In this episode, Supreme Master Ching Hai shares Her insights on spiritual healing, explains what enlightenment is, and discusses what happens after we receive initiation.
(In the rules for preparation for initiation, You said that the spiritual power should not be used for healing others.) Yes. (I am a practitioner of reiki healing, that is a healing art. If I were to receive initiation, will I still be able to safely practice the reiki healing art without the effects of the initiation causing me to incur a karmic debt by practicing the reiki healing art?)
Reiki healing – you use the hands (Yes.) and radiate light? (Yes, direct energy to the hands and also to the mind through distance.)
Yes, I understand this process. You see, to be a healer is different from being a world-saver. A different path. So, if you like to be a healer, then it is better you stay where you are. If you would like to become a Buddha or Christ, not only to heal people’s sicknesses, but to heal the soul, then you follow me. It’s a different path altogether.
For example, if you want to become a doctor, a physician, then you should not bother with the nurse’s work and don’t have to do all the nurse’s work every day and help them just because they’re also helping patients, just because they are also doing the loving work. You say, “Oh! The nurse is so busy, and is also helping the patients. Now I have to help them!” No, you have to carry on with your study until you get a doctor’s degree, and you become a doctor. A nurse is a nurse; a doctor is a doctor.
(So, practicing the reiki healing will, therefore, be inappropriate? Is that the fine line I’m trying to understand here?) It is not helping your progress to become Christ-like, and it’s not for liberation. You heal people’s sicknesses only. I heal without touching anyone. I don’t need to do anything. I don’t need to come to that person to heal, and that’s a greater healing. Wouldn’t you follow? (I’m not sure I follow You on that. I’m not sure I understand the...) Oh! Yes, yes, I understand. Now, your healing is very compassionate work.
Reiki healing is also due to love for the suffering of humankind. I understand. But our path is higher than that. You heal without healing. You heal without hands, without foot, without eyes, without even looking at the patient, without even knowing the patient, without even the patient ever knowing you. That’s the best healing, the highest. So actually, when you follow me, you also follow the healing path, but no need to do these small tricks. We have to accumulate our power to the maximum, and then, you heal through anything. (Thank You.) Alright?
Not that I have no compassion for humankind. What I say is that we have to first accumulate our power to the maximum extent, and then we can heal anyone without even laying hands on them, without having to be near them, without even knowing that patient. (Thank You.) Some people get cured just by repeating the Name of the Master, of the Living Master, even without even seeing the Master at all. Never heard of that Master before, never saw that Master before, just hear the Name and have faith in that Master, and get cured of incurable disease. That’s the highest kind of healing. We have to accumulate this power until that peak and then be a healer. The healer of soul and body.
(I’m sorry. From what I can gather, I am trying to think of what this gentleman’s concern is. I think he is at that decision point, and because this healing may be a means for his living, and…) No, no. (…it seems that…) No, they don’t do that for money. (Oh, OK.) They don’t do that for money, as far as I know, right? (We accept donations.) Oh, but that’s… Yeah, that’s not [making] money; that’s not a livelihood, no? (No, it is not my livelihood.) That’s right, that’s right. Mostly they do this kind of work, it’s for charity. If people donate, alright. If they do not donate, they don’t care even. The donation is good for the patient only, right? So no livelihood meaning. (Thank you. Yes, that’s my question.)
Right. Anything else? Here, here, here. The man with the stick. We’re both the same, no? I also have a stick. Come.
(Now, I seem to think that GOD finds You, or finds me, or all of us, if we want. Can you have… maybe not too many Masters, but too much exposure…or not?) To what? (You mean to show up everywhere, to be everywhere?) (Maybe it’s spreading [oneself] thin. But rushing towards all Saints, all Representatives of GOD – can that be a bad thing?) I can’t understand. Can you understand? Please explain to me what he means. Are you enlightened? What did you mean? Please make it… Is that right? (How much is too much?) Well, when you think you have found the answer with one Master and satisfy your soul, you should stop and meditate, and be quiet and find your own Master within, not without. (And then maybe I’ll get a little more lucid. I hate to get lucid, but maybe I will…) Tell me.
