We should live simply. The less karma, the more comfortable your life is; the less baggage you have, the higher/further you can go. It is similar to the one who climbs up the mountain. If he carries too much stuff, he can’t climb up. But if you want to stay sunk down in the lowlands all the time, that’s fine too. When you want something, you generate a very strong electric current. The stronger our intention or desire, the stronger the energy field it creates. It becomes so strong that if we keep reinforcing those thoughts over and over, one day they will manifest. Or when many people have the same wish or thought as we do, it manifests even quicker. When the energy generated by the thoughts of humans, or other beings, accumulates enough, it manifests into form. And once it has taken form, it will take some time – quite a long time – before it can dissipate. It has to return to the original invisible force. That’s all.
It’s not that we’re not allowed to want things. We are free to want whatever we want. But you have to know that what you want, sooner or later it will manifest. Then you will meet people who want the same things you did, so... For example, we have some bad thoughts; then naturally, people who are bad like us will come to be friends with us. So the pull becomes stronger and stronger, intensifying our desires until they manifest into reality – whatever we wish for, whether good or bad. Once something bad manifests already, don’t cry about it. That’s all. Because whatever you want, Heaven and Earth will give you that. Whether it is good or bad... Because you are god – whatever you want, you will have.
Not that: “I just think about it for fun.” No. You can’t think just for fun! You keep thinking about it casually, again and again. Three, four, five, six times – and after a while, it eventually manifests. Once it manifests already, everything falls apart, everything… Then we don’t want it anymore, [but] it’s already too late to undo it. Yeah, it is too late. That’s why you have to keep your thoughts, speech, and action pure. Not that someone forces you to do so. So that the outcome will be good and we won’t suffer. Otherwise, everything is invisible. Even this body we have now came into existence because of our own desire. Or if we want a certain teacher, then our wish will bring him into our life. That’s all. Hey, go somewhere else to play. He doesn’t have an ID card, but he just came in like that. Yes.
(What about if we make a mistake before we get our initiation? And then when we get initiated, we know how bad or how hurt[ful] it was. Does it [get] clean[sed] when you practice your Quan Yin [Method]?) Yes, it’s cleansed. (Or you have already the karma?) No, it’s cleansed. But sometimes it takes us a little bit of time to wear it out. For example, the car is already running downhill and suppose you want to return, you have to let it run down first. Even if you have the best driver and the best instruction through your radio, you still cannot stop it. You cannot just run up like that. You have to run down first, OK, then run up again. It’s OK. At least you know the direction now. (Thank You. Thank You very much.) But some of the bad consequences from before the initiation, the Master also takes care of, if the Master can. In any way, the Master can, then He/She takes care of everything.
But some things cannot be taken care of, because it’s not simple. It will involve too many people and it would be better to let it happen and then return. So, it depends on the karma. If the Master can take care and clear it for you, the Master would. If He/She cannot, if it would be better to leave it to happen, then the Master lets it happen. But then takes care of the consequences, minimizes them and lubricates it, so that you don’t suffer too much. But that is if you sincerely want to return, change the direction. If you don’t, OK, go where you want. (Thank You for spending Your time to help everybody here.) No problem. No problem. It’s my job. I come because if I stay home, I couldn’t be peaceful anyhow. I have to tell you the truth. What [to do] with hundreds of people pulling me here, how? Suppose if I’m not in a foreign land, it’s difficult to bear this. Yes.
(Master, I have a problem about the practice. Some kind of a sound from my left ear, it bothers me a lot. Even during the meditation, as well as not during the meditation. Is it because of too much karma? Or is there any solution that can [help] avoid or reduce it?) You just switch your attention more to the right [ear]. Ignore the left. When you sleep, sleep on the right. Try not to sleep on the left, whenever you remember. (OK.) Just switch your attention, don’t care. Switch your attention to the right and then it will be corrected. (OK. Thank You.) No problem. When you sleep and you sleep on the left too much, also the sound will shift to the left.
It’s not really from the ear. It’s not really from the right or from the left, it’s just our attention is so used to hearing things from the ears, by the ears. So, whatever, whenever you hear something, oh, your attention moves there. So, if suppose you sleep on the left too much and then the sound is more from the left side, because when it’s covered the sound is louder from the left. So, your attention automatically shifts more to the left. And then that’s how it becomes louder. So try to shift it to the right. Every time you hear it from the left, you shift your attention to the right. Whether there is [sound] on the right or not. Or shift it up there, above the head. That will help you. (Thank You.)
More? Finished? (This is also regarding the [inner Heavenly] Sound meditation. One of the Quan Yin messengers was in LA [Los Angeles], and she told us before, we have to be more careful if we’re doing the [inner Heavenly] Sound meditation with somebody. Not just even the non-initiates, even the initiates who [don’t] keep the Precepts very well, very clearly. We need to cover [up] to protect ourselves.) No, the cover doesn’t protect you. (Yeah, I didn’t hear Master in the tapes definitely mentioning this.) No, the cover doesn’t protect you. It’s just so that people... you feel more safe and private during the Quan Yin Method. (So, it doesn’t matter in the group meditation; it’s OK.) No, no. (Thanks.) If nobody, no strangers visit you, it’s OK. That’s only for when strangers visit you, and they probably feel very curious what are you doing. And then you have to explain a lot. And sometimes they shake you and shock you out of your samadhi, and that is not very pleasant.
