Selected Questions and Answers

 

The Two Aspects of Spirituality

Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai, London, England,
June 9, 1999 (Originally in English) DVD #662

Q: Do you promise that we can see God in this life, or will it be in the next life?

M: This life, this instant! After this life, you don’t even know if you will come into human life. Yes, it’s in this life, this very lifetime. If I can make it, you can make it. If all of our brothers and sisters who have been initiated can make it, you can make it! Only this life is the life that matters to us. Because who can prove to you that we have the next life or not?

Most souls, after leaving this planet do not reincarnate again on this planet. So I can’t promise you the next life, actually. You might be reborn again in another heaven or on another planet, not necessarily this one, and not necessarily in the physical frame like this.

Spirituality has two aspects: One is theory and another one is practice. The theory is the one who introduces to us God, Heaven, the bliss, the everlasting life and the “seeing God while living.” It’s just like I’m doing now, introducing the so-called apple. The practical aspect of spirituality is the apple itself; it’s when you eat it!

For theory, we have plenty already. We have all kinds of spiritual scriptures and we have all kind of doctrines that talk about God, talk about Buddha, talk about Heaven, about Buddha’s Land and so on. But they just make our mouth water! Because we don’t see it ourselves, so we don’t know what God looks like and we don’t know what Heaven is. We thought only the pure people of the ancient times could see Heaven and talk to God. But why not us? The people in the old times also ate; they also worked, they also got married, they also had children and they also took care of their family, just exactly the way we are doing now.

So I don’t see how the people of the old times are purer than us in any way, logically speaking. Because of that, I was wondering myself. Before I got the taste of enlightenment, I wondered, “How come I cannot see God? How can I not see Buddha?” I saw that people in the old times could. So I must be able to. I cannot believe in a Buddha or God I don’t see and I don’t know! So I tried my best; I tried many ways. I tried going to different schools, I tried seeing different teachers, hoping to find the Truth. Then finally, where there is a will, there is a way: Someone showed me how to see God. So, after some time of practice, God allowed me or actually, Hes orders that I should share my personal experience with other people who are ready to know. Not everyone is ready to know. But whoever is ready to know, Hes reveals Hirmself. I just show this to you. And that is very simple.

That is the practical aspect of spirituality: The things we have been introduced to, we must know and we must taste them. All the bibles and the spiritual scriptures of different religions mention similar experiences, like when you are enlightened, you at least see the Light, which is one aspect of God. God has no form, even though Hes can manifest in forms, physically and metaphysically, so that we can identify ourselves with Hirm. We can talk to Hirm and even complain to Hirm; we also can hear Hiers advice so that we can take care of our daily problems better and so that we become wiser. That’s how we become saintly, wise persons. In the old times people became wise because of direct communication with God or direct teaching from the Most High. So in the beginning when we first know God, Hes might appear to us as Light, Hes might talk to us through human language or as intuition in our mind. But later on, Hes will raise us higher and higher until we become one with Hirm. And that’s when we can declare: I and my Father are One, the way our Lord Jesus reached God.