enlightenment QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Q. What was the physical feeling at the moment You foundthe Truth? What did You feel?
M.There are many ways. Sometimes you have no physical feeling whatsoever.You enjoy in a different dimension. It does not always relateto the physical feeling. You do not use a physical body to enjoythe heavenly bliss. It is a different kind of enjoyment whichalso manifests sometimes in a physical feeling, like you willfeel very peaceful, that is nothing will move you at all; no anger,no hatred will arise in your mind. And your body will feel sorelaxed and so beautiful. That is a kind of lighter samadhi. Onceyou are in a deeper samadhi, there's no connection whatsoeverwith your physical body, and you can't tell. But when you comeback, the manifestations of the Light takes place at the physicallevel. For example, you will be more loving to people, you doyour work faster, you think quicker, you are more tolerant, andyou look at all the books and you understand them in no time.In other words, you are more intelligent, more loving, and morecalm. That is how it manifests through a physical body. But otherwisewhen you are in very deep samadhi, you are disconnected from thebody, no physical feeling.
..... Q. Enlightenment always seems so lofty. In what wayswill I be different after enlightenment? How will I know? Is itin black and white?
M.Oh, you'll know it, you'll know it definitely. You'll know it,just like you walk inside the door and when you walk outside thedoor. It's very definite and very beneficial to your daily life.You will know it, very definitely. Just like an educated personand an uneducated person, there is a great difference.
..... Q. How can I feel that spiritualeternity exists? How can I believe that there will be and thereare other lives?
M. We have no need to feel. We must experienceit. Yeah! I have the way to show you how to experience that; noneed to believe what I said, or the Buddha said, or Jesus said.We have to know it, see it, and to realize it within ourselves.That is why there are so many religious scriptures in the world,which describe so many heavens and so many hells and all thesekinds of virtues and sins, but people still do bad things becausethey can not believe in what the scriptures said, because theydon't have their own experience about heavens and hells. Therefore,it doesn't make a deep impression in their hearts. So it is hardfor them to avoid making troubles, to avoid committing wrong deeds.
..... Q. Chanting and praying are seen regularly in any templeor church. Are they the ways to reach enlightenment?
M.No. This is only a part of enlightenment. Praying and chantingis necessary to stimulate our sincerity and to create a sincereand clean atmosphere. But we must be silent in order to communicatewith our silent God self. He is not noisy. We are busy all daylong speaking, thinking, and when we go to the church we are busyagain, talking and chanting, telling God what to do. So when doyou think that God has time for us, or we have time for God? Wehave to sit in silence or stand or lay in silence, and know whereto find God apart from prayers and chanting.
..... Q. For enlightenment, is service in love to humanityas important as meditation or is service more important than meditationpractice?
M.Both have to go hand in hand. We meditate because we want to doservice better, we want to be clearer in what we do. Therefore,we'll be more efficient in our work and more service to others.Without meditation, sometimes we have very best intention andwe are willing to serve people, but we don't know what is thebest way. Therefore, meditation is a helping factor to true selflessservice.
..... Q. Is it possible for one toachieve enlightenment all by oneself or must we ally ourselveswith an organized religion or discipline?
M. No, no, no. We have to achieveenlightenment all by ourselves. Religions cannot help us. Religionsare only doctrines left behind by past enlightened masters. Wecan only take reference with it, refer to it, to compare it withour enlightenment now. To see if we are in correct accord withthe ancient masters, if our method is correct, and if our enlightenmentis like theirs. That's the good of the doctrines.
Right now I just mentioned,Jesus when he was initiated, or baptized - actually "baptized"means "initiated" He saw the light come down from heavenlike a dove. So now, if we get initiation from Master Ching Hai,and we see the light come down like a dove or whatever, then wecan say, "Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah! She transmits the same method."That is just for our reference. Otherwise, the Bible cannot enlightenus. Any religion, any religious bible cannot help us to get theinner light and inner happiness and satisfaction Only the transmissionfrom the real living God power fulfills all of our desires. Okay?
..... Q. Without the guidance of a master,meaning without interior work, is it possible to obtain enlightenment?
