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

We depleted the Earth because we raised cattle and animals. Actually, this is another way to contribute to our Earth planet. You know all this. You read more books than I can ever imagine, about vegetarian, about how to save our world, about environmental love and all kinds of things - and vegetarian diet is the answer to all these questions.
 
Our Earth is collapsing because we eat too much meat, actually; or we have to put it that way, roughly. Roughly it's like that You read newspapers more than I do, no? You look at television more than I ever do. I don't look at television. But every year, we cut down forests as big as England just to raise animals.
 
 
So how many rainforests have been destroyed? And this will change the atmosphere - you know what I mean? - change the atmosphere, change the rain. That's why our planet's heating up. And then many places are having problems with floods and also drought, long periods. You remember? Even America. So if we want to save the planet, if we want to preach environmental care, we should be vegetarian.



*Respected Master, thank you for allowing me to be here. You have talked about the upcoming destruction of the world. You said that the Earth is going to get hotter and hotter - one of the things, the heat.



I'm just talking about the facts (*Yes.) that is going on in this world right now.


*Right, right. What can we do physically to prepare ourselves? Like one of the things you had said is to become a vegetarian. What can we do physically, what can we do spiritually, to prepare for this upcoming destruction that's going to happen in the world?


I don't know if we can stop… We were discussing the facts only. I didn't really predict anything. I just said what we are doing now and what is affecting the world, as a matter of fact. It's scientifically fact. Everybody knows. Not that I predict that in the year 2000 the world is gone. Yes? I didn't say anything like that. We're just saying things like what are we doing right now, for example, cutting all the forests, yes? This, all of you know, does affect the world. So we were talking about vegetarian diet and the benefit thereof. It's [Destruction] going on every day at every corner of the population.


But we can minimize it, and we can strengthen our spiritual self in order for miracles to happen, and that's also to influence our community with our spiritual strength and knowledge, that they will go also our way, and whatever destruction might happen or might not happen, we are very safe, we are very secure in our knowledge in God.


At least we are not frightened, we are not going berserk, and we will know what to expect. Whether we lose our life, it's not a big deal. I told you already, life is a joke. Only life eternal is real. We just get caught, get hooked, into this instrument for a while and then we are scared to lose it. But it's nonsense, because we have more beautiful instruments elsewhere and anywhere to use, all right? Just to be vegetarian, meditate: that's a preparation for the eternal, not for destruction. Destruction comes and goes. Eternal is always there. Yes? We prepare for God, not for destruction, because at the end of our life, when we lie down in the coffin, it's also our own destruction anyhow, whether the world still goes on or not goes on. So the most precious preparation is for God, to go back to the eternal.



*I was wondering what you experience when you see people, or experience us as individuals in a crowd, or a leader, as to whether they're on your path. Do you have a sense, without talking to people, what would you relay?



I told you, I'm always engaged inside. I have no idea what you are and what you are doing, so I just mind my own business, see?



*You get the information that you give to us from the questions we ask?



From inside. Well, I just reply accordingly. You mean, I have to read your mind first and then answer? Is that what you mean?



*I wondered. (If I could, right?) I don't know how you do it.


I probably could, you never know. But as a matter of fact, I'm ignorant of good and bad and ugly, and beauties. But when you come to me as an individual and sincerely request something, then automatically your sincerity will attract the wisdom from God and then that will be the answer. Yes? Has nothing to do with my individual, your individual. Has to do with our own inner connection. I never look through at people and say, “Oh, this person is bad!” Or, “Whoa, this is a saint sitting here!” I don't know, I really don't - I mean, at least my mind doesn't. My brain doesn't register bad and good and ugly. Sometimes I do sense people if I am caught off guard, when I am not very engaged, or when, for that person's benefit, I have to scrutinize his inside or her inside, what that person needs, but that is done on the inside and not going through my mind. God protects me from prejudice.


