Master’s Words

The Essence of Mastership — Master Yourself and Become Perfect

Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai, Group Meditation in Los Angeles, CA., USA, March 13, 1996 (Originally In English) Videotape #536

A Master isn’t a perfect person — never is, never will be. You must know that. But a Master is one who can master His or Her mistakes. We can learn from them and vow to make ourselves better each day. Just like being a genius is continuous hard work to maintain, so is Mastership, which is all about mastering yourself and nothing else. If anyone else follows you, it’s just by the way, just because of your aura. Your true sincerity attracts them from inside. That’s why you don’t need to talk. You don’t even need to tell them anything and they believe you. Mastership is like that.

Don’t believe that I was born perfect, I’m perfect at the moment or I’ll ever be perfect. No! I’m learning like you. But I’ve mastered myself. I don’t let my mind dictate to me what to do because I know the mind. I make friends with it; we make a deal, saying, “You do this and I’ll do that and we won’t bother each other. If you do it well, I’ll reward you. I feed you well, don’t I?” I tell it, “I give you anything when you want it.” It’s just that now it doesn’t want much because it knows it can’t get much with me, so it forgets it. Even when it wants to sleep, I say, “No, get up and work.” Then it has to do it. So it’s gotten used to it after ten years. It says, “It’s no good talking to this girl. She’s very stubborn. She just does what she wants, and it’s no good arguing.”

That’s all there is to being a Master, continuous striving for perfection, for a better, nobler personality — a better ideal not really a personality because when you talk about personality you mean you still want fame and all that. You know you still have ego, wanting to be proud of yourself; it’s not true. It’s just that you think that whatever you want to do, whatever you think is noble, is highly idealistic, benefits others, is good, then you must try to do it. It doesn’t matter what the cost is, you just do it and don’t talk. That’s the only difference. Otherwise, what’s the difference?

If we were to be operated on right now, none of our brains would be much better than the others. Maybe I’m of a little bit higher IQ or you’re higher, but that doesn’t mean that we’re much different. Our brains are the same. Our will power is the same, except that if you exercise to make it grow stronger or not, it’s your free will. Most of us abuse our free will in a harmful way, in a retarding way, slowing our progress to higher consciousness.

Don’t ask me why we have to strive higher. It’s more comfortable to be a noble being, to be a wiser being, than just always being ignorant, sluggish, slow, lazy and a “couch potato” just lying there and waiting for things to happen. It’s better not to worship me, better not to follow me; just follow my example. Worship the result that comes out of my efforts and then do it. Do the same, and then you’ll become a Master in no time.

Teach yourself to do what’s better than ordinary people, to do the things that other people can’t do when it benefits humankind and yourself, to endure what other people can’t endure when it benefits people and betters your judgment and wisdom. Do whatever is in your power to know yourself, to discover that your greatest strength is still further to be discovered, that you’re nobler than you are at present, that you can do many other things that are a lot of benefit to yourself and other people. Then when you die you’ll know. At that time it might be too late to look back and regret, but you’ll feel very painful. That’s why when most people die they’re in agony. They haven’t finished the things that they should have done, and their conscience strikes them. Their mind controls the body and the conscience affects the physical being. So if your conscience doesn’t feel well, you feel sick, you feel painful.