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Spoken By Supreme Master Ching Hai, Group Meditation, Hawaii, U.S.A.
September 3, 1994 (Originally In English)

Just to be vegetarian, to meditate, that's a preparation for eternity, not for destruction. Destruction comes and goes. Eternity is always here. We prepare for God, not for destruction; because at the end of our lives, when we lay down in the coffin, it's also our own destruction anyhow, whether the world still goes on or not goes on. So the most precious preparation is for God, going back to the eternal. At the end of the twentieth century, the world situation is changing rapidly. Many people are longing and waiting for the Golden Age to come to open a new page in our history. On the other hand, they are scared by the various rumors of the impending end of the world. Responding to this hot topic, Supreme Master Ching Hai has answered questions of some initiates and non-initiates and delivered some exquisite discourses. We have taken some excerpts to offer readers some correct conceptions to deal with the current upheavals happening in the world.

Q: What can we do physically, what can we do spiritually to prepare for this upcoming destruction that is going to happen in the world, as one of the things You have said is to become a vegetarian?

M: I don't know if we can stop. We were discussing the facts only. I didn't really predict anything, yet. I just said what we are doing now and what is affecting the world, as a matter of fact. It's scientifically factual, everyone knows. Not that I predict in the year 2000 the world will be gone. I didn't say anything like that. We were just saying things like, what we are doing right now; for example, cutting all the forests. This all of you know affects the world. So we were talking about a vegetarian diet as a benefit there of.

I guess it's a little bit late now to stop all this. It's going on every day in every corner of the ignorant population and perhaps it's too late to stop. But we can minimize it and we can strengthen our spiritual selves in order for miracles to happen. That is also to influence our community with our spiritual strength and knowledge that they will go our way.

Whatever destruction might happen or might not happen, we are very safe, we are very secure in our knowledge in God. At least we are not frightened. We do not go berserk. We will know what to expect, whether we lose our lives, it's not a big deal. I told you already, life is a joke. Only life eternal is real. We just get caught, get hooked into this instrument for a while and then we're scared to lose it. But it's nonsense, because we have a more beautiful instrument elsewhere and anywhere to use. Just to be vegetarian, to meditate, that's a preparation for eternity, not for destruction. Destruction comes and goes. Eternity is always here. We prepare for God, not for destruction; because at the end of our lives, when we lay down in the coffin, it's also our own destruction anyhow, whether the world still goes on or not goes on. So the most precious preparation is for God, going back to the eternal.

Yes, you can do. Pray for the whole world because looks like we are going to have trouble, as predicted by many of the clairvoyant people in the world, including your American famous Dixon or Cayce. So you'd better pray and meditate. We don't have too much time. We never have too much time.

I hope you believe in what I say. I wish you would. And whatever we can save, we save. Whatever is damaged, well, that will be God's will.

Our world has been through a lot of upheaval, change. This is inevitable. There is no need to say we are superstitious and think that the world will end or something like that. We don't have to believe it. It will happen one day or another. Or it doesn't have to end. It's sometimes destroyed in some parts and it will inconvenience a lot of people and destroy a lot of people's lives and property. But this is not something that's superstitious. The world has always changed according to the mental expectations and the life attitudes of the people of this planet. It will change sometimes.

So the best thing is we look to God. Now that we already have the connection with God, it's all right for us, whether we come or we go, whether we stay or we go back to Hirm. At least we don't fear. We have no fear but we have to also sometimes pray for God's grace for our brothers and sisters in case they still can be saved in some ways, and "please God hasten the means for them". You also try to work in your community, spreading the Gospel, telling them that only God can save them.

God saves us doesn't mean that God always will protect our houses or protect our bodies, but Hes will save us afterwards, after all the ephemeral things have gone. Hes saves us eternally. We will be there eternally.

There's nothing to death and life because we don't die and we're not really born. Just we get caught in some of the instruments here and then we think we are Mrs. Smith and Mr. John and things like that. We are all over the place. We are the whole universe. We are not in this body. We're hooked up to a little part in this body, that's all. Just like electricity is caught in one wire or another. Actually it is not the bulb, this is the electricity. It's just a shell that we happened to get trapped into. We use it sometimes just for some purpose.

The Father can take care of the whole universe, just a bunch of you is nothing. Actually, the power of the universe, the supreme Master power does everything and regulates all things. But knowing this sometimes make us feel also frustrated. Why doesn't Hes let us be virtuous and holy, wholesome instead of letting us go through all these tribulations, tests and suffering? The best way is to have free-will, the choice in the beginning of our lifetimes.

At the beginning of all lives, we have choice. We have a voice inside telling us this is better, this is good, this is not. But sometimes we like to play, we like to do the things that are not according to the parents' teachings; like children, and hurt ourselves. That's the problem. Sometimes when our parents say: "Stay away from fire."

"Don't play here. Don't play there," we do it just for the sake of curiosity. Then God lets us learn the hard way. The easy way, is up to us. Therefore some people stay holy, wholesome, some people go astray. But that is only for a while. They will suffer the consequences, then they will awaken from and through the suffering, become wholesome again, and turn back the right direction.

Therefore sometimes people are also right in saying that suffering is a blessing in disguise from God. Otherwise if we are always happy and have everything in our life smoothly, we don't appreciate and we do not try to listen to God's will. Truly it's like that.

That sometimes probably is the effect of the suffering. During suffering times we turn inward more, we pray more; because at that time, we know whatever it is, that there must be something, we have to rely on that thing. Nostradamus, he also said that, in this coming time, probably there would be a lot of disasters, a lot of trouble that even some people who never believed in God before would begin to pray to God and the saints. That's what he said. Probably that's the way it will be. God tries to help us, to turn our minds back to the source of all blessings and eternal life. Do not worry even if you lose your life, you don't lose anything. I told you already, life is a joke. It's a setup for us to play around and to learn whatever we're curious about. That curiosity wants us to learn; and when we're fed up with it, God will help.

Even if God does destroy the planet, we are not too worry. Of course, we try to save it. It's a beautiful planet. It's the only one we have at the moment. But if Hes has to do it, it doesn't matter. So vast, the universe. A lot of planets that we could go to and run around. Don't worry. But be good, otherwise, we may not even have that privilege. That's the problem.

Even though God is very neutral -- no male, no female, no good, no bad and no judgment -- but the way we do things carries in itself the consequences. Just like God or our parents love us anyhow, whether we're bad or good, their love will not die. But if we do bad things that are not according to the parents' warning, then we bring harm upon ourselves. We bring sometimes disaster, sometimes injury, sometimes damage to our beauty. But still after we get damaged, the parents love us. They might love us even more but that doesn't help us. Their love won't die but we damage ourselves. That's the problem only.

Therefore, we just have to be good, be virtuous, be God-like, so that we are near to God for our own benefit.