If I have to know everybody - who is bad, who is good - I can't do my job. That's the ego at work

*I didn't think of it as bad or as good, but what was in our way, as far as whether we're on our path or not.


Whether you're on a path or not? You mean I look at a person and know whether he is on the path or not?



*No, you've answered my question already. I just wanted to let you know I never had a thread of thought that you were judgmental in...



Judgmental? (She knows you're not judgmental.)


Oh, yes, yes. No, no, I'm just telling you, that's all. I didn't think you think like that either.



*I have a comment I'd like to share about… ( Please.) The question that was asked earlier about God is a man or a woman - I truly have been involved with groups who change the wording so that it was inclusive, and it's honestly an easier habit to break than it is to eat meat.



Well, it's true. It's true. But never mind. Let it be He or Him or She or He, we just get on with our business first, right? Eat vegetarian, meditate, virtuous life, and that's all. And then He or She, it doesn't matter. It's His business… I mean Her business! Here, let's have a look.



*I can find it for you, if you like.



Yes, women are intelligent. Sometimes you will find that my answer is not related to the question that much because sometimes the inner wisdom answers to your inner request more. Sometimes the people are like this. They want to ask like this, but they cannot formulate, or they are too shy to ask about the direct problem and then they ask something else and just run-around, and then I find that the Master wisdom always answers just directly to the most important problem, into their own heart.



*That's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to fumble around.



Please don't, if you can help it.



*Being obviously Western and not being raised in a particular tradition that teaches the type of philosophy that you teach, I find that the streets of California can very much be like the Himalayas in searching for enlightenment, and that there are times whenever you're looking for answers to situations in your life, and you pause and you wait and you wait for the right answer and the right situation, and you want to know that the decision that you make and what you're doing is absolutely the right thing, and it's very difficult if you do not have the level of enlightenment that you would like to have, to know that you are doing absolutely the right thing.
 
 
How do you calm the stillness and go forward with the certainty and confidence that you know that you need to be effective in what you're doing, and to perform the way that you should, but yet to remain open, that if you aren't the right way, that you can still make a corner and go a different direction?


Well, of course, it's a difficult question and answer. In any way, just try to be honest with yourself. That's it. Do the thing that you think is the most likely to benefit yourself and the person concerned at that moment, and honestly - no harm in your heart, no malice and no trickery, nothing - and then whatever the outcome, it's the outcome of honesty, and God will help to take care of your direction, if Hes doesn't take care already.
 
 
Always pray in our heart that, “Please, I'm doing my best, but I'm not sure, so let me feel or inspire me some way or from some...” Sometimes you happen to flip a book and then the answer pops out, or sometimes you happen to listen to a cassette from a Master, or other Masters, or some books from ancient Masters, and suddenly you find something that's related to your question. It's sometimes like that. Thank you, honey.
 
 
Also, sometimes you sit in meditation quietly and you feel absolutely that's the thing you have to do. Or you sleep over the problem one night, and you wake up absolutely sure that's what you have to do. It's often like that. That's how we have to do. That's how I have to do also. Lately, I happened to read a book… A disciple bought a book, from Nostradamus and the things about which he predicted, and he predicted that…
 
 
Well, I'm not talking about his prediction now. I'm afraid to waste your time on the things that you already know unless you want to ask me, but I'm talking about his life as an individual now, for your example. Just now it happened that I think of him, not that he has to be in this particular question, but it just happened that I read him a few days ago, from a disciple.
 
 
He led a life of a very, very busy physician. All day long he had to take care of the people who were sick, and at his time there was a big plague, and war even, and all that, and he had a handful of work to do with very minimal medical substance and equipment at that time. But even then, all day he took care of the patients; in the nighttime, he meditated. People said he would sit all night and stare in a bowl of water or the black mirror - called “black mirror.”
 
 
Probably he put a black mirror on it, probably he looked at his black mirror here, the way we do. That was how he saw things far away from his period of time even, and many things he saw have been proven accurate. Is that not so? Supposed to, according to the book I read. Also, he predicted the present savior of the world. Yes. Did you read his book? I read it in the Aulacese (Vietnamese) translation. It was very accurate, very accurate.
 


