Master Says

Spoken By Supreme Master Ching Hai At The Four-day International Retreat
In Washington, D.C., U.S.A. December 23, 1997 (Originally In English)

There were some people who were very good disciples, like you, who came to a good Master, not like me (laughter), and asked, "Master, is there a good way to enlightenment, the very best way? Can you show me the best way to enlightenment?"
The Master said, "Yes. I can, but it'll take some effort on your part. Are you willing to make some little so-called sacrifices? You have to be vegetarian, keep the five precepts -- no drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes, no McDonald's hamburgers, no fish, no shrimps, no eggs. Are you willing to forsake all that for enlightenment?"

The good disciple said to the very good Master, "Why do I have to do all that in order to get enlightenment? I don't like that!" (Master laughs)

So the Master said, "Well, you ask for enlightenment and I'm telling you the way. It's up to you."

The disciple scratched his head for a while and said, "Master, is there a better way?" (Laughter) "Is there some other way that I can get enlightenment without going on a vegetarian diet, where I can eat meat, hamburgers, and fish; where I can smoke, take drugs whenever I want just for the experience, and I can do all kinds of things that I want? Because God has given me free will, why should I not do this, not do that? Then I cannot do anything! Is there any better way, like having no need for a vegetarian diet, no need for the five precepts, and even no need for meditation? Is there any better way, any quicker and more convenient way?"

The Master said, "I will tell you if I find such a thing later." (Laughter)

If I find some way that requires no effort, no meditation, no vegetarian diet, and no precepts, then you can just get enlightenment for nothing. If I ever find such a thing, I'll tell you. For now, we have to be satisfied with some humble efforts on your part, like the vegetarian diet, the five precepts, the meditation, and some other efforts like group meditation and adhering to the teachings of the old Masters, like Jesus, Moses, Buddha, and Mohammed. No matter whom you choose, they are the same teachings that you will have to exercise here because other Masters haven't found anything better. I too cannot find anything better for you except all this that I'm telling you.

You read any Bible, the Christian Bible, the Vedas, the Buddhist Bible, the Koran, the Sikh's Bible -- the Granth Sahib, they say the same thing. There's only one way to enlightenment, and that's the correct way. There's only one way to live our lives, and that's the virtuous way. There's only one way to be yourself, and that's the noble way. We cannot be animals and then become God-realized at the same time. Even though animals have a God-nature, their God-nature is sleeping. So when we want to go to the higher levels of our true selves, we have to do a little bit of trimming.

Last month when I was invited to India, I told some of the Indian people there -- our disciples and some others -- that we are all God. Even stones have God-nature. We've all heard that everything comes from God, and nothing that is a being is not from God. We all know that.

But now as human beings, we have the opportunity to climb to a higher level of God-consciousness, that's all. The reason why we do not exercise our free will to do anything absolutely the way we want is because by doing that we will stay here at the lower level, the lower half of the scale; and the other half of the scale of God consciousness, we will not know.

We're all here already, and that's why we do not continue to do anything we want, like committing crimes, taking drugs, alcohol, and meat. Whatever you like, that you can do, because we have free will; but that is the lower scale of God-consciousness. We are here already, we know it already, we have experienced it already, and we don't want it anymore. We want something that is elevated, and that is why we have to forsake the lower way of living. That's all.

It's not that because you live in a lower way, you're not God. You are, by all means; we all are God. Even animals are God; trees are also God-made and a part of God. We are even more so, a part of God, but nevertheless, we have sunk to a lower level of consciousness.

★Attain The Complete Self By Our Free Will

¡@In order to know the complete Self, the whole, the total God, we have to know the other half. It's not that we can do everything and then we'll become a total God. No. Up to now, we've already done everything there is that we shouldn't do; and we know only the other lower half of the nature of God. That's why we suffer, that's why we can't think straight, that's why we don't know what to do for the best, that's why our life is such a mess and in misery, and the world is as it is: suffering, war, fear, and a lack of everything, even material comforts.

We don't need to do that anymore. If we want to know the whole being of ourselves, the whole God, the sum and total of God, then we have to learn to know the other half, the higher half. That's the reason why we should not commit all kinds of so-called "lowly actions" of physical existence and we should forsake the eating of meat and the taking of intoxicants that muddle our head and blur our vision, such as alcohol, drugs, cigarettes and the like.

It's not that you cannot do what you want, or that I'm strict, or God is strict and says, "Oh, you have to be vegetarian or you'll go to hell!" It's not like that. It's all our free will that we want to know the total God now, from the day that we got initiated and we vowed to be a more noble being. That's all our own free will.

Sometimes we get mixed up, thinking, "If I'm God, you're God, everyone is God, then we're free to do what we want. Everything is God anyhow, so what's the problem? Why do we have to be vegetarian? Why do we have to keep the precepts? Why do we have to do this, do that? It's more noble? What for? Everything is God anyhow." Everything is God, but we do not know everything yet. We only know the lower level of physical existence, the physical manifestation of God, and that is why we have to know the other half in order to be totally God, to be one with God. It's not that everything is forbidden to you, but you do it with your own free will. Now do you understand? (Applause)

If we don't understand this, we get very mixed up, and we will be very confused. There are so many teachings on the whole planet, and more at the astral level. At the upper levels, there are other teachings and if you go and encounter some of the devas and heavenly beings, they will teach you something else. So we have to know the basis of why we want to be enlightened, why we have to be more noble, be more God-like. It is because the other half of God is a higher consciousness. It's more noble. It has more wisdom, and it's the other half of ourselves that we are missing. We have to attain that other half in order to be whole, to be wholesome, to be total, to be what we truly are.
That's the purpose of enlightenment, of being more moderate in our way of life, being modest, being humble, being noble, and walking in the way of beauty, in the way of glory, and in the way of Truth. It's not that if we eat meat, we are not God, or that God can do anything Hes wants. Yes, Hes can, but we are only half-God, yet. (Master laughs) We are God, but we only know half. We're half-God until we totally know the other half, then we become one with God.