Selected Questions & Answers

Spoken By Supreme Master Ching Hai, Group Meditation, LA, CA., U.S.A.
July 8, 1997 (Originally In English)

Q: Master, in one of the News magazines recently, You said at the beginning that there was no Maya, only the Buddha wearing a mask to be the Maya. Is that the Maya now or is it still the Buddha wearing the mask?

M: What do you think? What is this question for?

Q: I don't care about me or about people but when You do good things for us, we always have obstructions ahead. So I am wondering whether that is the Maya doing a bad scene to prevent You from doing everything for us?

M: Of course there is a struggle here, because Maya is just another force trying to keep the people here. And the Buddha is another force trying to uplift people, because the people who come here are the ones who want to remember they are God. But if it's just so simple -- you just get a mother, come into the womb, become a baby, and then grow up to become a Buddha -- then it's so easy, so cheap; then what for you have to even come to the physical body? So there must be something, like a test in the school.

The teacher who gives you very difficult tests is also the one who teaches you every day, who loves you, and who guides you in every step of your education. But it has to test you, whether you've become strong enough, whether you've understood it, whether you've grown up, whether it was beneficial for you. So Maya is just a test. If you fail the test then you fail, then you have to begin again and sometimes it's more difficult. Every time you fail a test, it's doubly difficult next time. And if you fail the third time, it's six times more difficult. So be careful every time with your actions, speech and thinking; don't fail the test.

Whatever is good for other people, good for you, you know you must do it; and there's not even any "in case" and "suppose" about it. Just do it if you can do it; and don't listen to the Maya, the mind telling you, "Oh! Think of yourself first. Why are you doing that? You have your life to take care of. Forget about her, forget about them, forget about everyone else except yourself. Just do what you want right now regardless of how many people suffer." If you listen to that voice, you fail. If you listen to your soul, you'll pass with flying colors. So Maya is no problem, the problem is you, is us.

Suppose you go to school and there are no tests, no exams, then what for? How do you know if you're good or not? All the people in the Olympics and all that, they have to pass their tests also. It's very difficult to pass the tests, and they would say, "Oh! That's Maya," most of the time. It's very very difficult. Often we fail. Only once in a while we succeed in standing up. Once we can stand up, wow, we feel the real difference in progress. We feel we have been uplifted to a much higher level; we feel, wow, like a burden has been lifted from our shoulders and we'll be stronger, more clear and more proud of ourselves. Try it! I have tests all the time also. I do.

Q: Since you are Buddha, and if the Maya tests You, is there a way to know the Maya is testing You?

M: No, it doesn't test me straight away. It puts a lot of disciples' troubles in front of me. If it tests me, I just say get lost, I know you. It just tests my attendants, my disciples, my loved ones, my friends, relatives; brings that person's troubles; and in turn it troubles me. That should be enough. It never tests me alone, no! It knows me. (Applause)

For example, I want to go to group meditation, and then probably I have only one driver or one attendant at the time. Normally we don't have any problems with each other but suddenly just before I go to group meditation, all kinds of problems come. Maybe he's sulking, maybe he is thinking of going home, maybe he is thinking of his girlfriend, maybe he is thinking to go somewhere else instead. Just makes a lot of noise, a lot of trouble, anger, then argument and all that. Then walks or drives away somewhere else leaving me alone there.

Maybe I am late for group meditation, maybe I couldn't come at all, maybe I'm so tired and exhausted after trying to win him back onto the right path. Just to rescue one person alone sometimes can be very exhausting. Because that person is next to me, all the force of Maya is on him. So I have to help him; and in helping him, I am exhausted. Then I can't go to you or I come late or I come with a big head or I come with no mood at all to talk. That's the way it works, it doesn't test me.

Nothing can test me. How? Money, give me money so I'll stop being a Master or what? Give me a lover so I'll stop, no! I cannot. Even give me money, okay, I'll accept it; but I'll continue my work. (Applause) Give me a husband, okay, come work with me. What now, make me become a president? Make me sick? Okay I'm sick, fine. I'll go to the doctor, take a needle and all that, and then I'll get up to do it again. It can only stop me for a while and not for long, it knows it. So all these sicknesses and troubles on my part are not Maya's tests, they are tests through my disciples, through my close ones. It's always like that, a hundred percent of the time like that.

So even if it doesn't make me sick, through the disciple it can make me sick, make me worry, make me sleepless, make me hurt. Then I get sick, and that also can in turn hinder my work or make me weaker for my work, make me work with effort, with suffering, I have to try to overcome. That's all. How else can it test me? The Maya can't do much. Even if it kills me, that's the worst. Then I'm free.

Wow! Talking about Maya, I know it every day. It just hides behind some of my people, it never comes face to face with me, never. But I know it is somewhere. The problem is most of the disciples are Maya themselves. Like attracts like.

If you're strong and good, how can Maya attract you, how can Maya use you. You know immediately that you're doing wrong to yourself, to the Master and to the public; then you stop. But they don't know, they think they're doing good. They help the Maya to trouble me, many times. So you can see whether a person is weak or strong by seeing his actions or her doings. You know right away who he is helping, who he is working for, who the boss is.

Anything that works to help the public or the Master, that is the work of the Buddha. Anything that goes against that for any reason at all, it's the Maya. It's very simple. You see it right now, but you don't see it when you're around me; because that's the time the Maya will dig out the Maya in you, and use it. Now it's laying asleep under control.

So you know how much Maya there is when you come face to face with a test; when you have to work for the public; when you have to sacrifice your ego, your time, your physical being and your likes and dislikes for the benefit of other people. At that time, then you know how much Maya you still have in your body, in your mind. Otherwise, you never will know.

Nothing changes. It's just you have it inside and the Maya or the Buddha quality comes when the time, when the situation comes. When it's required, that side of nature comes out. Then you know how much Buddha nature and how much Maya nature you reveal to yourself and to other people to see.

Everyone can become Buddha. It's just that they don't choose to be, that's all. They choose the easy way, the habitual way. That means they take care of themselves first. To take care of yourself is very very good, it's a good duty; but not at the expense of everyone else. That is disastrous, that is when you're really working for the devil.