*Hallo, it's me again. Master, I'm just wondering. I know very little about you, but I saw a photograph of your aura which really impressed me. Can you explain what's the aura…?



Photo with aura?  (Yes.) The disciples, they make a fuss about it. Everybody has aura.



*Yes, but yours is about four feet above you and then…

Four feet above me?

*Yes. It was beautiful!

Which picture is that? I didn't even know. Give me, give me. It's a big one! I'm excited!

*It might be here somewhere. Someone might have it.

Really? Who has it? Okay, there are some other pictures, I have seen some also. There's a big round…around. Also, there's a whole body. I've seen one picture like that, but I don't have it myself.



*But the one that I saw was about four feet above.



Four feet above?



*Clouds, pink and an orange.



So, so, so. What about it? ( *I was just…) You don't like it?



*It was beautiful. It was very impressive. I just wondered if you can explain what it is.



Okay. By the way, yesterday we watched one of the videotapes that the disciples brought for me and it is said that Edgar Cayce saw people's auras, yes, yes. And by the way, one of my attendants, he said to me… Because he doesn't understand much English, he just watched it with me and then he said, “Oh, that man can see the people's aura?” And I said, “Yes, what about it?” He said he saw it too. I said, “Whom? When?” He said he saw my aura only, and the other ones have no aura. I said, “You are blind! You are blind. You are blind.” That happened...
 
 
The question is: When and how we see people's aura? - when our eyes open a little bit, the third eye. There are many eyes - we call the “Deva's eyes,” the “Buddha eyes.” Deva's eyes, when you open, it means your - it's not ultimate, yes - your wisdom opens a little, and then you can see people's aura. And according to people's aura, you can know that person at this moment is angry or spiritually developed, benevolent or a very malicious person. If you see people with red flaming around them, that means they're, at that moment, very angry, for example like that. And I asked the attendant, “What did you see?” He said he saw my aura one time, a long time ago. I said, “You are blind.” I said, “Everybody has aura, not only me.” He said, “But I didn't see.”
 
 
He said, “When I first came to see you on a retreat, I looked at you and you have the whole… the bluish Light around you and I thought something was wrong with my eyes.” He said he thought something was wrong with his eyes, so he looked around and saw somebody else around, so many people, nobody had it. That's why I scolded him. I said, “You are blind.” So I explained to him that everyone has aura except the people dying- they don't have aura - or the dead people. Yes, dying or dead people, they mostly don't have aura. Or they must have a sudden death or something - that even you see them now, and five minutes later they die - they don't have aura right now.
 
 
For example, like that. So I explained to him that everybody has aura, some colored differently, big or small, according to their spiritual development. And he asked me why he didn't see that everybody else has aura - at that time only I had the aura. I said, “Because you're blind. Because the aura of the Master is too bright, therefore you can see a little bit. Because you are so blind that you see only a little bit. And other people's aura's not so bright, therefore, because you are blind you can't see.” All right? You see any aura right now?



*I can see a little bit of yours.



You do a bit? Okay. So you're not so blind.



*I was going to ask you: At what age did you discover that you were enlightened? And what did it feel like?



I don't really know. I don't keep record. I guess about 17, 17 years of age when I started to realize that life doesn't mean anything. Even if I live on two more days or I die two days before, it's just a matter of more eating rice and exercising. It just doesn't mean that much. All right? I truly, truly, deeply understand that, but it is difficult to convey in words



Are you satisfied with my answer? I always make jokes about everything, but seriously it's like that. Okay?



*Master, in one of our latest issues of our magazines, in the questions-and-answers, you were discussing about the aliens and how they were saying for us to help them save their other members of their group. ( Yes.) I was kind of wondering when I read that article, is it possible or is it happening that aliens, or people from the other planets, are in fact able to live with us in our earthly…?



