The more we discover how great we are, the more humble we become; and that is a very paradoxical thing. It is like that because we become like a child, we become like a very innocent person. The great sage is like a very innocent person. And it seems like you can tell him anything you want about your talent, about your ambition, about your intelligence, about your degrees, and he will never object. It's not that he always tries to force his wisdom upon you. It comes naturally by circumstances or by request. And after speaking, most probably the so-called master will forget everything that was spoken, completely; just remember one or two sentences or maybe none, because wisdom comes from the universal storehouse for the common use of all beings. It doesn't belong to one person or a group of any persons. It belongs to the ignorant as well as the enlightened. It belongs to the child as well as to an aged citizen. Everyone has a share of this wisdom, but only if we truly want to know it.
That made me cry sometimes before: I said "If I am God, how come I am so humble? How come I'm so weak? How come I'm so small? How come I'm so ignorant? How come I suffer so much? Where is my Home?" And that's when we begin to ask ourselves how to reclaim our glory again. That's when enlightenment begins to inch toward us, or we're crawling toward enlightenment, or maybe we're running, flying, it depends. Some people fly, some people walk, some people go by, maybe train. That's why at the time of so-called initiation, some people have greater enlightenment, some people have lesser "great" enlightenment. It's because sometimes we choose to go faster, sometimes we choose to go slower.
Sometimes after we get initiation and practice the Quan Yin Method, the worldly people, who are very much attached to us, sometimes feel that we neglect them; but it is not the truth. It is just now we have a greater love, more universal, detachment and not a possessive nature. Therefore we love but we don't possess. We help but we do not get attached. And if the people of the world are still at the worldly level and judge things according to outer appearances and actions, they probably think we've became cold; but it is not true. It's not that we always have to hug someone or embrace them in order to express our love, but we do love them. This kind of universal great love will never bind. It will only heal and elevate.
True happiness is not offered by high positions in the world, by the knowledge that we gain from books, or from the society or from the possessions that we have. True happiness can only come with self-realization, with enlightenment. Then when we laugh, we truly laugh, and when we cry, we are truly touched. And all our emotions are worked out in a harmonious, natural and perfect way, leaving our body and mind relieved of all burdens and unnecessary pressures, which cause a lot of our unknown illnesses, or many mental disturbances. And then after enlightenment, when we understand something, we truly understand, very deeply, very profoundly, very satisfyingly. And then we truly know happiness. Even though in life we still encounter a lot of difficulties, a lot of undesirable situations, but then within ourselves, we are unshakable! We might shed tears but we are not miserable. We are not weighed down by the misery, the sorrow that we encounter. We might laugh very heartily, but we will not be attached to the fleeting happiness which the material world offers us. We enjoy things but we do not possess them. We sympathize with people, but we do not bind them to us. We love everyone without feeling a possessive impulse to have to bind people around us all the time. This is then the true happiness.
If we understand the Kingdom of God is within us, and if we have already tasted the nectar of this Kingdom, then probably we do not want to resist anything. If we can live here longer to serve God and fellow beings, let it be so. If we have to go because our time has come, or because someone else wants to terminate our life, let it be, because we have other kingdoms to continue to live in.
A man who grows above the physical level is a monk.
The energy field of spiritual practitioners will become increasingly gentle and soothing. The higher their spiritual level, the more people want to be near them. It is because spiritual practitioners are never disturbed by any atmosphere. The higher their spiritual level, the more people they will be able to work with in harmony. People like them because they feel very comfortable around spiritual practitioners, whereas they always feel irritated around other people.
Actually it's like that. Many people have no attraction before, then suddenly after initiation and meditate for sometime, they begin to attract people. You know, not necessarily physically, just attract them. They just love them and they just want to be near them. It is because of your vibration, your loving God energy. You cannot conceal it. It just radiates out and then attracts people like magnet, because the souls in themselves are also Godlike. So they just feel attracted to you, the same that people are attracted to the masters, but that is by no means a crutch. It is just a self attracted to a higher self. So after sometimes they just realize that both of them are one. Therefore, who is there to get the crutch? Who is there to rely on whom? So actually that is also the answer to that question about master and religion are crutch. It depends.
How much food and possessions we have in this lifetime was written before we were born. However, we can be above it with the power derived from spiritual practice.
As you go on developing your mastership, you will master slowly, slowly, one by one the arts, and you know many things by the way. One by one, you'll master them. Not one by one, one hundred, one thousand by one thousand. It's just because you have no opportunity to use these, so you do not know what you have yet. When you suddenly encounter trouble, danger or problems that you have to solve, then you know what you have.
The love for the Master never changes, it just develops. First, you love the physical presence of the Master and later you love everyone, even without their presence. You will feel more tolerant, more loving, unconditionally. You will love without knowing you love. It will be very natural, very comfortable. What you love, is the love for me. You feel free, more developed, more loved in the presence of a Master. You feel more self-confident and self-worth. You know that this person will never harm you, will only help you to develop your self-worth, and never ask anything in return. This is the only love that can move every heart. It never fades, even from one life to the next. Once you are initiated, it is forever. Everywhere you go, you feel that love with you. So, you are happy to be around, it just like the moths, they like to be near the light.
Everybody likes the invisible great light of a Master, because this light has everything we need for our thirsty soul, everything that the world cannot satisfy. So to get satisfaction, you sit next to the Master. You don't love the appearance of the Master, but the inner beauty.
When you think of me you smile, no? You feel happy, a kind of bliss. But the worldly love will always bind you to this world. If you are bound to me, you go where I go, but if you are bound to someone else, you go where they go (laughter). Sometimes it leads you to misery, hatred, jealousy and to all kinds of bondage. But the love for the Master is different. The more you love the Master, the more freedom you get, all kinds of freedom in aspects you never knew before, because you were bound by society, conceptions, customs, family ties. Now, nothing can bind you, no desires, no habits, no kind of lower desires. That is the difference between noble love, and the lower desire which we call love, and which is karma binding. You love me, but you can leave me anytime. That's the difference, you don't need to fear.
Also see : Lecture - The 'Saint's Symptoms'