Here, Bonnie, Jared, and Master discuss Master’s upcoming public lecture and initiation on the November 27, 1993 in San Francisco. Master also answers listeners questions, which include topics on the teachings of past Enlightened Masters, what lies beyond the karmic cycle, and near-death experiences.
Bonnie: So let’s return to our interview, and many of you calling in were delighted.
Jared: Before we go back to some of the questions that are being called in, Master, I want to welcome You back, and we’re glad to have You with us on the air this morning. (Thank you.) I think many people, sometimes those in the West, have a feeling that those from the East, from Asian countries and so forth, are somehow more in touch with their spirituality than we in the West are. Do You think that’s true? Do You think they are more spiritual in Âu Lạc (Vietnam) or India or whatever? Do You think we are equally afflicted with problems?
Master: I don’t think there is much difference between East and the West. It’s just probably the way people express it differently, because I have so many beautiful, sincere, and pure American so-called disciples. The way they love, their love just flows out. It’s beautiful. In fact, I think they are more receptive if they truly believe, they’re truly more loving, even, and more believing. (And perhaps hungry, but...) Hungry, yes, yes, that’s the word. Oh, you should have seen them around me. Then you would cry. They cry. When I say something that touches their hearts, they cry more, even more than the Eastern people.
Bonnie: Well, we certainly want to invite people to be able to be with You, Master, when You will be here in San Francisco. You are going to be at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco from 7 to 10 PM Saturday, November 27th, and this will be a free lecture. (Yes.) Which leads me to ask this question.
Master, Your lectures and Your initiations are free of charge? (Always, always, before, between, and after.) Right, and also, there is no membership fee (No.) required of people who follow You, Your disciples. So, how do You manage to help so many people monetarily?
Master: I guess it’s just GOD’s help. You see, I have some GOD-given talents, like painting, arty craft, and singing, making music, etc. From these, I gain financial stability, and because my life is very simple, and the disciples’ lives are all very simple, and they support themselves, therefore, we are able to give all that we earn.
(And You’re not building churches, are You?) No. (Buildings?) No, we could never build large enough for the people. (Right.) Because there are too many people, I can never have such a big enough place. True, so we just don’t build anything.
(We said that people are hungry to hear about enlightenment and initiation, and spirituality. Many of our listeners are calling in. Someone, I don’t have a name, but someone called in from Mountain Dew, Master, and asks, are there any books on the market by or about You?) Oh, I think they are very less available on the market, but you can contact any of our Centers. If they want, they can ask you, and then you give them the address. (Alright.) And we can send them a free magazine every month, and free booklets, and much free information. But some of the big books are sold at cost, printing cost, and tapes and videos are all like empty tapes cost.
(And I’m looking at… Is this an example of… yes, OK, here is an international report, and it’s a booklet of some, oh, 60, 70 pages here, and it has a beautiful photograph, I want to say, on the cover of the Supreme Master Ching Hai. And also, there’s a monthly newsletter. This is the monthly newsletter. Well, I’d say it’s a very impressive monthly newsletter.) (Yes, really.) Yes, yes. (Beautiful.) Thank you. We send them all for free, for anyone, anyone at all.
(Judy, who calls in from Menlo Park, asks, “How do near-death experiences fit into Your philosophy? Do You have anything to say to somebody who’s been through a near-death experience?”) Oh, yes, the near-death experience is truly also a death experience, except that the silver cord, the so-called silver cord, which connects our soul with the so-called physical instrument, is not yet broken. So they truly have a death experience. (Yes.) And for those who are virtuous and have a good conscience in life, they will see the bright light and many beautiful dimensions, and that’s a true story. It is the same when you meditate. (Yes.) And when you meditate, the only difference is that you can prolong this experience, or you can have it again at will, and expand it into a higher and higher dimension. Yes. So meditation is also an experience of death. Therefore, the Saints say, “I die daily.” (Yes.) Yes. (Saint Paul said that, I believe.) Yes. You leave the body, and you go into higher beauties, and then you come back at will. Takes some practice. (With some practice?) Yes. (Yes, indeed.) Not very long. Some people get it right at the initiation and continue there ever after.
(How do people who are listening right now, if they feel drawn to receive initiation, how do they do that?) Well, they can come to see us at the lecture, and we will give it right away afterward. Also free, free of all conditions and binding, free at all, whatever free. And I mean, free of binding as well. There’s no obligation at all except if you want to oblige yourself to meditate every day to get to know more.
(So you don’t have to raise your right hand and swear allegiance to anybody or anything? No?) No, no, no. But you do have to afterward because I don’t try to draw more numbers of disciples, but I would like to truly teach them. Therefore, if whomever wants to stay should abide by the loving law like a vegan diet and no violence, including to animal-people. (Yes.) So, therefore, we have to abide strictly by that, and that’s all, and meditate. (And meditate.) Yes.