M. Maybe! But to a very small degree, not tothe highest, and often with a lot of dangers to our health andmentality. That is why we see someone practice alone and theyget very weak, or they become mentally disturbed, or they becomepossessed. We have heard about these. If you have a master, thesewon't happen. But the master must be a perfect, a real, a competentmaster, who has reached the highest goal, who is omnipresent,meaning one who is in one place, in many places, in all places,in the whole universe at the same time, and who knows your problemswithout asking, who helps you before you even know it. Then youare in safety.
..... Q. Is it possible for one to reachenlightenment through direct experience in case he doesn't havea real Master around?
M. Yes, you can get enlightenment without aMaster. There are many reasons for it. One of the reasons is thatyou have practiced before, many lives before, and your memoryis still there. So we see people are born with... there are somepeople whom we call genius, you know? From childhood they alreadycan do many things. So this is a case of the leftover power fromthe previous lives of practice. Yes, so there are some who whenthey are born or just a small child already they want to practicemeditation, eat vegetarian, go to the temple, etc. Now thereis another case in which you attain enlightenment after you haveseen some Masters, but without knowing that these are Masters.You don't recognize them, and you might not even believe in thatMaster; nevertheless, you still have the blessing. You just lookat the eyes of the Master once. In some cases it is enough togive you enlightenment, and you could even attain liberation throughthat grace. But this will not enable you to be a Master, a Buddhain this lifetime. That's the difference. Because this enlightenmentis not complete, yes, it is just a part of enlightenment. There'sone more category in which you meet one or many disciples of agreat Master, and somehow you contact with them, help them, orhave good relations with them, and the disciples might mentionabout the Master, might give you a photo of the Master, and thenyou'll also get blessed. Or maybe they share with you the blessedfood from the Master. You eat one piece and suddenly you do notknow what is happening, you get the light, you become enlightened,and you thought it is from yourself. No? Actually, it is fromthe invisible blessing from the Master through the disciples,through the blessed food. Blessed food means food that is blessedby the Master, charged by the spiritual power of the Master. InHindu we call it "prashad". So these are many casesof enlightenment. And sometimes if you are a relative of an initiateof an enlightened Master, then you also get the benefit from thatdisciple of the Master. So many cases. Some of my disciples havechildren, two, three, four years old; and of course, in the nightthey meditate, and the child was sitting behind. And then suddenlyone day the child tells the mother, "Mother, mother, I sawMaster come here!" "I see Jesus," or "I saw Buddha,I see light, I hear sound." Four years old and already enlightened.Four years old, three years old, and it's because of the chargingpower from the Master through the mother. In these cases, we sayyou are enlightened without a Master. Okay?
..... Q. If a personhas a desire to get liberation or go beyond the three worlds,is this desire different than ordinary desire?
M. Yes, it is different because by havingthat desire alone, all other desires die down. Otherwise we havetoo many desires, you see? And then we have troubles because weare pulled from different directions. Whereas if we have onlyone upward desire, we are pulled up, and then we will be happy.We reach our high nature.
..... Q. Does having children limit theway to liberation?
M. No, not at all. You even have a chance totake another soul home. Blessed are the children, already borninto a spiritual atmosphere, born by enlightened parents. Blessedare they indeed. It's good to have children. If everybody stoppedhaving children, where would all the Buddhas come from? Jesuswould have no chance to come back again. Okay. He promised youHe would come back. No? Maybe one of your children will be Jesus.No? We must have hope, huh? [Master laughs]
..... Q. How long doesit take to become enlightened to reach the highest level or Godrealization?
M. It depends on you. How diligent youare, how much you want it, and also it depends on the Master.Is the Master powerful enough to take you through these levelsof consciousness and lead you to where you want to be?
..... Q. Master, usuallyhow long does it take to get enlightenment? May I know what doesit depends on?
M. Oh, depends on many things. First,it depends on the proper meditation method. And it depends onyour teacher, whether that person is capable to lead you to enlightenment.Never mind talking about long or short. If you get a good teacher,you get immediate enlightenment. If you don't get a good teacher,I don't know how long, very, very long, many lifetimes. And alsoenlightenment depends on your sincerity, if you want it or not.If you do want it, you get it immediately. If you don't want it,it doesn't matter how much you pretend, how long you sit there,until your bottom falls off, (laughter) you don't have anything.
..... Q. What are the steps to enlightenment, and what levelof enlightenment does this technique take you to?
