have this power to communicate with the souls of the deceased or to contact higher beings. This is called “psychic ability.”

Master, will an ordinary person who meditates run the risk of becoming possessed by other spirits? If it could happen, what should one do?

Yes, many people could encounter such a situation. Then they should come back quickly and practice the right method. They should hold correct concepts, keep their body, speech and thoughts pure, keep the five precepts, keep a vegetarian diet, do good deeds and not think about bad deeds or do bad deeds, not teach others to do bad deeds,

and not help others to carry out bad deeds. This is keeping the body, speech, and thoughts pure. One's concepts should be correct. Spiritual practice is for the purpose of liberation, for helping sentient beings and blessing the world, and not for gaining magical power or to be competitive with others, and then hurry and come for initiation.

Master, could you explain the spiritual realms?

The spiritual realms are the process of spiritual practice. There are too many to talk about. There are one or two hundred sub-levels in the first realm, so when can I finish listing them all? If you want to know, come and practice the Quan Yin Method with me and you'll know about them soon enough.

"Harming or killing animal co-inhabitants is like destroying our own protective power. Helping or saving animal co-inhabitants is like enforcing our safety fortress."

-Supreme Master Ching Hai