(We have a caller, a woman from Constance calling from San Jose. She says that every Tuesday evening, at 5 PM, television channel 11 broadcasts a tape of Supreme Master Ching Hai speaking and answering questions.) Oh, yeah? (Well, I didn’t know about that.) Me neither. (Well, you never know…) Yeah. (…Never know where You’re going to appear.) (I guess it means on TCI Cablevision on channel 11 in San Jose. Every Tuesday evening, at 5 PM Well, there you go, folks in San Jose, you can see a tape of Supreme Master Ching Hai speaking and answering questions. We’re going to take a brief break, and we’ll be right back speaking with Supreme Master Ching Hai.)
Jared: Well, we want to welcome you back. If you’ve been listening, welcome you aboard. If you’ve just tuned in, this is Radio 2000, Seeing Beyond. We’re glad to have you with us this morning as we’re interviewing Supreme Master Ching Hai. Master Ching Hai, welcome back. We’re glad to have You with us. We’re continuing to get many, many phone calls.
And going on to Richard, calling from Boulder Creek with, well, really a question I wanted to talk about too. And Richard is asking about the Buddhist concept of GOD, and once we sort of touched on that, his second part of his question is, “What lies beyond the cycle of karma and death?”
Master: Only two questions. (Yes, two questions.) OK.
(He wants to know about the Buddhist concept of GOD) OK. (and what lies beyond the cycle of karma) Right. (and death.) And death, beyond karma and death? OK. (Yes.) So, I answer the first question. The Buddhist concept of GOD is the Great Consciousness. We call Hirm GOD, and the Buddhists call It the Great Consciousness or the Great Self. And sometimes people ask the Buddha whether there is a GOD or whether there is no GOD. So the Buddha says, “I don’t say there is a GOD and I don’t say there is no GOD, but I say there is One thing from which all things come and to which all things return.” So make out of that what you want to name. (I like that answer.) Yes.
And so now, the second question, what lies beyond, is the Greatest Wisdom and the highest Bliss that we could ever know. That is our real Kingdom because beyond the law of sowing and reaping, there is the Law of Love. It’s only Love and Bliss. And if we break through the cycle of karma, then we go to that dimension, where there is no life, no death, no karma, only happiness, only satisfaction. But by talking to you like this, I feel that we are degrading it somewhat, because the human language is easily misleading and very limited. (There are some things that just are not describable by words.) Right. (Is that correct?) Right, right. You know that. (Yes.) Even just our ordinary love, like between a man and a woman, how do you describe that? (Exactly.)
(Well, Shalona, who is calling in from Pacific Grove, just simply asks if You’re familiar with the teachings of Kirpal Singh.) Yes, yes. Very familiar. (Aha, aha.) (Would You like to go into some details about that?) He was teaching a similar thing. (Aha, aha.) I have not met Him. But I read books about Him, and I know that He taught the same thing.
(Lang, calling from San Francisco, asks… let’s see, saying that right now, as we’re on the air, at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, monks are laying out a sand mandala. Did You know that?) No, I don’t. (You know what that is, though?) Yes. (Yes. How are sand mandalas used in the Buddhist tradition?) It’s mostly used in the Tibetan tradition (Yes.)
when they do a great ceremony for blessing or to pray in a gathering of prayers, with different colors, very beautiful. Just symbolic of the Universal energy. (Sure. Well, Master, one of the other questions that reminds me, in a way, talking about a sand painting or a sand mandala, I know that the Navajos in our country, the Native American Indians, use them for healing. Do You work… I mean, many people come with lots of things needing to be healed. Do You work with them as a healer Yourself?)
No. I don’t use a physical way to heal people. People just get healed, automatically. If it’s fit, if it’s time, and it’s fit for them to get healed, then they just get healed. Sometimes by just being a disciple, or sometimes just after initiation, or sometimes just when thinking of my name, for example. But it sounds too self-glorifying, so please, excuse me. (We’ll excuse You.) Thank you. Because you ask, I don’t know how to answer you, except just directly. (Exactly.) Yeah. (Exactly.) I don’t need to be near the person. We don’t concentrate on healing physically, but the people do get healed also. I do not like to stress on this. You know why? Because I don’t like people to come with the motive of healing the physical body, but they should come with the earnest yearning for GOD, which is more eternal, more everlasting, and that will benefit them physically, mentally as well.
(Master, You talk a lot, and You have certainly talked about that today, about what You call Providence.) Yes. (Some of us could use the word, I suppose “fate” for that, although Providence seems to me to have a more kind of spiritual ring to it.) Yeah. (What about free will?) Free will. That is the choice before our physical birth and during our physical life. But after death, we can’t choose unless we have merit which accumulated during this life. For example, before we’re born into this world, we have the choice to be what and what person. (Yes.) But then, when we come here we shift that according to the situation and the persuasion of society. (OK.) And then we lost the free will as well. We think we are free, but we are not.
Photo Caption: “Does This Beauty Remind You of EDEN?”