(One time while I was being shown GOD, in this area were all the saints, and they were used to the light, and they loved the light. It was too much for me.) You’ve been shown the (inner Heavenly) Light of GOD within? Not the physical light? And it was too much for you? In which sense? (I didn’t want to lose control.) Well, you have to do it slowly. It’s not losing control. You expand. (The question might be… No, it’s not a question. It was fear.) Oh, maybe you fear losing the ego “I,” but you gain more by that. You see, in the Bible, it says, “Those who lose everything will gain everything.”
So, because of our habit of clinging to this world and the possessions in this world, we fear that if we lose everything in this world or lose hold of this world, what will we get then? It’s just a fear of losing possessions and losing touch with this world. But you will come back to this world anyhow. After that, you will come back. So, no need to fear. It’s hard to get to GOD. It’s easy to get to the world. So, no need to fear. Anything?
(It struck me at the time when I put on the brakes, that in India, in China, in other cultures, you could walk around and know GOD and not be put in a state hospital.) Who? You? (Like here. No, I’m just saying.) Many people walking around, they say they know GOD, and then people put them in a hospital? Can you understand what he’s saying? (That they were not considered insane as here in this country, they would consider someone who is so religious) Yes. (that they are just abnormal.) Well, that’s what I understood too. But you must not go around and proclaim it to people that, “Look, I know GOD. I’m enlightened.” No, no need to do that. Understand? And also, the people who know GOD are mostly very normal people. There’s nothing abnormal about them. But sometimes people go insane by practicing some methods unknown to themselves or without a competent Master, that also happens. What we call “possessed” in Chinese. Got possessed by negative power.
These cases also happen. But most enlightened people are very normal. But also, it’s very dangerous. Yes, that’s right. That’s why it is so dangerous to be a Master, because you cannot conceal yourself from the public. Your duty is to proclaim it to the public, and it doesn’t matter how embarrassed you are, you have to tell them who you are. And it’s really contradictory to Their humility, and it’s also against Their own quiet nature, and also makes Them very tired physically and mentally and receive all kinds of torture and mental and physical discomfort due to the karma of the people who come to them for help. Also, They receive a lot of criticism and disbelief from other people. And so, (Lord) Jesus was crucified, Buddha was nearly killed, and many other Masters were killed. It is because They dared to proclaim in public that They were enlightened, that They are Masters. Of course, it’s very dangerous. But for most people, if they don’t have a mission from GOD to proclaim it, then just practice quietly and silently in your home. Do not let people know what you are. Then you have no danger. Alright? Yes?
(Master, I have two questions. The first one is what You just explained about my question about Heaven, the beautiful world You mentioned. You said that one who is not enlightened cannot truly understand what Heaven is, but that he’ll know it after enlightenment, and know what Heaven is. Because You said that You can show it to us, so it seems You can let us see it. Can you let us see it?) Tomorrow. Tomorrow. (Tomorrow?) You come for initiation and I’ll show you. (Where shall I go?) You go out there and ask them. (Tomorrow.) I also don’t know where. (Oh.) (You can display it tomorrow. Is that right?)
Not display. When you come for initiation, you really have to see it. (Oh.) You really want to go back to Heaven. I’m not just letting you see and then you go home. It’s not like that. (Yes.) I don’t sell it cheap. It’s for sincere people. (Come sincerely.) That means you’re sincere about returning to Heaven later. It’s not taking a look today and then leave tomorrow. Not like that. Not trying it out. If you really want it, then tomorrow during initiation you will be able to know a little, not all of it. It is not possible to know it all that fast. You won’t be able to bear the Heavenly Light, which is so strong. You have to get it slowly. A little bit every day. (Gradually becoming enlightened.) Yes. (Getting enlightened gradually.) You’ll be completely enlightened afterward. Tomorrow you’ll be enlightened a little bit.
