In this episode, Supreme Master Ching Hai explains the essence of religion and the necessity of a living enlightened Master beyond belief alone.
It is like this: A great Master of virtues and power can even take us to His own Land. He can make a new Heaven for us. It is the same like Lord Jesus said, “In my Father’s House, there are many Mansions,” or “In my Father’s House, there are many Rooms.”
Now, where do all these “Rooms” come from? They cannot just stand there empty and waiting for us, the heavy-laden with sins. Now I tell you, the world is populated with some Christian believers, some Buddhist believers and some Muslim believers, Hindu believers, etc. Maybe one-fourth of the world is Christian. At least one-fifth, no? Now, if all these Christian people believe in (Lord) Jesus Christ and get salvation, why our world’s population has not decreased by one-fifth? They haven’t gone to Heaven.
The Rooms, the Mansions of the Father are empty still. If they already exist, then they might be empty; no one comes up. Also, many people believe in the Buddhist religion – many, many people. It’s very popular, the Buddhism. Now, our world also has not decreased in one-sixth, or one-fifth, or one-tenth, or whatever you might name. It increased, the population. And many people believe in Hinduism – at least all the Indian people have to be liberated, no? But we do not see this way. The Indian people keep increasing. So, what does the religion serve us? You must know by now.
Religions are good; I have not said that religions are not good. All religions are meant to save people from their misery and from suffering and take them to Heaven. But the world is ever-increasing in population. It is because the essence of religions is missing; the Enlightened Masters are missing. When Buddha was alive, He was the Light of the world. He was the Essence, the All and total of Buddhism. That’s why after He died, we call ourselves “Buddhists.” It means we are the followers of that Buddha.
When (Lord) Jesus Christ was alive, He was the sum total of Christianity. He was the Christ, the Absolute, the only One at that time, the Supreme Master. So after He died or when He was alive, people called themselves “Christians” to signify that they followed Christ. That they are the followers of Christ. Just like the “Buddhists” are the followers of Buddha. That was when They were alive, these Masters. Or when Lao Tzu was alive, people followed Him and called themselves Taoists. Taoist. When Confucius was alive, people followed Him, so they distinguished themselves from the rest who had no Master. They called themselves Confucians. That was to call themselves among the disciples of the Confucius, of the Buddha, of (Lord) Christ, that they have a Master. The others were different. The others maybe followed some doctrines but did not have a real Enlightened Master. So they wanted to distinguish themselves that they are the followers of Confucius, of Buddha, of (Lord) Christ, of Prophet Muhammad Peace Be Upon Him, etc.
So that’s why we have so many religions. And these great Enlightened Masters like Buddha, (Lord) Christ, Prophet Muhammad Peace Be Upon Him, Lao Tzu, Kong Zi (Confucius), etc., are the Lights of the time. And they made it into worldwide recognition through some means, some destiny or some kind of proclamation from disciples. That’s how the Buddha, (Lord) Christ, Confucius, and Lao Tzu made Their names into history, made Their way into history. There are many other very Enlightened Masters, mind you, but They are not famous. Maybe Their doctrines are so few, and no one printed their doctrines. No one proclaimed Their Divine Messages, so They are not that famous. And so, any Master who came after (Lord) Christ, after Buddha, after Lao Tzu, after Kong Zi (Confucius), after Prophet Muhammad Peace Be Upon Him, had to stand in Their shadows. Because They have become so worldwide famous and established in the minds of billions of people.
So, any Masters who came afterward have to quote Them, quote Their sayings in order to verify Their own Teachings, in order to prove that Their present Teaching are in accordance with Those in the past. But it’s very difficult, very difficult. So when (Lord) Jesus arrived on Earth, He also had this difficulty. He always had to keep quoting the past Masters. Moses said that also, who and who and who said this, this, this. So He also had to defend for Himself and His Teaching. He said, “Look! I do not come to destroy. I only come to fulfill.”
He only came to explain the old, ancient teachings. He did not come to destroy the ancient teachings. But people at that time did not understand His intentions and did not know who He was, thinking He was a heretic, a manifestation of negative force or whatever. But people are so peculiar. How can someone be negative if He teaches Holy Things? So how can someone be a “satan” or a “devil’s worker” if He teaches people, “Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt love thy neighbor. Thou shalt forgive thy enemy,” etc.? How can someone be negative if He teaches this way? Even without power, even if He has no God’s Power at all, if He teaches this way, He can’t be evil.
So, it’s very surprising for us sometimes to dig into history of any time and see that the ignorance of the masses is beyond comprehension. So, the same with Buddha. When the Buddha was alive, what did He teach people? The same: “Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not tell lies. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not harm other people. Love thy neighbor. Have great compassion,” etc. But at the Buddha’s time, many people oppressed Him, opposed Him, saying that He is a heretic, outer path, etc. How can I understand this ignorance of the people at large, at any period at all? So that’s how difficult it is to take people back to Heaven. Because of too many preconceived ideas, too many prejudices, too many ignorant points of view, too many attachments to old things, worn-out concepts, and not understanding these concepts. If people understand the scriptures, that is good, but they do not understand. That’s what makes the difference between an enlightened person and an ignorant person.
Anyone who is enlightened is the embodiment of the scriptures. They understand any scripture thoroughly and correctly. And anyone who is unenlightened, doesn’t matter how long he read the scripture, how much he learned by heart, will never know anything, only gets stuck there, gets stuck and stuck in the conceptions and the false belief in the conceptions. It’s not that the religious scriptures are no good. It’s not that Buddhism is no good. It’s not that Christianity is no good. Any religion is excellent. It’s just that people do not understand the essence of religion, do not even understand the real meaning of the sentence, much less understand what the sentence implies and what is behind the lines of the sentence.
For example, (Lord) Jesus said, “I am the Light and the Way of the world, as long as I live in the world.” So they get stuck there. Christian people say, “Jesus is the only Light; always the Light. The Light and the Way of the world.” No, He said, “As long as I live in the world.” And after He is gone, He will send comforters to us, meaning there are others coming, other Prophets. But most Christian people get stuck there and believe only in (Lord) Jesus. It’s alright to believe in (Lord) Jesus, but we must rise up to (Lord) Jesus’ level in order to really understand what He means and really can be connected with Him, and then let Him take us back to the Kingdom of God.
If we are here and (Lord) Jesus is there all the time, and we make no connection, (Lord) Jesus cannot help anyone. (Lord) Jesus cannot help us at all if we are not in connection with Him. Now, when (Lord) Jesus was alive, we were easily in contact with Him, so we could so-called “register our name with Him.” We’d say, “Look, (Lord) Jesus, I believe in God. Please, take us Home,” then He’d know. He promised, “OK, whoever believes in me will go Home.” That He promised. But when He’s gone out of this world, His magnetic field is taken away from us.
Now, He’s gone to some different worlds to live where He teaches other kinds of, maybe better, advanced disciples or a better race. If we truly believe in (Lord) Jesus and want to see Him, we can go, but we must rise up to where He stays. And that only can be done through perseverance, meditation, prayer and the Grace of a Living Master. Because a Master, the One who is in the flesh, is easier to contact. And the One who is in the flesh is also in the spirit. But the One who is in the spirit only cannot be in the flesh. That’s why the Living Master is more important than an in-the-spirit Master, because otherwise you cannot see, you cannot rise to that level.
Photo Caption: “Loving the Wonder One!”