Yes, for sure. ( *They are?)  They're more advanced. They can do anything they want.



*Are they like us? Just like us? ( Look like, yes.)



*Look like us?



Some more beautiful, some more ugly.



*But very advanced in their…? (Yes, yes.)  Very advanced.



There are some benevolent aliens. They try to help us also, but many of them are also very weak, not decisive - just know technically, but too soft, so when they're dealing with the hassles of our world planet, they do not know what to do. So I have to give them some message, hoping they'll hear. I don't know if they have ears. Yes, they're supposed to be very advanced but they're too soft sometimes, too soft. They're too gentle.



*In a way, this isn't my personal problem I guess, but it's very difficult for me to formulate the question. But, as I can see probably, in my life, I have certain goals but it's very difficult for me to reach those goals. I saw a lot of obstructions. So I wonder whether I can reach even my goals… (What goal?) yes, probably enlightenment.
 

You mean spiritually? Or business-wise, the goals? Enlightenment, you got it already. You have to just recognize it day by day. Get to know it. Get to know your possession. All right? And about other things in life, like business or success - in business, you just have to use your knowledge that you gained from school or from the business facilities that you happen to be affiliated with. And use your experience, your honesty, your hard work, to win the game.
 
 
Every successful businessman works hard. Yes? You read their life stories. They work hard for success, not that they are born successful. Most of the heiresses or the heirs who inherited the kingdom of their fathers or mothers, mostly are not very successful themselves. Mostly they're even too spoiled and don't know how to run a business and sometimes make the business of the parents go, wash ashore on Hawaii.
 
 
So, no need to worry about the early success. Some people succeed late in life after many trials and tribulations. And same with enlightenment, same with enlightenment - just be persevering and it will come. Even the Buddha had to meditate for 49 days under the bodhi tree, nonstop, until he got the final answer. And Jesus also had to shut himself in the desert for 40 days or 49 days, mostly 49 days. People in the Tibetan or Buddhist tradition, they use seven: seven days, and seven-seven, two times seven, or three times seven - that's why the 49.
 
 
So we cannot be so quick, but we can do two-and-a-half hours every day and then see how it goes. Every time you sit in meditation, it's recorded in Heaven - doesn't matter if you are successful with your meditation or not. As long as you sit there and long for God, even if you die at that moment, you'll never ever go to hell or any very mean level of existence. Any time, you immediately go to Heaven and see the Master up there, in whichever form you like. You can choose, “I like Jesus better. I like Buddha better. I like Master Ching Hai, maybe she's there.” All right? Don't worry. You're enlightened anyhow. Just takes time to recognize it. It's very difficult to recognize things that we have forgotten for a long time.
 
 
For example, you have not had diamonds for a long time and suddenly somebody gives it to you, it's difficult to believe it. Just like some people who won the lottery, sometimes they have a heart attack because they can't believe it.



*Dear Master, I have this book that talks about you today. (What book?) This book was reprinted in 1920, October 2. That man was born 200 years ago and wrote a book about our time. The second book talks about you.



All right, I'm curious. Is your English good enough? Okay, you try. You want to share it with our disciples, right?



*Yes. (Okay.)



*It talks about the whole world - America, Arab world, European world - all happened exactly. So when I see the typhoon or hurricane or earthquake, not a surprise to me, because since I travel, I read the book. It's very true, everything's come true.



Another Nostradamus of Âu Lạc (Vietnam)? Yes. Yes, we have many of the masters like Nostradamus in Âu Lạc (Vietnam). It's just that they are not worldwide famous, that's all, because it's not advertised. But they are very accurate too. That I know also. Who is that?



* “Prophecies for Humans” by Monk Vãi the yam seller, Master.



Okay, okay. You read it, 200 years ago, right?



* Yes. He talked about the 20th century…

“No need for temples, shrines, pavilions or hermitage. Generosity, kindness, compassion and virtue are the ways of Quan Yin.” He said, before God was in Heaven. At a later time, God was born in Nam Ðình. Today Ching Hai answers.