(Isn’t there such a saying: “Become a Buddha instantly?” Can we, very quickly, immediately, enter the state of enlightenment?) Immediately… see it. Some people, yes, but not everyone. It depends on your level in previous life. (Does it depend on how sincere one is?) Yes, it’s also related. But some people have been practicing spiritually life after life. They can attain Buddhahood with one look. (Then, still can’t…) However, it’s not so quick. Even Shakyamuni Buddha took six years.
(My second question is… How to handle the relationship between the two? One wants to get enlightenment and also to engage in his own research, or his own job?) Yes. (Is enlightenment contradictory to reading books and doing research? Should we focus our mind on enlightenment, or perhaps… How to handle these two aspects in everyday life?) Apart from enlightenment, you still have to do your research. (For example, when you’re enlightened, meaning…) You still can do your job after that. It’s not that after enlightenment, you abandon your job, your marital relationship, and your son. No. You have to attain enlightenment and also do your job. Two different worlds. Enlightenment is inside; your job is outside, using your hands. (This is rather abstract. For example, to be more specific, what I mean is, after enlightenment, does it mean in the evening, we shouldn’t think of anything? Does it mean we’d forget about things we normally see, about the books we’ve read, and then we enter…) No. You must be joking.
If I had forgotten everything, how could I come here? How can I talk to you in Chinese? I’d also forget my Chinese. No. You’ll still be normal. You’ll be even smarter and better than before. You’ll work even harder and it’ll be even more beneficial. That’s all. OK? (Happier.) Happier. Yes.
(Enlightenment is… Just now I read Your book in which it says one has to be vegan. Then, the other question is…) Being vegan is to avoid adding more to our existing karma, and to cultivate our compassion. (Which is mainly about benevolence.) Yes! It doesn’t mean being vegan will make you enlightened. No. (OK. Thank You.) What else? He is not laughing at you. He is laughing at my answer. (Yes, yes, yes. I am…) Don’t be shy. Continue with your question.
(It is just that I am…) You are asking with sincerity. They’re not laughing at you. Continue with your question. (Yes. What I mean is… This “enlightenment,” this concept, this term, is rather abstract for us. In my mind, enlightenment is believing in Buddha or… not believing in other… heresy. Enlightenment means belief, one-minded and wholehearted belief. How to enter the path leading to enlightenment? I still don’t quite understand.) Oh, my GOD. Five o’clock? I can’t believe it. I am talking for five hours. Oh, no!
To be enlightened, one should study the Buddha’s Teachings, and understand the Buddha’s Wisdom, rather than relying on mere belief. Because “to believe in the Buddha without understanding the Buddha, is slandering the Buddha,” do you understand? (Oh.) You must be enlightened to be able to understand the Buddha’s Wisdom. Only then are you really worshipping the Buddha. Otherwise, you have to say it clearly. Enlightenment. (So as to avoid superstition.)
(That gentleman, I believe he’s a researcher, and his question is about instant enlightenment, and he’s confused about this. And he mixed enlightenment with religious belief, and that’s why Master answered that question to him.) I also forgot what I answered. He said, if enlightenment means you go home, and then in the evening, you might forget everything and you cannot function in the world. He worried that maybe it’s too abnormal. I said, “No, no, you still function.”
You function even better than before. If you still like to read books and doing some research in books and about the knowledge of the world – you still have to do this. You still can do it. And if it’s good for your job, you must do it. Like if you are a doctor, you have to always read medical books of the recent times, not only of the ancient times, in order to better your knowledge and be more sufficient in your work. That you have to do. It doesn’t interfere with your enlightenment. Enlightenment is inside. Working, serving the world is outside. But when the inside is enlightened, the outside is also enlightened. You do your work more sufficiently, more actively, more happily. That’s all. It doesn’t mean you forget everything. And I told him, I haven’t forgotten anything. If I get enlightenment and forget, how can I speak to you in Chinese? I still remember Chinese. That’s what I told him. Is that right? (Yes.) Yeah.
Photo Caption: “Wild Things Are Rare and Bold!”
