Q: What does one do if one cannot just sit down and meditate?

M: Then stand up, walk around for a while, wash your face, or take a shower. Take a walk and come back again; try again. Don't give up. When you meditate everyday, it's not that everyday you get good refreshment and results; but you must do it everyday. You must do it whenever you can because God's grace doesn't make a rendezvous with us; doesn't make an appointment with us, saying, "Tomorrow I will come to give you peace, tomorrow I will give you a vision, tomorrow I will take you to the third Heaven." No, no, no. It comes anytime, any second, even when you least expect it. So you just have to persevere with whatever technique you meditate, and pray to the Godhead within us, the most high within us to guide, to help, to sustain, to bless us. Everyday we must meditate, with or without success. And anytime, maybe tomorrow, maybe the next minute, you get it. Just don't give in. Just like when we open a shop to sell things, you never know when the customers will drop in. You have to open all day long and wait. With or without customers, we have to open. Sometimes the last customer comes and buys the whole shop, or half of the shop.

Spoken By Supreme Master Ching Hai, Berkeley University, U.S.A.
October 13, 1989 (Originally in English)

 

Q: Is it necessary to pray before doing the meditation?

M: Yes, we can; but it's not necessary. Meditation is the deepest prayer, through which you get anything you want. Anything that is good for your spiritual and physical well-being will automatically come your way, whether you pray or don't pray for it. That's why the life of a Quan Yin practitioner is full of contentment and satisfaction - he wants nothing. The more he practices, the less he wants. The more he practices, the less he prays. Seek you first the Kingdom of God, and all the things shall be added onto you.

Spoken By Supreme Master Ching Hai At Pang Suan Kaew Hotel, Chiang Mai,
Thailand. December 4, 1994 (Originally in English)