We Are God

By Supreme Master Ching Hai
University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. April 17, 1993.

Turn Inward And Listen To The Heavenly Teachings

I am very honored to be in this great country. This country of prosperity, of peace, of loving kindness and humanitarianism; because your country has what many countries do not have - the warmth and the human love between each other, as well as very elevated spiritual standards. I was very touched to know that in your country there is no death sentence. That shows that in this land "love" rules above all things. Let's hope that other countries will learn from your example, to let God rule justice and not to take revenge.

I had the opportunity to speak to some of the people who live in this land - the immigrants - for example, the Au Lac refugees who have been welcomed into your country with love and nondiscrimination. They're all very happy in this country. I am sure this will add more merits and blessings to this great nation that you happen to reside in. Only a very spiritually elevated country can possess such qualities of loving kindness, of non-racism, nondiscrimination. If every nation was like this, at least our world would become a small paradise.

Unfortunately, there are many other things that prevent people from understanding the basic truth - that is love is the greatest law in the universe; and therefore, many people do not enjoy life the way they should.

The more we cling to life in a forceful way, the less we can enjoy the flavor of it. Therefore, the enlightened persons are happier and more contented. Even then, from this very stable state of mind, they can do many wonders because they are quiet enough to understand where their wisdom lies, where their greatness is, in order to make use of it.

When we are very busy, are in a panic, or in a hurry, most often we forget what we want to do. Or we do things in an incomplete way. Therefore, the tranquil mind of an enlightened person can see things more clearly. That's the only logic of this science.

Be still and know that I am God. Who is that "I am"? That is the "one" that resides within us. That is the true "self". Therefore, we are God. This realization doesn't come through hearing people saying that or through believing alone, but through self realization. Just as in any other science there must be a special
technique.

Everything we learn and master in life is all done through self experimentation. Similarly, enlightenment can be achieved through some perseverance, self experience. Therefore, it will be lasting. That's the reason why we have heard a lot of saints and sages of all times saying that, we are God. God is within us. If God is within us, that means we and God are one. If we and God are one, we are God. But even then, we have heard this so often, we have read so many bibles and so many statements from such great men, like Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, etcetera; but we do not truly believe that we are this, and we cannot find the God that is supposed to dwell within ourselves. It is because we lack self experience; we have not known it by our own discovery, but only by hearing.

In the old times, when science had not reached the heights of today, we had many problems. Even the rain troubled us, the snow bothered us. Anything, any small things, big things, obstructed our daily activities. For example, now we have umbrellas, we have raincoats, so we can walk in the rain. We can even enjoy the rain and work in the rain. Better still we have cars, we have buses. We have all the things that protect us from the different weather changes in nature. Therefore we are very comfortable.

In the ancient times, if we were to hold a meeting like today, many of you who live at a very, very long distance away would not be here. Not because of the distance only, but because of rain, because of weather, and all that. So in the ancient times people hid themselves in caves, in mountains, under the trees, to protect themselves from natural disadvantages.

Many people still do today, in some of the undeveloped countries. So that must not be. Enlightenment is like that. It's just like we add more comforts into our life, and be happy in whatever condition. Suppose we don't have a raincoat, we don't have an umbrella, we don't have a car; if it rains today, we are stopped from doing all of our activities, from all the things that we love to do, and want to accomplish.

To Change The World, Change Yourselves.

Similarly, life is fantastic if we have enlightenment. There is nothing "terror" or "trouble". Only because we lack protection that it seems to be so; because, take the example, the rain. If it doesn't rain, we don't have water and all the trees, the flowers cannot grow. All the crops that we need for survival would never be there. Therefore, rain is not terrible in itself. But it is if we don't have an umbrella, and we walk miles in the cold. We will shiver, we will catch cold, we will be ill, and we may lose our life even though it is such a very harmless and useful natural phenomenon. Even a very natural, beautiful phenomenon becomes harmful to us, if we lack equipment to protect ourselves. Therefore, many people want to change the world. To change the way we live our lives. But the sages of enlightened spirits say: "No! Change yourselves," because if we change ourselves, we change the world around us. Even if the world still stays the way it is, we are not affected. If each person changes in this way, there would be no need for any wars and there would be no disasters. If everyone had an umbrella, a raincoat, what is the need to change the season, to stop the rain, or to make magical power to control the rainy season, like many people would like to learn and possess this magical power? It can stop the rain, can make it last longer, can push it to another direction. And it takes a long time to learn this magical skill. But why bother? We just wear the raincoat - it's cheap, it's simple, and everyone can use it.

Once the Buddha wanted to cross the river by boat, and the boatman did not want to take him because he had no money. At that time he was, of course, a renunciative monk still, who possessed no property, so the Buddha had no choice but to walk over the river. These days, quite a few yogis in India, Tibet and elsewhere still can do that.

Many people ask me about magical power because people are curious about things that they can't explain, and also about things that they scientifically think "are impossible". So I told them, "Yes! These things do exist, but nevertheless, they are not to be used at random, and also not to be done for show." Even Jesus, He possessed a lot of magical power, but He didn't always use it. He was very reluctant. Therefore, He raised only one dead person to life. He cured only two or three blind persons, and did not run around all the time and raise all the dead back to life. That will bring the natural law into a chaotic situation. That is a thing an enlightened saint would not do.

Each one has to learn to yearn within his heart to know himself, to know God; and then the Kingdom of God will come, the Master will come to help that person. If we use magical power, or any other supernatural ways to convince people, we unknowingly lead people astray; because, we limit God's power within these magical skills, which could be learned by some experts. Also, by doing that, we interfere with the flow of nature. And of course, we bring some disasters upon ourselves. What we seek are the eternal things, like wisdom, love and the greatness of the universal power, not the small corner of these low level gains.

