"Since
we are here in this world only for a very short while, we should
do our best together to improve ourselves, and further improve the
world. By improving ourselves, we improve the world as well. If
every person improves himself, the world will naturally improve
too."
From News 88, Pearls of Wisdom
Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai
International three-day Retreat in Hsihu Center, Formosa •
April 3, 1992
(originally in Chinese)
"We
pursue inner spiritual practice to search for Truth, virtue and
beauty. When we have these qualities within us, they will manifest
in our outer appearance. Therefore, we should do our best to take
care of our surroundings and our body; we should dress neatly, and
be reasonably dignified and beautiful. Of course, we do not become
attached to these things. However, not being attached to them does
not give us an excuse to be filthy and dirty."
From News 88, Pearls of Wisdom
Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai
International three-day Retreat in Hsihu Center, Formosa •
April 3, 1992
(originally in Chinese)
"Q:
I have one question, which is purely theoretical, but I've stuck
with it for over ten years. I understood with the mind that we don't
have an I; our feelings are not us and our thinking is not us and
so on. So what is the thing that goes from one reincarnation to
another, and what causes karma and collects it, and what causes
merit and collects it? Is it our mind?
M:
Our mind, and our soul that clings to that mind. For example, if
the car goes wrong and the driver doesn't jump out of the car, then
he gets done with, together with the car. If he jumps out in time,
if he doesn't feel so attached to the car that he tries to save
the car, then he might save his life. Some people love the car more
than their life. That's the same trouble with most of us; we love
our garbage collector more than our soul, more than our real Self.
We are always in touch with the outside world, with the collecting
of thoughts, with all kinds of preconceived ideas, with all kinds
of nonsense, but we are not in touch with our real Lord, our real
Self. So we have trouble.
I
will try to explain more. In your life, do you understand who is
living now? It's the awareness, the real 'I' that is living through
the perceiving agents of the hands, the feet, the eyes, the ears,
the mouth, the feelings, and the brain. That's it. And should 'I',
this awareness, always get stuck with these feelings, with this
thinking, with this information, then the 'I' cannot be free from
the feelings, from the thinking, from the preconceived collective
ideas of society, of the environment, of the habits. And of course,
that true awareness, that true 'I' has to come back again. But should
this true 'I' always understand that he, the true 'I', the true
awareness, is only the witness of all these feelings, all this thinking,
all these collective thoughts, then this 'I' never gets stuck with
these feelings or ideas, and is always free. So when he dies, he
knows absolutely that he is not these feelings, not these bindings,
not these surroundings, not these ideas; then he is free. He marches
back to the whole, to the whole river of life, and doesn't get stuck
in that corner of so-called thinking, feeling, hate and love. So
we have to awaken our awareness again, pull it back and keep reminding
it all the time, "You are not this feeling, you are not this
idea, you are not this, and you are not that." Understand?
Nothing is you!
Q:
Is it the same with pain?
M:
Yes, because the body feels pain; the nerves feel pain because the
nerves are made to feel things. The awareness enjoys these feelings
and enjoys knowing outside things. Otherwise, how can we be aware?
This is the awareness that experiences pain through the body, but
the awareness itself never has pain! If you eat an apple, it's the
apple that is sweet; it's not your tongue that is sweet. It's not
you who are sweet! The sweetness is not you, it's from the apple;
you are the one who enjoys the sweetness. Similarly, we ourselves,
the awareness, enjoy the pleasure, know the pain and reject the
unpleasant things. But all these things don't matter. You enjoy
it or you reject it; you experience the unpleasant or the pleasant,
but that's it. You are not the pleasant or unpleasant. These are
only circumstances.
So
why should you get stuck there, and be bound life after life? Because
you are not satisfied. You have to know that these things are fleeting.
Today it comes, tomorrow it goes. Okay, that's it. If I have enjoyed,
I enjoy it. If I experience an unpleasant thing, then I endure it,
and that's it. When I'm gone, I'm gone. When I don't have them,
I don't have them. Otherwise if we, the awareness, keep chasing
after pleasure, then we reincarnate. The awareness is trying to
catch the last leftover feeling, so it tries to put itself into
a frame again and enjoy it or suffer, always clinging to this sweet
or bitter feeling, chasing after it.
If
someone gives you an apple, and you eat it: Oh, you love it so much!
But now you don't have another one, and you go everywhere searching
for an apple; every day your mind says only, "Apple, apple,
apple!" You cannot do anything else, and you lose yourself.
You lose yourself in the sweetness of the apple. It's the same thing
with our life: The awareness is chasing after the pleasant and hating
the unpleasant, and we get stuck there. The awareness cannot free
itself from these feelings; therefore, we are bound, we are not
liberated. If we know that at every moment, and especially at the
time of death, we are not this feeling, we don't care about this
feeling, and we are done with all these feelings, then we are free.
We are always free! We have never been unfree. (Audience applauds)
So,
cry when you want to cry, and laugh when you want to laugh, but
understand that the crying and laughing are not you. You just experience
them, for the sake of knowing things, for the sake of existence.
Otherwise you don't exist; otherwise the world doesn't exist. We
say that the world is full of suffering and it shouldn't exist,
but why shouldn't it exist? If it didn't exist, it would also be
boring. There's nothing else to do, and you enjoy all the time:
"Oh, I am this, I am that, (Audience laughs) I am God, that's
it, I am Almighty, and I know it! I have no suffering, nothing.
I am always blissful." So what? Don't bother about nirvana,
so what? If you are happy every day, so what?
But
because you still want nirvana, so work for it. Work until you don't
want it any more, until you're fed up with it, and then you'll be
free. (Master and audience laugh) I only want you to work for nirvana
because I want you to know that you don't need nirvana. But as long
as you need it, then work for it. If you still want the dummy, the
plastic one, then just have it. But have it until your mouth is
dry and you have no milk, nothing, and then one day you will throw
it away. And realize that you didn't even need it in the beginning.
Because you are always free of that, you don't need it."
From "The True 'I' Is Always Free"
News 117, Spot Light
Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai
International Seven-day Retreat in Santimen, Pingtung, Formosa •
December 21, 1992
(originally in English)
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