Only After Enlightenment
Can One Use Emotions Wisely

Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai at Harvard University, Boston, U.S.A.
October 27, 1989 (Originally in English)

Q: I often find myself feeling anger and hatred. I think that's preventing me from knowing this wisdom. I see people who have a great spiritual practice, they tend to be very loving and very calm. I wonder how is that so and why is that so? Can You give me some wisdom as to why there is anger and hatred? How does one go about stopping anger and having hatred?

M: First we have to know the nature of anger and hatred in order to root them out. Anger and hatred are just ways of protection. Sometimes you feel threatened by other people's opinions, way of life, or behavior. They may harm your ego, your pride, your body or your mind. So you become angry and resentful.

Hatred is a very strong word. I wouldn't like to use it every day. Because actually what we do is resent, not really hate. Hatred is deeper than that. Mostly we resent others when we feel threats to our security.Therefore, do not blame yourself too much when you become angry. Just analyze where that anger has come from; whether you are in the right or in the wrong. Sometimes you have the right to show a little outward anger in order to protect yourself. The question is not to stop anger, but to know when you should show a little anger and when you should not; to control it and to use it to your advantage, not to stop it altogether. I have a little story about a snake for you.

There was a very big and vicious snake. He lived in a tree hole, and he always ate the chickens and scared and bit people. So everyone in the village was scared of him. One day a great yogi came to that place, sat over there, and meditated. The snake felt very peaceful and transformed. He asked the yogi how to suppress his vicious, bad nature; how to become a good snake. The yogi taught him the five precepts: you shall not harm people; you have to eat vegetarian; you do not tell lies; you do not such and such; you do not gamble... which the snake didn't know anyhow. So, the foremost for him was not to harm people. The snake said, "From today, I practice meditation, I eat vegetarian, I don't eat chickens any more. I also don't bite people."

So one day the yogi had to go away for some days. He told the snake to stay home, practice meditation, and wait for him. The children passed by and saw the snake now sitting very quietly in meditation and in samadhi, so they were not afraid of him any more. They wanted to avenge, because before they were afraid of him. So they took a stone and threw it at him. The snake didn't do anything. The master didn't say you should not be angry, but you shouldn't harm people. He meant you should not show any violence at all. Ahimsa means non-violence.

So the snake kept quiet and tried to meditate again. But the children kicked him, pulled his tail out, and whirled him into a circle. The snake got so dizzy. Then they threw and beat him into the trees and trunks. All kinds of things. All his body got bruised, black and blue; and he lay there half dead.

The master came home and said, "What happened to you?"

The snake said, "It was because of the five precepts - non-violence." The yogi was very surprised, "What? What non-violence?"

"You taught me not to be violent, so yesterday the children came, pulled my tail, and threw stones at me. I didn't react, so they carried on with their play. Until now, I nearly died."

The master said, "You are stupid. I didn't tell you not to hiss. You can hiss - scare people away."

But that is the difference between having wisdom and not having one. When we have not the wisdom, are not enlightened, we are carried away by our own emotions. When we have wisdom and enlightenment, we use the emotions to suit our occasion and advantage. It doesn't mean we should altogether eliminate the emotions; we just know how to use them. It is just like a gun in a good hand. He can just shoot where he wants, he doesn't shoot all over the place and kill many people. Now if you want to have this control power and wisdom, you have to have enlightenment. And to get enlightenment is through an experienced teacher. Just like if you want to learn English you have to find an experienced English teacher. That's all. I can offer you this.

Q: What was the physical feeling at the moment You found the Truth? What did You feel?

M: There are many ways. Sometimes you have no physical feeling whatsoever. You enjoy in a different dimension. It does not always relate to the physical feeling. You do not use a physical body to enjoy the heavenly bliss. It is a different kind of enjoyment which also manifests sometimes in a physical feeling, like you will feel very peaceful, that is nothing will move you at all; no anger, no hatred will arise in your mind. And your body will feel so relaxed and so beautiful. That is a kind of lighter samadhi. Once you are in a deeper samadhi, there's no connection whatsoever with your physical body, and you can't tell. But when you come back, the manifestations of the Light takes place at the physical level.

For example, you will be more loving to people, you do your work faster, you think quicker, you are more tolerant, and you look at all the books and you understand them in no time. In other words, you are more intelligent, more loving, and more calm. That is how it manifests through a physical body. But otherwise when you are in very deep samadhi, you are disconnected from the body, no physical feeling.

Q: I work in a hospital; sometimes I work with children who are very sick. I was wondering how should we understand why it is that some small children, who have no choice and who can make no mistakes, have to suffer so much?

M: I understand your heart. I used to wonder like that also. I used to say, "Well, if we are adults, we can make some mistakes or can take the retribution for it. But the children, they are so innocent." But now I know. That is the law of reincarnation. What you sow, so shall you reap. If you do not reap enough in this life, you reap in the next life. You reap the minute you are born. Otherwise, how can we explain God's mercy, which is so differentiated. Some are born with disease, some are born having some trouble, some are born blind, some are born deaf, etc. God is ever-merciful, just that we must reap what we have sown. Otherwise, we can't explain.

Now, it may be difficult to believe this. But it isn't difficult. If we meditate, in some kind of transcendental way we may go to a higher plane of consciousness, we can see through the past lives of a person, and we can know why it so happened. Then we are satisfied or justified.

I'm happy to know that you work from your heart. Anyhow, every time you work, try not to feel personally involved. Otherwise, you will be drained of energy. Just do your best and leave everything to God. It's God who cures or who severs. It's not in our hands to help. Actually, Hes only uses our hands to help those whom Hes wants to help, who deserve the help. The others have to go through some kind of lessons, some kind of cleansing process through suffering, in order to be greater in the next lifetime; because we are continually in eternity. We are not born only once. Otherwise, it is too depressing. One hundred years - what a waste of creative energy from God's part. Hes creates and we live all the time. What we do mistakenly this life, we make up in the next. What we cannot pay this life, we pay in the next. Just like you take a mortgage.

Q: What do you think of the relationship between quantum mechanics and some principles of Buddhism?

M: This only confirms the Buddhist discovery about the different levels of consciousness. You can say that is energy, you can say the different planes of existence. But then the scientists have discovered only the matter. They discovered all the energy as matter, not the flexible intelligence behind the energies. Therefore, it is a little different here. People use energy as a means to sustain their lives and to make more comforts for their lives. But they do not know that behind the energies is flexible intelligence, wisdom.

Q: Some of science seems to be similar to the law of karma. Please explain.

M: Yes, but what we know by method of science is too little compared to what the Buddha knows or what Christ knows. That's all there is. But science has helped our life very much and has helped to prove many theories in Buddhism and Christianity. There's no harm from science, just science has discovered too little.