Greatest Miraculous Power Do Without Doing

When we possess the great wisdom, we also possess numerous miraculous powers. But at that time, we have so much, too much, that we might not even know how much we have, and things just come out from us automatically without us intentionally doing anything. That's why the saints do things without doing, without even thinking, without even wanting to do it. It's just like a very, very rich person, he has no idea how much he has. He can never count. He can never see all of his treasure.

Therefore, the enlightened persons are always happy. At least most of the time they are happy. And even when he encounters unhappiness, which is brought to him by his very close contact with someone he loved, maybe, then he is affected. Because of the love for that person, he may share the sufferings or unhappiness of that person. But even then, he is very, very calm inside. He knows that the unhappiness is only of an ephemeral nature. He is not, kind of dragged and sunken into this unhappiness, like most of the people are. Therefore, if we even want just to be happy in this life, we should get enlightenment.

Of course, I should tell you that you have to seek God for God's sake alone, not because of the happiness in this life. But I do think that these things come together. If you are enlightened, you are happy. And the more happy, the more you believe in enlightenment, and the more you will appreciate God's nature anyhow. What is the use of expecting an everlasting happiness in heaven, while we grovel here in darkness and in misery every minute of our life?

An enlightened person enjoys both worlds; enjoys heaven at the same time as enjoying the world. Why? Because he knows that whatever is manifested in this world, is also the will of heaven. It's also a copy of the real manifestation in the higher Kingdom of God. Because he is very relaxed, has no fear, no anxiety, so whatever he enjoys, he enjoys it to the utmost.

Many people think that after enlightenment, maybe you don't know how to love your wife, your husband or children anymore. It is the opposite. Only when you are very happy, and know your true worth, can you truly love another person. Because you see her reflection is within you and your reflection is within her. You will respect that person and love all the good qualities that God has endowed that person, because you have realized what God has given in yourself. Then you know God gives all beings the same amount of qualities.

But we choose sometimes to go in the opposite direction. Therefore, we suffer; and then we blame God. We say how come God has such almighty power and cannot turn this world into heaven. The power doesn't lie in God's hands, it lies in your hands. I know all these through experiences, not through books, not through any bible. I know these also through the experiences in the life of my disciples. That is also the reason why we see each other today.

Sharing The Bliss Of Enlightenment

It is due to the kindness of my disciples. They want to share with you what they have discovered. So they have gone through a lot of trouble, expense and time to organize this day's congregation. We do not do this with a very burning ambition to convince you into our path. But we do it with a very happy attitude of just a happy person. Therefore, we don't care to wear very special renunciative dresses to impress you. We do not try to make a very holy appearance of ourselves to convert you. We do not try to give anything to you, or any other kind of magical power to let you come into our circle. But we do it as a duty of one brother to another. We just do it for the sake of doing it. Actually, we're happy whether you are convinced, or not. We will be contented whether you come, or you go. Because nothing is that deadly serious to us anymore. We do it or not do it, it is the same thing to us.

I could be sitting pretty on the top of a mountain in Formosa and enjoying my samadhi power, or I could be sitting here knowing more of the people of the Earth planet. It is the same to me. Therefore, if you feel that you're ready for this happiness, which is the true happiness because it comes from the root, because you know the whole thing from heaven to earth and hell. You know
everything. And then you choose what you would like to enjoy. Therefore, your happiness will be true and lasting. Otherwise, most of the so called enjoyments in this world we are not free to choose.

Sometimes we are dragged along to a party and we try to enjoy it. Sometimes we are forced to get married because of some political or business reasons, and try to make the best out of it. Sometimes we drag along with a big family and try to feed them. Working from morning to night, we think that we are great because we are taking care of the family. But it's not always a choice. Therefore, we do
not feel happy in many things we do; because, somehow, we feel that we are not the one who controls all this. We are not the host, we're just like a guest. We are blown with the wind, and we go along with whatever the situation is. We lose many interests and joys in life through not knowing why we are doing all this and
that. But after enlightenment, it's different. Whatever we enjoy, we truly enjoy. We understand the values of life, as well as the values above this life.

There are two lives in any planet. One is of the material existence, the other is of an everlasting nature. If we know only one and we lack the other, just like most people in the world -- they enjoy only the material existence of so called life but they do not know the real picture of this projection; they know only the shadows. So they only enjoy the material life, and fear losing it. But the truly enlightened person knows both - the everlasting and also the copy of it; and he can enjoy both at the same time, he can choose to enjoy one or the other. But I think that while we are already here, we might just as well enjoy. There is nothing in this world that we should not enjoy, really. Except those things that are harmful to the lives of other beings.

Therefore, we just suggest a vegetarian diet, so the fish can always swim in the sea as much as they please and the cows can graze in the pasture until nature causes them to go back to where they belong. We can enjoy them, and they can enjoy us.

Some of the enlightened persons, I don't know how, to which degree, but they choose to live in the inside, on the other side of life, the spiritual side of life. And therefore, give the impression to the people that all the enlightened persons have to be like that - have to go into the Himalayas, have to go into the cave, have to forsake all the beautiful things about this life in order to be an enlightened being.

But that must not be so because we will be too aloof from this world and many people will find it difficult to associate with us. If they find it too difficult to associate with us, how can they help themselves? How can they know what we know? Of course, it may be more pleasant for a saint or an enlightened person to stay away from the hustle, bustle of the world and to be carefree in his or her own way. But on the other hand, there are many other brothers and sisters who need our assistance.