By brother initiate Frank Dong, San Francisco, U.S.A.

Spiritual practitioners usually regard the ego as the greatest hindrance to spiritual progress. So completely eliminating the ego is the greatest aspiration of many. However, Master has said,

"Even if we practice the Quan Yin Method, a little ego will still exist. Only when we have transcended the Three Realms will our ego be diminished. It will only be diminished, reduced to almost nothing, leaving behind one percent, very close to nothing. However, this little bit of ego has to be retained; otherwise we cannot exist in this world." (Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai [originally in Chinese], Tainan, Formosa, March 2, 1989) Thus, we can see that while we are in the world of Maya, we can minimize our ego as much as possible through spiritual cultivation, but 100 percent elimination is impossible.

After having practiced the Quan Yin Method, I have come to realize that the spiritual path is actually a process of moving from one "realization" to another. As long as we persist in practicing diligently, our actions, speech and thoughts will gradually become purified following the elevation of our realization. As a result, we become increasingly sensitive to the things around us, and often have the feeling that what we previously considered to be correct, we now consider wrong. I have also discovered that many lessons are designed so that we can learn how to renounce the ego, and overcome hindrances, and this process is for our spiritual progress. Some people might have more lessons to learn than others, but these are actually made-to-measure arrangements by God, and depend on our individual situations. Thus, we have no reason to complain, and instead should be very grateful!

Many mistakes originate from the ignorant ego, which binds us to all sorts of habits and prejudices, making us think that whatever "I" think, say, and do is correct. Whenever this "I" is present in our thinking, God quietly disappears. At such times, we neglect everything in the world as a whole, including other people's feelings. When we lose touch with God's guidance and act merely with our minds and preconceived ideas, how can we possess any noble ideals or do anything in accordance with God's will?

So if we continually keep God in mind instead of being attached to our actions and speech, and the habits and prejudices of the "I," then even when we occasionally commit a minor mistake, we will be able to realize it and repent immediately, and easily rectify the situation due to God's mercy and blessing because we understand our error in the proper light. Therefore, though it seems that we have been wrong, actually we are no longer wrong as a result of severing our attachment to the "I"!