/An interview by Ms. Helen Stone from KLOE Radio Station with Supreme Master Ching Hai at the Quan Yin Vegetarian Restaurant, Houston, Texas, U.S.A.
November 14, 1993. (Originally in English)

Q: What is immediate enlightenment? I don't know.

M: Enlightenment implies light. When anyone helps you to see Light from heaven immediately, that is called immediate enlightenment. That's what we help people to do. When people can see Light or hear the heavenly music it means the message of God. It's what is called the Word in the Bible: ...and the Word was God, and the Word was with God... Remember? The Word, that is what we can hear from God. The moment we hear that, it is called the moment of enlightenment.

It's difficult to hear that, the Word from God, the message from God; difficult to see Light. Nevertheless some people see them, in deep prayer, in deep sorrow or in a blackout kind of situation where they contact with the higher world instead of this physical world. But rarely. So when you cannot see the Light or hear the message of God yourself, you find someone who can help you to do it quicker. That is called the process of seeking the Truth, seeking the teacher. Whoever can help you to see the Light and hear the Sound immediately, that is a so-called spiritual teacher.

Q: A friend once told me to never judge a person by their physical appearance and their physical trappings, because amongst us, in our midst are individuals who are of a higher calling or of a higher soul. And that we are daily walking amongst people who are more spiritually advanced than we might ever guess that they are.

M: Yes, see all these are very advanced people.

Q: I recently saw the movie about the tragic life of rock and roll singer, Tina Turner, "What's Love Got To Do With It?" And they opened the movie with a Buddhist saying, which I can only paraphrase now, about the most beautiful lotus flower finds a way to grow through the thickest mud. Do You believe that there is some merit or something to be said for struggle, suffering and tragedy? Is there goodness to be found in bad?

M: No, I don't believe it. Goodness is never to be found in bad. Of course, for some okay. Suppose this suffering awakens us, and makes us realize the ephemeral nature of life and the suffering kind of existence that we have to lead sometimes. I suppose that is good, but it is better if we don't have it altogether. Better that we are awakened, that we avoid it altogether by not sowing the suffering seeds.

Q: Is it possible to have a balance in life by having the yang and the ying, the good the bad, the suffering?

M: Yes, sure. Now we have to do it, because we live in this world. It's too late to say I can avoid it altogether. So we have to accept suffering as a part of our ying-yang, balance of positive and negative. But nevertheless, we don't sow more for the future, first. Second, we don't sow suffering for our neighbors. Also we will minimize the result of our past actions by adding more strength of the positive spirit into our daily lives through meditation, by thinking of God. You know, the right way. Everything has a way, actually.

Q: Do You believe in the anima and the animus -- the male spirit and the female spirit -- within each of us, and having a harmony and balance therein?

M: That's what we call positive and negative forces. Yes, female is supposed to be a negative force. Whatever is weak, slow or kind of inert, we call it negative. The other, a little bit kind of outgoing and strong, we call it positive. Many people call it different names, like creative power; that is also called negative, actually. But then it has side effects, because when you are created then you're supposed to be demolished one day. But in the whole, when they're both balanced, then we are in equilibrium with the universe, in harmony; and we don't have much suffering.

Q: Another question, we do hear so much about child abuse, and of course, that refers to the branch Davidians. But in terms of us as a society of abusing our children sexually or physically with violence and also emotionally, how should we regard children? We basically touched on children, and how innocent and free they are, but what would You have to say about abusing children, mistreating them, and not giving them the environment to develop into their highest selves?

M: Well, fortunately, there are not many. Sometimes we read it frequently in newspapers or hear it on the news. But even though as frequently as it is, it is just individual cases repeated. So it looks a lot. But actually our society is still okay, still clean.

You can't help if some people have mental disturbances and they don't know it. If they knew it, they would go to psychiatrists or treat themselves. These, we can just look upon as disasters, accidents -- the individuals' lives which they cannot grow out of, cannot help themselves, or the time has not come for them to realize their mistake.

Besides, when we talk a little bit deeper, then there are many things that contribute to these crimes, as well as many other disasters. There is a root cause for all this retribution. You know what I mean? (Q:Yes.) So no one is truly as innocent as we think, except God is innocent, except our soul is absolutely innocent. But we collect so much not innocent information with which we live, through which we grow, and with which we die. We bring it back again, again and again until we are fed up with it, until we learn to grow out of it. That's the negative side of life. Fortunately we don't have that many, I think.

Q: And is that the purpose of reincarnation, to return and conduct unfinished spiritual business with God or with ourselves?

M: Right. Until we find the right way, the right purpose of our life in the universal plan, we always are miserable, because we will be doing wrong. We don't do it exactly the way it is planned, therefore, of course, it is chaotic. So we have to come back, re-do it until we touch the right "button". Then we are satisfied.

That's the way. When we're enlightened, we find God. Then daily nourish this knowledge of enlightenment until we're completely sure and discover all the things that we have to discover, so we don't have to come back again. We can come back as a teacher, a spiritual guide.

Q: I don't know some of the spiritual realities that were revealed to You in Your studies in the Himalayas. In my constructing these questions, I was thinking about an audience out in radio-land listening on Sunday morning who might not be familiar with Your teachings and who might want to become initiated, who might want to better understand the Quan Yin Method or the Quan Yin route to spirituality.

