Sometimes
you might feel you haven't made any progress in your spiritual practice
and that it seems like a waste of time. Do you know why? Spiritual
practice includes our speech, body and mind. For example, you've
developed your mind very well in your spiritual practice and cleansed
it of evil ideas and impure thoughts. Every day you only think about
the living Master, the noble teachings and the practicing assembly.
You only think about Quan Yin spiritual practice, et cetera.
In this case, your
mind has become very advanced and "civilized"; but your "body" may still
lag behind in development and is not in line with your advanced "mind".
At that time, youu may feel that your spiritual progress has come to
a standstill. In some other cases, you may have a pure body and mind,
but your speech hasn't been cleansed of its karma yet. There is another
case, in which you have kept silence for some time, not speaking as
much as you normally do. However, your body hasn't been cleansed of
its karma, so you can't make any progress.
This is like when
parents are walking with their child. The parents are walking very fast,
but the child, distracted by flowers, stones and streams along the road,
forgets to move along. The parents have to stop and wait for him until
he catches up. It's the same with your speech, body and mind. If any
of them lag behind, the other two cannot move along. All three have
to be balanced and coordinated in order for you to make progress in
your spiritual practice.
You
may feel that you have improved a lot at the three or seven-day
retreats, but that is not because the Master gave a lot of blessings
to those who attended the retreats and withheld the blessings from
those who didn't. It's because during these retreats, your speech,
body and mind were at their purest. First, your body didn't move
a lot, waste energy, or work too much, so you didn't feel very tired.
Second, you didn't talk, scold, or criticize other people. Third,
you didn't divert your thoughts elsewhere. You just listened to
my lectures and meditated. There was no time left for you to think
about other things. Consequently, your speech, body and mind were
almost all purified. In this pure and harmonious state, they were
open to all the blessings from God or from the Master, so you improved
a lot.
In
the meditation center, your mind can't stray too far, because I will
pull it back the moment it gets distracted. Maybe you were just thinking
about your husband and children; but once you saw me sitting here, you
could not think about anything else but me because I was sitting right
in front of you. Maybe you were whispering with another initiate, but
as soon as you saw me, you behaved quietly and nicely, fearing I would
scold you if you didn't meditate.
I'm
like a kindergarten teacher who has to keep all the children in line.
Here you can't look at other people's eyes, only mine, so you won't
get affected by the bad vibrations radiating from their eyes. The only
thing you will receive is the positive energy that the Master bless
you with. In this situation, your mind is concentrated, your body is
not restless, and your speech is purified, so you can make spiritual
progress very quickly.
It's
not that the Master don't give you blessings when you are talking. But
why can't you receive the blessings when you are talking too much? It's
because you would become agitated and lose the blessings. For example,
I want to give you something, but you can't stop moving even for a second.
Then you cannot receive whatever I want to give you. For another example,
when you pass the tollgate, sometimes you may miss the receipt from
the toll collector after you pay the toll, but a toll collector never
misses the money from you. This is because the toll collector is in
a stable position; but you, the driver, are in a moving state.
It's
the same with your spiritual practice. If your speech, body and mind
are balanced, you will receive all the blessings. If you keep wandering,
even the greatest power is useless to you. It's like when you're bathing
your child. If he runs around, you can't put the water on him. Instead,
you may get yourself all wet. Similarly, if you can't take my blessings,
they will come back to me entirely.
That's
why you had good spiritual experiences during retreats, which were even
better than those experiences you had after practicing for months or
years at home. During retreats, your speech, body and mind developed
together, so you were more peaceful and purified than usual. Some people
who were ill at home had no problems in the retreats or got much better
and even recovered. Why was that? It was because all your diverted energy
was turned inward during the retreats. When you did the light and sound
meditation, there were no telephones, children or neighbors bothering
you. You could meditate whenever you wanted without interruption.
When
you are home, there are all kinds of inconveniences and limitations,
but during retreats, if you like, you can meditate all night without
sleep, because you don't have to go to work the next morning. Even if
you feel tired the next day, you can sleep while you are meditating.
But you cannot do the same at home. When it's midnight, you force yourself
to go to bed even if you're feeling good in your samadhi, because a
busy tomorrow is waiting for you.
The
Quan Yin Method that we are practicing can cure all diseases. However,
our speech, body and mind have to developed at the same time. Any one
of them that lags behind will delay our progress.