M.It will take you to the source of all beings, where you came from,and where all beings will return. Between this earthly level andthat absolute level, there are five levels of consciousness, ordifferent planes of existence. And if we, through the practiceof the heavenly light and sound and with the guidance of an experiencedteacher, pass through these five levels, then we will arrive atthe house of the Masters, where all Masters came from and returnto after their mission, and where we also will come from in orderto help other beings, should we desire to return to earth, orto any other earth planet in the universe. So the first step isto get initiation, and then, everything else will come.
..... Q. I've heardof many people who said that when you are enlightened, you aresupposed to shave your hair and wear no make-up. (Laughter) Whatdo you think of this saying and comment.
M. What do you think, is that correct?(Audience: No!) No, they say " No! " (Laughter &applause) I'll give you one "A" for you. (Master andall laugh.) Beautiful, beautiful, I love that. It's very beautiful;you are very open, very enlightened; at least to some degree.If you still cling your attention to anything of this world, whetherit's there or not there, you obstruct yourself, right? Your natureis without anything. No dust can cling to your nature, okay? Nomake-up can cover your Buddha nature; no lipstick can blur awaythe light of heaven. If you have Eye, you'll see I am radiatinglight now. Even if I put the whole charcoal boxes on my face,make myself black, I am still very white and bright. So if youshave your head, then you are enlightened? Is that right? So whydon't you do it? It's so easy. (Laughter) All of you do it. Steve,your hair is too long for the enlightenment. (Laughter & applause)God doesn't care whether your hair is long or short. Stupid. (Laughter)Otherwise all the beautiful Miss Universes can not get enlightenment,or what? (Master laughs.) And if we say that, all the barber shops,all the beauty salons will close. We create unemployment evenmore. (Laughter) Is that the life of an enlightened person? Oh,oh, if I preach like that, Mr. Clinton will not be happy. (Laughter)He will not give me permission to preach in America.
..... Q. Once you becomeenlightened, can you lose consciousness of your enlightenment?
M. Oh, yes, possible. Yes, when you sleep.Sometimes when you meditate, and then you sleep, the light comes,the enlightenment comes but you are not aware of it . And whenyou are not asleep, then you are aware of it, okay?
..... Q. Once the soul is awakened, does it stay activelyawake?
M.Yes, always. The body will sleep, the mind will get sometimesentangled in other purposes, but the soul never does it again.Once awakened, it is always awakened. But even then, we need acooperative mind, body and emotions in order to work best, tobenefit the world more, with the soul's directing power. Therefore,after initiation, even when we have a taste of enlightenment,and know ourselves, we still continue with our training, in orderto make the mind used to the enlightened way of the soul, andnot to sink down again in the physical level, and the worn outconceptions and habit forming ways of doing things.
..... Q. After one has experienced Nirvana and/or enlightenment,is it difficult to attain masteryover one's energy body?
M.No, it isn't. It is easy to gain control over one's energy bodywhen one has attained enlightenment. That is the purpose of it.If we couldn't control our psychic, or energy, or light body thenwhat's the use of enlightenment? If we are out of control thenwe are even worse off than before. Maybe this may happen if youhave, how you say, an incompetent master, or if you practice yourselffrom a bookshelf, how you say, a bookshelf self-realization, andother things like that. It is a little bit dangerous. Yes. Sure!Therefore some people who practiced themselves or have had incompetentmasters became mentally deranged. Yes. It is true, I understandnow. [Somebody said possessed] Yeah, possessed. Yes. Some arepossessed by demons, and some by self-disturbance because theycouldn't handle so much release of psychic energies or higherorder of power. They are not used to it. They are too immature.They do not know what to do with it, therefore they become outof order. So it is better to practice with a competent master.That's the reason why we should have a master, otherwise thereis no need. If the master doesn't need to transmit the teachingpersonally, then he can even write a book, and sell it, and becomefamous, with a best seller, or something like that. Yes. It iseven more comfortable, yeah! You sit at home and you write a bookand it becomes a best seller, and every day you get income.
..... Q. When we get enlightened are webetter able to resolve real problems such as abrupt changes anddifficult things like these?
M. Oh yeah, definitely. Yes, it has certaineffects. We may be able to live a better, smoother life. Becausewe think clearer, so we solve problems better. Yeah.