(Dear Master, dear brothers and sisters, I would like to ask Master one question. After initiation, our past life’s karma is cleansed by Master; only this life’s karma is left. And if an initiate can get to the Third Level, that means their karma is cleansed already. But I read in the sutra that those people who are from the Third Level and up, still have some karmic illness. It’s this point that I am a little confused about. Master, please explain it to me. If we can get to the Third Level, Fourth Level or higher, our karma should be cleansed; then how come we still have some karmic illness in our current lifetime?) Which sutra did you read? Which sutra did you read saying that the Third Level people still have karma?
(In the Vimalakirti Sutra, it said, for example, the Patriarchs still had to pay their past karma. So I didn’t understand, and I think...) But they said the Third Level? (Yes.) They said up to the Third Level. Those people? They said that clearly? (No. It’s not.) If it is not then it is OK. You ask nonsense. (Yes.) You read it wrong and asked me nonsense. (Dear Master, so then after we attain the Third Level and beyond, do we have to suffer karmic illness or not?) No. But you have to practice further, not that the Third Level is enough. (Yes.) You read, but you did not understand, then you complicated your own mind. In that sutra, it didn’t say Third Level, Fourth Level, right? (Right.) Forget it, you are old now, you should try to quicken your spiritual practice, don’t ask too many questions.
When reading the sutras, the terminology used in the old days is difficult to understand. Then the translation, after three, four, five times, becomes wrong. This person translated something wrong here; another person translated something wrong there. Because the translators were not enlightened. And when translating from Sanskrit to Aulacese (Vietnamese), it becomes different again. And then sometimes the Aulacese (Vietnamese) monks don’t understand and even translate from Chinese. They translate from Sanskrit to Chinese, and then from Chinese to Aulacese (Vietnamese). For example, the word “samadhi” is a Sanskrit word, meaning “the highest state of mental concentration.” Then someone translated it as “Tam Muội.” Other translated it as “Tam Diệu.” But they didn’t know what “Tam Muội” is, nor “Tam Diệu” is. So they just recited nonsense: “Tam muội, Tam diệu, Tam bồ đề” as such. And they didn’t understand anything at all!
“Tam” means “Sam.” “Samadhi” is not “Sam” or “Three,” for example. And some people didn’t understand it at all, and wrote “Tam Muội” as “Three.” “Samadhi,” “samadhi” is what they translated from Chinese, as “Xam-ma-đi.” “Xam” in Chinese means “three.” Because the sound is similar, they just translated it as “Xam-ma-đi.” Then the Aulacese (Vietnamese) read “Samadhi” and translated it as “Tam Muội.” “Tam” is not “three,” for example like that. They translated back and forth. Why read that? Just read Madame Ching Hai Sutra, which is easier to understand.
Having no more karma means no more past karma. But if you want to create karma, then you will continue to have it. It doesn’t mean that when you get to the Third Level, you can do whatever you want and have no karma. Because if you get to the Third Level and you are safe, then I would tell you, “No need to practice.” You have to practice to ascend. OK, uncle? There is so much you can learn. It’s endless.
(Dear Master, because of this, I would like to ask You about what I found… In the sutra, Master said that from the Third Level and up, our karma is cleansed. So I thought there wouldn’t be any more illness from fixed karma. Yet I wondered why the old sutras had written that. So I asked many people…) No. They didn’t say that. (…about it and they said there would still be karmic illness. We still get fixed karma illness; for example, tuberculosis.) It is a disease, not karma. (Yes.) It is a disease when our body gets sick, but the sickness is not always from karma. (Dear Master, some diseases such as tuberculosis or cancer, are they from karma?) Sickness you still have. When our body is getting old, we get sick. (Yes.) When we eat junk food, we get sick. When the air is polluted, we get sick. It doesn’t need to be karma. (Yes.)
Even the Buddha got sick. It doesn’t mean He didn’t have karma. Don’t you know that the Buddha got a stomachache and He died? I get sick all the time. I don’t have any karma, still get sick all the time. So complicated! I only understand: eat vegan, meditate every day. That’s it. (Yes.) Just these things you can’t accomplish. Talking about understanding this and that. The Buddha already died 2700 years ago; and you still sit there and dig Him up. Even His bones are all decayed. Vimalakirti got sick because He took on the karma of sentient beings. He said, “Because sentient beings are sick, I must also be sick.” He said that and you don’t understand it. So easy! My goodness. That one sentence you cannot comprehend. What for you dig out three, four sutras to trouble my head?
Photo Caption: “Protecting the Earth Is Protecting Self”