* “No need for temples, shrines, pavilions or hermitages. Generosity, kindness, compassion and virtue are the ways of Quan Yin.” Master.



What he said, well, in the 20th century, something happens, like you don't need temples, you don't need any kind of worshipping palaces. You only need the Quan Yin, that's what they say.



*But these 11 books together… The first book talks about how our people on the Earth are so bad that God will go and create a new one. “Except you all change your heart, then Quan Yin Method will help us, guide us. We will be saved.” In the first book.



Okay, understood.



*The second book talks about after the Vietnam War there will be the Arab war. Exactly. So I looked it over and over and I said, “Oh Lord, everything comes true.” And America: “The snowy sky is traded for the flower, the flower withers, and everywhere becomes serene.”



“The snowy sky is traded for the flower, the flower withers, and everywhere becomes serene.” “Snow” means typhoons, hurricanes - all come true. So today we listen to Master and turn our heart to God immediately to save the world. If not, it will be so, so sad for us. Thank you, Master.

That's it? ( *Yes.) No big deal. She said like, before, God's in Heaven, but now God is born in the south - the “Nam Ðình” in Aulacese (Vietnamese) means the Kingdom of South Âu Lạc (Vietnam), because they call, the Aulacese (Vietnamese), Nam Ðình - southern kingdom This means God is born in Âu Lạc (Vietnam). That's why many people believe that Buddha is born in Âu Lạc (Vietnam), and they went all over Âu Lạc (Vietnam) to search for Buddha now, especially the Japanese - I heard. They went there to try to investigate the Buddha. All right? I don't know this man. He is not so famous like Nostradamus, but according to her in that book, everything happened the way he predicted it.
 


*Master, I do my meditation every day.


Good. You're good. Good for you. Very good. That's the only way you have to do. Nothing else. Let me have a look at the book. I'll read that book later, okay? But Nostradamus is very accurate. I read it, according to the translation, it was very good. All right? More questions?


*I know that each and every one of us, when we meditate, we call to you at one time or another. And I know also that from reading our magazines, I know that the answers have been given there, but just for my own personal satisfaction again, could you please tell me and explain to me how are you able to answer each and every one of us when there are so many of us? But it seems like you answer us at the right time and you give us the right instruction or the right solution to whatever it is that we're asking you. How are you able to be in tune to so many of us at all times?



Very simple: I don't know. I don't know anything I did, I do or will. ( *Truly?) It's God that does things through me. All right? I am one with the Father and it's the Father who does everything. The Father can take care of the whole universe, just a bunch of you is nothing. If I have to know what the Father does, then I'd get tired. I just let Him do well, or let the Mother… that's what it is, otherwise the sister will complain. Actually, the power of the universe, the Supreme Master power, does everything and regulates all things.
 
 
But knowing this sometimes makes us feel also frustrated, yes? “Why doesn't He/She let us be virtuous and holy, wholesome, instead of letting us go through all these tribulations and tests and suffering?” But that's the way it is. We have the free will, the choice. In the beginning of our lifetime, in the beginning of all life, we have choice. We have the voice inside telling us, “This is better, this is good, this is `no.'”
 
 
But sometimes we like to play, we like to do the things that are not according to the parents' teaching, like children, and hurt ourselves. That's the problem. Sometimes when the parents say, “Stay away from the fire. Don't play here. Don't play there,” but we do it, just for the sake of curiosity. All right, then God lets us learn the hard way, the easy way, it's up to us. Therefore, some people stay holy, wholesome, some people go astray, but that is only for a while. And they will suffer the consequence, and then they will awaken from and through the suffering and become wholesome again, and turn back in the right direction.
 
 
Therefore, sometimes people are also right in saying that suffering is a blessing in disguise from God. Otherwise, if we are always happy and have everything in our life, and smoothly, we don't appreciate and we do not try to listen to God's will. Truly like that.