M: So you mean I should talk about the inner realizations?

Q:Yes, please.

M: There are too many to talk about. First, because the universe is vast and it's contained within ourselves, I can only tell you a few. For example like, for an ordinary person to get enlightenment, you normally will see Light and hear Sound -- Light of different colors or brilliance, sometimes more than a thousand suns. Some people will see less than that. Some people just see kind of moving black clouds until some time, but very rare. Most people see immediate Light from God. Light represents wisdom, represents the super consciousness; the Light without shadows, the Light that you don't see with your eyes but you see with your inner awareness. That is called enlightenment when you see that.

Then you hear the Sound, the silent Sound from God, which brings you the message from heaven. The more you hear that...even though without language, it's kind of like music, but without instruments. You can't make out what it is; but it is so beautiful and melodious, it lifts you up above the mundane level of consciousness and brings you back to where you are supposed to be. From that higher standpoint you direct your whole life into a more righteous direction. Then we clean all the mess and entanglement that we don't see when we are too low here below. We see better when we are higher. So to say higher, it doesn't mean we have a ladder of something, just higher in consciousness, in awareness, in intelligence. We are back to the true source of wisdom, our true Self, which is God-like. We're back to God, who dwells within our holy temples here. So we truly recognize ourselves, who is who, and we stop occupying all the habits and all the knowledge that bind us from the outside.

The more you contemplate on this inner wisdom, the more you remember your real Self, the wiser you become, the more your life becomes smoother, and everything goes better and better until you completely know a lot of things, or all things, and you become like omnipresent, omnipotent. Everyone who prays to you, in any corner of the universe, you will know. You will help them immediately, according to the situation and according to what is beneficial for that person. That is the highest achievement of a so-called Master.

Q: I heard, many years ago, that Quan Yin -- I received a statue from a little shop at home in Buffalo -- was the Japanese goddess of love and happiness or goodness and health; and I was confused as to how we might now have the Quan Yin Method and have it span numerous cultures and go beyond Japan?

M: Quan Yin is not a goddess of the Japanese alone. She is a goddess of the Chinese, of the Au Lac people, of the Indian, of the Tibetan; and they called her different names. Avalokitesvara, in India. And they call her something in Tibet, I've forgotten. And when in India, it's a "he," and in Tibet, is a "he". Come to Japan, China and Au Lac, it becomes a "she". (Master laughs) So I don't know who that is! Anyhow it's just a mythological figure. She was one of the masters of the past, just like Moses.

When she was alive, when people prayed to her, she responded. Only when she was alive, all her disciples and the non-disciples who were sincere had benefit from her presence and her blessing. Then people just continued like that even after she died. The same with Jesus, Buddha. That's why we don't have responses so much, because all the masters have ascended. We have to pray to the living master, suppose to! But then after a master dies, people continue to pray because their grandfather prayed and it helped. The grandchildren continue to pray and forget the essence, that the blessing field, the magnetic field of the master is gone.

You can pray to a master after he has died, for a few hundred years, but not longer than five hundred years. After that, no use, because his magnetic field is gone! What causes the magnetic field is the devotees hearts. They are connected, spiritually. The disciples still stay for a few generations after he has died. Their hearts carry the magnetic field, the loving atmosphere of the master because they still love the master. They love the master and they were already connected with the master while he was still alive -- at least the very advanced disciples.

Therefore, the living lineage, the living blood-line still continues after the master dies and passes it on to a few generations. That would be at most five hundred years. It's because of the disciples, because the master is still living in the hearts of the disciples. Therefore, his blessing and love are still there, through the disciples. But after he has gone, the connections are all gone, the disciples are all gone, and you don't have good disciples to keep the lineage alive, you pray to that master -- no good. (Applause)

  Q: How do we begin to rid ourselves of the materialism and all our accoutrements that might keep us further away from our spiritual Selves? How can we become more selfless, and not want to have this and be this?

M: It's difficult if we water the plant from the leaves and not the root. The basis of all these misunderstandings, the ignorance and greed is that it came from the root, that we have not opened the power of understanding. Therefore, we misunderstand. We are seeking the Truth which is the eternal happiness but then we misunderstand. We think money will make us happy, or beautiful girls will make us happy. The true thing that makes us happy, that we seek is the Truth. It's our real spiritual power, the real God Self! But because we don't know that, we keep wanting this, that and the other. As soon as your understanding power, your real source of understanding is opened for you, then you understand differently. You say: "Ah! This is what I want, not that!" Then all these things will fall apart! You don't need to do anything to it! Just like you water the plant from the root, then all the leaves will be green.

Q: Are we to consider that we are on this Earth to make a contribution as good human beings, as caring human beings, as loving creatures?

M: Yes. But that is a side effect. The most important is that we are happy within ourselves, we are satisfied. Only when you are satisfied then you can satisfy others. Only when you know how to love yourself, you know how great you are, then you can make others great, or respect the greatness of other people. Therefore, all the masters say: "Know yourself." "Seek you first the Kingdom of God which is within you." That means yourself. "Seek the Holy Spirit which dwells within you." "Know you not you are the temple of God, and the holy spirit dwells within you." "Seek your Buddha nature, the highest Buddha nature." It's the same thing.